[Derby Lyn Farms]

Maybe it is a gopher or ground hog? That is what I have. They are big and brown.

[Hippolyta]

if it has eyeballs that you can see, not a mole. I am pretty sure it is a vole, he has incentive to come into your barn

if you click on the top of the columns in this link you get pix.

Is it a Mouse, Vole, Mole or Shrew?

Good luck catching the bugger.

Maybe you can borrow someone's cat.

[SuckerForHorses]

It's way too small to be a groundhog! It's mouse size but not a mouse.
We have 2 outdoor cats...maybe ill lock the super hunter in my tack room if I cant catch him with a trap!


Trap set w peanut butter...cross your fingers! I put it where he goes behind my door...also found poop there...

[Perfect10]

If he's not bothering anything, why kill him?

[SuckerForHorses]

Rodent 1 - SFH 0!

He ate the PB without setting off the trap. Little #/$*!


I managed to set it off on my thumb while relocating it to another spot where I see rodent poop...so I know it works!

I want him dead because I don't need him moving in the rest of his family to poop, pee, and nest all over my tack room!

[jjgg24]

I'd leave him but that's just me lol! If he isnt making "messes" and staying out of the way I wouldn't worry about it!

[jjgg24]

Hang on I thought they were solitary? Also I doubt it would make a nest like many others have pointed out they prefer to live underground.

[Guin]

Voles are solitary animals. There will not be a colony of voles in your tack room. Try just leaving it alone.

[SuckerForHorses]

There is poop everywhere...so even if there is only 1 vole, there may be mice that I just haven't seen!

[jjgg24]

Try some weather stripping under your tack room door. Otherwise mice will come shack up for the winter.

[SuckerForHorses]

Put 2x4 there tonight....it fit perfectly as door sill/jam so hoping that will help!

[Mosey_2003]

Glue a peanut to the flapper instead of peanut butter next time

[SuckerForHorses]

Great idea!

Someone else suggested tying dental floss to the flapper, and then covering with peanut butter. Rodent eats it, including dental floss, is essentially attached to the flapper, he can't get away when trap goes off.

I have replaced the trap in the tack room, and it has yet to go off. Perhaps the 2x4 that i put below the door is working to keep him OUT! I'm going to leave the trap set anyways, just in case.

[SuckerForHorses]

UPDATE: The vole in my tackroom took up residence somewhere else.

AND THEN....I started finding mouse poop EVERYWHERE! I set out snap traps with peanut butter, and they successfully ate the bait without setting off the traps.

So, I bought some glue traps (I don't like poison because our cat eats dead mice!).

First night, I caught 2 of hte nasty little @#()$&*!

I placed down more glue traps, and haven't caught any since, and haven't seen any new poop. Hopefully two was all the family consisted of! But I'm leaving the traps down just in case!

[Bacardi1]

Ugh! Please, PLEASE rethink those glue traps. They're unbelievably outrageously cruel & inhumane. I won't even go into how/why in detail - some folks may still be having their breakfast. In fact, our local feed stores & hardware stores around here refuse to sell them anymore - & these are people who take a hard line against rodents.

I can understand you not wanting to use poison, but please do reconsider giving snap traps another try. Peanut butter isn't the best bait for snap traps because it can be licked off without setting off the trigger. Best to use a soft-but-firm solid bait like a small piece of cheese or bacon.

[JSwan]

I have had tremendous success with a rat zapper. Battery operated, no need to touch the thing, quick, humane kill, and no fire/poison danger.

UPDATE: The vole in my tackroom took up residence somewhere else.

AND THEN....I started finding mouse poop EVERYWHERE! I set out snap traps with peanut butter, and they successfully ate the bait without setting off the traps.

So, I bought some glue traps (I don't like poison because our cat eats dead mice!).

First night, I caught 2 of hte nasty little @#()$&*!

I placed down more glue traps, and haven't caught any since, and haven't seen any new poop. Hopefully two was all the family consisted of! But I'm leaving the traps down just in case!

[SmartAlex]

Ugh! Please, PLEASE rethink those glue traps. They're unbelievably outrageously cruel & inhumane.

Have to agree with this, but they are extraordinarily effective. I resorted to them once when my recently built house was INVADED, of course we were there, in the house, to take the trap outside and smack the little vermine with a shovel right away. All 26 of the little buggers. I don't think I would want to set one out and leave it until morning. I wouldn't want to start my day with THAT image.

[SuckerForHorses]

I don't like using them and they weren't my first choice.

However, if its between smart mice that won't set off a snap trap and thus multiplying until the numbers are out of control, or using glue traps to diminish the population before it gets out of hand, I'll use the glue traps.

We used other bait on the snap traps...they still were eating it successfully, or chose not to try at all (all the bait remained on the trap for days). But, they would poop right next to the snap trap on their way by, so I knew they were still around and just not getting caught in the traps.

[trailpal]

If you have a gap under your door, you will have all sorts of critters in there at various times. Some will be real pests (like mice), and will attract others that eat them (like snakes). Install a real, metal or masonry threshold under your door and maintain some sort of seal. Mice in particular - you can kill them all you want, but if you keep that gap, more will move in - you'll have your own teeny weeny trap-line running all winter!

[SuckerForHorses]

There was a gap, but we put in a wooden threshhold with a 2x4 piece. There is no longer a gap.

Eventually I will have a door that includes a seal like you're talking about, but for now, its just a regular interior wooden door (like you'd have on a bedroom or closet in a house). We used what we had when we built the barn.