Mice getting in house

[zands15]

I'm hoping someone can tell me a way to find out where mice are getting in our house. The house was built just over a year ago and about 2 months ago we've discovered mice. We keep trapping them (about

3-4 a night) but until I find where they come in, I'll be doing this forever. I've gone around and foamed and/or stuffed steel wool in any openings I could find. Thanks in advance for any help Dave

[Notan]

Mice show up in our garage, the same way that socks disappear from our clothes dryer.

If you come up with an explanation, please share it!

[Bob Stanley - Handy Man]

Gee Davy - We have dealt with this very same problem in several houses. Solutions we have found are:

1. Get an INDOOR cat. Outdoor cats lose their edge from the spoils of war - birds, snakes, bugs, frogs, toads, voles, moles, & mice, whereas indoor cats retain their blood thirst to kill anything that enters their domain, especially Mickey and his friends.
2. Track the little buggers. If you live where it snows, it's easy. Just go outside after a snowfall that has aged for a night, and look for their tiny little feet prints. You may also have some success with mud prints. This will provide at least a starting point of which side of the house they are using as a door to your domicile.
3. Focus your attention near the sill-plate. Many times, they can wedge themselves up under the cladding at this juncture.
4. Don't live like a human; clean up food scraps and keep mouse food like birdseed out of your house. We had bird food in our basement one winter, and soon had about 50 mice ... really, 50 mice!
5. Bless the weasel. Coax a weasel family to set up residence next to yours. They love mice, in the carnivorous sense of the word, and can fit through small openings to catch them. Fortunately, a weasel showed up and occasionally made house calls to remove about 40 of those 50 mice we had.
6. Invite Farley Mowat over for some boiled mice and beer. Good luck, and good eatin'

- Bob Stanley, Handy Man

[Glenn]

Years ago we had a inside cat. A mouse got in and I set some plywood around it in the basement and dropped in the cat. The cat got in one corner and the mouse in the farther corner, both scared of the other. Not knowing of any other thing a cat is good for, I decided cats are useless. {G}

PS we haven't had a mouse for years, don't know why.

"Bob Stanley - Handy Man" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

[MEEF]

There are three ways to keep mice out:

1- Get a cat, Or 2- Remove Mice food, Or 3- Get a reppelent and spray it aound suspected enterances

Good luck

MEEF - Middle East Economic Engineering

[hawgeye]

You may have trapped them in the house if you sealed all the openings. Then again you may have overlooked some openings thinking they won't get in. Keep in mind mice can get into a space the size of a dime. They can jump and climb vertical surfaces very easily. I actually watched a mouse jump up approx. 3' into the bottom of a siding corner trim piece and climb up into the attack of a house.

Aside from sealing all the openings you need to make the house less attractive to mice. Keep all leaves, mulch, small plants, etc. away from the perimeter of the house. They tend to nest near the house waiting for an opportunity to get in out of the cold. Inside you need to keep the house clear of food that is left out. Even the smallest crumb that has landed on the floor is an invitation to mice.

Traps are ok, but I've found that the poison works best. You can easily put it out of reach of children and pets, since mice usually don't come out in to the open areas. Behind or under appliances are good hiding places.

[Michael Bulatovich]

I saw one just walk right in an open door when I was doing demolition in my kitchen. In a flash he was hidden behind or under something.

[Notan]

In the garage, workshop, basement, etc., we decided to go the old-fashioned route... Good old (~$1.00) mousetraps.

My understanding of the poisons is that the mice eat them, then go on a search for water... If a water source (i.e., moisture) happens to be *inside* your house, well, you end up with dead mice, possibly in the walls.

On *rare* occasions, usually during the summer months, when door are frequently open, we've trapped a few mice inside the house, using this type of trap:

[Dennis]

In the winter it's from the garage. Keep the overhead closed, set traps there and look for a small hole in the gypsum that separates the garage from the house (they'll chew into the wall where there's hiding room, behind furnature, workbench, etc.). They can also squeeze under the door between the garage and house.

[Chas Hurst]

This is where mice, in numbers, were entering my house. I finally built a seperate garage and walled up and sided the end of the house that had the garage door. I put out mouse bait and in a few days consumption of it ceased. That was over a year ago. Since then I have not seen any evidence of mice in the house.

[M]

Fried mice

[Notan]