SEGway Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 We have snap traps and glue traps. And, we just keep catching them. How have you successfully rid yourself of the little nasties? Is Orkin (et al.) really the only option? We have four littles, and I am looking for a non-chemical/fumigation solution if there is one. I would love to know. Really. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perogi Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 When we first moved into our farm house we had a bunch. Glue traps were great. Dh went around the entire house and sealed any and all holes to outside, no matter how small. Between that and a couple of barn cats we didn't have them in the house again, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsJewelsRae Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Snap traps with cheese... and barn cats. We live in an old farmhouse too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 A cat. A good mouser cat. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 we only ever had them in the garage. we found how they were getting in, and sealed it up. until holes are sealed, all the glue traps in the world won't keep more from coming. and the holes can be really tiny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Our house sat empty for one year when my husband was in the hospital. When we returned, it was overrun by mice. We had friends who helped us get rid of them, but basically, we covered every little hole we could find and we set traps with peanut butter. I was at the point of borrowing a cat for a couple months, but we ended up not needing to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Our cats are only semi-helpful mousers. One of them actually ate a mouse out of the trap and left the head. Gross! We've had good success with putting peanut butter in a snap trap, but you also have to seal up holes where they're getting in, and be very vigilant about keeping all food products put away carefully. We have an old farmhouse too; it's tricky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joanne Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Back when I lived in my first Katy house, we had to get treated (chemically) and have an "exclusion" service. This is where they put barriers in all the known areas in which mice can get into the house. There are times in this complicated life when chemicals are worth considering. For me, this was one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex-mex Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Look for any tiny hole (or nest in the drywall or attic) to seal up. Get rid of all droppings and use a bleach/water rinse to disinfect. Along with glue traps and the old fashioned peanut butter traps... get a good mouser cat. If there are mouse babies and a nest hidden... hire a professional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfgivas Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 we live in the high desert. there are a lot of little critters. we have a multipronged approach. 1. house cat (outdoor cats get eaten by coyotes/bobcats/owls/hawks) 2. snap traps (like giant clothes pins, so i don't need to touch the little darlings) 3. covering holes.... adult mice can apparently get in any hole that is 3/8 inch in diameter. 4. we also trap outside. we take about four dishracks to cover traps, otherwise the ravens fly away with the mice and the traps. we bait about 20 traps per dishrack with peanut butter. so traps on ground baited, dishrack on top, rock on top of dishrack (because it took the ravens precisely one morning to figure out how to remove the traps from the dishrack. 5. for our cars, we use a natural deterrent that we found thru cartalk. it smells like christmas trees. it appears to work. (and its been tested by others). 6. and lastly, not for the faint of heart, probably the most effective thing we do is that when we find gopher snakes we bring them home and put them under the house. they're happy with the ready food supply, we're happy with fewer mice, and the added benefit is that if there are enough "good" snakes around to use up the food supply, the rattlers are apparently less inclined to visit. good luck, ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Please, please don't use glue traps. :( The mice are just stuck there to suffer until they starve/dehydrate to death or until you kill them. Some will actually try to chew off their own limbs to escape. Poison is also quite cruel. The mice will die slowly from internal bleeding, and then rot in your walls. Snap traps are much more humane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrookValley. Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 whoops, double post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrookValley. Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Please, please don't use glue traps. :( The mice are just stuck there to suffer until they starve/dehydrate to death or until you kill them. Some will actually try to chew off their own limbs to escape. Poison is also quite cruel. The mice will die slowly from internal bleeding, and then rot in your walls. Snap traps are much more humane. I'm not emtional about killing mice--I'm pretty ruthless about it, if need be--but sticky traps really are pretty nasty. I agree. Snap traps are the best way to go. If you feel you must use sticky traps, check them daily and kill the mice asap...but of course, using the snap traps saves you that unpleasant step. I think you've gotten plenty of good advice so far. i too would want to avoid chemicals if possible. I'll second sealing up any teensy holes you can find (the last time we had mice, they were coming in through a very small hole near our stove vent). Keep in mind that mice can squeeze through a space the size of a DIME. Keep trapping, trapping, trapping; keep food stored in mouse-proof containers or in the fridge freezer, and clean up every last crumb you can get to (I know, hard with littles!); and yes, get a kitty! Good luck! I know how frustrating this is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 we live in the high desert. there are a lot of little critters. we have a multipronged approach. 1. house cat (outdoor cats get eaten by coyotes/bobcats/owls/hawks) 2. snap traps (like giant clothes pins, so i don't need to touch the little darlings) 3. covering holes.... adult mice can apparently get in any hole that is 3/8 inch in diameter. 4. we also trap outside. we take about four dishracks to cover traps, otherwise the ravens fly away with the mice and the traps. we bait about 20 traps per dishrack with peanut butter. so traps on ground baited, dishrack on top, rock on top of dishrack (because it took the ravens precisely one morning to figure out how to remove the traps from the dishrack. 5. for our cars, we use a natural deterrent that we found thru cartalk. it smells like christmas trees. it appears to work. (and its been tested by others). 6. and lastly, not for the faint of heart, probably the most effective thing we do is that when we find gopher snakes we bring them home and put them under the house. they're happy with the ready food supply, we're happy with fewer mice, and the added benefit is that if there are enough "good" snakes around to use up the food supply, the rattlers are apparently less inclined to visit. good luck, ann My dh is from the high desert. Cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEGway Posted January 21, 2013 Author Share Posted January 21, 2013 Thanks so much for all the helpful tips. Sealing of holes is tricky at the moment because we're in the middle of fixing the bathroom, and access from the crawlspace to manuever wires and water lines means access for everything. :( But, we'll be sure to isolate the non-sealable spots and figure out temporary barriers. Even if they're inconvenient to work around. Re: glue traps. One of the reasons for the larger numbers lately seems to be the cold, so as soon as we find one in a glue trap we just take it outside and it freezes fast. Which sounds terrible, but I think it's probably better than dehydration. Our snap traps seems to be doing a better job, anyway, so I think we'll probably get more of those. My husband and I are both allergic to cats, but we're considering a short-haired terrier. And, it might be worth a weeks supply of Kleenex to borrow a cat from a friend and see what happens. Again, thanks, for all the tips. (You're so nice not to immediately jump to address my housekeeping prowess. I appreciate that, too!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 as soon as we find one in a glue trap we just take it outside and it freezes fast. Which sounds terrible, but I think it's probably better than dehydration. I do understand that sometimes it's necessary to kill mice. However, I think it's worth remembering that mice are able to feel pain and fear, just like any other mammal. I know I wouldn't like to freeze to death while stuck to a trap. That sounds pretty torturous. If you're going to use the glue traps, kill the mice quickly with a blow to the head. You can put them in a plastic bag first if that helps with the ick factor. Or, put them in a couple plastic bags and drop a cinder block on them, or whack them hard against a post. If you do it carefully and decisively, death should be instantaneous rather than taking hours or days. I live in the country and I know mice can be a frustrating problem. You (and the mice) have my sympathy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Snap traps baited with peanut butter in the living areas. Mouse poison in the attics. We haven't had any mice die and rot in the house - the poison makes them very thirsty, so they head out of the house. We get them in every year at harvest time, however. This is an old house and there are just too many holes to plug. We just slaughter them every autumn. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 We haven't had any mice die and rot in the house - the poison makes them very thirsty, so they head out of the house. If they do head out of the house, they can then poison any cat, dog, raccoon, coyote, owl, hawk, or snake unfortunate enough to eat them. See: www.wildlifehotline.com/poison-risks/ Just saying... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Cat. And cover holes. If you can fit a quarter in the hole, mice can get it. Just go crazy with stick-paneling, baseboard trim, caulk, whatever. They can chew through a lot. If you are seriously infested do everything everyone has said here all at once. We've also had good success with those sound-emitting devices. They get mixed reviews but they worked miracles in my family house growing up which was old and run down. We had mice and squirrels all the time until my mom got a couple of those. And we've had then work great in two city homes so far. We don't have mice or roaches or anything which is more than I can say for some of my friends (who are lovely, clean people!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Cats. :001_cool: Seriously. That is a deterrent like no other. I always had mice until I had cats. Now I never have mice. Well...not living ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perogi Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Please, please don't use glue traps. :( The mice are just stuck there to suffer until they starve/dehydrate to death or until you kill them. Some will actually try to chew off their own limbs to escape. Poison is also quite cruel. The mice will die slowly from internal bleeding, and then rot in your walls. Snap traps are much more humane. Snap traps are great but we had babies that were too small to get caught by the snap traps so we had to resort to glue traps. At that point I was very happy glue traps were available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5of5 Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 5. for our cars, we use a natural deterrent that we found thru cartalk. it smells like christmas trees. it appears to work. (and its been tested by others). Could you post a link for purchase or the exact product name? I did a google search but I couldn't find what you are talking about. Thanks. UPDATE: I found this on Amazon: link but it has mixed reviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Snap traps are great but we had babies that were too small to get caught by the snap traps so we had to resort to glue traps. At that point I was very happy glue traps were available. There's no way I could use glue traps for baby mice. :( There must be another alternative. I wonder if electronic traps might work? Supposedly the electric shock kills them in 5 seconds or less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readinmom Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Feel your pain. When we rented a house we had a horrible mouse problem. It was unlike anything I had heard about. When we carried in groceries, they would pop in through the burners on the stove and start eating through stuff before we walked in with the next load of groceries. Our oldest was 2 with a severe asthma problem, so we had to find a solution quickly. A cat was out of the question. Called an exterminator who pointed out all the spaces we needed to seal up and recommended the glue traps. It seems inhumane, but these things work! We had glue traps underneath every sink, every corner of the garage, under furniture; you get the picture. When we worked on the garage we discovered what had attracted the mice in the first place. The landlord had left three bags of grass seed on a shelf that was adjacent to the entrance of the house. I picked up the bag and I felt like the Pied Piper. I'm not a girly girl, but my screams could be heard down the street... I strongly suggest you saturate your house with the glue traps. Make sure that nothing is acting as a food source or attraction for the mice to come in. If you live in a cold area, make sure that you have a screen on your dryer vent. Good luck. It's not a problem that can be solved overnight. It took us about two weeks to work through the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 We didn't have mice until we rebuilt and we tried the different kinds of traps and such to no avail. Then we adopted a stray cat and viola, no more mice. She is an outside cat though as neither of us are keen on inside animals. When that cat died we started to get mice again until we adopted another cat. Of course some are better mousers than others, we are now on our 3rd cat, the kitten of the 2nd momma cat(momma cat tends to roam around and doesn't stay around enough to help much). Dh hates cats but even he agrees that having an outside cat is well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 This is a great trap for mice but it MUST be kept away from kids, cats, dogs, other pets, etc. Fill a plastic bucket 1/2 full of antifreeze (very dangerous to kids and pets). Then take a stick and poke it through a pop can--through the top and then bottom. Lay the stick over the bucket and cover the can with peanut butter. Then put up a nice little ramp (like paint stirer or stick) up to the bucket. The mice will climb up and go to lick the peanut butter off the pop can and it will spin and the mice will land in the antifreeze where they will drown. Again, this works but can be very dangerous if pets or kids get near it. It is used by locals here in places secure from pets and kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie Grace Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Back when I lived in my first Katy house, we had to get treated (chemically) and have an "exclusion" service. This is where they put barriers in all the known areas in which mice can get into the house. There are times in this complicated life when chemicals are worth considering. For me, this was one of them. I agree with this (if you don't have animals who might eat a poisoned mouse). If you have mice NESTING in your house (we did) that means that they are overflowing the spaces they prefer to nest like crawl spaces and attics -- ie, your hidden spots are maxed out with mice. We had evidence of two nests in our house, one in a bedroom under a dresser, one in a buffet table drawer in the dining room. No amount of snap traps was going to keep up with the population. We called a service (it was less expensive than I thought; we used a local, family-owned service) and they solved the problem so quickly. They monitored the bait stations and could see where the activity was and how to best handle it. In our new house (in the country as well) we don't have nearly the problems. There was a little evidence of mouse activity (he ate half a granola bar!) but one snap trap later, problem solved. I really think it depends on how bad the problem is. You say you have lots and lots of mice, but I'm not sure what you mean. If they have overrun your crawl space like they had ours, I honestly don't think you'll keep up with them by snap/glue traps alone. Perhaps a cat would have fixed the problem -- we didn't try that. I think we would have had to let a cat into the crawl space because of how many nests there were down there. ETA: I put rodent-free living over concern for their final hours. I'm sure that to some this makes me an abhorrent person, but I'm okay with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 If you are trying to plug up holes, try steel wool. It works well and mice don't like to chew through it. You can stuff it into spaces and around things. I have had good luck with live traps and mini-marshmallows as bait. I am fine with snap traps, but dh prefers the live traps. He deals with the traps so I leave it up to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfgivas Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 This is a great trap for mice but it MUST be kept away from kids, cats, dogs, other pets, etc. Fill a plastic bucket 1/2 full of antifreeze (very dangerous to kids and pets). Then take a stick and poke it through a pop can--through the top and then bottom. Lay the stick over the bucket and cover the can with peanut butter. Then put up a nice little ramp (like paint stirer or stick) up to the bucket. The mice will climb up and go to lick the peanut butter off the pop can and it will spin and the mice will land in the antifreeze where they will drown. Again, this works but can be very dangerous if pets or kids get near it. It is used by locals here in places secure from pets and kids. this reminds me..... dh took a garbage can, did the rest as ottakee describes.... but the garbage can was empty. they fell to the bottom. they couldn't get out. each day, he took them for a ride and let them go far, far away in the forest. good luck! ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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