The Shamanic Wheel of Death
No, this is not some New Age drivel. This is all about mice and deer camp and the removal of the former from the latter. This is not an original idea either. I’ve been reading about this for years, and it finally dawned on me last year as I was leaving camp to try and make one. Supposedly it was going to be a perpetual mouse trap that would remain effective from the end of deer season to the beginning of turkey season.
Wheel of Death MK I was constructed in less than 15 minutes, AFTER I had already locked up and was heading for the truck last December. I told the tribe to hold on and I went back in the house and grabbed a bucket, a coat hanger and a board and used a deli tray in place of the can.
You can see how it works. The mouse comes up the board, finds the peanut butter, tries to get the peanut butter, steps out onto the can and falls into 6 inches of water with anti-freeze in it. The anti-freeze does two things. First, it keeps the water from freezing. Second, it acts as a wetting agent and soaks the mouse thoroughly so they drown faster. One thing I gained by using the can is that by carefully buttering the side of the can like a cake and moving the peanut butter around, I could achieve pretty good balance and keep the wheel spinning freely. The MK I version suffered a little on this. I think it lost effectiveness over the winter as the deli lid lost proper balance.
Last year, I came back to camp in March and found the bucket filled with. . . I’m going to venture a guess and say 6 mice. It was hard to say– they had decomposed rather badly. This year, going with the traditional design, I hope to have more.
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An update on the Shamanic Wheel of Death. I had to run down to the farm last weekend to pick up the S-10. The mechanic had fixed the fuel pump and I took Moose down with me to fetch it back.
We were in the house for about 15 minutes, but I did manage to get a look at the Wheel of Death. There was a mouse in it! I would not call one mouse in three weeks to be anything to be too proud of, but my guess is that they will become more bold as the winter wears on and the food become more scarce.
Im thinking of doing womething similar, but instead of liquid at the bottom put in some of this which should be less icky since I prefer Dessicated Mouse to a nasty Mouse Soup!
“1 Cup flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Baking Soda
Those three ingredients, which everyone has around the house, are all you need to get rid of your rat or mouse infestation.
…
The reason that this edible poison will kill rats is because the bicarbonate in the baking soda will mix with their stomach acids and kill them. Rats can not burp or belch, so they will die.”
I would not be to worried about what they ate after they go to the bottom of the bucket. The trick is to put in enough anti-freeze so the water does not freeze. 6 inches of water is enough to drown them fairly quickly.
This year I came back after 2.5 months and had 4. The cold had kept them refrigerated, but the anti-freeze had kept it all from freezing. From the looks of things, the poison around the house had not been seriously touched.