mouse proofing the house

[FoBoT]

mow the grass really short for the last mow of the season

this helps. a couple years ago i left it long over the winter, and the first time i mowed the next spring, i could see massive field mouse runs

 

[Jeff7]

Originally Posted by Oyeve
No poison, a couple of cats. When I was a teen in the early 80s I worked at a fish deli in NYC and we had to emaciated cats (25lbs each) and their job was literally to catch the mice and massive rats. No poison. Just big fat ghetto cats.

i think the word you're looking for is obese.

at the local stable, a barn cat lives there. fattest damn cat ive ever seen. Her only diet is mice.

Maybe they were adolescent pumas.

 

[Mill]

I had a major problem with mice around 2 years ago. First step was sealing up any entry point I could find. The second step was buying around 100 glue traps online for a very good price. Some people feel they are inhumane, and I'm a big animal lover, but that love does not extend to filthy creatures like mice.

I deployed around 10-15 glue traps a week, and I was catching a mouse almost every 4 hours. I would put a little bit of natural peanut butter on the center of the trap, or a little bit of a seed mixture. Believe it or not they started to wise up, so I then used a couple of bait blocks to finish off the rest. Yes, it is true that rat poison is a bit difficult because the mice will eat it and sometimes die in a place that is not easily accessible. Putting glue traps at any entry way (remember, a mouse can literally fit through a space the height of a card from a deck of cards) really helped out quite a bit.

It took around 3 months, but I haven't had a problem since. I could hear anytime a mouse was caught on a glue trap because they would start squealing. I kept a shovel around and would dispatch them with that whenever they were caught. Yes, it made me absolutely sick to my stomach to have to do so, but they carry a lot of diseases and figured out how to come up the stairs from the basement. They went into our pantry and behind our fridge. I couldn't tolerate that.

Glue traps work -- buy a reputable name brand na use a bit of natural peanut butter. It will take awhile, but that will solve your problems. I bought one of the electronic zap traps from Amazon, but it only works so-so. The glue traps have a much better success rate, and are quite cheap if you buy them in bulk. Also, they will catch insects and spiders as well. I caught a couple of brown recluses that way.

I still deploy a few traps from time to time every few months. Haven't caught anymore mice, but I still catch bugs and spiders.

I used the Catchmaster brand. You can also fold them over to create a tunnel like device or keep them flat. I used both methods, and both worked well.

http://www.pestcontrol-products.com/rodent/glueboards.htm

 

[PowerEngineer]

..Traps and poison don't really solve the problem. They just bandaid it. The trick is patching up where they're getting in. Mice can squeeze into some very tight places.

This!

The last thing I'd want to have is a poisoned mouse dying in hiding inside the house.

Check all the points where there are penetrations in your foundation, particularly around plumbing. Course steel wool is good for filling in voids.

 

[0roo0roo]

Mine kills and eats what she catches. She'll play with it for a while before killing it though.

Mice don't usually die right away after eating the poison so it is possible his cat could catch it before it dies. Another problem with poison is the mouse will go off somewhere, like inside your wall, and die then rot and stink up your house for a few weeks.

yea poison while easy is the worst idea. i used some once in the garage, i found the dead body in the back yard..they make it some ways before they die.

 

[Sluggo]

Spring traps and a cat solved all of our rodent problems.

Now for the problem of the cat...:hmm:

 

[Colt45]

Cat's don't usually eat dead animals do they? I've only ever seen them eat things they catch.

Warfarin takes a few days to kill things that it eat though. That's why it works on rodents, pretty much. Other rodents will identify what the dead ones ate, and stray from what they had, so it can't be a fast acting agent. Something like that IIRC, anyway.


As for OP, 4 cats should be all you need. Look for holes and patch them, poison is just ugly, as more mice will come in, eat, die, and you'll have a heap of stank dead mice.

 

[Rastus]

Cat's don't usually eat dead animals do they? I've only ever seen them eat things they catch.

I've seen cats that are generous and will share their kill with you. They will even leave the whole thing for you somwhere.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

just go out and buy touchpads and you wont need mice!

 

[bignateyk]

I deployed two of the electric traps in my garage last night and got a kill in one of them. I didn't have enough batteries for the other 3.

 

[glenn1]

There's no such thing as mouse-proofing (or any other kind of pest-proofing) a house; the best you can do is reduce their numbers. Even if you could somehow, your neighbor might well be the house the critters are using as their home base and you're just getting some of the spillover. If nothing else, you should get a professional pest control person to come to give you a spraying periodically, our guy comes quarterly and it's only $35 or $40 which is money well spent.

 

[BladeVenom]

Cat's don't usually eat dead animals do they? I've only ever seen them eat things they catch.

Once a mouse starts getting sick from poison, they are the easiest to catch. You poison the mice, you're also poising the nearby predators. The mice population will replace itself faster than the predators.

 

[ichy]

The best thing you can do is eliminate food sources. I had my mouse issues well-controlled by simply making sure that all of the food in my house was in the fridge or in mouse proof containers.

 

[highland145]

The best thing you can do is eliminate food sources. I had my mouse issues well-controlled by simply making sure that all of the food in my house was in the fridge or in mouse proof containers.

Agree however the rats that took up residence under my house were eating acorns.😕 Never head of such but they had little piles of half eaten ones laying around.

 

[bignateyk]

Agree however the rats that took up residence under my house were eating acorns.😕 Never head of such but they had little piles of half eaten ones laying around.

Food is one draw, but heat is a bigger draw. When it starts to cool down in the fall they come in hoards looking for a warm place for the winter.

 

[highland145]

Food is one draw, but heat is a bigger draw. When it starts to cool down in the fall they come in hoards looking for a warm place for the winter.

Yep. They really liked my new floor insulation to nest in. Bastards.

 

[feralkid]

(remember, a mouse can literally fit through a space the height of a card from a deck of cards)

Please elaborate.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

another mouse down! good ol cats!

 

[bignateyk]

another mouse down! good ol cats!

My two electronic traps have caught about 10 mice over the last couple days.

 

[highland145]

My two electronic traps have caught about 10 mice over the last couple days.

Woot. Enough for a shish kebab.

 

[Jeff7]

44 replies and no mention of air conditioners, vents, or ducts.

It's beef with no bulk.
A plane without a treadmill.
A mouse, un-air-conditioned.
A free-verse pome, without brianmanahan