Night of the living dead mice ?

[sherab]

Hey all!
I was winterizing my small travel trailer and had a disturbing situation over the weekend. (Doing my cabin next summer)

In the middle of the night I heard one of my traps snaps shut and I thought "I'll just take care of it tomorrow morning". Shortly thereafter I heard the trap getting moved around and around and I thought "Oh sh*t, I've maimed the mouse" So I decided to let the little bugger die in his own good time.

After about an hour of listening to this it stopped. I woke up in the morning and looked at the trap and half of his body was gone! Apparently another mouse resorted to cannibalism and ATE the half that was in the trap.

My question is whether or not it actually WAS a mouse or worse a RAT!!!! EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! Obviously I am NOT going to post the image here for weak stomachs but if you don't mind helping me do a little Quincy style forensics you can see it here..... (Quincy the original CSI)
http://www.worldcyclist.com/images/ripped.jpg

Do mice do this in their desperation for food?

[MountainDon]

Mice do cannibalize dead mice. They usually go for the brain first, but not always.

They just don't have the same social graces as we humans. Most of us anyways.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Glad someone else out there was adventurous enough to answer it... ugh!  I've never seen mice cannibalize, but my mom had a dog that ate her pups one time... Mom was out of town on a missions trip and I was takng care of her dogs while she was gone.  I was about 8 months pregnant with my first daughter when I found the dog eating the puppies... about lost it.  She'd eaten one and half of another (head first) and had started nibbling on the feet of the third, who was still alive.  I took the three day old pup home and named her Viva and bottle fed her.  When Mom came home from her missions trip, she wouldn't take the puppy back because she figured it was easier for me to bottle feed her (I was also still working at this time!!!) than it was for her.  So, I ended up with a newborn and a cute but spoiled rotten hyperactive puppy who also thought I was her mom.  Once she was weaned (the puppy, not the newborn) Mom still wouldn't take her back or find a home for her, so I ended up running an ad to find her a home and gave her to a youth minister from the city.  As I dropped the Viva off, I felt like I was giving up a child... she was scared and looked at me like I was totally betraying her, and I bawled all the way home... still feel bad when I think about it, but I hope she was a good dog for them.  I made the guy promise that if it didn't work out that he'd call me and give her back rather than sending her to the pound or a shelter, but he never called, so I hope it all worked out.  

[glenn kangiser]

You just have to be cold and do what you have to do, Julian.

Several boxes of D-Con around will help the situation - inside and out.  If you see some running around, there are a lot more you don't see.  We have wood rats here - they make nice twig homes in the woods nearby but are equally at home in a house or camper.  D-Con -- fresh -- they love it.  If it gets old and remains uneaten - put new nearby or in another place they frequent.  New seems to do the trick.

On dogs or animals, common for dogs to do that sometimes when they get disturbed or sometimes on the first litter they just don't seem to know when to stop cleaning, Homegrown.  We had one do that once then the next time she was OK.

[Sassy]

When I was in 6th grade we had a rabbit in the classroom.  She had a bunch of babies.  Everyday, when we'd get back to class, there would be 1 or 2 less baby bunnies until they were all gone.  She was eating them - probably the stress of being in a classroom with a bunch of kids!  :-/  At the time, the way the teacher explained it, we figured the mama rabbit was just stressed so I don't think any of us kids got too upset about it...

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

The teacher probably didn't have a salt block for the rabbit... that usually will keep them from eating their babies.  Poor things.  Glenn, this dog of my mom's didn't have a brain, I'm pretty sure.  She was a terrible mother, and it wasn't her first litter.  Mom should have had her spayed long before because of stuff like that, but of course, she put it off.  I remember sneaking Viva into a hospital in my purse because my sister was also pregnant and in the hospital and I couldn't leave the pup home long enough to go to the city to see her.  Figured she needed some cheering up, but you should've seen the look on the charge nurse's face when she came in and saw my sister sitting there bottle feeding a tiny puppy with its eyes still closed.  I thought we were going to get thrown out!  In the elevator on the way out of the hospital, Viva started howling, and my husband burst into a coughing fit as the others riding on the elevator gave us strange looks.

[fishing_guy]

That happened when my parents bought their house in WI.  We moved in, and there were a bunch of field mice that thought it was their house.  My dad went out and bought 8 traps.  It was our job to check them every day.  
Well, one day we were down to 7 traps.  Looked all over.  We finally moved the couch, and there it was...with a skeleton in the trap.  Mom about moved then and there.

The good news is they've been in the house for 29 years, and no more cannibal mice.  

I second the decon, especially if there are no pets to get into it.  It, and the mice disappear in equal proportions!

[Redoverfarm]

I usually have better luck with the bait blocks(green).  Don't get the small pills as all they do is carry them off and store them (Usually in the air cleaner of my riding mower). My son has started trapping and he used a small steel trap in the feed barrel to get more than one at a time.

[jb52761]

OMGGGGGGGGGG......just the thought of seeing that.....I may never recover....... :-?

[glenn kangiser]

When I had birds I had one of the wind up traps.. one goes in looking - gets swooped in -- next one checks him out gets swooped in - holds lots - keeps them alive till you do something (bucket of water-- ?)

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/mouse-trap-windup.htm

[Sassy]

OMGGGGGGGGGG......just the thought of seeing that.....I may never recover....... :-?

You would have really had nightmares living at our cabin when we had Bandit - a large cat that looked like a Siamese - she was the best mouser I've ever seen - but she liked to bring her little & not so little friends into the house & play with them for awhile, you'd hear her crunching away after awhile.  She'd often throw them up in the air - not so nice when she throws a big wood rat in the air & it lands in your lap & you have a long granny nightgown on & can't find the dang thing    Glenn thought it was quite hysterical!  

[tanya]

Well I had mice one time when I lived on the river in a mountain cabin.  The darn mice were so thinck that even though I spent $50 on d-con, and they ate every bite of it, and I am sure those mice all died, but I still had mice!!!  No kidding.  We got twelve cats, every cat I could find!!!  No more mice or any other little rodents.  Luckily my dogs take care of any big rats or other pests.  To bad they wont chase these wild turkeys.  There is  a secret to having good cats though, never ever feed them in the house, and be sure they don't get anything to eat off a table, counters or out of the garbage.  If they never eat in the house they wont rush the door every time it opens.  Once the outside perimiter is mouse free then you can bring one or two cats in to get the mice in the house.  traps work too but you need a lot of them and you have to reset them as soon as they go off or the mice escape, and they have to be right next to the wall where the mice run.  Mice are dangerous and evil pests so are chipmunks, and squirrls.