Mice

[no_hypocrisy]

Should I call an exterminator before it gets cold outside and the mice migrate? I've had it. Last winter, they got into my pantry and even chewed up the bottom of a wood cabinet. And all those droppings!

Would an exterminator be able to locate the holes in the walls where they enter my apartment -- or do I wait for them to return and then call the exterminator to get rid of them? I've gone on my hands and knees and feeling around the base heat panels on the floor and only found one hole (which I filled with non-soap steel wool pads).

[NMDemDist2]

1. i have the same problem, hope somebody has some suggestions for us

:hi:

[TygrBright]

4. Cat.

Okay, so you live in a "no pets" apartment? Challenging, but...

Got a friend with a friendly kitty?

Invite the kitty for a visit. Just a few hours, every other week or so for a couple of months. Just enough time for kitty to explore your apartment, sniff the baseboards, strop her/his neck along the door edge, etc.

helpfully,
Bright

[MuseRider]

2. I used to get them

in my old house. It was not built very well and there would be so many you would see them every day. They got bold and would come into the living room and look at us while we were watching TV. I HATE trapping them, live traps work OK but there are so many that just come after them that you never seem to get rid of them. I refuse to use poison, we have dogs and cats and I refuse to use those cruel glue traps.

We had a contractor friend that would fix things for us. He came out and felt all around outside and that is where he put the steel wool. We never had a problem after that. We were surrounded by pasture so there were simply millions of them. Still surrounded by pasture but he built our house and made sure it was as mouse proof as can be.

Try putting the steel wool around the outside but I would wait until it was cold enough that you won't get bit by nasty spiders that could be lurking where you put your hands. I would also do the steel wool inside, push it in and the cover it with duct tape that way you will know if they make it past the steel wool where they are coming in. They are tough to get rid of without cats. Good luck. Not much advice here but these things did work for me.

[beac]

3. I've had success using mint.

We had mice getting into our bathroom and eating the cat litter (we use Swheat Scoop-- a wheat-based natural litter.) I read that mice hate mint. We didn't want to trap or poison, so we were desperate and decided to try it. We placed sprigs of fresh mint under the radiator.

Lo and behold, it worked. After we placed the mint, we never saw another mouse. We left it under the radiator (it dried up eventually) all winter and removed it in the spring. I've been doing this for about three years now.

Passed the trick on to another friend who used it w/the same results in her kitchen.

Hoping it will work for you too! :hi:


(And no, it wasn't the cat that got them. She's no mouser-- we had mouse problems in our previous house that she was also no help with. Sweet cat, but completely mouse-friendly, alas.)

[no_hypocrisy]

5. It's official. First wellfed mouse on my counter today.

We have baseboard heat and I don't have access to the hole in the wall where the mice enter.

I'll try the mint but unsure where exactly to put it as there's some much perimeter where the baseboard heat is.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I hate to suggest spring traps, but I will.

I have mice getting into the house all the time and also cannot find every way they are getting in. One time, I went to the pantry to get a bag of egg noodles, and found an empty bag with a tiny hole in it----empty----still don't know where the hell all those noodles are stashed!

I will not use poisons or glue traps because they die too slowly. I really hate the thought of any lethal methods, but I also cannot share my house with mice. The basic spring trap kills quickly and I believe it is the most humane way to deal with them. Don't buy the cheap ones, buy Victor because the cheap ones don't always have a strong enough spring for an instant kill. I bait with a chocolate chip stuck in some peanut butter and this is always an instant success. At least I know that the mouse's last thought was "this chocolate sure is yummy".

Don't think that an exterminator will be as humane as these traps. But you might be right that they could find entries and deal with that. Ask if that is something they do before you hire one.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Thanks. I'll consider it. It depends upon my reaction to the first victim in the trap.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. I am used to it now, but it is not a good feeling. However,

none of the options are good. If you have a problem with disposal, and have money, I was told to just set the trap on newspapers and throw everything away, and this will keep you at a distance from it all. I am too cheap for that, so have learned that this is just a part of my life I do not relish. Look on it as a necessary evil, because you realize that it is necessary. I also "recycle" the victims, throwing them outside instead of in the garbage. They are never there within 24 hours---sometimes crows in the day, and if not, raccoons or opossums at night. This keeps my from feeling as if I have "wasted" a life.

I know, call me crazy.

[RebelOne]

10. I have had to hire a exterminator

because of a rat problem. I live in a mobile home and they are nesting under it and ripping out my insulation. I finally had enough. The exterminator uses the spring traps. So far he has killed 3 of them. There are a lot more under there because I hear them at night. But he is still working on it. They are getting wise to the traps because they have tripped them and not gotten caught,

[ginnyinWI]

9. The answer is bait.

We just had a pest control guy come and give us a consult. We have a house only 20 years old, but in a suburb where there is plenty of wildlife. For years now we have heard them scritching and scratching and scampering inside our walls and ceilings during the cold weather months, not to mention the stench when one of them died in there, so this time I'd had it and called.

Result: he looked around and didn't see any obvious places where they could get in, except under the door to our attached garage where the bottom rubber thing was partly broken away. From there they'd climb the garage wall, run across the top and into the attic area of our house.

He said there is actually no way to completely seal them out; they can get into the smallest cracks and you'd drive yourself nuts trying to caulk everything everywhere.

The answer is bait. He went into the attic and put some round balls of some poison stuff around, and also in the top corners of the basement, behind the insulation for good measure. And he put some in some top recesses in the garage. The idea is that they can get in, but they will die up in the attic and we won't smell them.

My husband also went and got a new rubber seal for the bottom of the garage door, so hopefully we won't even be getting any of the little buggers into the house, or fewer anyway.

And it has worked. All is quiet in the ceiling and in the walls. No smells are emanating either. I don't feel too badly, although I would have if it were spring and nesting time, but it is not. And after all, this is war. I don't like killing even bugs without a good reason, but we have to do what we have to do sometimes.