I have pets in the house so I am scared to put out any posion. My dogs will catch them, so I am worried they might be posioned as well. How do I get rid of them, they are eating my house up. I use the traps but they seem to keep on coming.
first, look for holes and plug them. I once had terrible mice problems in a cabin until i discovered a mis drilled hole for a drain that was serving as a mouse highway. cover holes with sheet metal or plug with steel wool.
then, trap the heck out of the mice in your house. i get a lot of traps, like 10, and put them everywhere. i use a small scrap of cloth smeared with peanut butter for bait. the mice will not be able to resist pulling on the scrap of cloth, and the traps will remain effective for a long time.
you should be able to get the mice population to a very low level, and then you just have to trap the occasional immigrating mice.
if you have a basement, clean it.
Multipile cats.
Do not provide cat food to the cats.
Get rid pof the dogs for a month; board them, lend them to your sister / brther neighbor.
Remove food sources f mouse proof food sources.
For those of us with pets, the standard mouse traps are not safe. But someone did build a better mouse trap! D-con has a plastic snap trap with a covered mechanism -- but be aware that a determined dog (or cat if it likes the bait) could open it and get its nose or paws snapped. I jam the end with the mechanism under a cabinet just to make sure my terrior can't get it (or at least I'd notice his attempts).
Glue traps are not safe for pets, and they have the added problem because you need to kill the mouse as soon as it is trapped by the glue (drowning them is generally the easiest).
The population problem is complicated by whether you live in a stand-alone or attached/apartment house. I'm dealing with a mouse invasion also, and live in an apartment so I am having to kill off all the mice in the neighborhood -- unless I keep all the doors and windows tightly shut. That seems to be the way they are getting in -- I have filled in the mus holes. Btw, copper wool is more durable than steel, and plastering/spackling the wool is better than just wool.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to keep mice out without being forced to keep windows and doors closed and/or on how to deal with a constant supply from a neighborhood population without resorting to poison, please let me know.
Well, I've lived here for 23 years, and although I had mice once before, last summer the mice ate holes in the screen doors of both my front and rear sliding glass doors. I think they did both ends of the front one. I think it corresponds to my not keeping a clean kitchen last summer (frankly, I live alone and it was filthy. food left out, etc.)
I live next to a stream, which means as in many cases, I live next to a sewer main. I saw a rat in the front yard about 15 years ago, and about then the HOA decided to have rat poison put around. I thought, after the first few months, it was a waste of money until last summer also I was coming up the stairs from the basement, where I hadn't been for a few days, and I found a dead rat on the stairs, next to the wall
3 steps from the first floor. I almost didn't notice him, because I had other stuff (in transit to another floor) also on the steps. I didn't know if my mouse poison killed him or what. It was disgusting. I also didn't know how he got in, but later in the summer I saw that the screen on the basement window had a pretty big hole in it. I keep that window open about 8 months a year. He must have chewed it open and jumped down to the floor, even though there was no food for him in the basement. I have a feeling that the neighborhood poison is what killed him.mm wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I think a mouse squeezed between the screen and the slider. ewwww. It was at the end of summer when the warm house air was escaping into the cool night air and it lured it to my door. I keep the door closed now.
Yup, I think they also come up the basement stairs. ewwww. I put a door sweep at the bottom now.
Don't leave pet food out for them - they LOVE dog chow. Clean like crazy, get crumbs out of corners, cupboards, etc. Put edibles into mouse-proof containers - no BAGS of dog food, flour, cereal, etc. Put traps with a touch of peanut butter behind the stove and fridge; favorite cozy place to go. They won't go for traps if the kitchen is full of other food sources spilled all over and under stuff. A little tiny bit of stuff is a nice big meal for a mouse.
Don't know what you term an "invasion" - I've only ever had one or two per season, late fall. One really crafty mouse stashed dog chow around the burner of the clothes dryer, which made for an interesting late-night session with the fire department :o)
My mice come in thru the crack under the front door. THey are capable of squeezing thru holes 1/4 inch in diameter (These are the real tiny mice - voles).
IF you have pets, I find that this is the best trap:
I average about 60 mice a year. The cat is no use
Clean up all clutter, anyplace they can hide or nest (be careful -- mouse leavings can contain dangerous viruses, e.g., Hantavirus, especially in certain areas of the country. May want to avoid vacuum, use broom and damp mop). Remove all food sources, including things such as birdseed if you feed birds or keep pet birds (remove pet birds' food at night and replace in the morning). Supplies of dog kibble or birdseed should go in metal cans (galvanized trash cans work well for this and come in a nice variety of sizes).
Check places such as where your water lines come in; an opening of even
1/2 inch is a mouse superhighway. Stuff holes with copper or stainless steel mesh (e.g., scrubbing pads. Steel wool works, too, but has the potential to turn into a rusty mess.) Place traps along the walls (behind large appliances works well, and keeps them away from your dogs, too); mice tend to hug the walls when they scurry around.Beyond that, if you can have/want more pets, I recommend a cat that is from a line of good mousers. Although cats will chase moving objects instinctively, actually catching mice is a learned behavior; you want one whose mother showed it the ropes.
Also, not to quibble, but it has been proven that hungry cats are NOT the best mousers, so not feeding a cat you want to catch mice is not only cruel, but counterproductive. Cats in good physical condition make the best mousers.
My dogs will "mouse," also, but they don't come close to the skill my cats have at the task.
Jo Ann
Norm> > I have pets in the house so I am scared to put out any posion. My dogs
"not safe"???? What the heck are you talking about?
What kind of traps are you using? If you're live-trapping them, and releasing them anywhere near your home, you're trapping the same mice over and over, and you need to switch to lethal traps. If you're already using lethal traps... you need more of them.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@peoplepc.com says... :) I have pets in the house so I am scared to put out any posion. My dogs :) will catch them, so I am worried they might be posioned as well. How do :) I get rid of them, they are eating my house up. I use the traps but :) they seem to keep on coming. :) :)
Of course the overall health of the dog comes into play.... The amount of toxin before treatment is considered advisable is 5%-10% of the animals body weight. If all the mice had been feeding exclusively on the bait for three days so that their bodies are full of the toxin the amount of mice needed to be eaten by a ten pound animal would be 22-44 mice. Bait is usually the quicker remedy but with mice there is a much more chance of one dying in a wall since they have such a small living area. Remove all clutter and tall grass within at least 10 feet of the structure. Placing outside bait stations that keep children and other animals from getting to the bait around the property to reduce the rodent population that will eventually work their way to the home.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@milmac.com says... :) In article , snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: :) >
:) >marson wrote: :) >> Pam wrote: :) >> > I have pets in the house so I am scared to put out any posion. My dogs :) >> > will catch them, so I am worried they might be posioned as well. How do :) >> > I get rid of them, they are eating my house up. I use the traps but :) >> > they seem to keep on coming. :) >
:) >For those of us with pets, the standard mouse traps are not safe. :) :) "not safe"???? What the heck are you talking about? :) :)
A snap across a muzzle or toe can injure them.
- Lar
"Towser" (now deceased) holds the record for killing 28,999 mice during her career as "Mouser-In-Chief" at the Glenturret Distillery in Scotland.
That's 3.5 mice per day during her 23-year life. Plus a few rats and an occassional rabbit.
Mice don't stand a chance against a cat. Cats can see better than mice - especially in the dark, move faster, and just enjoy the heck out of chasing things. (Our "cat exerciser" is a laser pointer.)
Hurt, yes. "Injure", hardly. Dogs learn *very* quickly to leave mouse traps alone. One whack is usually all it takes.
In any event, it doesn't require very much in the way of cleverness on the part of the homeowner to position mousetraps where pets can't get at them, but the mice can.
Lock up the food, get rid off all water suplies/leaks, etc. clean up all the clutter. Buy a mean ferret.
You're thinking about a real dog. OP probably has some rat-dog, like a chiuaua, or a miniature poodle.
OP could have an Irish Wolfhound and a trap snapping on a toe or tail could still cause INJURY, not just pain -- broken bone, torn-out nail. In any case, it's enough that the poster does not want her dog hurt. No need to be insulting about it.
Jo Ann
Goedjn wrote:
On my farm, we usually have more mice than the cat can handle. So a few months ago, I bought a Woodstream/Victor trap for around $12 that can hold some 30 mice at a time. You don't even need to bait it, although they say baiting might increase catch.
Once one mouse gets in, the rest will follow. It actually HELPS catch more mice if another mouse is in the trap. Farmstores sell it, or I am sure you can find it on the web.
Called the tin cat. To see it, go to
After a few nights of a "filled box," I seldom see any mice, and the "real" is probably pretty irritated.
There's ALWAYS a need to be insulting about yip-dogs.
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