Urgent help with MICE!!!

[Ellen Griswold]

My sister is having a problem with mice in her house. So far she has caught 6 in about the past week. They are in her large pantry. And she is FRANTIC! It's Christmas - she wants to bake cookies, make a gingerbread house, etc. and feels that she can't because vermin are going to get into it. What should she do? Does she call an exterminator? Try to poison them (she has little kids and a cat, who, apparently isn't doing a good job)? She is using live traps with peanut butter and letting them back outside. She is currently putting everything that she thinks hasn't been contaminated into a large plastic bin. What else can she do?

[SuzyLee]

She can't let them back outside- they obviously know how to get in, and are coming right back in. For all she knows she has only caught one mouse, 6 times.

She needs to either kill the mice, or drive them several miles away and release them. Really, it is not so bad to get the kill traps- they kill them instantly.

In terms of food and holiday baking, she can always store baked goods in the fridge until the mice are under control. FWIW we get mice every fall when the temps drop. We obviously have places they can get in our house but we haven't been able to figure out where, so we just keep traps set in the places they go (for us it is always under our sink!) and then they get killed as soon as they come in, before they have a chance to do any damage.

[4evermom]

If she is letting them out right outside they are likely running right back in whatever tiny hole they got in in the first place. Hopefully she is taking them for a car ride before letting them go.

Mice can get in a hole the size of a dime. She should examine her house very carefully, inside and out and stuff steel wool as a temporary measure into any holes she finds. Look for spaces around any pipes or wires coming into the house. It helps to keep brush and shrubbery a couple feet away from the house, as well. Usually they get in near ground level but they are good climbers so higher points of entry are possible.

I don't like the idea of using poison because I'm afraid the mouse will die in some hard to access place. I just use old fashioned snap traps.

Inside the house, keep all food inside glass or rubbermaid containers. We've had success at limiting their access to certain parts of the house by cutting strips of cardboard and placing them across the doorways so the closed door holds it tight and it is flush with the floor. They can chew through cardboard, of course, but they have a harder time if you cover it with duct tape. You can even duct tape the cardboard directly to the floor so it doesn't get jostled out of position and there is no crack between the cardboard and the floor. This only works on rooms with doors, of course, or they would just climb over it. They will try to get in if it is a place they have been before and they know there is food but it will keep them out of bedrooms and closets assuming there are no holes in the walls, missing toe molding, etc. My mom has been successful at keeping the mice from going in her pantry with the cardboard.

Vacuum and sweep to keep crumbs up so they have to go for the food in the traps. They will eat things like soap, pinecones, and beeswax. Make sure not to leave rice filled hot packs around or birdseed or flower seeds. Keep food out of the living room so they are less likely to mess up the upholstered furniture which is harder to clean.

She might be able to limit their access to cupboards and other spaces by making sure they are fully enclosed and don't have open backs, sides or bottoms.

They breed fast so she'll want to stay on top of them. They can start having babies at only two months old. And a plentiful supply of food will just improve fertility...

[rainyday]

Honestly, if she can afford it, I'd recommend calling an exterminator who guarantees their work.

Like the pp said, you have to find and seal all the little holes. This is hard to do, and I was so glad a few years ago when we finally broke down and got an exterminator who would do it and guarantee it. My experience was that they wouldn't all do the rodent-exclusion work, so I'd suggest looking for one who will. Some of them just wanted to give me a list of places to seal, but with a newborn, that just wasn't going to happen!

While the exterminator is sealing the house and setting traps (don't go for poison - you don't want them to die in the wall), 4evermom has fabulous advice.

Good luck!

[AnnieNimIty]

I keep thinking about what my dad would say, (older farmer/rancher type guy) and he would say to stop feeding the cat and it would take care of the mice. And for some reason that makes me smile.

I hope she can deal with the mice soon. One thing I would put out there as a reminder is to clean with bleach because of what is found in mice droppings. Yuck....