Carpenter ants and a mouse I trapped

[RaZon]

My Grandma used to watch "rasslin" as well, went to the matches here and she cussed like a sailor Came across this little critter walking the dogs the other night.

The rasslin' was our thing, she'd make some popcorn, we had our Coke. She hated Freddie Blassie but loved Edouard Carpentier, yep, we both thought it was real.

Have never seen a scorpian other than up in the hills a couple times.

 

[RaZon]

My first experience with dobsonflies, freaked us out, about 8-9 yrs old playing outside my uncle's house at night and a bunch of them flying around. Evil looking things and they get pretty big.

Never seen one of those. what the hell?

 

[Roadtrip635]

Never seen one of those. what the hell?

Their larval stage, helgrammites, live in water and aren't much better looking.

 

[SlammedZero]

The street I am on dead ends to a field about 4 houses down. There is a dead tree at the very end of it. There are always Hawks hanging out in that tree. It must be a buffet of mice there for them. I had been here for years without issue, but, they finally journeyed down to my house a couple years ago. I was catching the heck out of them that year. Was good last year and then this year saw some evidence of them. Busted out the traps (hey I use Peanut Butter too!) and caught 3 right away and haven't seen any since. Must've just been a trio.

Funny, when we built this house I looked hard at the properties along that backside of my neighborhood along that field. "No neighbors behind me!" I thought. Ultimately I chose not to and am kind of glad I made that decision. I bet the houses along that field are in a constant battle with mice.

 

[Runwildboys]

My first experience with dobsonflies, freaked us out, about 8-9 yrs old playing outside my uncle's house at night and a bunch of them flying around. Evil looking things and they get pretty big.

That's the real reason the tennis racket was invented!

 

[Runwildboys]

Their larval stage, helgrammites, live in water and aren't much better looking.

Even worse!

 

[Runwildboys]

The street I am on dead ends to a field about 4 houses down. There is a dead tree at the very end of it. There are always Hawks hanging out in that tree. It must be a buffet of mice there for them. I had been here for years without issue, but, they finally journeyed down to my house a couple years ago. I was catching the heck out of them that year. Was good last year and then this year saw some evidence of them. Busted out the traps (hey I use Peanut Butter too!) and caught 3 right away and haven't seen any since. Must've just been a trio.

Funny, when we built this house I looked hard at the properties along that backside of my neighborhood along that field. "No neighbors behind me!" I thought. Ultimately I chose not to and am kind of glad I made that decision. I bet the houses along that field are in a constant battle with mice.

If I were in your position, I'd get some outdoor cats, just to make the mice pick an easier place to explore.

 

[MWH1967]

https://encrypted-tbn0.***NOT-ALLOWED***/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQhkI1K6KMWN-ZKs2Y3N8uj7JKXm3uy58hvGA&usqp=CAU on the flip side we have been fighting these little guys. Super small but, don't let that fool you.

"No see Ums" hurt as bad a bee stings.https://encrypted-tbn0.***NOT-ALLOWED***/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwFhWyy8XsEq722gS8KVZGSG1GFpbKJF1nOg&usqp=CAU https://encrypted-tbn0.***NOT-ALLOWED***/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQRUbjpqN8lcpljni1B-7Wm-ZySvWTHvD8_tg&usqp=CAU Little arse holes!

 

[CyberB0b]

I have mousetraps in my basement workshop, one of which is on top of a steel utility cabinet. I bait it with peanut butter, so I sometimes get several mice in a week or two, therefore I check it every day, because I don't want it stinking up my basement.

I hadn't caught any mice in a month or so, so this week I went 2 days without checking it. Sure enough, I checked it today and there was a dead mouse in the trap. I put on a pair of gloves, reached up and pulled the trap off the cabinet, and black carpenter ants were all over it...and then all over my floor and my hands.

After killing all the ants I could find I looked at the mouse, and they had eaten half its head. I didn't think carpenter ants did that, but it looked like a scene from a horror movie...so nasty.

So now I have mouse traps and ant traps down there.

You might want to try to seal it up to keep the mice out.

 

[Runwildboys]

You might want to try to seal it up to keep the mice out.

I'm thinking they get in through the attic, but my brother and I just resided and put new soffit vents in a few years ago. I have no idea where they're getting in.

 

[CyberB0b]

I'm thinking they get in through the attic, but my brother and I just resided and put new soffit vents in a few years ago. I have no idea where they're getting in.

They're really resilient. Anything bigger than a quarter needs to be sealed with copper mesh and foam.

 

[RJ_MacReady]

Speaking of mice and ants and crawly things.....

A few months ago my wife actually screams for me to come running, crawling up a wall was this thing, she had never seen one before, I had seen (one as a little kid when it was.....an alien???) I knew what it was but...

Me...I'm to catch it, make it a pet
Wife....no you're not kill it like right now.
Me...ok

Gotta be the most vicious looking critter we have.

I've seen quite a few of those while deployed. Camel Spiders. In Iraq/Afghanistan, the model we had over there was the bigger, longer-legged, hairy verson of it:

We used to catch them and put them in our "Critter Fight Championships". There was one named "Maximus" that was super nasty when I was in Baghdad. It would suspend itself in a top corner of the tank all day..resembling a big, disgusting, ball of hair, but when you carefully lifted the lid to drop in his opponent, he'd dispatch his foe without wasted effort (lizards/mice/spiders, sometimes camel spiders, etc). Camel Spiders are super tenacious and their aggressive fighting style/pace overwhelmed anything that size. However, I once witnessed a camel spider getting a serious challenge, in caged combat, by a non-camel spider.

Summer of 2003, Island of Masirah (off Oman), we carried on our tradition of "Critter Fight Championships" at our workstation. We worked nights, so that meant we came in at 0001 (midnight) and got off at noon (1200). Masirah had some smaller camel spiders ('ant-like' types like the one posted by RaZon), a ton of Scorpions, some large Wolf Spiders and then some other weird critters that came into the fold....one of them being the most unsuspecting. I'm in the middle of drinking some good stuff and the UFC just started (PM me if you need a link).

I'll finish round 2 of this story in a bit:

 

[Creeper]

Those carpenter ants will eat anything except wood, kind of an oxymoron in the name, but they especially love meat and sugar.

On a different note……the only good spider is a dead spider!

They will bore through wood though to make a nest. I had them a couple of years ago. I had my house treated 3 times by a local pest control company and it was not cheap. But after each treatment they would still be walking around my house like they owned it. I'd be sitting on my couch and one of those f-ers would just crawl up my arm or something. I went to the store and bought ant bait and squirted it in the space under the baseboard molding where they seemed to be coming in an out of. After a couple of weeks they just disappeared. I have no idea if the ant bait was the reason or something else. I was ready to buy an anteater.

 

[Runwildboys]

They will bore through wood though to make a nest. I had them a couple of years ago. I had my house treated 3 times by a local pest control company and it was not cheap. But after each treatment they would still be walking around my house like they owned it. I'd be sitting on my couch and one of those f-ers would just crawl up my arm or something. I went to the store and bought ant bait and squirted it in the space under the baseboard molding where they seemed to be coming in an out of. After a couple of weeks they just disappeared. I have no idea if the ant bait was the reason or something else. I was ready to buy an anteater.

I buy the kind where they bring the poison back to the nest. Seems to work really well.

 

[Vtwin]

A mixture of borax, sugar and enough water to make a paste is a great ant poison.

For mice, I switched from peanut butter to a piece of one of those Reisen candies. Difficult for the mice to get off the trap, and one piece lasts for multiple trappings.

I've had good success with a bucket trap for mice in areas that can accommodate it.

 

[Runwildboys]

A mixture of borax, sugar and enough water to make a paste is a great ant poison.

For mice, I switched from peanut butter to a piece of one of those Reisen candies. Difficult for the mice to get off the trap, and one piece lasts for multiple trappings.

I've had good success with a bucket trap for mice in areas that can accommodate it.

I use these with peanut butter in the bait cup. They're easy to reset, but sometimes they just fail to spring. That's the only way the mouse even gets a taste of the pb.

 

[Vtwin]

I use these with peanut butter in the bait cup. They're easy to reset, but sometimes they just fail to spring. That's the only way the mouse even gets a taste of the pb.

I guess they really can make a better mouse trap.

I'm still stuck in the past, using the old school snap traps. I probably should explore the advancements in mouse trap technology.

 

[Runwildboys]

I guess they really can make a better mouse trap.

I'm still stuck in the past, using the old school snap traps. I probably should explore the advancements in mouse trap technology.

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