So, I have mice.
I don’t know how many, I just know this: they are fat, and they are BRAZEN. They saunter across my living room, in front of the cat and the dog, with no regard whatsoever for either of them. In fact, they’ve been known to pause,
tauntingly, in the middle of the room and look at the humans in my house as if daring us to give chase.
We’ve tried traps. We’ve tried exterminators. Yet they persist, the little bastards.
When I was younger, I had LOTS of cats. I worked as a veterinary technician for over eight years, which meant that I collected cats. I had strays, cats that were abandoned at the hospital by creepy owners, kittens I fostered from a couple days old because their mothers had died.
At the top count, I had nine cats. Since I was only in my twenties, I didn’t quite come off as a crazy cat lady, but I was. My house stunk to high heaven, too, thanks to a couple of cats that didn’t use the litterpan quite as instructed.
But I didn’t have any fucking mice.
I know that the cat doesn’t chase the mice because she’s very old, very tired, and can’t really see or smell very well. I don’t know why the dog doesn’t care, it must not be in her DNA, although she’s prone to chasing chipmunks when we hike.
Sadly, the cat is scheduled to be put down thanks to kidney failure. My mom is moving in with us and she’s allergic to cats, so we won’t be getting another one.
So how in the hell are we going to get rid of these mice?
About Cecily Kellogg
Puppy? Even if a puppy doesn’t actually catch any mice it would scare the confidence out of them …
I have three cats and a dog and the last time that one cat kindly brought a live shrew into the kitchen as a gift it was the dog that finally caught the poor little thing – at 3am in the morning with all four animals stationed around the fridge that had been pulled out into the middle of the kitchen floor ….
We nearly had a rerun this week, with a visiting dog adding to the cast and a live swallow almost being released in the doorway of my walk in larder … same cat as before …. luckily I caught her and threw her and her unwanted gift out of the back door! LOL!
Helen
The blue death poison works really well but, the problem with it is that sometimes the little critters die in the wall or some other place you can’t get to without demolishing your house. I don’t know what’s worse the smell of a dead mouse or a live one that stares back at you. The cat’s really are the best solution, but doesn’t appear you can go that route. Maybe the Navy Seals could help you out, they just killed the biggest rat ever! lol Good Luck getting the little bast****!
*shudder*
We had mice once. I moved in with my mother for two weeks.
And then we got a cat.
I’d get another cat and make your mom take allergy shots, but I *really* don’t like mice.
Twitter Name: missbritt
Why not borrow a cat or two before your mom comes to live with you?
Twitter Name: toywithme
What kind of traps are using, and what bait have you put in the traps? I didn’t have luck with them until I used pieces of York peppermint patties in those super-sticky traps. It’s not the most humane way, unfortunately, but I was at wit’s end – living in an old house in the middle of the woods – and it did the trick. Good luck!!
Twitter Name: sarahmorgan
The answer is obvious, you’re just going to have to train your Mum to be a mouse catcher. I hope it works out for you.
Twitter Name: penbleth
Hi! I have them and also know where they are coming from but don’t know how they’re getting in, ugggggg sooooo frustrating!
The only way, after trying EVERYTHING even as far as the string with peanut butter across a bucket of soapy water…. never worked lol, and spending LOTS of money is, believe it or not, those cheap little sticky traps, with a little peanut butter on it in the middle. I’m definately keeping the population down haha! I’m not sure how humane it is and I do feel bad but at this point “it’s them or me” They carry disease and that’s how I have to think when I find these little creatures…. it does work every time though, and so I don’t have to look at them I put a small paper cup over the mouse and the trap, then put in a bucket of soapy water and throw out the next day… if you don’t do this and they get loose somehow they will find their way back in….. Good Luck! Sandy PS by the way your tweets are hysterical :)
Steel wool in any holes/cracks (they don’t need a very big space, so even those little ones by baseboard joints get stuffed)
I’ve found peanut butter on traps attracts more than cheese (my theory is the aroma)
Pet food in plastic containers helps avoid attracting them.
And if all else fails, poison them (I don’t like resorting to that either, but…)
Twitter Name: thepsychobabble
I second the steel wool (and in every little nook and cranny. We had them coming in around the water pipe, and in a crack under the front door at our cottage.
Also, the only traps that ever worked for us were called the better mouse trap – white, plastic and they really were – set them up with the jaws open against the wall in a path the mouse normally runs in.
Good luck – uuugh
Twitter Name: therealneeroc
Funniest call I ever made was when I discovered mice in my house. Called the pest control company and when I told the receptionist I had mice, she said “Eeeewwww. That’s disgusting.” Really? Shouldn’t that be the one “safe place” for you to talk about your rodent problem? Like therapy? LOL
Twitter Name: quirkout
I feel your pain! We have RATS! in our house!! They’re chewing holes in the plastic bin that stores our dog food. We bought an electric trap and it has caught several but we have them again and they’re just not going in the trap! It’s getting really bad! They’re leaving really large rat droppings and I’m SOOOOOOO grossed out! I’m getting a cat ASAP!
I second the sticky paper and peanut butter. We also put some kind of special poisoned wheat in our garage (where the kids and pets don’t go). Kills em good.
Twitter Name: lucynamackay
We’ve had the same problem for awhile. Tried traps, poison, everything. We rent and aren’t supposed to have pets, but I said screw that, we’ve been great tenants for years and on New Years went and got a rescued cat.
NO MICE SINCE THEN. If they’re still around they don’t dare come in the house that’s for freaking sure.
Sorry I know it’s not much help.
Trap.
Peanut Butter.
Placed in brown paper bag.
Snap.
Dead.
Roll up blood and guts.
Bu-bye.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
Go to the Walmarts or the fancy Targets that you have south of the 49th, and find something called “humane traps”. I think they run around $1.39 each (Canadian) (plus tax). Shove some peanut butter in them, stick them in kind of a sheltered area (open, mind you, so the mouse can get in). Collect trap next morning, take outside, open and let mouse out.
Note: the order of the last three steps is very important.
In the meantime, store all of your cat/dog food and other non perishables in glass. They can chew through tupperware.
Twitter Name: Nicole013
what you described about the mouse is the exact same experience I had for years…very brazen. then at home depot a worker told me to try steel wool in the all the cracks and voila! no more mice and i’m saving a small fortune not having to buy sticky traps, poison, and peanut butter. Try it!!
It was very hard for me to read this post as you posted that picture of a mouse right THERE. We have an exterminator, “Nature’s Way.” George comes every 3 months and not only baits for mice but sprays for all bugs,ants, spiders and icky things that like to reside with us in the summer. He’s placed baits at all points of entry. Mice eat the bait and then they leave (luckily they hit the ones in the garage first lately). They start to feel kind of icky, like maybe they had one too many jagermeister shots and then they make their way back outside to their natural habitat where they….expire. On the downside, I am now afraid to weed the gardens or rake the lawn for finding a dead mouse. Yes, they creep me out that much. But I have not seen one cross the living room in 3 years and the degree of droppings in my silverware has seriously diminished. Little shits.
Twitter Name: HeatherSchiavo
Oh, Cecily… I feel your pain!
We’ve had mice twice — once in our old apartment and once here in our new (old) house. The only way to get rid of them really (without getting a cat) is figure out where they’re getting in and fill those holes. Have you done any work on the house lately? Plumbing? Electrical? If so, start wherever that work took place — there’s likely a small hole that didn’t get filled back in. As another commenter said, mice need just the tiniest space to get into your house — they can flatten themselves out to almost nothing!
As several people have already suggested, buy a giant bag of steel wool and put it in every crevice and crack you can find (under the baseboards, etc.). My husband also used flame-resistant spray foam to fill spaces around pipes and by baseboard radiators. Full disclosure, though: it’s UGLY. It’s orange and gets all over everything, so you have to use it carefully and only in places where you don’t care about how it looks.
It might take you a while to find the spaces where the mice are getting in, but once you do, the mice will eventually disappear.
In the meantime, you have my sympathy. It took me months to be willing to open our pantry closet, even after we hadn’t seen a mouse for a while. BLECH!
Good luck!
We had mice last year, and those little buggers were GOOD. We baited plain, old-fashioned traps with peanut butter, and those little stinkers had a light enough touch that they could have themselves a little snack without tripping the jaws of death. My husband came up with the solution — he super-glued a piece of dog food to each of the traps. Worked like a charm.
C-
My husband is an ex-exterminator! The best method to dispose of mouse is two options. Glue mouse traps or mouse bait you buy over the counter. The mouse poison over the counter is a wonder poison. The mouse eat it and store it and take it back to their little mouse family and then it kills them all.
The response above about finding the open holes they little buggers are coming in through is also a good idea. Putting the steel wool inside those holes will also detur them from coming in your home.
I am sorry you have to put your cat down.
UGH, I am so sorry. A few weeks ago I freaked out when a mouse climbed up my arm as I reached into the bag of cat food……………I guess I should probably invest in glass containers for pet food too. I haven’t seen a mouse since, but I don’t doubt they’re still around. Pearl saw one in the living room once. Yuck. Meese are just nasty. I have no helpful advice but I do feel your pain.
D-Con works, but since one of my dogs found some and ate it I wont use it. It was hidden behind the washer and she still got it. One middle of the night Vet run cured me.
I have a mouse in my garage right now. I keep setting traps and it only eat the peanutbutter but doesnt set off the trap. I am going to borrow a Tiger! :)
Don’t get poison. Either your dog or your kid will get to it, and you don’t need that.
The old fashioned 50 cent snap traps work, if you don’t mind handling them. They also make versions of that trap with covers over them, so the mice have to crawl inside, and it’s harder for them to steal the bait. Plus, you don’t have to handle the actual mouse, and they are reusable.
Best baits are (as others have mentioned) peanut butter and peppermint patties (or Junior Mints), but you really have to stick them to the traps really well. Flavored pipe tobacco also works well.
after much experimenting with different traps and baits we found that the old fashion snap traps work best with crunchy peanut butter. we went through an entire jar of creamy peanut butter at work last winter and never caught a single mouse. switched to chunky and caught 15 in 4 days. i was so happy to not need to sanitise my desk evey day anymore once they were gone.
We had mice and my son is deathly allergic to them. We ended up using a trap that electrocutes them and we killed about 40 in a week. You could tell we were getting the whole community because the last one was a tiny dinky one. Home depot sells them and it’s nice because the animals don’t get hurt or poisoned or stuck to them. But, dude, good luck. The rats outside at my house are a whole different story.