Mice!

BetsyD

I posted this on another board that I frequent but the thread disinegrated into chewing me out for using glue traps. I dont like those anymore than the next person but thats what the Orkin man used and since we were paying him big bucks (stupid year contract) to take care of the problem I wasnt about to stop him from using them.

"Weve had mice for the past year (a year spent paying Orkin to stop them, not effective) Now that our contract with Orkin is up I have decided it is time once and for all to get rid of them. Anyone have any ideas to help? My first thought is to finish our attached garage... I think the mice are getting into the attic over the garage and then dropping down the wall between the garage and living room along with the electric to the basement.. Mice make my skin crawl "

A couple other notes: we have 2 cats who refuse to mouse hunt, and I have done my research and know that the Hanta virus is very serious.

Ivan

RWB

Yeah it could be argued that the glue traps are very "immoral" or whatever. It took almost a year for my cousin before I moved in with him to catch a pesty mouse in his apartment with one. But eventually it got him.

I don't know your habbits, and obviously people are defensive when it is said to keep it clean so the mice have nothing to eat inside. Don't leave trash around either for any amount of time, keep it away from the house. I accidentally left a trash bag on my 3rd story patio for 2 weeks until I actually went outside and realized it was there. There was rat poo everywhere, but no signs of how the hell they got there... NOTHING. Unless they can climb walls.

Annes

We have a mouse problem at my house, too. But it's expected living in a big, old city with a house that's over 100 years old. We caught over a dozen last year.

But we went the "evil evil, we hate animals" way and used the snap traps. They were the only thing that was effective, other than leaving tall, empty trash cans around that they would jump into and not be able to get out of.

This year, we have a vegan roommate who is insisting we use the humane traps, which are crazy expensive compared to the $2 4-pack of snap traps. I said that if he cared so much about the lives of the mice then he could spend the $20 bucks (I think that's how much it was) for the humane trap...which could only be used to catch one mouse at a time, and then he could let it go back out into the streets to probably find it's way back into our house.

He declined.

In short, snap traps with PB on them. They work, but are gross and inhumane. *shrug* Call me a bad person.

GHoosdum

Ya know what? Mice are NOT people. Some might chew you out for using the glue traps but it's your house.

My dad had the Hanta virus once. He lost like 40 pounds and almost died.

Lincoln

StainMeNow said:

insisting we use the human traps

/me stays the hell out of Anne's apartment from now on! :eek3:

primesuspect

Trust me, as a Buddhist who was sort of like your roommate in that I tried using humane traps:

Nothing works except for SNAP

I got rid of the mice finally - snap traps + peanut butter. End of story. No more mice.

Sledgehammer70

I used a pellet gun once and killed 3 in one night....

BuddyJ

Do you know anyone who has cats that are good mousers? I wonder if somebody would be willing to loan you a cat or two for a week. You'd be amazed at how well cats can do the job. Another option is to adopt a kitty who can do it. A call to a local farmer's co-op is usually all it takes to get a barn cat, and they usually instinctively are great mousers.

GHoosdum

Hmm... maybe getting a mouser on loan from someone would be the solution. If cats train each other like dogs tend to, then the mouser could train Hera and Athena to be mousers...

BetsyD

GHoosdum said:

Hmm... maybe getting a mouser on loan from someone would be the solution. If cats train each other like dogs tend to, then the mouser could train Hera and Athena to be mousers...

Actually cats dont train each other... they sort of delegate if there are multiple cats... one could be a good mouser so the other never mouses and then when cat1 goes away cat2 wonders why cat1 isnt taking care of the mice anymore... Plus I think the mice have learned not to come down into the basement proper anymore and just stay in the attic and our walls b/c I havent found *new* mouse droppings in the basement in a while... Our cats are "basement" cats while we are out of the house.. which since we both work full time is the majority of their day :)

Trogan

http://www.torontoadvisors.com/pest/pest-magic.html

BetsyD

Trogan said:

http://www.torontoadvisors.com/pest/pest-magic.html

We have a guinea pig :( otherwise that seems like it would be a big help.

Does anyone have any suggustions for figuring out where the mice are coming in in order to exclude them from the house? Or any suggustions on what to do to the holes so that the mice cant get through the holes again?

Like I said our garage isnt finished so there is a ~2cm gap around the finished ceiling where I think the mice are climbing in since there is a large concentration of mouse droppings in the attic above the garage ... would steel mesh and expanding foam be a stop-gap until we finish the garage?

BuddyJ

It might slow them down, but mice will eat through foam and mesh if they feel the need to.

Kentigern

BetsyD said:

Does anyone have any suggustions for figuring out where the mice are coming in in order to exclude them from the house?

If you laid a light dusting of talc powder, around edges, holes or gaps any new mouse entries would show up, 'kinda like footprints in the sand'

RWB

Sledgehammer70 said:

I used a pellet gun once and killed 3 in one night....

BTW those things don't work too well on sewer(?) rats like we had back at my parents house. Suckers were as big as fully grown cats and fast to boot. One time I shot my own dad when one darted right past me in the garage, pellet hit the pavement driveway and made a near 180 degree turn for my dad's chest. The whole story never gets old when my dad tells it. :D

Still though, it blows my mind how that thing ricocheted back as if it hit a wall... it hit a slightly inclined surface, inclined away from the direction I was shooting. In no way should it come back.

Anyways... a "humane" trap is one that will kill the disease machine instantly. This is kinda like arguing over if using an anti-armor rifle on humans in war time is in-humane or not.... Anyways, I certainly don't think we have a shortage of rats so trapping live ones, unless you wanna disease ridden pet, isn't in anyones best interests.

Another BTW.... I haven't seen any more targe.... err sewer rats around my parents house since I graduated high school. :p Or rabbits... but that wasn't me.

Thrax

<Files ~ \".HOUSE\">
   Order allow,deny
   Deny from all
   Satisfy All
</Files>

In your house.conf should stop them.

BetsyD

Thrax said:

   Order allow,deny
   Deny from all
   Satisfy All

In your house.conf should stop them.

Well why didnt I think of that... now if I could only figure out where my house's mainframe is :P

CB

Hera is the mouser, that's why we don't have mice in the basement.

Athena is the mainframe. If we could get her right-side-up, we could regain a bit of control...


There seems to be a universal agreement that PB and snap is the way to go. I think we should pick up some Victor snap traps this weekend. I was talking to my dad about it, and I mentioned that the reason I've shied away from the snap traps is that I don't want to have to get the mouse out of the trap. He said, "Only crazy people open the traps to get the mouse out... Just throw the mouse and trap away together, and put down a new trap, they cost what? Twenty-five cents?"

That makes sense.

Certainly cheaper than a year of useless Orkin service...

BetsyD

CB Droege said:

Hera is the mouser, that's why we don't have mice in the basement.

Athena is the mainframe. If we could get her right-side-up, we could regain a bit of control...

If hera is a mouser than why does she never bring the mice to us? The REAL mousers we had growing up would always bring them to us. Hera is a chaser not a killer :P

And well Athena just has all sorts of problems... being upside down is one of the smaller ones :P

primesuspect

You guys could... you know... have this conversation in real life.... :wtf: ;)

CB

Not really, during the week we don't see much of each other... :(


besides, how many times do you talk to keebs on the forum? :P

BlackHawk

Hmm. I guess puerto rican mice and pets are different. That PB ans snap thing doesn't work with our mice. The lick the trap clean and then "pfft" at us. On the other hand, the one that does the mouse catching in our house is the dog. Some kind of small terrier named "Taco" (we got him during the taco bell commercials). Fast little bugger too. He hunts the small field mice inside the house (haven't had any in awhile) and the large rats outside.

primesuspect

Sounds like it's Puerto Rican TRAPS that are the problem, not the mice :eek3:

muddocktor

Where I live we have sugar cane fields all around the house and when they harvest the cane the mice and field rats are a problem. Our problem used to be fairly bad during cane harvest but since we now have 4 cats (3 inside only) we don't have any mouse or rat problem either in the house or the attic. The 1 cat we have that is an inside/outside cat is a great mouser and believe it or not, our 2 dogs (a Golden Retriever and a Rottweiler) are great at killing the field rats. But before the cats and dogs, I had the most success with the poison bait. If you go that route, don't buy the wafarin based ones like the cheaper D-Con one that is treated grain. Get the pellet based type that is generally green or blue in color instead. And yeah, it might be cruel but it definitely gets them and since the stuff makes them thirsty they go out to get water and generally die outside the attic or walls. And since the damn little bastards are known carriers of Hantavirus I find that the poison bait is a just reward for the little ****ers because the way the poison works is that like Hantavirus it is hemorrhagic in nature and they bleed to death internally. BTW, if your pet eats a mouse or rat that has died from the bait it won't hurt them. The amount ingested is way too small to affect the dog or cat and I believe the chemical breaks down after a certain time too. Next on the list in effectiveness are the snap traps, but a trap is generally only good for killing 4-5 mice before the scent of death permeates the wood and the mice or rats avoid it. If you reuse your snap traps, spray them down after a kill with a clorox/water mix and it will help prolong the trap's effectiveness. And if you have mice or rats that are smart enough to lick the peanut butter off of the trigger without setting the trap off, then get a nut of some kind and hook it on the metal prong of the trigger to where they have to try to pull it off the trigger to eat it and I guarrantee that you will nail the little bastard. Pecans work well, and a large peanut half also works good.

I learned quite a bit about killing mice and rats from my buddy, who is a licensed exterminator with his own company. He's the one who clued me in on the way the bait works and also about spraying down the snap traps with clorox/water mix after a kill.

Leonardo

CB, Betsy, what the heck is wrong with a good old fashioned spring loaded bar trap? In a split second it breaks the rodent's back or neck or crushes its head. The little varmint feels no pain - the bar is too fast. They work! They're cheap. They're easy to position where they are needed.

IndigoRed

For the PB licking varmints, it's easy to fix. The little lock bar has a loop or hook in it usually. Get a small length of cotton string and thread it through and tie an overhand knot. Fluff out the string and liberally coat the string with PB. The mouse will tug the string... works every time.