Mouse problem at home - please help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in NoVa and use Pest Now. They have been great. Highly recommend. We have been dealing w a large mouse presence (at least it seems large to me based on the large amount of poop discovered in random places in my home) since Spring and are finally nearly 100% mouse-free.

Agree with pp re finding the entry points. Ours was a sump pump cover that wasnt completely covered and an old dryer vent that wasnt properly closed off. Also you have to find out how they are getting through your house—we had a hole behind our stove that they were using to easily access our kitchen from their homes in our walls, as well as a hole under the sink. These were all holes caused by the previous owner doing diy work and not understanding what they were doing.

Anyway, our PestNow guy (Donovan, he is awesome) walked around the inside and outside of the house with me during his first visit to look for entry points. Also make sure there arent any cracks they can use in the garage to enter the home. We ended up having to hire a handyman to help us take care of closing up the access points.

I disagree about the poison vs traps though. We used traps initially and caught plenty of mice but there is no way to kill them all if you have a problem more than 1-2 mice. The poison is completely sealed in a plastic box that is designed for only mice to enter and exit, and it is locked so your kids/pets cant get in (unless your pet is a hamster). They put the poison boxes places your kids/pets cant easily access (we currently have 3 or 4 in the basement in places like on top of hvac ducting and in the unfinished storage part) and it not only kills the mice but they are a good way to measure the mouse activity and whether what you are doing is working. We only saw one dead mouse in the basement and one living but very dazed and slow moving house in the kitchen following putting out the poison.

Finally, make sure to clean and disenfect all droppings you find because mice use their poop trails to help them find food sources again. We ended up removing and replacing a lot of insulation in our basement that was disgusting with the amount of poop found in it.

I’m stoked for this homeowner that the mice are gone. But fwiw, I think all of the “closing” of holes is basically theater. The sump pump and dryer vent are just easy places to “find” a “hole” and contractors of all kinds love to tell you about how the last guy was an idiot and they are your hero. Ditto behind the stove - my mice also like to come and go there. But it’s not like they can’t find another way from the wall behind the stove out into the kitchen. I’m not saying he was scamming you - putting out a poison that works is effective. I’m just saying pest contracts are mostly a sales job and all of the other stuff is, in my opinion, basically fluff. This is just one homeowner’s perspective obviously.

This perspective makes me quite nervous. Isn’t it possible to cover those standard holes with a metal mesh or anything similar?

Yes, you use copper mesh or the stuff that you buy to scrub pots and pans with.

No, not the stuff you scrub pots and pans with - I got a good natured lecture on the difference from my pest guy. The steel wool we buy for dishes rusts and breaks down, the stuff pest people use (and that you can probably buy yourself, not saying it’s some specialty thing) is some other kind of metal.

I think it’s really company by company. We had one chain and they did a crap job, we have had another chain now for two or three years and they always send the same guy (we have them come quarterly; our home was not maintained at all for a decade and we keep finding new fun things) who knows the house, remembers the hotspots and checks to make sure the “patches” are holding. I’d recommend ours but I’m no longer in the DC area. Good luck, OP. Last year was a bad mouse year across the board for a lot of people.

This also just sounds like a good sales guy. I love a good sales guy, and I like feeling taken care of. But I’m not sure it’s “real” in the sense of having much to do with the mice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in NoVa and use Pest Now. They have been great. Highly recommend. We have been dealing w a large mouse presence (at least it seems large to me based on the large amount of poop discovered in random places in my home) since Spring and are finally nearly 100% mouse-free.

Agree with pp re finding the entry points. Ours was a sump pump cover that wasnt completely covered and an old dryer vent that wasnt properly closed off. Also you have to find out how they are getting through your house—we had a hole behind our stove that they were using to easily access our kitchen from their homes in our walls, as well as a hole under the sink. These were all holes caused by the previous owner doing diy work and not understanding what they were doing.

Anyway, our PestNow guy (Donovan, he is awesome) walked around the inside and outside of the house with me during his first visit to look for entry points. Also make sure there arent any cracks they can use in the garage to enter the home. We ended up having to hire a handyman to help us take care of closing up the access points.

I disagree about the poison vs traps though. We used traps initially and caught plenty of mice but there is no way to kill them all if you have a problem more than 1-2 mice. The poison is completely sealed in a plastic box that is designed for only mice to enter and exit, and it is locked so your kids/pets cant get in (unless your pet is a hamster). They put the poison boxes places your kids/pets cant easily access (we currently have 3 or 4 in the basement in places like on top of hvac ducting and in the unfinished storage part) and it not only kills the mice but they are a good way to measure the mouse activity and whether what you are doing is working. We only saw one dead mouse in the basement and one living but very dazed and slow moving house in the kitchen following putting out the poison.

Finally, make sure to clean and disenfect all droppings you find because mice use their poop trails to help them find food sources again. We ended up removing and replacing a lot of insulation in our basement that was disgusting with the amount of poop found in it.

I’m stoked for this homeowner that the mice are gone. But fwiw, I think all of the “closing” of holes is basically theater. The sump pump and dryer vent are just easy places to “find” a “hole” and contractors of all kinds love to tell you about how the last guy was an idiot and they are your hero. Ditto behind the stove - my mice also like to come and go there. But it’s not like they can’t find another way from the wall behind the stove out into the kitchen. I’m not saying he was scamming you - putting out a poison that works is effective. I’m just saying pest contracts are mostly a sales job and all of the other stuff is, in my opinion, basically fluff. This is just one homeowner’s perspective obviously.

Well no, you can't eliminate all entry points. But you can look for, and fill, the large ones. Sump pump and dryer vent are large ones. Visible crack under steps is a large one. If you eliminate large entry holes, you will eliminate the # of ways mice can get into your home and thus eliminate some of them.

[Anonymous]

Related question - we have been using old-fashion snap traps to get some rats in our yard (after failing with many other methods!).

This weekend we caught a two, but there's still at least one left (we had seen 3 roaming before...and now I can still see one that come around). I can't seem to catch the 3rd one. It either avoids the trap (threw all used ones away) or I find it licked clean without triggering it. I use gloves to avoid human scent, am generous with peanut butter and cinnamon. and I place some fabric at the end of the trap (inside peanut butter) to increase chances it will bite/tug to trigger the trap.

Any hints on what to do? How did this one rat figure out how to avoid the traps that work (I catch mice instead of the rat) and to gently lick the others?

[Anonymous]

We have snap traps, poison boxes, and adhesive paper traps. The adhesive traps are the ones that have caught the mice every time in both the basement and attic. I recommend those types of traps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Related question - we have been using old-fashion snap traps to get some rats in our yard (after failing with many other methods!).

This weekend we caught a two, but there's still at least one left (we had seen 3 roaming before...and now I can still see one that come around). I can't seem to catch the 3rd one. It either avoids the trap (threw all used ones away) or I find it licked clean without triggering it. I use gloves to avoid human scent, am generous with peanut butter and cinnamon. and I place some fabric at the end of the trap (inside peanut butter) to increase chances it will bite/tug to trigger the trap.

Any hints on what to do? How did this one rat figure out how to avoid the traps that work (I catch mice instead of the rat) and to gently lick the others?

Oh sweetheart. It’s not three rats. Three rats have never existed anywhere since the dawn of man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Related question - we have been using old-fashion snap traps to get some rats in our yard (after failing with many other methods!).

This weekend we caught a two, but there's still at least one left (we had seen 3 roaming before...and now I can still see one that come around). I can't seem to catch the 3rd one. It either avoids the trap (threw all used ones away) or I find it licked clean without triggering it. I use gloves to avoid human scent, am generous with peanut butter and cinnamon. and I place some fabric at the end of the trap (inside peanut butter) to increase chances it will bite/tug to trigger the trap.

Any hints on what to do? How did this one rat figure out how to avoid the traps that work (I catch mice instead of the rat) and to gently lick the others?

Oh sweetheart. It’s not three rats. Three rats have never existed anywhere since the dawn of man.

Actually - we finally got the third rat and that seems to have done the trick - just needed patience. The traps are all still out and now only getting small voles, mice. We will leave them out in case there are more or in case they left a litter behind. Even throwing out a few of the seeds they couldn't resist has not resulted in any more rats. These rats were definitely a new thing in our yard and the result of new construction nearby. They were highly visible and, after watching over time they were also countable - we could easily view from our windows - that's how we first discovered them and we could view them for weeks during unsuccessful attempts/methods before the snap traps (and even during snap traps as the others tried would try to drag dead ones back to their home).

[Anonymous]

ratzapper. The only thing that works consistently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ratzapper. The only thing that works consistently.

How do you keep this clean so that the first kill doesn't leave a smell that scares other rats away? We had a set of "reusable" tunnel traps. They worked great for the first kill - but then the rats could smell the consequence and were too smart to come back. Only chipmunks and mice were dumb enough to return to it. Only traditional (disposable) Victor snap traps with metal plates worked for us. Used the trick of adding cloth to metal plate and covering that with peanut butter so that they'd increase chance of triggering the trap by biting into the cloth. Also sprinkled with cinnamon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ratzapper. The only thing that works consistently.

How do you keep this clean so that the first kill doesn't leave a smell that scares other rats away? We had a set of "reusable" tunnel traps. They worked great for the first kill - but then the rats could smell the consequence and were too smart to come back. Only chipmunks and mice were dumb enough to return to it. Only traditional (disposable) Victor snap traps with metal plates worked for us. Used the trick of adding cloth to metal plate and covering that with peanut butter so that they'd increase chance of triggering the trap by biting into the cloth. Also sprinkled with cinnamon.

cloth trick video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aBNxWl24n8

[Anonymous]

During the peak of Covid, I developed a severe mice problem in my apartment that appeared out of nowhere. In a two week timespan, I caught 14 mice. Mice are supposed to be nocturnal, but the mice in my apartment were ruthless and came out during the day. It was horrible and absolutely wrecked my peace. I stayed in a hotel for 5 days while the rental office resolved the problem.

I'm unsure what they did specifically, but I know they inserted some type of dust into the walls and all of the surrounding walls to prevent the mice from moving from place to place. I ended up ending my lease and moving shortly afterward.

[Anonymous]

Have someone fill all the holes outside and inside. Focus on crawl spaces in the basement and in the kitchen. Move everything. Mouse traps under stove, fridge, etc. Get Orkin to spray and patch home and then come as a quarterly service. DH and I also put down sticky paper (with cheese) in the kitchen at night after kids/dogs were asleep and then about 6 hours later (like 4 am) went downstairs and (with masks, gloves, boots on) got the sticky paper with the mice and put them in trash bags. Super extreme, but the most effective way to get the mice. Orkin kept telling us there were no mice left…We did this and got 8 total over 2 nights. After we did this our mouse issue stopped. Kind of traumatizing, but nothing else worked.

[Anonymous]

Pay the $ for a good pest control company. We got an annual Capitol Pest contract a few weeks ago for our newly purchased owned by elderly who let the condition deteriorate home and we got our money's worth. That exterminator guy was there every three days crawling through crawl spaces and emptying mousetraps and plugging holes until he stopped seeing mice in traps, and then the house was fine. He must have been there a dozen times in the span of 2 months. The first few times he had 10 mice in the traps...then it slowly dwindled and years later we haven't had an issue.