Mice

[RUDisney]

I've lived in my house for over 28 years. At only one other time, 2 years ago, have we seen any evidence of mice in our house. Weird, don't you think?

This year, however, is like all of the mice got together and said, "let's set up camp at RUDisney's house." I've caught more than 20 of them since the end of August.

I was talking to my neighbors, my parents and a number of strangers over the weekend, and everyone seems to be having the same issue. My parents have caught 13 mice in the past couple weeks, and my neighbors have caught several... only one has had as more than me. She called Terminix when she found one that had jumped into her refrigerator when it was open!

One woman told me that her DS in Washington, DC, has been overrun with them this year, too.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Have you read anything about an over abundance of mice this year?

When I was away for 2 weeks in September, my DS and DH did nothing about the droppings, though they caught several. My house stunk when I got home and I immediately got to cleaning. I spread baking soda on the hardwood in the pantry after sweeping and mopping and then I used a pet rug cleaner to absorb the rest of the scent. Thankfully, it worked. I have stuffed steel wool into every hole that I could find and we are cleaning the birds' cages every day instead of every 2-3 days. My DD found a mouse in the bottom of my grey's cage when we allowed food to remain on the floor of it overnight. No more!

I have everything that isn't in a glass or can in my pantry stored in plastic bins with weights on top of them.

We are on high alert and doing everything that we can think to do.

If you have any further recommendations, we are happy to accept them. They need to be eradicated from my house! I've heard that they don't like peppermint, but I have to research if it is bad to run the essential oil diffusers around the birds, even from another room.

Thank you for reading this far.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Our house is 170+ and we get mice often. Haven’t seen any yet this year but we keep poison in the basement and a few traps upstairs with peanut butter as bait.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Nope, but I've pretty much always had cats as an adult. And never had mice even when my neighbors had them. The mice find better real estate than here.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

When we had a mouse problem we brought in an exterminator. He said the ones you see are the “brave” ones, and that there are many more behind them that you don’t see. Ugh! They placed bait in places they were likely to be coming in, and that took care of the problem, as they get it and bring it back to the nest, I guess. It’s also super important to get rid of the food sources (as it sounds you have done, except for the bird food in the cage?), as that’s why they’re coming in. This seemed to be more of a problem when my mother lived with us, as she kept some cereal boxes in closets and such. We haven’t seen much, if any, activity in her place since that type of thing has been eliminated. We did have one tiny one a couple of years ago who kept running across our kitchen floor every evening, when the lights were dimmed. It freaked out our terrier so much so that he would be obsessed all evening just waiting for it, lol. The traps we find the best (and most humane) are these ones, I believe you can get them at Lowe’s. Good luck!

 

[lynxstch]

Western Maryland here. We have lived in this house (older house), for over 20 years, and have never seen a mouse. We do have cats, though, but how can mice know that before they start invading? My sister in law lives in WV and even though she has 8 cats, she has had a mouse problem several times. She has found them in her pantry, in the bottom drawer of her stove, and in her bedroom..eek!
I hope you can resolve your problem fully and quickly! --Get a cat! lol!

 

[goofyernmost]

I only takes two mice and before you know you have a whole mob of them. If you have seen one, there are usually many more.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I've lived in my house for over 28 years. At only one other time, 2 years ago, have we seen any evidence of mice in our house. Weird, don't you think?

This year, however, is like all of the mice got together and said, "let's set up camp at RUDisney's house." I've caught more than 20 of them since the end of August

I have cats, but we did see one once in our old house. (The kitty eventually caught it. - So proud of herself!)

My DS had a problem at his college rental last year, though. They used traps, but a neighbor told them it was likely due to some construction nearby. Is there anything going on near you that might have disturbed them and sent them looking for a new home?

 

[mumto3girls]

My oldest DD lives in an older rented house at college. She’s been battling mice for a few weeks there. Had the same house last year with no issues.

 

[tony67]

As I understand it mice (and rats) are a bigger problem than they were pre-pandemic - because of all the closed restaurants and the related lack of food sources. So like the folks living in cities they moved to the suburbs
That may explain the increase you are seeing.

I had a similar issue with my garden - they basically ravaged most of it this year - never had an issue before.
I have two cats indoors - but that does not keep them away and I get them occasionally.
We used to have an older outdoor cat but he is no longer with us - that was about 3 years ago.

I'd like to get another outdoor cat - but you cant really get them in my area anymore - you have to agree to not let the cat out at all or you cant adopt them - even though we have a nice setup for it and took good care of it.

Anyway - I baited them outside putting a few Tomcat Rat and Mouse Killer Disposable Stations around and that seems to have helped. Just be aware they may die in your walls and you have to deal with the smell for a period of time if they get in.

Also - if you catch them alive - make sure you take them very far away before releasing them - at least 2-3 miles or they may come back

 

[mjkacmom]

My oldest DD lives in an older rented house at college. She’s been battling mice for a few weeks there. Had the same house last year with no issues.

My daughter is renting in Boston, apartment, one of her roommates has a cat who doesn’t help. The rats in Boston are huge and brazen but so far just the mice.

 

[Mysterian]

I only takes two mice and before you know you have a whole mob of them. If you have seen one, there are usually many more.

I saw a couple of mice, myself. There was a duck, a dog, and ... I don't know what hanging out with them. Unacceptable!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The townhouse my DS lived in for a year in college was loaded with mice. (And it was super nice, too.) They would be in his room while he was sleeping, so he couldn’t stand it! The management company brought exterminators in, but the people who lived right next door (attached) would not allow anyone to come in their house to treat it, so it was hard to get a fix. We should’ve known when we first visited the empty house before they moved in and the aforementioned terrier was going crazy sniffing along the walls!

I had never really experienced mice (that I knew of) growing up. So when we got some in our second apartment, DH set traps, and we went to bed. It freaked me out to hear a bunch of snaps happening almost right away in our kitchen, there had to be a dozen! Was very glad to get out of there.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My daughter is renting in Boston, apartment, one of her roommates has a cat who doesn’t help. The rats in Boston are huge and brazen but so far just the mice.

This made me think of something and chuckle. As a college student I got my first job at a very old hospital in Boston. Most of the old hospitals have basements and several layers of “sub-basements” that go pretty far down (and many have tunnels, too). For some reason I had to go down to a storage room in one of the sub-basements with a pharmacist, probably to get something. He opened the door and turned on the light and something ran by us that was big. I didn’t know what it was, and startled. He said, “Watch out, that one will pick you up and carry you away”. It was a rat. Another time, in my very first clinical, our group was being led on a tour through one of the sub-basement tunnels, and we had to walk around a dead rat. I kid you not! Yikes!

 

[lanejudy]

I have not seen mice in our house, but we have heard them in the walls a couple of times (years apart - about 12 yrs ago and this past summer). Each time, we installed ultrasonic pest repeller things that plug into your outlets and I swear they work great!

 

[DeeBee3]

In 3 different houses, always have had mice when weather turns cool. Living in suburban/semi-rural area however. Most people I know around me have mice. We set traps and keep guard. Nothing else to do.

Definitely NO rats around here.

 

[BrianL]

Get a cat. Honestly, the cat doesn't even have to do anything - the mice will likely just stay away. My old cat wouldn't have chased a mouse if it was eating out of his bowl (think a Garfield type cat), but they just didn't come around. My current cat would likely catch them, but there are never any here. The cat is a nautural deterrent - they are also wonderful!

 

[amcnj]

Over the decades I had mice try and overwinter in the garages of two different homes a few times. The last time was years ago now though. For that I just used regular old mouse traps with peanut butter. Though one once must have eaten something in the garage that killed it. My guess was fertilizer as that bag had been chewed but I really don’t know for sure.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Do you or your neighbors have bird feeders outside? I think a lot of people started feeding the birds in the pandemic and that's why we are seeing a suburban mouse population explosion. My grandma has lived in the same house since 1970 and has only had a mouse issue twice, this year being the second time. She just had a new neighbor move in who has at least 8 bird feeders in their backyard, right on the property line. My grandma is too kind hearted to let me put out poison outside but I can't figure out where they are coming in so it's super frustrating!

 

[Buzz Rules]

I wonder if French suburbs are seeing an increase too?

 

[mrs. magoo]

We have battled mice for years and rats one time when the abandoned house across the street was bought and flipped. I did hire an exterminator for the rats and he told me that I needed to remove all the vegetation around my foundation and used steel wool for any opening and then covered over with great stuff foam seal. It took 2 months but we finally caught all the rats and did find the way they were getting in. They had chewed a hole in the drywall in the garage to access a crawl space. The mice no matter what I do I can not get rid of them. They are sneaky little things. I will not use poison since we have outdoor cats in the neighborhood and my hound dog will pick up dead animals all the time.