Mice

[SM1992]

Massachusetts here....noticed them last year for the first time, had 3 or 4 get in the house, cats took care of them. I found (hopefully the only place) they were getting in and repaired it. So far so good, but it hasn't gotten too cold yet here.

 

[RUDisney]

I hope you can resolve your problem fully and quickly! --Get a cat! lol!

I'd get a cat in a heartbeat, but I have 3 birds. I had to pull a pet bird out of a cat's mouth once when I was a teenager. The cat was an outdoor cat that had gotten in without me knowing it. I heard the cage crash and was up and at the cat in seconds to save the bird.

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?

Several houses and businesses were torn down over the summer, about a block from our house. I had thought maybe that is why we have an insurgence now.

Do you or your neighbors have bird feeders outside?

No birdfeeders in any of my neighbors' yards, or in ours. The only birds being fed are in our house.

I'm going to check on an unltrasonic device.

Thank you all for commiserating with me.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

20 mice in 2 months?

 

[barkley]

Several houses and businesses were torn down over the summer, about a block from our house. I had thought maybe that is why we have an insurgence now.

that can absolutely be the cause as can be landscaping on your own/a neighboring home.

we live rural and i will say-we've seen an uptick in small critter births this year. not sure what the deal is but it is noticeable (some old timers say it indicates a harder winter approaching). we have a pest service that puts out bait stations around the perimeter of our home and in our garage (and inside the closet that houses our hot water heater and hvac inside the garage). i don't let them do anything inside the house b/c of our pets but that perimeter protection has served us well-within about 3 months of starting we saw massive reductions, now years into it we've not seen any evidence of mice in the house or garage (we don't sign up for a contract, just pay for the individual services b/c the winter service is worthless with all the snow-it offsets the individual service prices doing those 3x per year vs. the yearly contract which is 4x).

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

A mouse chewed through our dishwasher hose and electric cable recently. That killed it, but I HATE MICE! We never had them (or at least we didn't know it) until we had some work done on our walls and couldn't get into the kitchen for a week. Lo and behold I found a half eaten loaf of bread when we finally got back in and then we killed 7 of them in a week. Had nothing until a year later when suddenly they showed up under the kitchen sink (we had left traps and got two in the span of a month). I am not seeing ANY evidence of them these days (no poops on the floor or the counters) but then we had the dead one that chewed through the cable so...they're clearly still around. We had exterminators out but they can't figure out how they're getting in. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of them in the basement and they couldn't find any entry ways from the outside. I'm tempted to take the bottom out of the kitchen sink cabinet and see if I can figure out how they're getting in that way--they appear to be entirely localized to that area.

 

[mrodgers]

I live in a trailer, so yeah, I have an ongoing constant relationship with mice.

I'll open up the drawer for a spoon, nope. Dump it in the sink and scrub all the silverware and cooking utensils. I got a couple drawer liners and put them up in my upper cabinets and clean the drawers and leave them empty because washing all the silverware and utensils without a dishwasher isn't fun.

Then I get tired of reaching up above my head to put it away or to grab a fork or spoon so I go and reload the drawers again. Of course, after months of it all being in an upper cabinet and not seeing any evidence of mice, I start using the drawers and within a week, mice again.

Getting very depressing living like this.


Use to live way out in the country. Always had an outdoor cat. NEVER had mice problems.

 

[easyas123]

We will see signs of them this time of year as the fields (we live in a very rural area) are cut and the weather is starting to change. We have barn cats, but not cats up at the house. I've had mice set up housekeeping in a car I kept in the garage but didn't drive for long periods of time, they did a lot of damage so we try hard to make it a inhabitable place for them around here - as much as we can.

 

[disneyseniors]

OP we used to have a lot of mice getting into the house in the fall.

Now, we have NONE.

The only difference is that my brilliant husband made a fool proof mouse trap. I hope I describe it right.
He took a 5 gallon bucket and put a plexiglass "gang plank" on top which tips down when the mouse puts weight on it. He puts a rod in the middle of the plexiglass to mid way and when the mouse gets past the metal rod, the plexiglas flips down and down goes the mouse. The mouse falls into the water at the bottom of the bucket and can't get out. It drowns . Oh, I almost forgot, he puts a small plexiglas piece across from the plexiglas plank that they walk and puts peanut butter on it. They go after the peanut butter and the plank gives way and down they fall.
He keeps this bucket out in the garage and has caught many, many mice each year. He also said to check online for mouse traps. It's so nice not to have those nasty mice in the house anymore.
Good luck!

 

[RogueX]

When there were mice lurking around our yard it was because they were feasting in our compost bins. I swear, they were going from one to another like it was a buffet. My husband found 3 of them in one bin and they looked at him like "we're eating here, go away".

The rats on the other hand try to get closer to the house. We've got several large traps and have managed to catch several.

We have a dog who also thinks they are squeaky toys. She got ahold of one of the mice, made squeak and when it wouldn't move, she smacked it with her paw. Being that she's got monster sized paws, that mouse flew a good 2 feet.

 

[RUDisney]

My DD set more traps last night, after I went to bed. We caught 3 mice last night. One was trying to get onto our grey's cage, one was scared and jumped out of the cage and onto the trap and one was on the other side of the family room... probably heading toward the cage.

She asked me to remove them and we set new traps in those places.

I purchased 6 ultrasonic devices. We'll see how they work.

 

[kymom99]

When you set the traps, put them along the walls. Mice tend to run the perimeter of a room. My husband told me that when my mom had mice. My nephew sat a trap on a shelf where she found chewed up potato chip bags, but he sat it in the middle of the shelf. After a couple days of not catching anything, my husband went by and moved the trap against the back wall, and mom had a dead mouse the next morning. I had the honor of getting rid of it.

My husband found a hole in the wall where the old cistern came into the basement. He filled it with something and the mouse problem was solved.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

No mice at my house, but we have a carpenter ant infestation we can’t get rid of.

 

[Genie+]

No mice at my house, but we have a carpenter ant infestation we can’t get rid of.

Terro! Use extra caution if you have kids or pets. It’s mostly just boric acid (similar borax laundry additive) but still best to be careful. Tear off pieces of the cardboard box and squeeze a big drop on to it. Put it where your seeing ant traffic, off in a corner or window sill, somewhere out of the way but where they travel. After 4-12 hours they’ll all be circling around to drink the yummy juice. Resist squishing them. Let them bring it back to the nest. Keep refilling the circle as necessary. And if a bunch start coming, put out more circles of Terro. By 48 hrs carpenter ants usually done and gone. Definitely by 4 days. I’ve had sugar ants gone in under 12 hours. Terro causes ants gas but their physiology doesn’t allow for burping or farting. They die of a killer fart they just can’t pass.

 

[kymom99]

Terro! Use extra caution if you have kids or pets. It’s mostly just boric acid (similar borax laundry additive) but still best to be careful. Tear off pieces of the cardboard box and squeeze a big drop on to it. Put it where your seeing ant traffic, off in a corner or window sill, somewhere out of the way but where they travel. After 4-12 hours they’ll all be circling around to drink the yummy juice. Resist squishing them. Let them bring it back to the nest. Keep refilling the circle as necessary. And if a bunch start coming, put out more circles of Terro. By 48 hrs carpenter ants usually done and gone. Definitely by 4 days. I’ve had sugar ants gone in under 12 hours. Terro causes ants gas but their physiology doesn’t allow for burping or farting. They die of a killer fart they just can’t pass.
View attachment 711469

I second Terro for ants

 

[easyas123]

I second Terro for ants

Agreed- only thing we’ve found that works for ants.

 

[RedAngie]

About 20 years ago I had Hershey’s Kisses in a candy dish on the coffee table. They kept disappearing overnight. Both DDs and exH swear they weren’t taking them.

A few days later I discovered the foil wrappers on the floor of the closet in the laundry room. Along with some mouse droppings. Who knew mice loved chocolate?

 

[RUDisney]

About 20 years ago I had Hershey’s Kisses in a candy dish on the coffee table. They kept disappearing overnight. Both DDs and exH swear they weren’t taking them.

A few days later I discovered the foil wrappers on the floor of the closet in the laundry room. Along with some mouse droppings. Who knew mice loved chocolate?

Hopefully, they loved it and it killed them.

 

[tony67]

Terro! Use extra caution if you have kids or pets. It’s mostly just boric acid (similar borax laundry additive) but still best to be careful. Tear off pieces of the cardboard box and squeeze a big drop on to it. Put it where your seeing ant traffic, off in a corner or window sill, somewhere out of the way but where they travel. After 4-12 hours they’ll all be circling around to drink the yummy juice. Resist squishing them. Let them bring it back to the nest. Keep refilling the circle as necessary. And if a bunch start coming, put out more circles of Terro. By 48 hrs carpenter ants usually done and gone. Definitely by 4 days. I’ve had sugar ants gone in under 12 hours. Terro causes ants gas but their physiology doesn’t allow for burping or farting. They die of a killer fart they just can’t pass.
View attachment 711469

Yeah this stuff does work well - they also sell Ant Bait Stations so you don't have to worry about pets - I add some of this and some crushed chips around the outside of the house.

Also the electronic anti pest devices do seem to work - I did not think it was working and boxed it back up to send to amazon - later that day there was a stream of ants in the kitchen so I unboxed them and a bit later the ants were gone - I thought these things were a scam

 

[DeeBee3]

About 20 years ago I had Hershey’s Kisses in a candy dish on the coffee table. They kept disappearing overnight. Both DDs and exH swear they weren’t taking them.

A few days later I discovered the foil wrappers on the floor of the closet in the laundry room. Along with some mouse droppings. Who knew mice loved chocolate?

Similar thing happened to me. Foil everywhere! In fact they actually ate through the sealed bag of kisses.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

These were from a restaurant we were eating at this summer. I saw something shooting around underneath us. It came out from under the table behind us, ran across the walkway, then ran along an inside wall of tables where people were eating! One couple who had just arrived and saw it just got up and left. When I saw it I immediately I pulled my legs up on the seat and kept them there! We already had our food but couldn’t enjoy it much after that - me, especially.

It disappeared for a few minutes, and then came back pretty brazenly sitting and eating stuff off the floor! The waitstaff weren’t surprised. DH, who works with food, discreetly told our waiter he better tell the manager to call their pest company in right away. The waiter, who was embarrassed, said it was already being done, and sent the manager over to us (who commiserated with DH about it and gave us a $25 gift card).

Still haven’t gone back and that was one of our favorite restaurants. I’m no prima donna but that skeeved me out. Even the thought of them being around the food {shudders}.