I hate mices to pieces

I moved to an inlaw apartment attached to the back of a big old colonial (in a hysterical district...) early this summer. As I was afraid, when the weather started to cool off I noticed some mouse turds in my kitchen.

I grabbed some cheapy victor mouse traps and spray foam insulation from the local hardware store. Killing the mice inside isn't the only problem, since I need to find out where they're coming in from. I've had traps out since Monday and I caught one sucker yesterday morning. I reset the trap and noticed one of the other traps was licked clean (peanut butter). I reloaded the PB and last night when I came home from work I noticed that the vermin cleaned the plate, AGAIN. Now I'm angry. I don't like being beaten by rodents, and I absolutely refuse to accept living with them.

Last night I reconned the outside of the house and found what I thought was a likely entrance point (rotted wood sill) so I spray foamed it closed and I couldn't find any other likely entrances. There must still be more.

What luck have you guys had in getting rid of these pests? I've been thinking of some Rube Goldberg-esque traps, but a better mouse trap is just to cliche. Someone suggested to put some mesh or pantyhose over the PB bait on the traps since that will make their teeth more likely to get caught and the trap to trigger. I'm also going to pick up a few traps today to see if its possible to tweak the arm to make them a real hair trigger (at the risk of it going off and feeding the mice again....).

Bait/poison? I don't want rotting mouse smell. Glue boards? I've never heard of those, but do the mice die on them, or do I have to kill them? Glue board with a mouse trap on it, is that excessive?

I have contacted the owners and if I don't have results killing the mice in the next few days, they're going to have to bring in a professional and take responsibility for it.

Get a cat.

Oh, wait....

EDITED to remove corrupted hotlink

We got a couple of the little plug-in electronic high frequency repellent things and sealed all the floor penetrations where plumbing and such entered the kitchen and haven't seen one since.

Put the traps so they are tight up against the baseboards, mice like to stay up against the wall when they move around. You can also bend the trap mechanism to make it more of a hair trigger.

You have to look real hard to find all the tiny little nooks and crannies where they may be coming in, and chance are on an old house you'll never find them all. Stuff steel wool in the cracks you find, since they can chew right through the spray foam in no time.

Well, I took a different route. We have dumpsters in the alley behind the houses in my neighborhood. No getting around it, there are mice. And this time of year they come in the houses. I tried to keep them out for a while, but then switched tactics and decided I'd just trap them.

Thing is, we had pet mice when the kids were little, so snap traps were out. The kids would have been upset. I tried tip traps but had no luck. So I finally built my own – it’s a box with Plexiglas sides and a spring loaded door that is closed with a solenoid. The solenoid is triggered by an infra-red beam that I bought as an electronics kit. It works really well, and it’s great for getting escaped pets too.

One of our cats cornered a little juvenile mouse the other night. He just kept it cornered by the couch and didn't kill it. No idea why. I pitched the mouse outside and made a note to refill our bait traps in the attic and basement. With a toddler in the house any varmint killing has to happen in places a child cannot get to.

I did shoot two rats in our backyard with my pellet gun. My wife was appalled and called me a redneck.

Mix your PB with bits from cotton balls. makes it harder for them to lick clean.

I gave up on traps keeping up with the problem and went right for poison.

slefain wrote: I did shoot two rats in our backyard with my pellet gun. My wife was appalled and called me a redneck.

and her point?

In a previous home I used the sticky ,triangular cardboard traps. Just sit them right along the baseboards and the mice will run right through them.

Tying a bit of apple to the trip plate works too.

Didn't somebody "build a better mousetrap" with the trigger as the floor below the bait?

Do the mice die in the sticky traps, or do I have to kill them? I have no problem dropping the axe on them, but the gf may have a problem if she finds a live one glued to the trap before I kill it....

Thanks for the heads up on the foam, I'll check for any damage. That would at least tell me where their highway is.

Brotus7 wrote: Do the mice die in the sticky traps, or do I have to kill them? I have no problem dropping the axe on them, but the gf may have a problem if she finds a live one glued to the trap before I kill it.... Thanks for the heads up on the foam, I'll check for any damage. That would at least tell me where their highway is.

The glue traps are pretty damn cruel IMO. Used them once. After having to kill a long suffering mouse, I went back to the old school victors. FWIW, beef jerky is the best bait I've found. Cheese didn't work worth a damn, peanut butter was OK, but pieces of slim jim really gets the job done.

914Driver wrote:

Now that is the stuff that kids' nightmares are made of.

I've used cheese with great success, but the jerky sounds pretty interesting. I haven't used the sticky trap, but wouldn't care if they suffered. They're vermin!

Place the spring traps and sticky traps along baseboards. But, your landlord should take care of this.

These little SOBs can get into your house through the most incredibly small cracks or hoes. They will also gnaw open a too small hole enough to pass through. The foam will only make them laugh. We had one come up a water pipe to the inside of the wall, then up the inside of the wall and came out through the wire hole in the drywall to a light fixture.

I prefer the old school snap traps, but I always do a trigger job first. They are often difficult to set down without activating them, so I use a pair of needle nose pliers. I mix a little birdseed in with the peanut butter and really cram it up under the hook of the trigger.

When I used glue traps, I always sprinkled some poison in there to make things happen a little faster.

motomoron wrote: We got a couple of the little plug-in electronic high frequency repellent things and sealed all the floor penetrations where plumbing and such entered the kitchen and haven't seen one since.

+1 - the biggest entry point is through holes where drains and plumbing etc enter/exit the cabinets.

We used to have a problem with rats. I would kill 10-20 a year around and under the house. My neighbors were having the same problem Two years ago about ten feral cats moved in on our street and took care of them for us. I haven't seen a rat since. I would much rather have a bunch of cats than a bunch of rats. We keep them fed just enough so they won't move on.

Brotus7 wrote: Do the mice die in the sticky traps, or do I have to kill them? I have no problem dropping the axe on them, but the gf may have a problem if she finds a live one glued to the trap before I kill it....

The ASPCA's approved method (if you care) is drowning a stuck mouse. Letting them starve is a little morbid, but they are vermin, as you say. In my experience, they generally seem to go before they starve though. I think they might freak themselves out into a tiny, cute, little heart attack.

I've seen glue traps with only feet left. Mice will gnaw their own feet off to get free. DO NOT USE GLUE TRAPS!

The real answer, IMO is to get a cat. Our cat hasn't killed a single mouse, but we had mice until we got the cat. About 6 months later, we had some neighbors move in with free roaming cats. They took care of a lot of the squirrels.

D-Con makes some cool traps. They're single use, and you toss them once you catch one, but they have to go inside of the trap to get the bait. Once inside, the spring-loaded trap spins around and kills them. As long as we're talking mice and not rats, those should work well.

Or you can get a live trap like was mentioned above. If I get mice again, that's the method I'll use.

I thought we all knew about the bucket of water mouse trap.

With Video

Why worry with a live trap? I would kill them when I remove them from any trap. They need to DIE. They will only create more little mices to get in the house, They in turn create more little mices, etc, etc, etc....

A cat or small dog will work wonders. A small Terrier of some breed would be great if cats dont like you.

Derick Freese wrote: I've seen glue traps with only feet left. Mice will gnaw their own feet off to get free.

Bull. Other vermin, including mice, will eat them though.

My cat is a Maine Coon that could take down 60% of the world's dogs. I pity the mouse that tries to make an appearance in our apartment.

That said, I would annoy your landlord about this. Of course, if he's incompetent, I second the above video.