Mouse Infestation: Please share experiences

[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.

Our mouse problem stopped when we got a new dishwasher. They had all been coming in through a hole behind it.

[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.

Omg. Wow good job! Was this an apartment or house? And are you in the city or in the woods?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have so many traps with peanut butter set, but I swear our mice know where they are and avoid them! They even leave droppings right next to the traps to drive us especially bonkers. We are interested in trying poison, but with a 1-year-old in the house, that seems risky. Anyone with experience with that? If we get an exterminator and then go out of town for a long weekend, would it be safe to be back in the house?

Google bucket mouse trap. Get a deep bucket they can’t jump out of

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think plugging the holes is bullsh!t. There will always be more holes you can’t see, especially in the kitchen behind the cabinets.

Put duct seal around the whole cabinet then f it.

LOL. As if.

What color are the cabinets? Apartments or house? You gotta do something. Mouses smell and the smell can make you sick. They also carry plague.

Pick from one from the list below.
Clear glue gun glue.
White Spray foam
White caulking
SOS pads
Screen sheet mesh
Steel wool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think plugging the holes is bullsh!t. There will always be more holes you can’t see, especially in the kitchen behind the cabinets.

Put duct seal around the whole cabinet then f it.

LOL. As if.

Get the cabinets attached properly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got a rat zapper after reading one of the previous threads here. It worked wonderfully, and quickly.

What is that?

[Anonymous]

Cats have worked for thousands of years.

You can't just get a kitten and have it mouse. They need to be trained and/or have been living a life where they've been allowed to act on their ferral instincts (i.e. outdoor cat). If you adopt a cat who has only ever had indoor life they will not be a good mouser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Bait means they love it enough to risk their lives to eat it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cats have worked for thousands of years.

You can't just get a kitten and have it mouse. They need to be trained and/or have been living a life where they've been allowed to act on their ferral instincts (i.e. outdoor cat). If you adopt a cat who has only ever had indoor life they will not be a good mouser.

I beg to differ. Got one cat from a vet (mom birthed there) and another at a no kill shelter who "might have seen some things" but was adopted at 3 months. They lived in mouse-free places until I moved into my 1938 house, so about 10 years. Suddenly, they are killing mice daily. The house had been empty for about a year before we moved in. So, for months, probably 3-4, they killed two mice a day. Then, no mice. When we reno-ed the basement, we did find a mouse graveyard which was...weird and creepy. But mostly they. just purred and showed me their work (and ate a lot of some of them).

[Anonymous]

For us we found out how they were getting in (a gutter that fed directly to the ground, we knew roughly where they hung out in the attic. I put a gap there. Make sure no branches reach your roof, keep vegetation away from the perimeter of the house. Put the snap traps along their travel route in the attic.

[Anonymous]

How do you know you have a mouse infestation if they don't make noise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you know you have a mouse infestation if they don't make noise?

Droppings

[Anonymous]

Agree on getting a cat. You need a hunter cat. A stray or farm/barn cat is better. Don't get an expensive foo-foo cat, get a trained killer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cats have worked for thousands of years.

You can't just get a kitten and have it mouse. They need to be trained and/or have been living a life where they've been allowed to act on their ferral instincts (i.e. outdoor cat). If you adopt a cat who has only ever had indoor life they will not be a good mouser.

Do NOT let your cats outdoors so they can practice on the native wildlife, some of which is threatened.

So friggin irresponsible.

I’m getting a zapper thanks to this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree on getting a cat. You need a hunter cat. A stray or farm/barn cat is better. Don't get an expensive foo-foo cat, get a trained killer.

Adopt a cat that was previously feral. Don’t let it outdoors yourself to practice on the native wildlife or poop in your neighbors’ yards or get hit by a car.