Absolutely. Once you have had mice and know the smell, you can recognize it instantly. A slightly musky, corn chip type smell. If you can smell them, you likely have a healthy infestation. Exclusionary tactics work best if you can find entry points; then snap traps. Avoid poison in environments shared with humans and other animals (fine for vacant homes), and glue traps which are terribly inhumane. By the way if you ever need to free an animal from a glue trap, saturate the trapped limbs in oil which will dissolve the glue.

Anonymous wrote:I live in an old house and as much steel wool as I stuff into little nooks and crannies, we still get the occasional mouse.

Especially, when neighbors do construction.

My cat is good at letting me know, because she will camp out near where she saw it.

I've used traps, they are so-so in terms of being effective.

The most effective is poison blocks. I put it out where the pets can't get it.

It takes about a week for the mice to eat it and die.

Poison is inhumane. There is a trick to snap traps. You need to create a corridor with the trap at the end, against a wall, so that the mouse can't escape when the trap is triggered and jumps under the tensile strength of the spring. Place the trap in a corner between two walls and create the third wall of the corridor with a weighted cereal box.

I live in an old house and as much steel wool as I stuff into little nooks and crannies, we still get the occasional mouse.

Especially, when neighbors do construction.

My cat is good at letting me know, because she will camp out near where she saw it.

I've used traps, they are so-so in terms of being effective.

The most effective is poison blocks. I put it out where the pets can't get it.

It takes about a week for the mice to eat it and die.

Anonymous wrote:I've had mice and know what their presence smells like.
The best thing to do is block the gateway. Chicken wire, spray foam, steel wool.

It's not just the best thing, it's the only thing. You can kill them all, but if you can't keep them out they'll be back.

EW!

I've had mice and know what their presence smells like.
The best thing to do is block the gateway. Chicken wire, spray foam, steel wool.

Anonymous wrote:I have a bloodhound nose, have had mouse issues in my house, and no, I cannot smell mice. Perhaps you're associating a musty old house smell with mice, or perhaps at one time that location had a much greater mouse infestation, with latrine spot? It's rodent urine that's particularly pungent, poops don't smell to human noses. If the urine has soaked into a spot in the wood, maybe on humid days you can smell it?

THIS is what I wanted to hear. I've been wondering if I'm just smelling something else and grossing myself out for no reason. Anyone else agree with this poster?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. You dna smell dropping and pee.

Get an exterminator. Put some ratzappers in the attic. Plug holes with steel wool.

Also wear Hazmat suit (or cover your nose). Use an old vacuum with HEPA filter to vacuum everything, change the insulation batting if soiled. Use a black light to find out where the pee is. Use lysol, bleach etc to disinfect every thing.

Remember that rats and mice can spread HANTA VIRUS. The stuff that killed Gene Hackman's wife.

Exterminators are a scam. Just fix the access points.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. You dna smell dropping and pee.

Get an exterminator. Put some ratzappers in the attic. Plug holes with steel wool.

Also wear Hazmat suit (or cover your nose). Use an old vacuum with HEPA filter to vacuum everything, change the insulation batting if soiled. Use a black light to find out where the pee is. Use lysol, bleach etc to disinfect every thing.

Remember that rats and mice can spread HANTA VIRUS. The stuff that killed Gene Hackman's wife.

I have a bloodhound nose, have had mouse issues in my house, and no, I cannot smell mice. Perhaps you're associating a musty old house smell with mice, or perhaps at one time that location had a much greater mouse infestation, with latrine spot? It's rodent urine that's particularly pungent, poops don't smell to human noses. If the urine has soaked into a spot in the wood, maybe on humid days you can smell it?

Yes, it's kind of salty.

I disagree that you can't seal all the openings. I mean, it'll take a while! But it's doable. The biggest success for us was taking down the basement drywall and repointing the ground-level masonry from the inside. Honestly, I think it might have fixed the problem. But because old city houses are what they are, I don't want to get too cocky

Anonymous wrote:Yes. You dna smell dropping and pee.

This. You likely aren't smelling the mice, but what they are leaving behind

Yes. You dna smell dropping and pee.

My cat can. 😸

We don't have a huge infestation or anything, but I swear I can smell mice when I'm near the attic hatch door or in the basement. We have traps out but we rarely catch anything. We can't seal all the opening because it's an old house. Am I imagining this mouse smell? Do you know what I'm talking about?