Help, MICE!!!

[Banana731]

Sorry Mods if this is in the wrong place...

SO. Had pest inspection in August, no rodents. Owners move out and take cat at the end of August, then we move in.

Started to notice what I thought might be droppings last week. Saw definite droppings today in laundry room. And cute fuzzy GROSS mouse in my living room TONIGHT. Scurrying across the floor, bold as you please!

We will be blocking up an possible entrances and hanging up dry wall in laundry room and utility room (currently insulated only) ASAP. So provided they can't get in, I should be able to get rid of any remaining little fuzzies left over, right? We know, for instance that they are using the vents for traveling (living? who knows) Poison is out. I was thinking traps.

So questions for BTDT folks

1. Do traps actually work to get rid of mice completely
2. Which are the best
3. Anything else worth trying? (coyote urine, I don't know!)
4. Should I just get a cat? (I don't want any pets, but I'd rather have a single cat than a hundred mice!)
5. Will replacing the older vent registers with new ones with narrower slots keep them out of the vent system?


ick...

[Phantaja]

I say get a cat. I didn't want a cat till I saw rodents playing in my neighbors yard. Elliot (the kitty) adopted me and I haven't seen a single critter out there since, let alone in my house.

Get yourself a frisky cat who likes to chase stuff, preferably one whose mom taught her how to hunt, and you won't have mice for long!

[leigh09]

So questions for BTDT folks

1. Do traps actually work to get rid of mice completely
Yes. But you need to be consistent in setting them every single night, until all evidence of mice are gone. Mice aren't very bright - if there is food on the trap, they will go eat it.

2. Which are the best
Depends on your comfort level. My DH is completely fine with baiting, setting, and removing mice from the basic (and cheap) regular mouse traps. So we use those. We bait them with peanut butter as cheese left for a few days gets quite hard. When I lived alone, this was out of my comfort level and I used glue traps - much, much more expensive. Just as effective and I could manage them on my own.

3. Anything else worth trying? (coyote urine, I don't know!)
I would avoid poison also. Mice don't die as soon as they eat the poison, and you typically can end up with mice that die in their hiding spots (such as inside your walls)

4. Should I just get a cat? (I don't want any pets, but I'd rather have a single cat than a hundred mice!)

Depends. Cats and mice seem to fall into three categories:
1. cats who hunt and eat mice - we have some of these hanging around our home. We live in the country, they are outdoors only and have been hunting since they were kittens. These cats very, very much reduce our mouse problems. I also know of indoor cats who both hunt and eat mice - cats typically must be trained to do so from their moms.
2. Indoor cats who don't have a clue what to do with a mouse - we have one of these cats, she was a rescue
3. Cats who hunt mice and don't eat them, they leave them for you as "trophies" to try and impress you. We have two different friends with cats that do this and end up with dead mice in their homes as gifts from their pet cats. (This is gross to me. I don't mind our outdoor cats eating mice on the driveway, but just to leave them lying around I find disgusting.)

5. Will replacing the older vent registers with new ones with narrower slots keep them out of the vent system?

Likely not, mice fit into unbelievably small spots.

Our typical approach whenever we notice evidence of mice is to set a bunch of traps wherever we notice evidence of mice, keep setting them regularly until well after all evidence of mice are gone.

I know it seems gross to have mice in your home, but they are a very common pest and most people have to deal with it at some point or another. Best of luck in cleaning them out!

[CariOfOz]

My sympathies OP... we had a brief mouse problem about 6wks ago and it made me crazy! Ours was a case of a couple of neighbors moving out (thus having pest control done) and then a small bushfire in the woods behind our house... coupled with the outer garage door getting left open all night one night! ( thanks dh )
******************************

So questions for BTDT folks

1. Do traps actually work to get rid of mice completely***Yes, IF you set them nightly without fail. They will get the mice that are already in.. but you have to seal every teeny crevice to keep more from coming.

2. Which are the best *** we used a 'safety' trap. Still a 'kill' trap, not a live one, because after finding a mouse (and a million droppings) IN my teenagers bed just before he moved in with us, I lost the plot and didn't give a poop how many I had to kill.

3. Anything else worth trying? (coyote urine, I don't know!) Nooo idea about coyote wee

4. Should I just get a cat? (I don't want any pets, but I'd rather have a single cat than a hundred mice!)*** Well, even a cat that doesn't know what to do with a mouse will deter mice to a certain extent... just from the scent they leave on everything.

5. Will replacing the older vent registers with new ones with narrower slots keep them out of the vent system?***Mice will actually chew through just about anything... we had them shredd through the expanding foam insulation, as well as shred nearly through a 1inch thick peice of wood blocking a way in! Mice are incredibly small and and squeeze through ridiculously tiny openings.. so I wouldn't count on that solving the problem.

Yes Horror and ick.. but it depends a lot on where you live. Where we are it never gets cold, so no freezes to keep the roden population down... and there is woodland/grassland around us.. and wetlands behind us So we just know that occsionally we may have unwelcome visitors and react accordingly. We keep the kitchen and floors meticulously swept before bed and I am neurotic about that garage door now!!!

Good luck!

[rachieface]

Oh my goodness I came on this forum this morning to post the EXACT thing! It must be the colder outdoor weather or something because I just saw a mouse in our tiny apartment this morning. This sucks because we had a mouse infestation in our last apartment too.... too many to catch, and they kept just eating the PB off of the traps rather than getting caught. And the house was too old to shut up all the holes. So it shouldn't be as bad in this place, but I know prompt action is key. Right after seen one today I went to the drug store to get some traps and then set them.

Anyway, I'm dealing with the same issue but since we've had mice before here's some answers:

1. They didn't in our old place, but that's because it was a crazy old house with waaaay too many tiny holes that our landlord did not seem to be successful in filling.

2. I just set two d-Con round mouse traps. You bait them from the bottom, set them, and the mouse supposedly crawls in and is killed and you dispose of them without seeing the little guy. Now that's my kind of trap! But we didn't use them before so I don't know yet how they work... hopefully well. Sticky traps generally seem to work...we caught 4 this way in our old place but then the super mice began eating the bait off of the sticky traps WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT. Evil, I tell you. We would see droppings and mouse marks later and no mouse and no PB.

3. I just annointed our place with peppermint essential oil. Everywhere. Supposedly it is too strong a smell for the mice and they don't like it? I don't know, but I love the smell so figured it was worth a try.

4. Our landlords at our old place lived in the same house but didn't have mice in their apartment very often so I figure that was because they had dogs and cats. But that is not an option for us as my mom has major pet allergies.

5. Probably not, mice can fit through miniscule holes.

Anyway, I'm subbing to see if you get more ideas. A couple other ?s for you experts:

- Do you find that keeping your house (especially kitchen) really neat helps your problem? I am feeling a bit guilty because I kinda let the kitchen go the last few days and was cleaning it when I saw the mouse.

- Does anyone else live in the city and have crazy mouse problems? I'm in the middle of Chicago and everyone's garbage sits in bins close to the entrances, so I hope it's not inevitable...

[Kyamo]

We get one or two mice every fall. The traps work great, we get them right away - but I have no idea where they are getting in to prevent it in the first place!

[Banana731]

Yeah so. ugh.

My husband insisted that we get foam spray can stuff to fill the holes, instead of steel wool. He did that.

He also insisted on dropping poison into the wall, right now, because we're going to close up the wall by drywalling it sometime in the near future.

He got some of those sonic mice repellers, but we're pretty sure they don't work since we know a mouse was right next to one last night.

And we put out traps. Of course, he only got 4.

The tally so far. I trap untouched. I trap bait removed and unsprung, one trap sprung and bait removed, and one trap completely missing and blood on the floor at it's former location.

The cat thing is looking better and better.

[Dingletwitz]

I successfully got 53 mice in my old place in about 3 months: Here's how:

1. The dog ate at least one.
2. The washing machine ate one. ewwww.
3. Sticky traps were used under the stove given there was not enough height for the spring traps. I got 4 this way but it broke my heart that I had to actually kill them once they were stuck. I put them in ziplock bags and then into the trash and wished them a speedy death. Others drown them.
4. the plastic traps did not gain me any bodies.
5. The old-fashioned wood with metal snaps did the trick. Only sometimes did I actually empty them--just kept getting more and more packages.
6. In a high-traffic area I got up to 6 at a time.
7. I only ever saw two at a time running about.

Our mice were after the dog food--which is a really never ending battle. They came in through the vent system under my porch, and as we had only two months left in the place I figured, heck, I'll just kill em and not worry about dcon. I was not wanting to use the poison given the dog had caught at least one that I knew of. There also used to be many strays in the area that were "cleaned up" by the city. While I hated their smell I realize they were probably doing a great job for me for about 4 years.

[prothyraia]

We live in a rural area and get mice sneaking in this time of year. The cat usually takes care of them, but she's living happily and lazily at my parents house now, so

We've just got one trap (it's one of the ones that you can pick up and then release the mouse/reset the trap all in one motion so you don't have to touch anything yucky) and set it every night. It does the job.

I don't like poison. One, we have kids, and two, I don't like finding dead mice in random places (or not finding them...blech).

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by Banana731

Yeah so. ugh.

My husband insisted that we get foam spray can stuff to fill the holes, instead of steel wool. He did that.

Yep, that foam is a waste of $$$. The little blighters chewed right through it when we tried it.. in ONE night!!

Originally Posted by Dingletwitz

3. Sticky traps were used under the stove given there was not enough height for the spring traps. I got 4 this way but it broke my heart that I had to actually kill them once they were stuck. I put them in ziplock bags and then into the trash and wished them a speedy death. Others drown them.

The govt agency I used to work for used these sticky traps. Our answer was to ziploc bag em and put them in the freezer... I figured it was a lot less icky to throw away frozen mice than to have to drown them etc.

[rachieface]

So yesterday we set out no less than 6 traps with peanut butter in our tiny apartment. Did we catch any mice overnight? NO. And today I turn on the oven to bake something and a mouse runs out and into the pantry. ICK. Why oh WHY aren't they getting trapped???

[leigh09]

Originally Posted by rachieface

So yesterday we set out no less than 6 traps with peanut butter in our tiny apartment. Did we catch any mice overnight? NO. And today I turn on the oven to bake something and a mouse runs out and into the pantry. ICK. Why oh WHY aren't they getting trapped???

It often helps us to seal up everything that might be attracting them (our pet food, flour, sugar, etc is in plastic containers; seal away all cookies, crackers, bread, etc) and keep your place spotless of crumbs - especially in areas you notice the most mice droppings. Then leave out lots of baited traps - they can't get to your food, there's not much choice left but the bait.

Oh yes, we also use the old wood & metal traps, but that is sheerly because my husband has absolutely no problem with setting them (and also releasing the mice to reuse the traps!). I have snapped my fingers enough times in those traps to give up trying.

[surrogate]

Im having this problem right now too...I bought the dcon plastic black boxes that you dont have to look at the mice you kill...problem is I guess there is not enough force and it doesn't always kill them...so you have a half dead mouse scurrying to try and get out *gag*

I cant use the ones that you have to see the mouse, I just can't do it...However I have killed 5 mice and reset the traps nightly...not seeing evidence right now, so maybe that was it (haha)

The house was vacant a year before I moved in...the mice took over and the landlords apparently didnt do anything to rid the house of them before I moved in.

Now if I could get rid of those itty bitty roaches that are attracted to my coffee pot and kitchen I would feel alot better...

[rachieface]

Now the peanut butter is gone from at least one of the traps...the mouse completely wiped it clean without getting caught. Grrr. And that was within the 1 hour that I was out of the house. I am so sad and disgusted. I dealt with this for MONTHS in our old place, and I'm loathe to do it again.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by rachieface

So yesterday we set out no less than 6 traps with peanut butter in our tiny apartment. Did we catch any mice overnight? NO. And today I turn on the oven to bake something and a mouse runs out and into the pantry. ICK. Why oh WHY aren't they getting trapped???

Where di you put the traps? We had the best success with in the skinny gap next to the fridge and on the floor in the back of the pantry. Every time we put a trap in those places we got one.

The PP is right, EVERYTHING must be in a tupperware type container if you live in a house that is prone to mice. I had to buy new lids for my big flour & rice buckets because the nasty things left a ton of scratch/bite marks from TRYING to get in. It creeps me out to think that otherwise they'd have been feasting on things we eat.

Surrogate, to help with the coffee maker, maybe a small dusting of DE at the place where the counter meets the backsplash? Roaches don't typically go crawling all over the counter, they tend to skirt the wall so maybe that'd wipe em out

[Liquesce]

Originally Posted by CariOfOz

Yep, that foam is a waste of $$$. The little blighters chewed right through it when we tried it.. in ONE night!!

I used the foam basically to seal steel wool in place and have had great luck. However, the one place I couldn't reach to stuff with steel wool, and decided to just to foam over and hope for the best? Yeah. Guess how quickly mice were getting back in. Steel wool FTW.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by Liquesce

I used the foam basically to seal steel wool in place and have had great luck. However, the one place I couldn't reach to stuff with steel wool, and decided to just to foam over and hope for the best? Yeah. Guess how quickly mice were getting back in. Steel wool FTW.

Ahhh now THAT might be a good use for that silly foam I had never heard steel wool oddly enough! Keeping a mental note of that for future reference. We have not seen any hint of mice in about 6wks or so here, so I think they are gone and I must have been right about them coming in when the garage door was left open.

OP, hope you're having osme luck keeping the buggers out!

[Liquesce]

Originally Posted by CariOfOz

Ahhh now THAT might be a good use for that silly foam I had never heard steel wool oddly enough! Keeping a mental note of that for future reference. We have not seen any hint of mice in about 6wks or so here, so I think they are gone and I must have been right about them coming in when the garage door was left open.

OP, hope you're having osme luck keeping the buggers out!

The vast well of information that is the internet told me mice don't well tolerate the feel of either steel wool or the foam stuff in their mouths as they try to chew through it. And, well, as is the habit of that vast well, they were only about 50% right. I don't know if it would be as effective if the whole house were ours, though. I rent the upper floor of a two story ... I have my suspicions that I may have just driven them back down to the neighbors.

[luvmybaby333]

I have lived in my country home for around 7 years. In that time I have NEVER had a problem with mice. Until this year. We have a cat... He was useless. I couldn't stand the thought of killing a single one, so we bought live traps. Didn't work... didn't work... didn't work... Until one night I guess the mice were super hungry (at the time we had them confined mostly to one cabinet of the house where they were entering through a design flaw that we couldn't manage to fix) because we'd removed every trace of food. So that night I stopped hearing the scurrying noises. When my DH came home, I had him check the trap. We'd thought there were only 2 or 3 mice total. Instead, there were at least 5 crammed into that tiny live trap... and they'd killed each other. I bawled like a baby. Honestly, I would have rather killed them with some other sort of trap, instead of trapping them together to kill each other.

I thought our problem was solved after that sad night. Unfortunately, nothing could have been farther from the truth. After a couple days of silence, the mice were back. Only this time they weren't confined to that one cabinet. Somehow they'd found a way into our vents and they were popping up all over the place. Since our useless cat didn't do much but play with them and drag them into areas where they would come in contact with our children, we were left to scramble and try to catch these little buggers. We were fairly successful, but my DH had a heavy hand and often accidentally killed them... making both of us feel bad. Of course, by this point, our rodent problem was far beyond what we could manage by tracking and capturing the mice on our own.

It came down to the health and safety of my children... and I chose to poison those mice. *sigh* We had something called Havoc recommended to us by the farmer that had cut our field (who apparently had seen droves of mice running around out there). We threw a bunch of packets under our home and under every large piece of furniture that had a vent opening beneath it. Within just a few days the mice were gone.

It really hurt to have to kill them all. However, I had to keep my family safe and healthy. Ya know?

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by Liquesce

The vast well of information that is the internet told me mice don't well tolerate the feel of either steel wool or the foam stuff in their mouths as they try to chew through it. And, well, as is the habit of that vast well, they were only about 50% right. I don't know if it would be as effective if the whole house were ours, though. I rent the upper floor of a two story ... I have my suspicions that I may have just driven them back down to the neighbors.

All's fair in love & rodent warfare?