Help! Mouse in the house!

[ems_mom]

I was just watching TV in the basement and saw a mouse jump off our carpeted basement steps and run towards the nearest wall - basically behind a dehumidifier and computer desk. Brave woman that I am I immediatly turned off the TV and ran upstairs.

We live in what's called the "greater metropolitan area" of an old east coast city. Our townhome was built in 1942, but has had many upgrades over the years as have our neighbors. We have great schools and a great neighborhood association. Thanks to them we may soon be designated a historical community worthy of preservation (stricter renovating standards and protection from commercial interests).

Love my neighbors and the community's goals are all well and good, but...mice! My home is neat and tidy, especially since our daughter flew the nest. We have a dog, a 15 lb. mixed breed that is more of a naper than a watchdog.

OK, so by most standards, our house is in a city, but boundry-wise it is not (important for insurance purposes). Our neighbors are teachers, lawyers, opera singers. I tell you this only because I think we are the only ones of our near neighbors that don't employ weekly cleaners.

So what am I doing wrong? My husband had put traps behind the stove (and caught a mouse) a couple years back. Do I let him "handle" it again or call in the proffessionals.

I cannot express how unerving it was to watch this mouse hop down my basement steps and run to the wall during prime time TV with all the lights on.

What would you do?

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

Peppermint Oil is supposed to keep them away.

 

[daisyduck123]

What would you do?

I would call Terminex and get them out to my house asap.....they're our regular exterminators who come out every three months anyway. (We don't have a pest/bug/rodent problem but just having them treat our house on a regular basis makes me feel better!)

 

[just4today]

I was just watching TV in the basement and saw a mouse jump off our carpeted basement steps and run towards the nearest wall - basically behind a dehumidifier and computer desk. Brave woman that I am I immediatly turned off the TV and ran upstairs.

We live in what's called the "greater metropolitan area" of an old east coast city. Our townhome was built in 1942, but has had many upgrades over the years as have our neighbors. We have great schools and a great neighborhood association. Thanks to them we may soon be designated a historical community worthy of preservation (stricter renovating standards and protection from commercial interests).

Love my neighbors and the community's goals are all well and good, but...mice! My home is neat and tidy, especially since our daughter flew the nest. We have a dog, a 15 lb. mixed breed that is more of a naper than a watchdog.

OK, so by most standards, our house is in a city, but boundry-wise it is not (important for insurance purposes). Our neighbors are teachers, lawyers, opera singers. I tell you this only because I think we are the only ones of our near neighbors that don't employ weekly cleaners.

So what am I doing wrong? My husband had put traps behind the stove (and caught a mouse) a couple years back. Do I let him "handle" it again or call in the proffessionals.

I cannot express how unerving it was to watch this mouse hop down my basement steps and run to the wall during prime time TV with all the lights on.

What would you do?

Sorry you were scared by a mouse. Do you really think mice care what you do for a living? Do they say "well, we'd better not bother this neighborhood because these people are all teachers, lawyers, and opera singers?"

Mice are everywhere, even in nice neighborhoods. They will seek out ways to get into any structure, especially when the temperatures start getting cooler at night. The thing to do is to plug up any entry points with steel wool. They dislike the texture and won't chew through it.

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

Mickey?!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I was just watching TV in the basement and saw a mouse jump off our carpeted basement steps and run towards the nearest wall - basically behind a dehumidifier and computer desk. Brave woman that I am I immediatly turned off the TV and ran upstairs.

We live in what's called the "greater metropolitan area" of an old east coast city. Our townhome was built in 1942, but has had many upgrades over the years as have our neighbors. We have great schools and a great neighborhood association. Thanks to them we may soon be designated a historical community worthy of preservation (stricter renovating standards and protection from commercial interests).

Love my neighbors and the community's goals are all well and good, but...mice! My home is neat and tidy, especially since our daughter flew the nest. We have a dog, a 15 lb. mixed breed that is more of a naper than a watchdog.

OK, so by most standards, our house is in a city, but boundry-wise it is not (important for insurance purposes). Our neighbors are teachers, lawyers, opera singers. I tell you this only because I think we are the only ones of our near neighbors that don't employ weekly cleaners.

So what am I doing wrong? My husband had put traps behind the stove (and caught a mouse) a couple years back. Do I let him "handle" it again or call in the proffessionals.

I cannot express how unerving it was to watch this mouse hop down my basement steps and run to the wall during prime time TV with all the lights on.

What would you do?

Mice and rats are a part of living with humans. It has nothing to do with the affluence of your neighbors or your lack of hiring a weekly cleaner.

If you want to hire someone, go for it. Esp. if you guys are kind of clueless about mice.

We are killing them like crazy in the garage here. They have not gotten in the house yet...

 

[MushyMushy]

Maybe you should send a news alert to the mice that your neighborhood is too good to mess with. Or maybe your opera singer can hit a high C and burst their eardrums. That'll show those mice!

 

[sunnyday123]

Mice and rats are a part of living with humans. It has nothing to do with the affluence of your neighbors or your lack of hiring a weekly cleaner.

If you want to hire someone, go for it. Esp. if you guys are kind of clueless about mice.

We are killing them like crazy in the garage here. They have not gotten in the house yet...

Mice aren't picky and I don't think having or not having a cleaning service has anything to do with having mice. Or your and your neighbor's choice of profession. Or where you live.

 

[DMickey28]

Obviously Mice don't care about affluence!!

Mice have become a regular occurance in my parents house this summer since we moved in with our two cats a few months ago!!

Now Chipmunks are a new scary occurance. My male cat walked in with one last week. I thought it was dead because it was just laying on the hall carpet so I ran my DS upstairs to his room, the dog to the bathroom and as I came back down the stairs he ran in front of me into the music room. We could not find him or get him out. That night the cat took care of it and left it in the hall for us to find ... nice huh?

ICK ...

 

[Realgrumpy]

Obviously Mice don't care about affluence!!

Guess he's just not that impressed.

 

[dizluvah]

A few weeks ago I discovered mice in our unfinished basement and I flipped out. I was grossed out; felt like it meant my house dirty (even though I know we aren't) and basically refuse to even open the door to the basement ever again.

Yes, I'm prone to over-reaction....my subsequent research taught me that it is not uncommon for mice to come in this time of year (as it the weather cools after summer - they come in for the warmth and also can come in for A/C during the hot months)

That being said - I drug hubby to the store for traps, gloves, face mask, disinfectant (some would say more overaction) - I sent him in the basement - we set traps - we killed four mice (over a couple of days) and now several weeks later - with several traps still set just in case - we seem to be mouse free.

Mice tend to "patrol" the same area and usually will come out at night/when lights are out - they tend to run along baseboards/close to the walls and if you move things around they will "investigate" changes to their area. So in our basement we moved some of the plastic tubs around and set traps knowing the mouse would circle around the tub since it was in a new place.

So all my rambling is to say - it happens - as others have suggested - you can call terminex and it will be their problem or you can work on fixing it yourself - I know if hubby wasn't here with me to deal with dead mice in the traps - I would not have done that myself.

You are not alone - I felt disgusted and horrified when I saw the mouse on my basement steps and I still feel a little sick at the thought of someday having to go back into the basement to get something out of storage. But eventually I'll get a backbone and just do it.

PS - we have a cat!!! Those darn mice are fearless

 

[SaraJayne]

Sorry you were scared by a mouse. Do you really think mice care what you do for a living? Do they say "well, we'd better not bother this neighborhood because these people are all teachers, lawyers, and opera singers?"

Mice are everywhere, even in nice neighborhoods. They will seek out ways to get into any structure, especially when the temperatures start getting cooler at night. The thing to do is to plug up any entry points with steel wool. They dislike the texture and won't chew through it.

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I need to vent over a mouse incident this weekend. We normally park in the garage, but DH went to Europe for a week and left his car in the driveway. He came home and went to run an errand, turned on the a/c and it made a horrible noise like the fan was stuck. Took car to the shop, turns out the whole a/c fan area was packed with a mouse nest! They chewed a hole though the air filter!

-Cost 2 hours labor with my mechanic plus air filter
-Car smells like dead mouse, even with the a/c fan off you can still smell it coming out the vents, we keep spraying the car with Yankee Candle odor eliminating air freshner (good thing it wasn't MY car-lol)
-Mechanic only found 5 (very dead) baby mice, I am afraid mama mouse is going to come back, eat another hole in air filter looking for her babies
-And they recommended new rear brakes, of course we did it while car was there. It was a budget busting weekend of over $400 at the mechanic. If it isn't one mouse sucking out all my money, it is another!

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

Our neighbor has never seen a mouse in their house. Recently they needed to move a ceiling tile in the basement and dog food dropped from the ceiling. They figure there is a mouse that keeps taking dog food! EEK!

 

[sandramaac]

Call a pro in to rid you of the mice. Problem is with traps you are only catching the ones on the move. You really need to have them put bait out. They then not only take the bait back to the nest and other neighboring mice, but they then go outside looking for water, and then die.

 

[starann]

We had a mouse once.....but never saw it...just it's...umm....droppings! I used to have mice as pets, so I wouldn't let my hubby do the neck snapping traps, he got a no kill one, put peanut putter in it and trapped the mouse on the 1st night. It was SO cute...it wasn't white or even grey, it was white with black spots.

DH took it to a field and old barn abotu a mile or so from the house. We haven't had another problem.....until now. I think we have another one, so we will get a no kill trap again and try it that way.

Our house is 110 years old, in very good shape but those wild things have had 110 years to figure out ways to get into our house! We are not dirty people either, it's just what happens when humans take over the natural habitat of animals.

 

[KerriSue]

Get a CAT!!!!

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

Get a CAT!!!!

One night my friend was sleeping and was woken up by her cat standing on her bed. It wanted to show her it's latest 'trophy'... a mouse that was still alive! She screamed, the cat dropped the mouse... it was a nightmare! LOL

 

[TheZue]

Get a CAT!!!!

That's what I was going to say. We had a hell of a rat problem in our neighbourhood a few years ago, like you'd see them in the day time, until I started letting our indoor cat out. She's just deadly and I haven't seen a rat or heard the neighbors talking about it in years.

 

[KAMKIM]

I hate this time of year because I know it is just a matter of time before I come home from work to find mouse parts throughout my house. I am a complete neat freak. My house couldn't get any cleaner and guess what THE MICE DONT CARE. I have put all food items in tupperware. But they eat the cats food - she returns the favor.

Seriously though, one day last winter I put my hand on our landing to yell upstairs and happen to look down....and saw a mouse head next to my pinkie. OMG OMG OMG DH flew down the stairs probably certain someone was being murdered in our home and took care of the mouse head.

I couldn't pet my cat for a month.