OMG MICE!!!! Please help!

[Bella the Ball 360]

We had major construction on our home ending in August. Since then we have had mice. I am petrified! I have glue traps with peanut butter, and poison bait of several types all over the house. Yesterday I found droppings in my lazy suzan cabinet AND they had gotten into a bag of corn curls. My cabinets have no way they could have gotten in such as holes etc it is just that "SOMEONE" (read my teenage son ) left the door open. The construction guys used to leave my door open when they came in and out and I constantly had to tell them to CLOSE IT.

I AM having my kitchen renovated starting on Wednesday. I
I want to get rid of them before winter . I have to have more then one since I have found droppings in various places. I have had mice only once before.
I will be leaving a note for them to KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED> but that is like closing the barn door after the horse had gotten out!

Any sure fire ways to catch them. I do not want to hear "Have a Heart Traps" because frankly as far as mice are concerned...I don't have one.

I am afraid one might crawl on me in my sleep.

PLEASE HELP!

 

[barkley]

call a pest company. it's the most effective way to rid yourself of the immediate problem as well as to set up prevention to keep them out.

we live ruraly, and have neighbors with terrible mice problems (to the extent they've gotten into vehicals and chewed up wires). we on the otherhand use a pest company that comes out quarterly and sets bait stations (a couple outside on the perimeter of our home, 2 in our garage, 1 in the crawl space), and have not had an issue with the mice.

it's well worth it, esp. if you live in an area where there will be on-going construction-when other pcs. of property start getting built on it will disturb any mice or other critters that currently live there and they will go looking for a quieter home, namely yours.

 

[Ohiodislover]

Agreed--pest company

Until they can get there---borrow someone's cat for a few days. Just the smell of a cat roaming around helps.

To keep them off the counters, lay fabric softener sheets in the corners. They don't like the smell.

 

[barkley]

forgot to mention-BE VERY CAREFUL cleaning up mouse droppings, done incorrectly they can transmit the hantavirus. my pest company did the clean up for us in the couple of places we had found them, then gave us instructions on how to clean it up should we find any in the future (so far so good-none since the bait traps went in).

 

[KittyHellstrom]

I do not want to hear "Have a Heart Traps" because frankly as far as mice are concerned...I don't have one.

No love for Mickey and pals?

-Kitty

 

[indimom]

Just wanted to add this. I don't know what kind of construction you underwent. But, go around the house and look for ANY small openings. The mice may not have gotten in through a door, in which case they will continue to come in as the weather cools. You'll kill the couple you have, and just get more. Do a very thorough walk through outside and in, looking for any openings around pipes, ductwork, basement, crawlspace, vents, etc. The space does not have to be very big for them to squeeze in.
Construction is a prime time for mice to sneak into openings that are under construction, and everything may now be sealed up tight, but just do a double check.

Also, seal up ALL your food in tuperware, etc. This includes pet food. Leave NOTHING out for them to eat and they will be more likely to hit the baits/traps you set out. Put the traps near the spots you saw signs of mice, they will most likely return to the areas where they found food before.

 

[kellyg403]

Just wanted to add this. I don't know what kind of construction you underwent. But, go around the house and look for ANY small openings. The mice may not have gotten in through a door, in which case they will continue to come in as the weather cools. You'll kill the couple you have, and just get more. Do a very thorough walk through outside and in, looking for any openings around pipes, ductwork, basement, crawlspace, vents, etc. The space does not have to be very big for them to squeeze in.
Construction is a prime time for mice to sneak into openings that are under construction, and everything may now be sealed up tight, but just do a double check.

Also, seal up ALL your food in tuperware, etc. This includes pet food. Leave NOTHING out for them to eat and they will be more likely to hit the baits/traps you set out. Put the traps near the spots you saw signs of mice, they will most likely return to the areas where they found food before.

I agree with a looking for a good Pest company and in the meantime, looking for where they are coming in. We had a situation similar to yours years ago, I would find evidence of them, knew there was more than one and it DROVE me crazy with worry. Turns out they will return over and over again if they find a food source. In our case, we had a crawl space under the house, they found a spot in our laundry room where the previous owners had put in a drain with a cover that I never knew moved up and down. Those mice figured it out though and they would come in to the house thru there. We replaced that with a non moving part, the pest company went through the crawl space and found 3 nests, and removed those and finally we saw the light at the ned of the tunnel.

The funniest thing is the pest guy said one mouse goes looking for food to bring back to the nest. That is when they decide to eat in or stay home. For some reason, the whole thought of it cracked me up. I could just envision dad scouting out places to eat for dinner.

As another said, put everything in containers, don't leave out dog food and call an exterminator!

Kelly

 

[Renysmom]

We had mice issues for months, nothing we tried worked to get rid of them until I read on a wives tale site that mothballs will do the trick.

I figured why not, nothing else had. We placed mothballs behind all the appliances and in our pantry on the ground level (we placed them in a throw-away Tupperware container) and anywhere else where we had seen evidence. From that day forward, we never saw another mouse.

Try it when the weather will be good for a day or two as of course the mothballs smell when "fresh" for a few days and we just opened the windows. It was worth it!

 

[barkley]

We had mice issues for months, nothing we tried worked to get rid of them until I read on a wives tale site that mothballs will do the trick.

I figured why not, nothing else had. We placed mothballs behind all the appliances and in our pantry on the ground level (we placed them in a throw-away Tupperware container) and anywhere else where we had seen evidence. From that day forward, we never saw another mouse.

Try it when the weather will be good for a day or two as of course the mothballs smell when "fresh" for a few days and we just opened the windows. It was worth it!

you have to be REALY careful if you use this method. mothballs are highly toxic and can cause serious illness leading up to death. accidental injestion by kids or household pets has occured. absent kids/pets, if you overdue the application/have inadequate ventilation in the rooms you put them in, you can cause serious respiratory problems.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We had major construction on our home ending in August. Since then we have had mice. I am petrified! I have glue traps with peanut butter, and poison bait of several types all over the house. Yesterday I found droppings in my lazy suzan cabinet AND they had gotten into a bag of corn curls. My cabinets have no way they could have gotten in such as holes etc it is just that "SOMEONE" (read my teenage son ) left the door open. The construction guys used to leave my door open when they came in and out and I constantly had to tell them to CLOSE IT.

I AM having my kitchen renovated starting on Wednesday. I
I want to get rid of them before winter . I have to have more then one since I have found droppings in various places. I have had mice only once before.
I will be leaving a note for them to KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED> but that is like closing the barn door after the horse had gotten out!

Any sure fire ways to catch them. I do not want to hear "Have a Heart Traps" because frankly as far as mice are concerned...I don't have one.

I am afraid one might crawl on me in my sleep.

PLEASE HELP!

I just have to laugh because mice can squeeze into ANY spot. While I know you want to blame your teenage son for leaving the door open, it does not matter if the door is open or closed. They can get into anyway. So I am saying to cut your son a break.

Growing up we have a summer home and still do where mice is always a problem. Ick. Anyway, one yr we had a nest of mice in a locked fishing tackle box that was METAL. Mice can squeeze themselves down to get into nooks and crannies.

That being said, unless you know how to really get at them I suggest you hire someone.

If you don't want to do that you have to seal up ALL of your food. We use totes. You cannot leave food out for the mice to have access to it.

One of their favorite things right now is bedding. They will tear into your couchs, chairs, etc. to look for nesting materials.

You need to tear your place apart and look for the nests.

Here is one of the tricks we did in the summer home. Then again it was not well insulated so easy to do.

You turn off the lights in the house and someone with a flashlight goes around every nook and cranny to see where they are gaining access. Obviously someone is outside and if they see light coming through to the outside then you know it is an access point.

My experience with them in the kitchen is that you will need to empty all your cabinets where you are finding evidence to find out their "route". Unfortunately if they are in the cabinets, they are probably behind the walls in between the cabinets and the walls.

Box up all of your stuff and then put the traps down. You need to place them against the walls as they like to run next to them.

I do not recommend using poison pellets because if they eat them they can die in your walls.

A great trick that we use for capture is the Q-Tip method in a trap. Mice love bedding as much as they like food. Cut a Q-Tip in half and place the stick part in the trap. The mice will pull on the Q-Tip for bedding and then snap.

Mice suck. In this house we have gotten them in the garage. So far we just catch them by putting traps with no food along their route and have been successful.

 

[sms]

Fill all nooks and crannies with steel wool ( the stuff used to clean pots and pans with will work). They will not go thru this stuff. Set traps with peanut butter. Works every time. We have a field next to our house and every time they cut it down, the mice run here!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Fill all nooks and crannies with steel wool ( the stuff used to clean pots and pans with will work). They will not go thru this stuff. Set traps with peanut butter. Works every time. We have a field next to our house and every time they cut it down, the mice run here!

That is our issue too. Right now they have soybeans and they have not cut it yet....So far we have gotten them all from the garage. Fingers crossed because they are coming soon. Ick.

 

[Gigi22]

Do you have a cat? I highly recommend them as effective mouse control.

 

[minniecarousel]

31 years ago, we were living in a newly-constructed house and I was pregnant with our first son. We couldn't figure out how the mice were getting into the house! Turns out, they were squeezing into the house from the garage through the intake air vents. !!! We had mice everywhere! When they made their way to our bedroom, and my dresser, I freaked! Imagine a 7 months pregnant lady standing on the toilet seat screaming!

We placed steel wool around every pipe opening, and a screen window-type mesh behind every vent. My Mom felt so bad - she was making layette items for our baby and had bought some cute Mickey Mouse material and she just couldn't bring herself to use even "Mickey" mouse!

 

[MushyMushy]

Do you have a cat? I highly recommend them as effective mouse control.

The friends I have with cats have more critter problems than those without! The cats will bring in a live animal to play with and leave a horror movie of blood and gore around the house. They've found moles, mice, birds, bats, baby rabbits, etc. One of these women lives in town.

I say get a dog. Dogs will kill the critter and get rid of any evidence.

 

[barkley]

31 years ago, we were living in a newly-constructed house and I was pregnant with our first son. We couldn't figure out how the mice were getting into the house! Turns out, they were squeezing into the house from the garage through the intake air vents. !!! We had mice everywhere! When they made their way to our bedroom, and my dresser, I freaked! Imagine a 7 months pregnant lady standing on the toilet seat screaming!

We placed steel wool around every pipe opening, and a screen window-type mesh behind every vent. My Mom felt so bad - she was making layette items for our baby and had bought some cute Mickey Mouse material and she just couldn't bring herself to use even "Mickey" mouse!

our pest guy was showing us how mice get into many garages-the rubber tubing at the bottom of electric garage doors. he had us get down on our hands and knees then try to put our finger under the tubing-if our finger could get under the tubing so could a mouse. once they get inside an attached garage it's not difficult for them to find their way into your house.

 

[SandrA9810]

So what is the proper way to get rid of mouse droppings?? Especially if they've been living inside a china cabinet with serving ware??

Cats are only helpful if there's a few. Once they've made a nest in your home, they'll outwit the cat. Here and there a few will be unlucky, but it won't stop the rest that are in your house.

 

[shortbun]

OMG Cats!!!! I don't get the fear thing with mice. What's to be afraid of. Bring a cat in for a while. That's what our friends did when they had a big mouse problem and they've never seen another mouse.

 

[NYUBwayBaby]

Just to give you a warning about glue traps- they don't kill the mouse right away. Chances are you'll hear it squealing... My parents used one once while they were in college, and my dad ending up taking a hammer to the mouse to put it out of its misery. They also might tear off limbs trying to get out.....

 

[etoiles]

We also had mice that came in through the garage and then went up into the kitchen above and were crawling around our kitchen counters leaving droppings which was so gross!

We tried humane traps but they would just take the food out of it somehow and not get trapped. What we ended up getting is a device that you plug into an outlet which emits a high pitched frequency that only mice can hear. Now if the device always uses the same frequency the mice can get used to it. We made sure to get one that will automatically change the frequency every so often. Ever since we plugged that in we have had zero mice problems and we still have the device plugged in several years later.