mouse infestation

Actually, I'm dead serious about killing mice. It seems like mice have moved into our 92 year old home with a vengeance. It started about 2 months ago, as it got cold outside. I was able to use traditional mousetraps to kill a lot of them, but then that petered out as the remaining ones seemed to keep to the walls more, and not bother with the traps, no matter what tempting morsels I might put in them.

About a month ago, I finished installing clear plastic panels over the open joists in the kitchen ceiling. I had installed tube fluorescent lights up there. Now I notice that in just the past week, there are probably 60 mouse droppings up there on top of the plastic, and I can also see yellow where they have been taking piss. This is right up above our kitchen stove.

I'm wondering if our mice could be numerous because my sister, who lives on the other side of our duplex, is a packrat. She tends to leave things lay around, including food, which probably gives them a perfect breeding ground. They finally got into her foodstuffs so bad that she was forced to make some changes, though. Still, I believe they have plenty of hiding places in the boxes piled up over there.

Obviously, this is a serious problem. I want the mice dead. I've been thinking of either fumigation or poison of some kind.

Anyone have experience with this sort of thing? I'd like to get something that I can put all over in hidden areas, which will eradicate these things.

Reply to
Ohioguy
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Exterminators have some stuff that will kill every mouse you have

*Fast* and last years. They spray powder in the attic, under the house, in cracks, everywhere. I had mice so bad they were chewing holes in the wall to get at a sack of dog food.

Mysterious Traveler

Reply to
Mysterious Traveler

A cat(s) is a less drastic, tried and true, traditional approach to mice and rat control. This is a good time of year to stock up on a couple of

20 lb. "heater" cats.
Reply to
Wildbilly

Poisoning your sister is a grand idea.

DUH!

Reply to
brooklyn1

I do not think cats are going to stop them if they are in the attic. Cats are still very nice animals to have though. They are very good at catching mice. I would put traps in the attic and places where pets cannot get to. However, one still needs to find out how they are getting into the house and seal up the holes. One can use bate (poison) blocks which are in solid form and placed in attics and around where pets cannot get to (safer? I do not know). As for powders and spays - I would have my doubts about the health effects.

My little Yorkie is also very good at killing mice. But cats are like mice they prowl at night.

My brothers cat would put the dead mice next to his food bowl. The cats way of showing him "I work for food". My brother always praises the cat for doing this as well.

Sleep well without the constant scratching sounds at night :) I am currently mouse free inside the home. Enjoy life ... Dan

Reply to
Dan L.

Place a DCon mouse bait anywhere you see droppings. The mouse traps work well, baited with peanut butter or sausage. Since I'm allergic to cats, I use other methods.

Reply to
Phisherman

Trouble with poisons is that mice are going to die in the walls and may just dessicate or rot and stink or worse get infested with maggots. I toss poison bait in the attic but use traps in the inside of the house. The Victor trap with a trigger that looks like Swiss cheese is very effective. The more traditional traps work but little mice can often eat the bait without tripping. Most important is to plug entry points from outside.

Reply to
Frank

I had same problem. I would go with the extermination route because the problem doesn't go away for good and the mice will keep coming back. The exterminator will place the appropriate traps both exterior and interior and can get into places you can't. Mice were gone very quickly. The exterminator comes back every 3 month to refresh the traps. Problem solved.

Mike

Reply to
Mike

Alas, allergies prevent this. However, there are roughly 8 or so cats that hang out outside our house, so I'm guessing if we got rid of the ones in here, it is not that likely that more would find their way in soon.

Reply to
Ohioguy

Exterminator coming back every three months is just as annoying as mice coming back. My neighbor is visited monthly by his exterminator for bugs. Cannot imagine costing much less than $100 per visit.

Reply to
Frank

Mice are far easier to eliminate than bugs... all Mikey need do is to STOP feeding the mice... sure mice are looking for warmth but 99% of them are there because Mikey and is sister have provided a rodent restaurant.

Reply to
brooklyn1

Well, I'm not sure where you live but here in the winter, fields, woods and old house mean mice (and chipmunks and flying squirrels). They borough into any crack, crevice or hole they can find (which you should address first) and eat wood, wires you name it. I am sure they are they are searching for food and water, but I suspect that any little crumb will do and eliminating all food isn't much of an option. I think the service cost around $300 a year. Works for me. Mike

Reply to
Mike

I live in a very rural location surrounded by hundreds and thousands of acres of fields, woods, and wet lands... every critter imaginable lives here but I find very few rodents in my house because I don't leave unsecured pet food around, and I have six cats... with their food properly secured they very rarely catch a mouse and they patrol constantly. As long as there is a food source critters will congregate, remove the food source and they will move on, even humans. And it's very easy to remove all food to sealed critter proof containers... all one needs is to exercise reasonable hygienic living habits... own a vacuum cleaner, a cleaning rag, a broom, and use them. Applying poisons is a million times worse than a few mouse droppings, don't you shit too... how'd you like to be executed for pooping.

Reply to
brooklyn1

I've had problems with small field mice in my house (garage) in the winter time twice before. I've found that removing all food and nesting materials along with placing spring traps around the garage will get rid of any mice in just a few days.

I store grass seeds and any other possible food items that are in my garage in tightly covered plastic containers and place any compost, potting soil and other possible nesting materials including rags and papers in large covered plastic trash cans.

I've not had a mouse problem since I started doing this.

Freckles

Reply to
Freckles

Perfect. Eliminating the creature comforts eliminates the creatures... and you don't need traps around a garage, baiting the traps negates a lot of your efforts in eliminating food. If one places any food about mice will come... naturally if you bait a trap with food mice will come and you'll trap some... you trapped mice that wouldn't have come there had you not put out food baited traps, think about it. My neighbor has a small rabbit hutch outside, she complains how she's plagued with mice... well what does she expect with a constant supply of rabbit food and droppings.... I think that she purposely doesn't run a clean rabbit hutch just so the mice will come so she will have something to complain about to anyone who will listen, complaining about mice constitutes her social life. She's over a thousand feet away so I don't mind, she's my Pied Piper, she lures the rodents way over to her area. And people who poison the rodents in turn poison the rodent's natural enemies, especially the raptors. The raptors don't multiply anywhere near as quickly as rodents... even a pinhead should be able to figure out that poison bait doesn't work and only does severe harm. If poison bait worked there wouldn't be a constant stream of mice, now would there. The raptors are far more efficient mouse catchers... you don't see them because mostly they work the night shift, and coincidently that's mostly when mice scurry about, imagine that. People have mice about for three reasons and three reasons only, they're dumb (mice are obviously smarter), lazy (mice are very hard working), and filthy (mice are actually very fastidious, they eat every crumb).

Reply to
brooklyn1

I imaging the cats help too. I am not there that often so food isn't really left around at all, but the house is very old with crawl spaces and is very difficult to sealup completely. They don't spray chemicals just place traps mostly around the perimeter and in the crawl spaces.

Reply to
Mike

Cats help, but only if the cats have access to where mice are likely to be... I leave many closet doors open, pantry and wherever pipes/wire pass, especially at night when cats do most patroling... I have one of those pet doors on my inside basement door too. Cats rub up against everything to mark their territory with their scent, mice can smell cats and stay way. Cats can smell mice too but mostly cats have excellent hearing, much better than dogs, they can hear the high pitched mouse sounds from a long distance... you only think a cat is asleep, but they have their radar booted up 27/7.

Baited traps will lure mice, even long after the traps are sprung and gone mice will continue to come for food, you've trained them to consider that a feeding station.

Do a better job of sealing up openings, there are all sorts of materials at hardware stores, in fact hardware cloth is your best friend, mice can't fit through a 1/4" hole. Wadded up chicken wire works very well stuffed into oddly shaped holes (wadding it closes the openings in the wire). Coarse grade steel wool works well too, and it's dirt cheap... just remember to check it occasionally and replace it as it rusts and disintergrates. Metal barriers are much better than those expanding insulation foams and caulking compounds, mice can chew through those, in fact they consider those food... use metal... and then if you want fill the space around the metal with calk to keep out draughts. There are many very old houses around here that have laid stone foundations with many spaces between the stones, but a lot of people have built a wood lathe frame all arond the interior and staple on hardware cloth to keep critters out, including snakes... you need to employ a little imagination, there is always a simple, safe, and inexpensive solution. And it helps if your cat has access to your crawl spaces. One good mouser is worth a thousand exterminators. I have one cat that is so fearsome to mice that she only needs to stare at them and they die of a coronary... she's so good that the Pentagon wants to study her locking on mechanism for missle control.

Mice meet Mooch and die:

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Reply to
brooklyn1

Mike

Reply to
Mike

Having had cats and now having none, I'd say they make little difference. We kept the cats in the house and out of certain areas because of problems, e.g. a family room with a Berber carpet which the cat raised fibers by clawing. Cat could also not get at mice in walls and rafters. Cat would sit for hours watching wall where mouse was scratching. In a few cases, I drilled hole in the walls and dumped in poison.

Poison, traps and sealing entries are solution. I've recently been stymied as to how mice are getting in a certain area of the house and trapped a dozen but have seen none for a week. PITA but not a serious problem.

Reply to
Frank

Obviously you have mice because of the bird food... If you were feeding your birds NYC bagels with cream cheese and lox this mouse would be in your bird cages too. C'mon, who ya kiddin'.

Reply to
brooklyn1

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