Mouse Infestation: Please share experiences

[Anonymous]

Fill holes. Traps with peanut butter. Works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plugging the holes is the most important step. You need a pest control person who is experienced with finding holes in a house's foundation, etc.

+1. And pull out all your kitchen appliances, and shelving that's against the wall (even in the garage), etc. We found our entry point behind the dishwasher, which was a PITA to move as it was hard-wired in. Most exterminators will not do this for you, as they don't want the potential liability of damaging your stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought snap traps in bulk. Set a dozen or so the first evening after dinner. Key is a tiny tiny tiny amount of peanut butter as bait. We set them everywhere we had seen dropping and along the baseboards near dropping areas. We checked them all before we went to bed and disposed of three mice, and reset more traps in those areas. Lots of mice caught that first night. Disposed and reset the next couple weeks. Adding additional traps in the areas where we were catching them.

We caught 50 ish mice in the first week, and the numbers caught dropped to one a night at most. Than none with no new droppings. We keep two traps set now all the time in the two spots where we caught the most and check them periodically. Every fall as it gets cold we catch one or two again. But we then go on a major offensive of traps again and it is 1 or 2, not 50.

You know this is not normal, right? You have dangerous levels of infestation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought snap traps in bulk. Set a dozen or so the first evening after dinner. Key is a tiny tiny tiny amount of peanut butter as bait. We set them everywhere we had seen dropping and along the baseboards near dropping areas. We checked them all before we went to bed and disposed of three mice, and reset more traps in those areas. Lots of mice caught that first night. Disposed and reset the next couple weeks. Adding additional traps in the areas where we were catching them.

We caught 50 ish mice in the first week, and the numbers caught dropped to one a night at most. Than none with no new droppings. We keep two traps set now all the time in the two spots where we caught the most and check them periodically. Every fall as it gets cold we catch one or two again. But we then go on a major offensive of traps again and it is 1 or 2, not 50.

You know this is not normal, right? You have dangerous levels of infestation

NP. We had this level too. They multiply very, very quickly. We were out of town for a month and came home to mousetopia. They were EVERYWHERE. They'd eaten a whole bag of dog food that had been sealed in the pantry. We did the same as pp, killed maybe 40 mice with traps and then the numbers died off very quickly. We haven't had any in about 2 years. At the time we set out 6 traps a night and all 6 were full every night. Of course we filled holes and replaced baseboards that they chewed through, but the main thing was the traps. I was incredibly disgusted to toss dead mice out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My cats are totally useless slackers. Tempted to try out the baby monitor idea.

+1. My daughter’s cat stayed with me for two months. Yeah, occasionally he caught a mouse, but after he left they just came out of the woodwork again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put snap traps all around the baseboards in the rooms you’ve seen droppings. Bait with peanut butter and put on a large piece of cardboard so you don’t have to touch the trap to dispose of dead mouse.
Keep doing it nightly until no more droppings.

Please don’t use glue traps or poison.
Don’t waste money on an exterminator.

They don't like peanut butter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought snap traps in bulk. Set a dozen or so the first evening after dinner. Key is a tiny tiny tiny amount of peanut butter as bait. We set them everywhere we had seen dropping and along the baseboards near dropping areas. We checked them all before we went to bed and disposed of three mice, and reset more traps in those areas. Lots of mice caught that first night. Disposed and reset the next couple weeks. Adding additional traps in the areas where we were catching them.

We caught 50 ish mice in the first week, and the numbers caught dropped to one a night at most. Than none with no new droppings. We keep two traps set now all the time in the two spots where we caught the most and check them periodically. Every fall as it gets cold we catch one or two again. But we then go on a major offensive of traps again and it is 1 or 2, not 50.

You know this is not normal, right? You have dangerous levels of infestation

NP. We had this level too. They multiply very, very quickly. We were out of town for a month and came home to mousetopia. They were EVERYWHERE. They'd eaten a whole bag of dog food that had been sealed in the pantry. We did the same as pp, killed maybe 40 mice with traps and then the numbers died off very quickly. We haven't had any in about 2 years. At the time we set out 6 traps a night and all 6 were full every night. Of course we filled holes and replaced baseboards that they chewed through, but the main thing was the traps. I was incredibly disgusted to toss dead mice out.

Don't they make noise when running around and you can figure out you have a mouse problem before they multiply?

Or is droppings the only sign?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought snap traps in bulk. Set a dozen or so the first evening after dinner. Key is a tiny tiny tiny amount of peanut butter as bait. We set them everywhere we had seen dropping and along the baseboards near dropping areas. We checked them all before we went to bed and disposed of three mice, and reset more traps in those areas. Lots of mice caught that first night. Disposed and reset the next couple weeks. Adding additional traps in the areas where we were catching them.

We caught 50 ish mice in the first week, and the numbers caught dropped to one a night at most. Than none with no new droppings. We keep two traps set now all the time in the two spots where we caught the most and check them periodically. Every fall as it gets cold we catch one or two again. But we then go on a major offensive of traps again and it is 1 or 2, not 50.

You know this is not normal, right? You have dangerous levels of infestation

NP. We had this level too. They multiply very, very quickly. We were out of town for a month and came home to mousetopia. They were EVERYWHERE. They'd eaten a whole bag of dog food that had been sealed in the pantry. We did the same as pp, killed maybe 40 mice with traps and then the numbers died off very quickly. We haven't had any in about 2 years. At the time we set out 6 traps a night and all 6 were full every night. Of course we filled holes and replaced baseboards that they chewed through, but the main thing was the traps. I was incredibly disgusted to toss dead mice out.

Don't they make noise when running around and you can figure out you have a mouse problem before they multiply?

Or is droppings the only sign?

I think if you can hear them you have a very big problem.

[Anonymous]

We used poison and traps. Neither worked 100% forever, but they will solve the problem of the ones in your house now. The poison dehydrates them so they generally come out from the walls and die in the middle of the floor (in experience).

But they always came back. We tried to plug holes but could never find exactly where they were coming in. We knew it was somewhere on our stove wall. Eventually we were remodeling and went down to the studs. I told them to SEAL EVERYTHING in the wall. No problems since then. Obviously not an economical solution.

[Anonymous]

Ratzapper.

Search for that on this forum. Lots of threads with a lot of advice and resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plugging the holes is the most important step. You need a pest control person who is experienced with finding holes in a house's foundation, etc.

+1. And pull out all your kitchen appliances, and shelving that's against the wall (even in the garage), etc. We found our entry point behind the dishwasher, which was a PITA to move as it was hard-wired in. Most exterminators will not do this for you, as they don't want the potential liability of damaging your stuff.

Exactly why I found them useless and not worth the money. All they wanted to do was have us pay them hundreds of dollars for trap settings. I can do that myself! I want them to FIND THE HOLES. They looked around and never found the holes. A complete waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plugging the holes is the most important step. You need a pest control person who is experienced with finding holes in a house's foundation, etc.

+1. OP, be aware, mice can climb anything, anywhere. You have to look for any holes outside and inside the house, and plug any holes with steel wool - which is probably they only thing mice can not gnaw through - in addition to setting traps. The old fashioned wood traps work fine, you can just toss the whole thing, corpse and all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought snap traps in bulk. Set a dozen or so the first evening after dinner. Key is a tiny tiny tiny amount of peanut butter as bait. We set them everywhere we had seen dropping and along the baseboards near dropping areas. We checked them all before we went to bed and disposed of three mice, and reset more traps in those areas. Lots of mice caught that first night. Disposed and reset the next couple weeks. Adding additional traps in the areas where we were catching them.

We caught 50 ish mice in the first week, and the numbers caught dropped to one a night at most. Than none with no new droppings. We keep two traps set now all the time in the two spots where we caught the most and check them periodically. Every fall as it gets cold we catch one or two again. But we then go on a major offensive of traps again and it is 1 or 2, not 50.

You know this is not normal, right? You have dangerous levels of infestation

NP. We had this level too. They multiply very, very quickly. We were out of town for a month and came home to mousetopia. They were EVERYWHERE. They'd eaten a whole bag of dog food that had been sealed in the pantry. We did the same as pp, killed maybe 40 mice with traps and then the numbers died off very quickly. We haven't had any in about 2 years. At the time we set out 6 traps a night and all 6 were full every night. Of course we filled holes and replaced baseboards that they chewed through, but the main thing was the traps. I was incredibly disgusted to toss dead mice out.

Don't they make noise when running around and you can figure out you have a mouse problem before they multiply?

Or is droppings the only sign?

No we never heard them. We have a neighbor whose house is abandoned and despite not paying his taxes for 5 years, the county hasn't taken possession of it (not DC, it's a local VA county). It's infested with mice and the fire department has had to be called multiple times because it flooded when the pipes froze. There's very little we can do to keep the mice away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought snap traps in bulk. Set a dozen or so the first evening after dinner. Key is a tiny tiny tiny amount of peanut butter as bait. We set them everywhere we had seen dropping and along the baseboards near dropping areas. We checked them all before we went to bed and disposed of three mice, and reset more traps in those areas. Lots of mice caught that first night. Disposed and reset the next couple weeks. Adding additional traps in the areas where we were catching them.

We caught 50 ish mice in the first week, and the numbers caught dropped to one a night at most. Than none with no new droppings. We keep two traps set now all the time in the two spots where we caught the most and check them periodically. Every fall as it gets cold we catch one or two again. But we then go on a major offensive of traps again and it is 1 or 2, not 50.

You know this is not normal, right? You have dangerous levels of infestation

NP. We had this level too. They multiply very, very quickly. We were out of town for a month and came home to mousetopia. They were EVERYWHERE. They'd eaten a whole bag of dog food that had been sealed in the pantry. We did the same as pp, killed maybe 40 mice with traps and then the numbers died off very quickly. We haven't had any in about 2 years. At the time we set out 6 traps a night and all 6 were full every night. Of course we filled holes and replaced baseboards that they chewed through, but the main thing was the traps. I was incredibly disgusted to toss dead mice out.

Don't they make noise when running around and you can figure out you have a mouse problem before they multiply?

Or is droppings the only sign?

No we never heard them. We have a neighbor whose house is abandoned and despite not paying his taxes for 5 years, the county hasn't taken possession of it (not DC, it's a local VA county). It's infested with mice and the fire department has had to be called multiple times because it flooded when the pipes froze. There's very little we can do to keep the mice away.

How did you know you had them then? You had droppings along baseboards? Did you see them?

[Anonymous]

Whenever I notice mouse activity in my house I call a company and her on their annual schedule for one year. They’ll come in, assess the holes, determine where most of the activity is and bait accordingly. They use bait boxes that pets can’t get into. The first treatment they set and leave the boxes but don’t plug the holes- they want those babies heading outside to die. They come back about ten days later and check and re-bait their boxes. They can generally tell how bad the infestation is by how much bait is gone between the first and second visits. By the second visit they’re plugging up the holes and it’s normally quarterly after that unless there’s evidence they’re still around. I normally hire them for the whole year then take a break for a few years until I see evidence returning.