Hi All: I have been living in my house noe for 25 years. Never had a rodent problem until now. Recently I thought there were chipmunks getting in but I finally found chewed up cereal boxes in one of my cupboards. The droppings are small so I assume its mice and not chipmunks.
Don't use poison unless you like the smell of rotting corpses...as coined by someone else here recently on "rats". Whenever we've had a problem it's been 1 or 2 near the fall season as they are looking for warmth. Simple mouse trap will do if you don't mind seeing the poor sucker afterwards and look outside around your property for a way they can get it...for us it was through the garage rafters and into the attic and another was through a vent pipe in the basement.
Don't get too wrapped up in their cuteness, these little suckers breed and you don't want that in your attic. These little guys don't work at Disney.
I had some problems with mice also. I solved it with a mice-glue. I don't know if it is possible to buy that in your country or how is it called. It is basically very strong glue that doesn't dry-up and harden. You spread some on a peace of paper, put some food in the center and leave it in the way of mice. Next day check to see if they got caught. Once they step on the glue they can't break free and they get more and more stuck. Just remove the paper with glue and mouse and repeat that untill you are mice-free.
Good luck
Bor
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The Egyptians were the first large-scale agrarian society. They stored grain on a national scale (see Bible story of Jacob). With the grain storage came mice and rats. Oh, what to do? The vermin ate the grain faster than the Egyptians could store it!
Enter the domesticated African Tree Cat. Presto, mouse problem solved. The Egyptians made a god of the cat (Bastet) because the cat saved them from starvation.
A single cat can save you, too.
You can even borrow one. Get the self-cleaning model (they all are).
On the placard of a museum I visited (don't recall which one), it said that when an Egyptian family's cat died, the family would shave their eyebrows as a gesture of mourning. That's how important the cats were.
Cats will not kill all the mice, just enough so both survive. That's how nature works. You only eliminate mice by keeping them out. Find the holes and plug them up.
Small terriers (Jack Russels, even Yorkies!) will not tolerate rodents what so ever. Even a cat may sleep through a mouse incursion, but a terrier will absolutely obsess and hunt until the critters are history.
Small terriers (Jack Russels, even Yorkies!) will not tolerate rodents what so ever. Even a cat may sleep through a mouse incursion, but a terrier will absolutely obsess and hunt until the critters are history.
Only if the mice are smart enough to stay out of the cat's path. A well-fed cat doesn't EAT the mice it kills; it brings them to YOU so you can eat them (I guess).
Consider Towser. Towser (1963-1987) killed 28,899 mice during her 23-year life (plus assorted rats, a few birds, and a rabbit or two).
Towser lived in an environment with 50,000 mice over those years. The OP wants to be mouse free, not "wild kingdom" with a cat bringing him dead ones a few times a day.
I wish there was a way. Hell, I went in the garage and opened my toolbox the other day, rached into the drawer where the sockets are, and a mouse ran across my hand. I will have to be honest and say I let out a scream that must have woken the neighbors, and they live a mile away. Worse yet, I have about 20 cats on this farm. I get mice in the house too, and I have sealed every hole I can find.
Mice are some of the most obnoxious useless critters on earth.
I did put some poison in the garage now, and where the cats cant get to it. Yes, cats will eat it, and they will die. I had several cats eat it once. I had to give them shots, and they were very sick. They did survive due to the shots.
If you find a way to get rid of them permantly, let us all know.
PS. Keeping tall grass down, around buildings does help a little.
We had mice in our cottage one year. I set mousetraps (they like peanut butter) and I also found and sealed the hole where they were getting in. (In my case it was near the plumbing.) I haven't seen a mouse since.
I have to say I didn't like killing the litle guys. When you trap them, their necks bend in such a way that their beady little eyes seem to be looking up at you sadly. Knowing what I know now -- that sealing the hole is the key -- I would have tried to trap them humanely and send them back into the fields.
-- "For it is only of the new one grows tired. Of the old one never tires."
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