Deadliest Catch: Otis's basement edition (1 Viewer)

[Otis]

Catching lots of critters in my basement lately. Will document here. 

***

11/18/16: mouse trap I had set out six months ago with some peanut butter, after we saw a mouse down there, finally pays off.  Figured it was the only one; while down there, also spotted one of those absolutely revolting cave crickets.  He got away.  Immediately purchase and set two glue traps to ward off cave cricket infestation.

11/24: glue traps empty. No signs of life.

12/3/16: two glue traps, intended for cave cricket, yield 3 mice and one cave cricket.  Also saw one live cave cricket; only took a few attempts to muffle his jumps with two giant wads of paper towels, I noticed he didn't jump well off the putting surface (half of basement is artificial turf with putting greens, installed by former owner). Took him down at the par 2 3rd hole.

Nice take tonight.  Two new glue traps set out in same locations.  

 

[Otis]

4-pack glue trap reload order just entered on Amazon. Winter is coming. 

 

[5-ish Finkle]

Sounds like the mice are coming for the all you can eat cricket buffet, but theyre staying for the free greens fee (or maybe for all the potato leavins).

 

[jomar]

There is never just one mouse.  This ain't Tom & Jerry

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

Had to google "cave cricket".  Sounded vaguely racist.

 

[jomar]

I've caught 7 mice in my garage over the last few weeks.  They make their way inside when the weather turns cold.  Think I got them all but still putting down traps

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

4-pack glue trap reload order just entered on Amazon. Winter is coming. 

Just get a cat.

 

[MikeIke]

Cave cricket? I had to Google.  You mean like this? http://www.newjerseybugkillers.com/img/cave-cricket-control-2.jpg

I've never seen anything like this . 

To stop mouse or rat infestation ,  just get a snake and let him live in your basement. I suggest a ball python. They don't grow more than 4 feet long. 

If you've got a cricket problem,  just add a few lizards.   They'll take care of the crickets . 

 

[NutterButter]

I had a cat once.   She used to catch mouse and bring them to me like trophies.  She wound up contracting toxoplasmosis.   It didn't end well for her.   

 

[RokNRole]

Riveting

 

[shuke]

half of basement is artificial turf with putting greens

More about this, please.

 

[Otis]

More about this, please.

Half of the finished part of our basement is a putting green.  With 3 or 4 holes. I forget which. The girls have mostly taken it over as their play area. 

 

[Otis]

Just get a cat.

And then I'll need a dog to ward off the cats. 

And then a bear. 

Etc. 

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

Call in the professionals, you are bringing a knife to a gun fight setting a couple of traps here and there.

 

[xulf]

Maybe the mice and crickets knocked over your rock wall.

 

[James Daulton]

Catching lots of critters in my basement lately. Will document here. 

***

11/18/16: mouse trap I had set out six months ago with some peanut butter, after we saw a mouse down there, finally pays off.  Figured it was the only one; while down there, also spotted one of those absolutely revolting cave crickets.  He got away.  Immediately purchase and set two glue traps to ward off cave cricket infestation.

11/24: glue traps empty. No signs of life.

12/3/16: two glue traps, intended for cave cricket, yield 3 mice and one cave cricket.  Also saw one live cave cricket; only took a few attempts to muffle his jumps with two giant wads of paper towels, I noticed he didn't jump well off the putting surface (half of basement is artificial turf with putting greens, installed by former owner). Took him down at the par 2 3rd hole.

Nice take tonight.  Two new glue traps set out in same locations.  

 

[munga30]

Pole is flaVVed.  "Let em know you mean business" down?

 

[popeye]

Otis = Marlin Perkins

 

[The Big Guy]

The crickets are annoying because of their noise. Have you figured out how they are getting in? Otherwise you are bailing out the Titanic using a Dixie cup.

 

[bushdocda]

Good man, I mostly outsource that work. Had a couple mice last winter then none. Turns out we had a 6 foot snake in our Hvac ductwork last summer who was doing a great job apparently. Had to evict him though and, yep, sure enough I heard a scurrying of mice feet in the middle of the night past week so I called in the pros. 

Had an old apartment once where a mouse walked past me while I was watching tv and went into the bedroom. I set up a path to the door with a bunch of luggage and went in the room with a tennis racket to chase him out. Worked nicely as it scurried right along my path to the door and out.  I hope that mouse is doing well. 

 

[Otis]

The crickets are annoying because of their noise. Have you figured out how they are getting in? Otherwise you are bailing out the Titanic using a Dixie cup.

This is nothing.  Our last house had a basement that was totally overrun and infested with them.  It was revolting.  Here we're talking about one or two here or there.  

As to where they came from, it's a 100 year old house, I doubt we'd ever be able to get to the bottom of that.  So long as we have traps out and kill the one or two before they multiple, it's all good.

 

[Otis]

Good man, I mostly outsource that work. Had a couple mice last winter then none. Turns out we had a 6 foot snake in our Hvac ductwork last summer who was doing a great job apparently. Had to evict him though and, yep, sure enough I heard a scurrying of mice feet in the middle of the night past week so I called in the pros. 

Had an old apartment once where a mouse walked past me while I was watching tv and went into the bedroom. I set up a path to the door with a bunch of luggage and went in the room with a tennis racket to chase him out. Worked nicely as it scurried right along my path to the door and out.  I hope that mouse is doing well. 

Interesting.  I farm out nearly everything these days.  

 

[James Daulton]

This is nothing.  Our last house had a basement that was totally overrun and infested with them.  It was revolting.  Here we're talking about one or two here or there.  

As to where they came from, it's a 100 year old house, I doubt we'd ever be able to get to the bottom of that.  So long as we have traps out and kill the one or two before they multiple, it's all good.

Yep, you'll have no problem staying on top of them.  Otis has things well under control as always. 

 

[5-ish Finkle]

Otis = Marlin Perkins

"Like a mother rat protects her fetid young, Mutual of Otisha protects you."

 

[shadrap]

Had an old trailer house on a lake.  Mouse traps were always set off but no mice caught.  Decided to put out some bigger traps.   yep, pack rat which was about 10 inches long not including the tail.

https://www.trulynolen.com/pest-identifier/rats/rat-photo-gallery.asp

 

[Da Guru]

Our first house was this older fixer upper on a lake.  One night my wife goes to bed and I am laying on the coach and swear I hear something between the walls.  About 5 minutes later I grab a flashlight and go in the kitchen and get on the ground and put it under the stove and fridge and it looks like the million mouse march parading.  Now I am freaking out and can`t sleep all night.  Next morning I buy a bunch a traps..every morning when I got up there would be the nightly catch.  My sister had this huge cat..so I asked her to let it stay with us for a couple us weeks and it was like watching National Geographic..this cat was in its glory and on the hunt.  It would stalk out an area and not move for 3-4 hours..then bam!!

I was so obsessed I could not sleep after setting the traps.  I set a big trap between the fridge and stove and went to bed...about an hour later I get up to check it and the trap is gone!!  I am thinking now I may have a rat in the house.  I can`t find the trap anywhere, eventually I find it in the living room and this big mouse is alive with its leg in the trap.

Finally had to hire a guy to come out to find where these mice were getting in.   We had a little hole in the foundation under the front porch.  After we had that fixed it ended the problem.  Although in total we probably harvested over 100 mice.