Getting Rid of Mice in Basement

My wife noticed mouse droppings in our basement today (we live in Cincinnati). I am a little bit puzzled because we don't take food down to the basement, and we don't have mice on the upper floors of our 2-story house. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the mice are attracted to water -- sometimes we leave open containers while washing clothes. I have never had to deal with this type of problem before, and I am hoping that I can get good suggestions here as to how to get rid of the mice.. Thanks,

JD

Reply to
DaileyJohn.20.decij
Loading thread data ...

It is cold in Cincinnati right now. What would you do (if you were a mouse)?

Door gaskets might help.

Reply to
Charles Schuler

They could be nesting *anywhere* in the house. Garage, attic, wall stud spaces, crawl space... And it can be very difficult to find all the tiny openings they can use to get in/out.

A cat (2 are better) is one help.

Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

Well, make sure they are mice droppings. The large outdoor roaches, aka water bugs, palmetto bugs, tree roach, will have droppings that can be larger than mouse. They may not be looking for food or water, mice are one of the few animals that can live their life without actually taking a drink of water. It/they may just be exploring about the basement with the food source being something they have stored up themselves. Mice see poorly and mostly will run along with their whiskers touching something, like a base board, placing traps along such area or where you are seeing the dropping should get them easy enough. For bait for the traps, take your pick on what to use or nothing at all. For mice I don't use any baits on the traps, though many exterminators I know swear by wrapping the trigger a couple of times with yarn then two drops of either vanilla extract or Hershey's chocolate syrup.

Lar

Reply to
Lar

Rodents go where they can find food. You don't think those droppings are made with just water, do you? Oh, c'mon, do you really believe they are staying in the basement?

Get a blacklight bulb, look around > My wife noticed mouse droppings in our basement today (we live in

Reply to
Michael B

Yeah, but those things don't live in Cincinnati...

Reply to
Doug Miller

Ummmm.... mousetraps?

Standard Victor-brand snap traps. Bait with a fresh raisin: mash it down good and hard onto the bait pan, then set the trap.

Reply to
Doug Miller

You'd be surprised what they'll consider food. In my current home we've seen one mouse. It found a (sealed) pack of chewing gum, in a backpack, stored in an understairs cupboard.

To erradicate, you basically have a choice of:

  • A cat.
  • Traps of various kinds.
  • Poisons of various kinds.

Blocking every conceivable entrance will work in theory (but probably not in the real world).

If you have small children (living there or visiting) you'll probably want to pass on the poisons and use a child-safe design of trap. Said kids might heartily approve of the feline solution too!

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

I haven't had any real personal experience with the feline part, but my understanding is not every cat is a good mouser. I've heard it said they have to be taught the process by their mother (she catches something, brings it to the kittens to play with while still alive, etc.) . I did date a woman who had mice for a time, her cat couldn't care less. On the other hand, I had a few in a garage that was attached to the main house via a breezeway, occasionally one would get in there. An English Setter I had at the time would go after them with a vengeance. Certain terriers might be even more keen ;-)

I have found a combination of traps & bait can work, though again from what I understand mice have built up a good immunity to the general over the counter anticoagulant baits, requiring multiple ingestions to croak. May want to see if there's an exterminator's supply place that will sell you something stronger, assuming as has been said this is not a threat to any kids or pets.

Then there's the part where they eat the poison, then crawl into some inaccessible place & die, creating a stink. Probably not too much of an issue if you only have a few.

Dan

Reply to
Dan

That is certainly true.

Yup, that's an issue too.

I used traps in the house and also placed some poison in the crawlspace (which appeared to be the entry point). Since there should be no kids/pets in there I wasn't too concerned about a safety hazzard. And since it's also very well ventilated, a smelly corpse wouldn't be a real issue. Nevertheless, I removed the poison a few months later.

Traps are often the best option. You may need to experiment with different baits. As has been reported here several times, raisins work for some folks while others have more success with peanut butter. I think there's broad agreement on dispensing with the cheese as an effective bait.

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

You just can't believe anything you see on cartoons regarding cat & mouse behavior. My then-girlfriend now-wife had 2 cats while we were dating. Cats aren't relly my "thing", but I tried to make nice, & I had learned from COUNTLESS Tom & Jerry episodes that cats LOVE SARDINES! So I took a can over. Bloody creatures wouldn't touch the damned things!

Yeah, cats really aren't my thing...

;-)

Dan

Reply to
Dan

Care to bet on that one?

Cats are good, if the cats feel like chasing mice. I once had one that I had sitting on my lap about three feet from its food bowl and watched the mouse run down the counter hop into the bowl and take out a chow and run off with it. It followed the mouse by turning his head, but did not budge. That mouse ended up in a glue trap and then in a fish tank as my daughter's pet. She is now a zoo keeper. Other cats I have had have been much better.

If you can put out poison, that is a good way. The glue traps worked for me fairly well, but the poison has worked best.

Good Luck.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

My experience after one year of owning a new double wide which we use as a cabin is that the mice will run off with scads of bait and hide it in the most improbable places. I learned from a pro, right here on this NG that traps are a more efficient solution. Set the traps with the bait towards the wall (being rectangular this means that the narrow edge with the bait pad goes against the wall). This is because the mice slink along the wall using their whiskers as feelers and often blunder into the trap. The bait that I have used successfully is peanutbutter - it's aromatic. I feel that the traps are more humane than the sticky paper because death is quick and not prolonged with great struggling. Our mouse problem is less constant but since the little buggers are great breeders there will be a nearly endless supply of them. An outside cat is usually a better mouser because they aren't spoiled and they remain curious and aware. When I've had outside cats in the country I've not had much problem with mice getting into the house.

Reply to
C & E

HaHaHa! I recently removed a 275 Gal oil tank in the basement. We Sawzalled the legs off close to the floor. These were hollow pipes, open at the top.

When removed, there were 4 tidy piles of bait on the floor. The mice had been dutifully carting the stuff all the way down from the attached garage, thru the crawl space.

Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

Then there's Towser.

During her 23-year lifespan, Towser caught 23,898 mice at the Glenturrent Distillery in Scotland (plus a few rats and an occassional rabbit).

Towser is immortalized both by mention in the Guinesss Book of Records and by a bronze statue of her at the distillery.

Here's a test: If the cat will chase a laser pointer dot, I'd bet she'd be a good mouser.

Reply to
HeyBub

How do you know that? Do you think they will have a parade? For the most part, I've found that mice don't like sweets, but when I left a plastic shopping bag with a bag of Hershey's miniatures on the floor in the dining room a week before Halloween, 2 days before Halloweeen all the little candies were gone. I thought maybe I had eaten them and not remembered it. In the following year, I foudn about 5 of the wrappings in corners of the basement. Still haven't found most of them.

OPen containers of water! I fill my washer from a pipe. :)

During my slob period, I noticed that mice ate through the bottom of used microwave popcorn bags. So sometimes I put those blue-green mouse poison blocks in them and leave them where I think the mouse might be. I use popcorn with theatre butter. Of course now there is only one theatre in Baltimore that uses real butter. The rest use "golden liquid" or some such name.

Reply to
mm

Really? Where can I get a black light bulb? Do I have to go to a head shop?

Reply to
mm

A lot of people here think poison leaves dead mice within walls that smell. Not a problem for me. My house is dry, and I've found a dead mouse or two not in a wall that is completely dried up with never a smell.

OTOH, in college a cat died in the basement of the place I lived, and the basement was so crowded with other people's stuff that no one ever found the cat afaik. It smelled bad down there for weeks.

Reply to
mm

What did mice do before there were lasers?

Reply to
mm

Sure they do...they can be found in all 50 states. And any that were in a wall of a home before the Winter hit will migrate inwards toward the house warmth.

Lar

Reply to
Lar

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.