Mice this year & what do you use?
 

After a brief bout with mice this year in my Mom's cellar in her condo, and after a few conversations around town, I got to thinking. Is it me or does there seem to be a higher coincidence of mice getting in this year? The common comment I heard was it was so darn cold at times that more mice than usual were getting into houses.

Then, my second thought....Any preference on what you use to catch mice? Recommendations by our maintenance guys at JL and our local Heath's hardware store was "use the good old fashioned mouse trap". We had previously tried those little mice houses with sticky floors but nobody "checked in" so followed the advice and they were right! JL Girl: 3 Mice: 0. The trick the Heath's guy recommended was to bait the trap with peanut butter, not only on top of the triggering mechanism but underneath as well - since mice have figured out how to lick off the peanut butter off the top but not the bottom and that's what gets them. Actually, it's been kind of fun arming those darn things although some have a hair trigger - you go to place them on the floor and they snap and jump. I read that mice steer their way along walls by their whiskers - interesting! Heath's guy said you can reuse the traps but for my money (a few cents), you can throw the trap away with the caught mouse (eeeuuuww!) and get a new one. As soon as I'm done disposing of the little things, I wash my hands about 100 times! Well, that's my little story about "getting mouse-y out of the house-y!"

Best way to get rid of mice is to figure out where they are getting in. Buy a can of foam insulation and go around the foundation looking for any holes, a mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime. Fill the holes with the foam. Pay particular attention to where wires and pipes penetrate the wall and floor if no foundation. Plumbers (IMHO) are notorious for drilling a 2 inch hole for a 1/2 inch pipe creating a mouse highway. Then catch all the critters inside and you should solve the problem. It may take a few tries to find all the holes, good luck.

Thanks, ITD. Forgot to mention that - also a recommendation by our Maintenance guys. Will do that, and thanks for the tips on where to use it. A neighbor in here used what looks like a giant mouse trap clip and got her mouse. This is the same neighbor who got confronted by a mouse that had gotten into the house and into her trash compactor - and she's pretty good with dealing with all sorts of house crises. When she opened the compactor, to put some trash away, the mouse leaped out of the compactor and hit her in the lower chest. Needless to say, she screamed at the top of her lungs. I think I would too not because of the mouse itself but because of this thing leaping out as a surprise.

Wimp Technique
 

OK, up front I will admit that I am a wimp about killing things bigger than a spider. When I had mice problems at the beginning of the winter, I bought two "humane" plastic mouse traps at True Value in Laconia. I think they were about $2.50 each. They have a plastic door in the front, you put a piece of cheese inside, the mouse goes in, the door closes, it's trapped.

Next step is the fun part. I would take the trapped mice and let them loose in my neighbor's yard (only kidding), I mean down the street into the woods (where some other carnivore probably ate them). My dog found this all very entertaining as did I. It took about six trips (total 12 mice) over a two week period and they were gone.

Anyway, some people will think this is too much trouble, but I did not mind it at all. I had a landlord once who used the sticky and conventional traps and they were a mess. I also think "preventative care" and closes up holes to keep them out makes a great deal of sense.

-- Sky :)

We had a serious mouse problem over the winter. After closeup in the fall I was out at the island a few times and noticed considerable evidence that we had been invaded...Upon further investigation of how they were getting in we found that the contractor/subs had cut enormous holes under the house for plumbing and wiring. We are not talking 2" holes for a 1/2" pipe, we are talking stuff I could put my head in...Our house is built on a "wooden box". Basically a wooden deck/subfloor with insulation under that and luan to cover it on the bottom. They cut huge holes in the luan for access. The holes through the subfloor into the house are small, but getting to them is a piece of cake.

I bought countless packs of D-con, glue traps, conventional traps, box traps, etc. I literally put 30pcs in the house (you can call me the great white hunter) and left them for a month. We found that the D-con was consumed (8 empty packs of it) and the glue traps had 5 dead mice.

To sum it up, the D-con worked great, however the mice do not die instantly. This leaves the possibility of them going off and dying in your walls. The glue traps worked great, they were caught instantly.

I am going out this weekend for one more round, now that the holes are patched I hope to clear anything living before we open up in 3 weeks.

I have had several mice die in walls, under cabinets, in the attic/basement etc. Most found during renovations...mice that had been there a number of years. You don't have to worry about the smell. You don't even know they are there. I tore out the old vent hood over the stove, and found 3 dead mice right on top of it (I guess they fell down the vent pipe). They had been literally right under our noses for quite sometime, and we did not smell a thing.

The moral of the story is, if they die within your walls, don't worry about it.

Walls ok.... some other spots not so nice
 

D-con is great and for the most part I agree with chip, they die in the walls and you really don't notice till renevation time. However they do sometimes die other places where you do notice. Ask my neighbor (also my aunt), they had a mouse die that had found it way into the stove. Made a nice little bed one winter in the insulation around the oven.... Needless to say a few D-con pellets later it passed away in the stove.... The apple pie which was cooked in the stove the following spring was great, but we couldn't eat it in the camp because the smell of well cooked mouse is awful..... Moral of the story, they don't always die in the convient places.......

steel wool
 

If the holes around the pipes and other gaps are not too big (normal, not like codeman's), use steel wool (stainless steel preferably). The rodents won't touch it and it's easy to stuff in the gaps with a screwdriver and make the house impervious. (Knock on wood), but we've been there since 2001 and did it when we first moved in and have never seen any signs of intrusion when opening. I hate the smell of mothballs so we only rely on this with great success.

Cats and buckets
 

Until our cat died last year, we never realized how many mice he'd been keeping away. We never had a problem with them, as long as he was around. When he smelled mice in the basement he'd sleep down there. He was a big male cat who was gentle around people but he loved to hunt. Whenever we turned on the Discovery Channel to a program about lions he'd be fixated on it for several minutes, and then he'd want to go outside.

To ensure that a kitten becomes a good mouser I think you have to play with it regularly.

When I was in the UNH Outing Club, the cabins managers used the "bucket o' death". It's a trash barrel, with a ramp leading up to the top. There's food inside. The mice crawl up, jump in, and can't get back out.

If you feel like letting them live you can put enough food for them to survive until you have a chance to check the bucket, and then transport the mice to another location for release.

If you want them to die quickly, use only enough food to attract them, and keep the bucket in a chilly (or cold) location. Mice lose heat quickly because they're very small. Hypothermia is usually a humane death because once the brain starts to cool, it's like being drunk (for people as well as mice.) In Wilderness EMT class they taught us to expect hypothermia victims to be dilusional, often to the point of thinking they're not in trouble at all.

I use the poison cubes and glue trays with peanut butter. I place a bunch of both on the floor along the walls of my basement and I am mouse-free in no time. I put some in the attic as well. Mice are easy to get rid of - don't hire an exterminator. Dogs will eat those cubes so keep them away.