My anti-mouse experiment needs work. I put four traps under the hood last night, got two confirmed kills and two missing traps. Searched till my fingers were freezing and couldn’t find them anywhere.
Also got a third packrat in the powershed. I wish I’d kept better records, because I’ve now quite lost count of how many rats I’ve killed this winter. In the neighborhood of a dozen, anyway. For once the trap between the Lair and the woodshed was unmolested, and I’m seeing no new nesting activity in there. Of course that might be because I’ve spent a lot more time in the woodshed than before, moving stovewood out.
I suspect you now have a rat that knows exactly what mouse traps do.
Or – happy thought – maybe you/ve gotten rid of the long term resident generation and the newer rats haven’t moved in. Maybe you should enjoy the quiet time. You know it probably won’t last because you haven’t killed enough of them yet, but you will. Persistence is omnipotent.
Living in the NV great basin desert rodents both large and small are a constant problem. Traps set inside are both effective and long lived. Traps set outside are effective but don’t last…..the coyotes haul them off as they aren’t above snacking on rats and mice. Even the ones in traps. Try chaining or otherwise attaching traps to something so they don’t get carried off.