Learn me: Mouse eradication.

We found a little plop of mouse turds in the garage/basement a few months ago. The door to our basement has a pretty significant gap (big enough for a tiny meecy mouse to get in.) I shored that up best as I could, and we haven't seen any more evidence....till Mrs. Poop called me a few minutes ago to let me know that INSIDE the Fit, she found some droppings. WHAT THE berkeley!?!?

I've read her the riot act a billion times about leaving food in the car, leaving the windows open, etc. I think the point is crystal berkeleying clear now, as is the fact that the inside of that car will be berkeleying spotless by the time I get home and stay that way.

Next step: Getting rid of the berkeleyers. I have no freaking clue what they're finding to eat down there. Any suggestions for mouse traps, baiting, etc.? I heart teh kittehs, and would have one down there in a hearbeat, but there's too much "car stuff" to get into, chemicals included.

I have no problem with traps of the "inhumane" variety. I love animals, but I got babies & E36 M3, you nasty little motherberkeleyers.

I definitely need to fix that door permanently too.

D-CON mouse bait. They eat it and go ouside to die (usually). Living in a rural setting we get mice every year and this has always worked.

Traditional traps. Snap-dead!

The problem with bait is if they don't get out they die and decompose inside.

I have about 10 traps in various spots around the house loaded with peanut butter. They love it. I do a sweep of the house every week or so unless I begin to smell that I've caught one.

I'm the big game hunter in my house!

Yeah. There are plenty of places for one to crawl off an die in the basement (working on that this weekend too.) It's a good excuse to get it it cleaned out good and proper. Been a long time since we've had a good top-to-bottom cleaning down there. I may even finally get a pile of stuff together to throw on ebay.

I'll probably go the traditional snap-trap route. Is there a literal "better mouse trap" of the bunch? Looking around, I'm seeing some heavy duty plastic ones that look a little less messy.

SO freaking pissed. In 35 years, and a pile of houses, apartments, etc. I've never had this problem. Hopefully sealing that door off + traps = no more meecy mice.

Get the little suckers, be ruthless, whatever it takes. My '91 Toyota pickup sat outside for the 17 years I had it, (I live in the country) never a problem with mice until this year, which has been really bad for mice all over western Colorado. Kept removing nesting material from under the hood every couple of weeks, then they got into the ventilation ducting, tried vacuuming that out and blowing out with compressed air,then three weeks ago as I was driving into town, black smoke out the vents, followed immediately by flames, followed in less than 5 minutes by full engulfment, truck burned to the ground in 10 minutes, even with excellent response from the fire department. Insurance paid promptly with no problems, but not one of life's fun experiences. Get rid of the suckers, they love to chew wiring insulation, and carry a fire extinguisher on board, period.

My next pickup will also have to stay outside (the Liberty and the Corvette live in the garage), so I'll be super vigilant in the future, you can bet.

I have a similar problem but in my basement - flying dogs that can chase them up walls would be great, or a cat that goes away when it's done - but I am poisoning the motherberkeleyers.

I "hear" the trick is to leave the opening and make sure they can't get water in the basement. Once they eat the D-Con, they get stupid thirsty, go out for water and die there. No word on if that is true yet... but someone ate a E36 M3 load of poison in the last two days so I guess I'll find out if the place stinks like corpses.

Funny, I was just having this debate about my shop. I'm going kill traps so I don't accidentally poison my pups. This year my popup camper is is overwintering in the shop for some repairs, so it's critical to keep the meeses at bay.

We had a few mice in the attic of our old house.

Step 1: learn thy enemy.

Guess what? Mice can get through an opening that's like 1mm wide. Okay, maybe not that bad, but they can go where ever they want.

Oh, and they like to chew. On the trusses. That are above your bedroom. Right when you go to bed.

In the end, I caught a few with one of those humane traps. Peanut butter seemed to make a good enough lure. The mice (or at least their ancestors) now live down by the BMX track. I figured that was far enough away that they couldn't get back.

The last, persistent one? Yeah, he found the snap trap. He wouldn't leave peacefully like the others, so I eventually called out something a bit more severe.

By the way, you haven't lived until you have had squirrels in the walls.

David S. Wallens wrote: We had a few mice in the attic of our old house. Step 1: learn thy enemy. Guess what? Mice can get through an opening that's like 1mm wide. Okay, maybe not that bad, but they can go where ever they want.

Mice can get through openings just wider than 1/4 inch (no foolin'). Your local hardware store sells screening with 1/4 inch holes. Screen off crawl space vents, attic vents and the like. Use steel wool to pack in smaller cracks like door frame gaps, pipe ingress and egress, etc.

Snap traps are the best. They're cheap and they provide a convenient handle for carrying dead meeces to the trash. Just toss the whole thing in trap and all. Peanut butter is mouse crack so bait with that. In areas not suitable for peanut butter, use gummi bears. Set traps along edges of rooms or foundations. Mice will not cross an open space unless chased so the periphery of anything is the best trap location. You'll know where the mouse runs are by the poop trail.

I watch for them near me too. They climbed in my carved pumpkins and left poop everywhere.

Last winter they climbed my gas grill vinyl cover and sat on the grills shelf and pooped away. Today the vinyl cover with the fuzzy white felt inside got tossed into the garbage can.

Now onto my wood pile.........

dryer sheets for the vehicles

haven't seen a mouse or mole indoors/ outdoors in over a year... thanks neighbors cats

There is a better mouse trap. These, available at Lowes but not Home Depot.

After years of doing trigger jobs on traditional Victors (to the point where I could barely set them down without firing), I made the switch and couldn't be happier. Bait them with chunky peanut butter. If bait disappears without catching a mouse, the culprits may be ants. Bonus: Traps are easily reusable and a piece of cake to empty.

Woody wrote: There *is* a better mouse trap. These, available at Lowes but not Home Depot. After years of doing trigger jobs on traditional Victors (to the point where I could barely set them down without firing), I made the switch and couldn't be happier. Bait them with chunky peanut butter. If bait disappears without catching a mouse, the culprits may be ants. Bonus: Traps are easily reusable and a piece of cake to empty.

Haven't seen those. Hmm...

vwcorvette wrote:

Woody wrote: There *is* a better mouse trap. These, available at Lowes but not Home Depot. After years of doing trigger jobs on traditional Victors (to the point where I could barely set them down without firing), I made the switch and couldn't be happier. Bait them with chunky peanut butter. If bait disappears without catching a mouse, the culprits may be ants. Bonus: Traps are easily reusable and a piece of cake to empty.

Haven't seen those. Hmm...

These never worked for me, though I'm glad they're working for somebody. My thought was the shape did not look inviting to a mouse.

Woody wrote: There *is* a better mouse trap. These, available at Lowes but not Home Depot. After years of doing trigger jobs on traditional Victors (to the point where I could barely set them down without firing), I made the switch and couldn't be happier. Bait them with chunky peanut butter. If bait disappears without catching a mouse, the culprits may be ants. Bonus: Traps are easily reusable and a piece of cake to empty.

Came to post these. They work awesome for us. We use peanut butter for bait. Im not sure if the mice prefer Jif or Skippy.

Ants are less likely to abscond with chunky stuff. Not impossible for them, but more of a challenge.

Ball Peen hammers are much more satisfying than D-Con.

vwcorvette wrote: Traditional traps. Snap-dead! The problem with bait is if they don't get out they die and decompose inside. I have about 10 traps in various spots around the house loaded with peanut butter. They love it. I do a sweep of the house every week or so unless I begin to smell that I've caught one. I'm the big game hunter in my house!

I've been using the D CON and never found another in the house, until I had to pull down a piece of plywood under my kitchen. 11 of them chose that for thier final resting place, 3 of them fell down the back of my shirt.

I'm not crazy about poison bait because of the whole 'die in the walls' thing. FWIW, mice LOVE dog food. Try a little of that in a trap. And yeah glue traps work great (looks around for Henry).

D-Con and plugging all the holes worked for me.

They like cookies enough to chew through a bunch of E36 M3 to get to them. I'm throwing some cookies on dat bish. Bought two of the plastic traps, and a little cheese wedge of the dcon stuff to put right next to the entry/exit thoroughfare.

How is it no one has mentioned getting a cat?

Edit: someone did in passing.. nix that. We have weiner dog that keeps our property free of mice/chipmunks/squirrels and rabbits.

I brought it up in the original post, Beavis. I put on my elmer fudd hat and set the traps. Now, we wait.

I would use D Con.. but we have neighborhood cats and I do not want to poison them.

If you want to go humane.. get a 5 gallon bucket from one of the big box stores, place it alongside a wall with a stick up the side to the top. Add peanut butter to the bottom of the bucket.

They can get in.. but they can't jump out

My nephew keeps firewood in his garage and says that he hasn't had a mouse in there since he started using these: