Mouse in the House
Okay, so starting last week my roommate noticed some mouse droppings in her room. Last night she awoke to one scratching around in her waste paper basket. 2 large construction projects on the street have picked up steam as of late, which is what I assume is causing them to come into our house (we…
Okay, so starting last week my roommate noticed some mouse droppings in her room. Last night she awoke to one scratching around in her waste paper basket.
2 large construction projects on the street have picked up steam as of late, which is what I assume is causing them to come into our house (we keep the place very clean, with no food laying around)
Has anybody experienced this problem and can offer any suggestions on what we can do (other then calling an exterminator who will set traps)
I have a big problem with mice in the fall. When we import a cat (my wife is allergic), we always hear the people upstairs freaking out becaue the mice leave our place and go upstairs. When the cat leave, the mice always return.
Other than obtaining a cat, I would recommend two things. Keep bait in the basement or behind cabinets throughout the year. The active ingredient in the bait are blood thinners. Once the rodents eat this. They slow down and typically are get caught in the traps. Traps are essential becaue you don’t want to find dead critters on your kitchen floor or worse, rotting unaccessible under your radiator.
Buy a few traps. I stay away from the simple Victor traps which don’t work well. The best traps are called Snap-E. http://www.kness.com/Snap-E.html Mice can’t steal the bait. In addition,tHe plastic bar doesn’t leave bloody messes, plus you don’t have to touch the mouse. You can reuse the trap since it is made of plastic. Highly recommended.
If you do have the glue trap problem, put on gloves and drop the glue trap into a couple of plastic bags and tie the top. The mouse will suffocate. I feel like Hitler typing this.
I was having radiator pipe work done and as soon as the hole was left open in the floor we started getting waterbugs in that room. I put down glue boards to catch them and one night at 4am we were woken by the “screams” of a mouse caught on a board. My husband put it in a shoebox and ran it over with the car to kill it. It was just horrible. I couldn’t get the floors repaired fast enough and stuffed steel wool into ever crevice in the house I could find. That expanding foam in a can works good too to plug up holes.
Make things simple. Go to Amazon.com and buy a Ratzapper.
There is a lot written on this product on Brownstoner. It is a plastic box into which you put bait (little dry food pellet they give you). The bottom of the box is a metal plate, electrified by batteries. The mice die in there immediately so there is no squirming mice on glue paper or mouse traps or poison. You just throw them in the garbage. I catch the occasional mouse that way and it works. This is after looking for obvious entry points.
Agreed on the cleaning / filling of holes. For extermination, The Rat Zapper (around $50 at Pintchik’s) is far and away the most effective method I have found.
Very small mice can take the bait off of a mouse spring trap without setting it off. They have in my basement.
Heather,
I had a cat who peed on everything once, so I feel your pain. I loved him though so I was determined to figure out what the problem was. Tried every different kind of litter, extra boxes, nothing seemed to work. After a couple of years of living with plastic on my bed and sofa, I was at my wits end when it occurred to me that maybe he just didn’t like litter at all. I thought about what he peed on, which was generally any piece of clothing, towel, or fabric that somehow got left on the floor, ie, soft things. So on a whim, I bought those wee-wee pads that they sell in the pet store for puppies, and put one in a litter box. To my amazement, within a few minutes he went over to it, sussed it out, peed on it, and folded it up. The problem was finally solved, except I had to leave him two to three litter boxes with these things since once he did his origami they were useless, (and they aren’t as cheap as litter.) But after that, he never peed on anything else again. I told my vet this and she said she never heard of it before, neither did the guy in the pet store. But if you’re where you say you are, maybe its worth a shot.
By the way, I never ever saw a mouse anywhere that I lived, and I had neighbors who did. There was an article in the NYT a year or two ago that said the mice basically smell cats and won’t go near them, which is why all the bodegas have cats.
Good luck,
Jennnifer
Please take my maine coon that likes to pee on everything?
I know, such a sales pitch?
But, seriously, please take him. It has been eight years and every one of them I get closer to a nice trip to the vet.
FYI VEGETAble oil will unstick mice from glue traps. The glue trap is a horrible way to die!!!