All year, I have been feeding my birds C & S Peanut Butter Delight Suet Logs. I have counted over 15 different species that have pecked away, especially catbirds.
There is one problem with these bird magnets. They also draw unwanted pests, like mice.
I notice a couple behind the back shed, but they just scattered when I approached. Then I noticed as they began showing up beneath the Suet log, nibbling at the excess that the birds pecked off. Then I noticed a great big fat mouse with several tiny ones close behind.
Time for action.
My wife does not like me to kill anything if not absolutely necessary – but spiders,. For spiders, it’s open season with no bag limit. But Nancy knew we needed to get rid of the mice, but asked that I do it humanely.
I ordered a product called a Catch & Release Humane Trap made by Harris Mfg., out of Cartersville, GA. The trap needed to be larger than a small mouse trap because some of these mice were huge. I thought at first they might be the larger voles, but the determining factor is that mice have long tails, and voles don’t. My back yard pests definitely had long tails. They were mice, but they had to go. I baited the traps with a bit of sliced cheese smothered in peanut butter and it worked like a charm. In a week, I have caught and released 7 varmints and still have a couple remaining, but I suspect I will soon catch and remove them all. Incidentally, I released all the mice in the same desolate area so they could maybe hookup again.
These Harris traps work for mice, rats, chipmunks and even small squirrels. They are easy to load and operate, and once the trap door slams shut, the rodents are caught.
It’s a great little product for less than ten bucks each. And they work.