Hi, Danni. Mice! OH, my. What kind are they? Field mice (brown ones) or the garden-variety grey ones? Construction will do it. They also seem to get into walls or the couches. I remember my GM used to get a lot of mice, and occasionally, rats (!) from the construction work behind the house. She set out traps, and then used borax and eucalyptis oil mixed with water in a spray container, to spray around the windows and baseboards. Then, she would get bay leaves, also, and put those out. She had a ton of ants, and this seemed to work. The cat would get the rest of the mice. But, she had to clean out all the cupboards, and throw out rice, corn meal, flour, spices, etc. I cant remember what she used as bait in the traps, but it seemed to work. Good luck to you. If this doesnt work, get a cat. Since we have had the cats, no mice. Whiz.
I just wanted to write and tell you that you aren't alone with this problem. Last fall we had rats (yuck!) get into our attic space. We had a terminator come and set traps and thought we'd got them, only to have them come back within a week. We ended up needing to trim back our bushes and even cut down a tree that was touching the house as well as try to seal up holes up on the roofline in order to come them out of the attic (it has worked so far). Then we had little mice getting in our house, which our cat would bring to us (she is an indoor-only cat, so these were indoor mice). That was so icky! Sometimes we'd have the rats in too - aah! We even chased one around the whole house for literally 2 hours until my husband caught it under a box - that was so traumatic!! We ended up getting Terminix to come and set up a yearly program with them ($275 a year), in which them come out for sure every 3 months to set traps and poison bait boxes (only outside, felt nervous about that too because of our cat but think we've sealed them out now), and they also will come out other times (for "free") if we need more help than that (which we did initially). I found this was a better deal than some of the other companies that were going to charge us $250 just to come out for 2 weeks of service and then would charge $50 for any additional visits.
Anyway, my tips to you (what I learned).... Don't leave pet food out, especially at night (I saw one of the "visitors" at the cat food dish). So now I put the cat's food dish in the fridge around 6 pm (dusk) every night and then put it out again in the morning. Of course this is kind of a pain because she gets hungry later in the evening too, but then she just meows and I get it for her (and put it back in when she is done). :) I know you have a dog, and maybe you already only feed him/her at a scheduled time? I just would make sure to not leave the dog food out. Some advice I read was to never just leave it out at all, I have modified this to leave it out only in the day (probably better to never leave it out though). Also we found our mice were getting in around the pipe areas - from under the kitchen sink and under our bathroom sink. We sealed around those with 1/4 inch wire mesh. They were also getting in from a hole by our dryer vent. I would just check for gaps/holes around pipes that lead to the outside. My husband sealed these up with wire mesh and some foam stuff - it seems to be working so far. Another point of entry was where one of our walls has had water damage - I think they can maybe smell the rotting wood and can easily chew it? Anyway, I know they got into the walls this way.. So you might want to make sure you don't have any leaks or drips that might be causing water damage and rotten wood somewhere. I heard somewhere that they can get into a hole as small as a pencil, so that is pretty small really...
Okay, those are my thoughts (I might be wrong on some of my information)... but I just don't want you to feel alone (I did!). I really try to have a nice, clean, organized house, so it was so depressing to have this problem. I too think it isn't an indicator of how clean you are, it is just in the mice's nature to try to seek out shelter. And if they have been displaced by something, then they makes them more likely to come to your house.
Hang in there!! It will get better! It actually has for us, and I am finally feeling much more comfortable and safer in my home...
We had lots of mice last year. But lucky for me and for you, my sister is an expert on catching mice.
You will need:
snap mouse traps peanut butter shoe box
cut a small hole in the side of the shoe box. Large enough for the mouse to get in but small enough so the mouse cannot get out when stuck to the snap trap. Place peanut butter on the trap and on the bottom - a really good amount and set the trap.
My sister also recommends trying to find where the mice are coming in at and fix the hole or place brillo type mesh over the area.
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Thankfully, I'm not in an area with fire ants!
Becky
CL of 4th, 5th & 6th grade Scoliosis
Hi Danni,
I just wanted to write and tell you that you aren't alone with this problem. Last fall we had rats (yuck!) get into our attic space. We had a terminator come and set traps and thought we'd got them, only to have them come back within a week. We ended up needing to trim back our bushes and even cut down a tree that was touching the house as well as try to seal up holes up on the roofline in order to come them out of the attic (it has worked so far). Then we had little mice getting in our house, which our cat would bring to us (she is an indoor-only cat, so these were indoor mice). That was so icky! Sometimes we'd have the rats in too - aah! We even chased one around the whole house for literally 2 hours until my husband caught it under a box - that was so traumatic!! We ended up getting Terminix to come and set up a yearly program with them ($275 a year), in which them come out for sure every 3 months to set traps and poison bait boxes (only outside, felt nervous about that too because of our cat but think we've sealed them out now), and they also will come out other times (for "free") if we need more help than that (which we did initially). I found this was a better deal than some of the other companies that were going to charge us $250 just to come out for 2 weeks of service and then would charge $50 for any additional visits.
Anyway, my tips to you (what I learned).... Don't leave pet food out, especially at night (I saw one of the "visitors" at the cat food dish). So now I put the cat's food dish in the fridge around 6 pm (dusk) every night and then put it out again in the morning. Of course this is kind of a pain because she gets hungry later in the evening too, but then she just meows and I get it for her (and put it back in when she is done). :) I know you have a dog, and maybe you already only feed him/her at a scheduled time? I just would make sure to not leave the dog food out. Some advice I read was to never just leave it out at all, I have modified this to leave it out only in the day (probably better to never leave it out though). Also we found our mice were getting in around the pipe areas - from under the kitchen sink and under our bathroom sink. We sealed around those with 1/4 inch wire mesh. They were also getting in from a hole by our dryer vent. I would just check for gaps/holes around pipes that lead to the outside. My husband sealed these up with wire mesh and some foam stuff - it seems to be working so far. Another point of entry was where one of our walls has had water damage - I think they can maybe smell the rotting wood and can easily chew it? Anyway, I know they got into the walls this way.. So you might want to make sure you don't have any leaks or drips that might be causing water damage and rotten wood somewhere. I heard somewhere that they can get into a hole as small as a pencil, so that is pretty small really...
Okay, those are my thoughts (I might be wrong on some of my information)... but I just don't want you to feel alone (I did!). I really try to have a nice, clean, organized house, so it was so depressing to have this problem. I too think it isn't an indicator of how clean you are, it is just in the mice's nature to try to seek out shelter. And if they have been displaced by something, then they makes them more likely to come to your house.
Hang in there!! It will get better! It actually has for us, and I am finally feeling much more comfortable and safer in my home...
Take care, Sara
We had lots of mice last year. But lucky for me and for you, my sister is an expert on catching mice.
You will need:
snap mouse traps
peanut butter
shoe box
cut a small hole in the side of the shoe box. Large enough for the mouse to get in but small enough so the mouse cannot get out when stuck to the snap trap. Place peanut butter on the trap and on the bottom - a really good amount and set the trap.
My sister also recommends trying to find where the mice are coming in at and fix the hole or place brillo type mesh over the area.
Pages