« OHNY Report: Double Your Eco-Friendly Pleasure Navy Yard's Building 128 To Get Demo'd »

October 9, 2006

Nibble, Nibble Like a Mouse

hotel
The scene above looks like our kitchen for the past two weeks. After having not seen a mouse all summer, one day, they were just there. And not just one or two, but a lot. On Saturday afternoon, Mrs. B walked in to the kitchen, and three of them were having a powwow on the counter. As yesterday's article in The Times points out, the common house mouse "weighs about an ounce, has a two-inch-long body and can slip through a hole just a little bit bigger than a pencil." So the biggest preventative measure you can take is to seal up as many holes as possible. We had someone come in last winter and spray a hard foam-like substance around (steel wool is another DIY option) but in a house like ours, there's really no way to cover all your bases. Traps and poison are the two standard remedies; if you're going with the former, the article recommends, you gotta go all out: “If you’re not starting with a dozen traps, you’re not serious about catching mice,” said one expert. As for bait, forget about cheese and go with peanut butter.
When Mice Move in to Spend the Winter [NY Times]
Photo by viralbus




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:01 AM | Comments (46)
Categories: Maintenance

Comments

get a cat!

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at October 9, 2006 10:32 AM

Yup. A cat is 100% effective. But I don't like cats so I leave the kitchen light on at all times and take out garbage nightly. And just gotta plain clean up in the kitchen.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 10:37 AM

All of a sudden a few years ago we got inundated with mice overnight. What worked best for us, besides filling up every hole we could see, were the snap traps with peanut butter in them. It's totally disgusting to put them out, go to sleep and then hear snap-snap-snap. But they worked better than the glue traps. NYC mice can get out of those!

Posted by: fern jackson at October 9, 2006 10:39 AM

Think I might buy some peanut butter stocks if word of this remedy gets out...

Still think that "un gato" that knows how to hunt, is the solution of the centuries...

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 10:41 AM

Depends on the cat! Ours is useless.

Posted by: Xris (Flatbush Gardener) at October 9, 2006 10:43 AM

Is this really your oven?

Seems that after your renovation there wan't any money left for a new oven or even kitchen.....

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 10:49 AM

look at their reno blog, dufus, if you think that's their oven...

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 11:03 AM

Hunting mice is a matter of instinct for cats, but their mothers teach them to kill and eat the little beasts. A cat that is taken from its mother too early might not be effective at mouse control. OTOH, after our first cat died we started to hear mice running on top of the tin ceiling in our kitchen and we occasionally saw one. As soon as we got a new kitten (who was MUCH too tiny to be an actual threat) the mice left, so ANY cat might have some impact.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at October 9, 2006 11:17 AM


Funny, I'm a landlord and lately I've been getting many more mouse complaints than usual.

The exterminator has been baiting the basements and offering it to tenants, but there sticking around.

What the hell is going on? Is NYC being over-run with cats, or what?

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 11:40 AM

I heard the mouse zapper works well. Its an baitable and reuseable electric killing machine that works without a mess.
One kind here.
http://www.nixalite.com/ratzapper.aspx

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 11:45 AM

If you ever lived in the country you know that when the weather gets cold, the mice try to get in the house. This is as true in Brooklyn as in the sticks. And a cat is foolproof. Try one you may find you will lke them!

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 11:50 AM

Mice and rats are coming back from summer vacation. They are hellbent on getting inside, no kidding. I have had a problem and all my neighbors are telling me that they are stuggling with the same problem. One tenant complained about seeing a mouse in her place and I got a guy who came in and went through the entire house pulling back appliances and crawling around every possible entry point, stuffed the holes with copper mesh wire and some other stuff and caulked all around the these spaces. My contractor left all kind of little entry places, it seemed when he did the renovation of the tenant's apartment -- mostly around pipes, the back of the refrigerator, pipes in the bathroom. The mice are skinny to begin with but flatten themselves and squeeze through to get in. Sure if you sterilize your living area and never ever ever drop a crumb or spill anything maybe they will put out an APB to forget your apartment, but the deal is to find the holes. This tenant by the way, maintains a pristine apartment and kitchen. Once they are in there, you can do all kinds of things to kill them: mouse traps, sticky traps, poison. All of that means that you have to finish off the poor suckers which is gross or that they croak somewhere and have the temerity to decompose.

About rats, the other day I opened the door to the backyard when I startled one which darted from one side of the yard to another. It almost ran into the house. He was the first of several I saw out there and none of the neighbors have a garbage problem and I don't. They run from yard to yard and this seems to be new with the fall. I got my trusty guy back who looked for holes (he said that if you really have an infestation in your space, he can find burrow holes where they nest.) We didn't have that problem, but it was the returning from summer vacation problem of looking for entry. The guy set several large traps. The second obvious thing is to be especially careful with garbage can lids and to tell tenants to make sure to do that too.

The guy who helped me is Guido from Bravo Extermination Inc. 212-465-7579.

Posted by: donatella at October 9, 2006 11:56 AM

If you don't like cats, consider feeding the strays if they hang out in your yard (good to get them spade or neutered too). It makes a world of difference. They keep the mice and rats away.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 11:57 AM

if you don't like cats, get a mouser dog like a min-pin or rat terrier. mouse control with a heart of gold...

Posted by: gpt at October 9, 2006 12:33 PM

If your cat doesn't hunt mice, get one of the opposite sex who does.... once the territory issues subside (yes, that might take a while) they will get along and the mouser will teach the non-mouser what to do. My mouser would take the mouse into the bathroom and play games with it for hours while the non-mouser, vaguely aware that this was something cat-related he ought to be interested in, hung around outside the bathroom door and literally jumped out of the way whenever the mouse escaped (mouse never got far, the mouser cat was always in hot pursuit). Evenually he got the hang of it, but it was very entertaining to see a cat afraid of a mouse.

Get a cat. Not just for the mice, but for you. A well-socialized cat is a licensed therapist and a great hand warmer.

Posted by: Diana at October 9, 2006 12:45 PM

peanut butter alone never works for me. they lick it off. stick a raison on there [attached firmly] and put some peanut butter on it too...

snap!

Posted by: Bb at October 9, 2006 12:48 PM

I'm just glad to know that it isn't just us having this problem...I was beginning to get a complex! It's never been like this before, so why now does everyone have this issue? This is the first time that it seems like everyone's having the problem at the same time.

Anywhowevah, I HATE the glue traps because I hate seeing them stuck on those things. Yuck! How can you lift those things with the animal stuck on them, staring at you, still wiggly? Double yuck!! I found two of those glue box mouse traps, and they caught one this weekend. I loved it because I couldn't see it, just heard it squeaking. Dear fiance took it outside. The regular flat glue trap caught another one. Fi disposed of that as well. So we've seen and caught a total of two. I hope that this is it..but something tells me I'm kidding myself.

Posted by: it's me at October 9, 2006 1:55 PM

Last winter we had an influx of mice... one mouse even damaged our bathroom ceiling by knawing a hole from the attic floor. We heard about the rat zapper and decided to give it a try... boy did that work! You don't even have to look at the dead mouse. The only caveat is the cost.. runs at about $50.00 for one unit. It was worth the price to me though... I'm ready to set up the bait for the new mouse season coming up.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 2:15 PM

This is happening everywhere. Why I was just reading about the rat infestation they have over at the WhiteHouse.

It looks like some big fuckin' rat moved in a few years ago. A big stupid piece o' shit rat that likes to be called 'George' and can't pronounce 'nuclear' correctly for the life of him.

Posted by: Ben Dover at October 9, 2006 2:47 PM

I love you, Ben Dover!
We had some mice. I don't like killing anything, so I used peppermint oil and "fresh cab", which they don't like the smell of. Haven't seen 'em since. I don't know which did the trick, but I tried both because I wanted to cover all bases.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 2:58 PM

I LOVE my RatZapper!!

I don't even have to put bait in it. Just keep the batteries fresh and every so often the light is blinking! Pick up, turn off, dump dead mouse in plastic back, put back. Glue traps and snap traps...not for me!

Besides being clean and easy, it is also very humane - the mouse gets a zap and is dead in seconds.

Posted by: Marie at October 9, 2006 3:15 PM

Try using this:

http://www.critter-repellent.com/mice/how-to-get-rid-of-mice.php

This product (non-toxic and non-harmful to animals) plus two cats have kept my home 100% mouse-free, despite lots of construction on the block and the fact that my upstairs neighbors have been seeing mice in their apartment.

Posted by: gloworm at October 9, 2006 3:38 PM

I know mice create damage, have disease, are a nuisance, and there are plenty of them on the planet so they're hardly endangered, but I can't help it I'm SO sad about the use of glue traps. That is one of the most horrific images I can conjure up, is a little terrified mouse stuck in a glue trap. They don't just starve, they suffer real pain, in their fur as it's being pulled out, in their muscles and bones as those strain and break trying to pull loose. Just get a cat for goodness sake. I agree with those saying even cats who aren't mousers can keep away mice by their presence. Cat + putting out garbage every night + plugging holes = no mice. We live in NYC, we just have to accept we are going to live with more pests than they have in the suburbs.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 4:23 PM

Here is how to get rid of them i did. Put flour all over the floor from the wall to about 4 inches out . then you can track the movements. Now put glue traps every 3 to 4 feet. track there movements then plug the holes with steel wool and broken glass that will cut there throats. I know it is sad but if you have kids we don't want them getting infected. Now make sure to look on all glass windows for any urine stains, they will show up in a black light or if you look hard for them. Put the peanut butter on the glue traps. After plugging there should be no problem. don't like killing but i can't live with rats.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 5:19 PM

we have a great mouser. wanna borrow her?

and i agree with the anti-glue-trap contingent. i used glue traps years ago, in my pre-cat days, and found them to be much more trouble than they're worth. not to be too graphic, but the mice can get only partially stuck on them, and rip a limb off trying to escape. or they can just flip themselves over, in their desperate attempt to escape, and then you've got a half-dead mouse under a piece of cardboard, super-glued to your floor.

most of the time, even the smell of a resident cat (mouser or non-) will scare mice away. of course, nyc does attract the most aggressive members of all species...

Posted by: sylvia at October 9, 2006 5:29 PM

Forcing a mouse to slit it's throat? You can't be serious. Now that's extremely cruel. I'll pass on that "solution".

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 5:34 PM

Sylvia,
Where do you live? Anywhere near Clinton Hill? We might just take you up on your offer! Email us if you're serious. Anyone else in Clinton Hill with a good "mouser"?

Posted by: brownstoner at October 9, 2006 5:43 PM

I don't like the rat poison method. Your place ends up smelling like dead mouse for a week depending on where the little bugger finally decides to kick the can. You end up wasting more time searching for the location of the stench. If it's behind the walls, you just have to suffer through it.

And if you have carpet forget about it! One year a poisoned mouse died and decayed in a corner, on our plush carpet. One day we started noticing HUGE flies in the house (in the middle of winter). It took us a while to notice where they were coming from... fly larvae was breeding in the carpet where the mouse had decayed. What we saw was disgustingly shocking... at least 50 little black "holes" buried in the carpet waiting to hatch. We had to call an exterminator to kill the eggs and dig them out. I still shudder thinking about it.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 5:46 PM

Anonymous at 5.46 - you just took gross to a whole new level.

Browstoner - I'd loan you my Clinton Hill mouser, but I have a feeling the mice would just come back. I'd recommend adopting a cat, or kitten, from the pound - the kids will love it and the mice will run next door!

Posted by: Archiefina at October 9, 2006 6:04 PM

Here Here on the RATZAPPER. I have used this for 6 years and anytime there is a mouse, this device does the trick. To this day I am amazed at how good it works. This weekend cleaning up my yard I saw a mouse running around my Composter. I guess they like the heat in there. As long as he stays in there and not the house, God bless him.

Posted by: tom at October 9, 2006 6:40 PM

Those glue traps are so cruel - we used the clear platic traps that mice can get in, but not out of, and brought the mice back outside. Once we got a cat, we never had another mouse problem.

Posted by: anon at October 9, 2006 7:38 PM

Agree about the cruelty/disgustingness of glue traps. But does no one use snap traps anymore? Have used snap traps more times than I care to remember, and they have never failed to deliver an instant kill. Faster and less painful than poison, as well. And cats are not necessarily known for following the Geneva Conventions with their mousey prisoners. Though I guess if the cat scares the mice away altogether, that's ideal.

Posted by: linusvanpelt at October 9, 2006 9:09 PM

My husband is now a 100% believer in the cat idea to keep away mice. He'd never had a cat before until I moved in, and he said before, he was always the only one in our building with mice because every single other unit had a cat. Then when my cat arrived, no more mice. My husband also said at another place years ago he lived in, he never had mice and then someone moved in next door with a cat then he suddenly had mice. He assumed that happened because they were driven from the cat's apartment into his. SO, if you are someone without a cat and your neighbors do have cats, you're going to be getting the mice refugees from the other apartments.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 9:10 PM

I know I'm the only one, but I think the mouse in that photo is adorable. I had a pet mouse once, when I was young. It was far more intelligent than we'd think mice are, and it was truly affectionate and loving. He would chatter away at me, loved to be held and petted, never bit me, would come when I called him (when he was on the dining table while I cleaned his cage) and he loved music. He would get very calm and sit still, listening when I had music on.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 9:20 PM

So, 10/9 at 5:15 who uses glue traps and glass to cut the throats of mice, the very very very rare chance that your child would get bit by a shy mouse who is only going to hide from humans - is that more dreaded in your view, than your child learning to be cruel? That seems the kind of reasoning a parent really regrets when a teenager ends up in jail someday for assault or murder. Every single expert in the entire world agrees that teaching a child to love animals teaches them empathy for humans.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 9, 2006 9:30 PM

My ex-roommate and I invented something we termed "the mouse diving board." What you do is set a thin piece of carboard (which acts as a mouse ramp) against a garbage can - the can should be 2+ feet, or high enough that a wee mouse can't jump out. You run the carboard just to the lip of the open garbage can, and then fasten a piece of paper to the end, so that the paper hangs outward over the lip (a little like a diving board). You then put a small bit of cheese or peanut butter on the paper. The mouse runs up the ramp, goes for the food, and falls into the garbage can. You can then take your captive to the park or wherever else to release him. We caught three mice this way in about 2 days, and never saw another one. Good luck!

Posted by: squeaky clean at October 9, 2006 11:16 PM

I can't say enough about the Rat Zapper. I tried everything when i moved into my brownstone, including 2 different exterminators. You never have to see the dead mouse and they really go in there. I don't know why the mice avoided all my other traps - even with peanut butter - and forget about plugging all the holes. That is a waste of time if you have an old house with a yard and a basement. The other problem with plugging holes is that then they will dig new ones. When I plugged all the holes in my bedroom (their initial entry), i could hear them scratching and clawing in the walls for weeks until they made a new hole in!

Posted by: Lisa at October 10, 2006 10:11 AM

Hey, Rat Zapper users: Would you recommend buying several of them and installing them one on each floor? Can the Zapper handle more than one "entrant" at a time? My question is if the Zapper catches one mouse over night, does it mean that it's out of commission until I empty it? Please advise.

Posted by: Anon at October 10, 2006 3:49 PM

squeaky clean is a genius.

Posted by: smitty at October 10, 2006 11:33 PM

Anon 3:49 - the RatZapper zaps one mouse at a time... when a mouse has been caught, an indicator light comes on and the electric shock power is turned off. So you will need to check the zapper periodically to clear out and reset. If you have a large house/apt or alot of mice, I would recommend getting more than one unit. Since I'm dealing with a smaller space, I just move my single unit around to the various locations I notice droppings and that seems to work fine for me. I caught 5 last winter and didn't have any problems for the rest of the season after that.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 12:32 AM

I read this yesterday afternoon and was happy that I did not have to deal with mice...then I came home last night....and there the little bugger was! Damn it!

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 10:38 AM

Glue traps are extremely cruel. If you want to kill the mice, which is understandable, at least do it in a quick, humane way.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 13, 2006 11:56 PM

Where do you get the traps where you can then release them outside? (didn't quite follow the garbage can trick!)

Posted by: Anonymous at October 14, 2006 12:02 AM

Try this:

http://www.abundantearth.com/store/mousetrap1.html

While your house may not be big enough for your family and a growing population of resident mice, the world certainly is big enough for us all. Why not catch mice the humane way with our Humane Live "No Kill" Mouse Trap? Catch mice and then let them go, without snapping their backs or tortuously poisoning them. Snap traps and glue pads often leave mice in agonizing pain. Likewise, poisons have similar horrifying effects and will continue poisoning all animals, such as cats and birds, that catch and consume poisoned mice. Choose the humane way of dealing with mice. Choose the Humane Live "No Kill" Mouse Trap.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 14, 2006 12:07 AM

I really feel you because my mom and I ws scared and then when I got rid of the mouse we were relived. But remeber that the sticky traps (glue traps) with the seeds or corn on it that is the best on that works! The one with nothing on it that is just crap. NEVER GET THE ONE WITH NOTHING ON IT GET THE ONE WITH CORN OR SEEDS ON IT.

Posted by: guest at September 12, 2007 10:55 PM

Post a comment

Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.

Latest Restaurant Additions