Posted by Alex, forum owner on December 22, 2004, 11:44 pm, in reply to "Re: Something is eating mice in my basement" --Previous Message--
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: --Previous Message--
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: --Previous Message--
: I have recently had a problem with mice
: in my house in the Laurel Highlands of
: PA. I set several mouse traps. Two of
: them were set in the utility room which
: houses the furnace. When I came back
: to check on these traps a couple of
: days later, there were patrial mice on
: them (mainly the head). I believe that
: something is eating the mice. I hope
: it isn't a racoon or some other large
: mammal, but rather a snake. The house
: is only a year old. Could it be a
: snake and if so, how can I tell?
:
: Hi, and I don't think it is a snake,
: since snakes swallow their prey whole
: and cannot chew it, so, unless it were
: a large snake, I doubt it could leave a
: mouse part in the trap, but would
: rather get trapped itself. In your area
: most (if not all) of the snakes are in
: some nice warm (but not too warm) den,
: slumbering away the winter. I wouldn't
: suspect a Raccoon or anything big, but
: you might think about a Weasel, Mink,
: Shrew, or possibly (but unlikely) a
: Skunk.
:
: Do you know how I'd go about
: identifying it? I'm worried about
: rabbies. Thank you so much for taking
: the time to reply. Have a Merry
: Christmas and a Happy New Year.
:
I don't think you have to worry too much about rabies, as I think that animals with rabies are usually too disoriented to eat, so the critter scarfing your mice is not too likely to be sick, as it has excellent function that allows it to rob the traps.
You might place a mouse trap in a Hav-A-Heart(TM) trap (a type of live trap) and see if you can trap the robber. Hav-A-Heart traps can be gotten at any feed store, though I don't know about the big chains (sLowes, Home Despot).
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