[JamesMama]

I'm pretty sure we have mice in our attic...I need to find a way to deal with them...

There are a few issues...

1) I don't want poison, I don't want them to go off and die somewhere and stink up the house...the idea of disposing of mouse bodies really grosses me out

2) I don't wand deadly traps for the same reason

3) That obviously leaves catch and release traps which are great in theory but I'm a bit of a space cadet and would probably forget to check them daily (or even weekly

) so they'd end up dying anyway...plus we've used them in the past and I'm not entirely sure I 'believe' they work...I've never caught a mouse despite there being turds all around the trap.

 

[talia rose]

We use a product called Fresh Cab. It is an herbal sachet that repells. It can smell quite strong at first, but is perfect for attics and storage units, ect.

 

[katiemfree]

My husband found directions online for a no-kill trap that worked when a regular trap was not working at all. He shows a diagram of it on our blog

Good luck, that's no fun to deal with!

 

[Pinoikoi]

My dp catches mice with a pair of tongs. Seriously. It is very reminiscent of Karate Kid with the chopsticks..

But our new house doesn't have mice, our old rental did, though.

 

[philomom]

Seal up all the holes in the house. Check the eaves, basement, crawlspace and such as well. Once you made sure to stop the mouse freeway to the outside... then you just have to get them out of your home. You can trap them alive and re-locate them. Keep doing this until you no longer see mice droppings or hear the scurrying. Remember to clean well and spray down some lavender spray once they've gone. Rodents detest lavender.

 

[Kontessa]

Cats!

Really! I have indoor/outdoor cats (They where born and raised outside and I never could manage to keep them in once we adopted them)

When I sheepishly for get to fill their food bowls I get a reminder... The cats go kill something outside and bring it in as a gift, as clearly if I am not feeding them I must be starving too and need their gifts. LOL

Not saying to get a cat and only feed it every other day, this only happens when I am not paying enough attention to the zoo here.

Really though, rodents are the bread and butter of the cat world and so I would be comfy letting them take care of the mice. I would however be trying really hard not to feel badly for the mice! Poor things.

 

[Fujiko]

:

When I was growing up, we had a mouse problem and NOTHING was working.

Then we got a cat and before we knew it, the mice were GONE.

Plus the kitty was awfully cuddly.

 

[mom0810]

By the time they are in your attic, you are pretty well infested with mice on every level of your home. They start at ground level and each generation moves up and up. If you are hearing them in the attic, you have them in your walls and they will soon be getting in your kitchen, etc.

We had this problem a few years ago and did call an exterminator. He put poison in the attic and it took a couple of days, but they were all dead within a week. We did not smell anything except for one day. They are really so small and have so little water to their bodies that they decompose completely in so short a time and there is nothing to clean up. They will usually die in the walls and you will never see a body in the attic. If you do, I would rather touch a dead one than a live one!

We also had poison put in these things that look like rocks all around the house. They lock so that the kids could never get in them, but the mice crawl in through a maze. Then they bring the poison to their nests outside and it kills all of them. No more mice have gotten in the house since we have been doing this.

I hated going the route of poison, but we had no choice. I can't have cats, I am totally allergic. We tried sticky traps, they did not work. And if you catch and release them, they already know how to get in your house, and they will just do it again.