Since moving to a rural community I’ve been plagued with mice and other not so welcome pests in my home. And while I’ve managed to keep the other pest problems under control, I think I have one or more mice in my house most of the time.
Before moving here my cats took care of any mouse that came near or into my house quickly. They knew the popular points of entry into the house and the portals in the house where the mice would come out into the open. And once my cats had the scent of a mouse they would camp out for days in front of that opening until the mouse was taken care of.
Unfortunately, now my cats either can’t or won’t try to keep up with the continual invasion of mice. They still manage to kill a few every year however they don’t seem to get as worked up about having a mouse in the house as they used to.
So during the past few years I’ve been experimenting with other forms of mouse control to get rid of the mice and with keeping them out. So far I’ve tried sticky mouse traps but couldn’t deal with killing a live mouse caught on a glue pad. I’ve used mouse poison very carefully so my pets wouldn’t get into it however it is dangerous and now I’ve discovered that pets could eat a dead mouse and get poisoned. (By the way, those poison pouches and plastic traps that keep the dead mouse out of sight have not worked for me.) I’ve used the old fashioned spring type mouse traps and while they are effective and can be reused, I usually don’t know about the kill until it smells and I refuse to open that trap to release its last victim so I can reset it. I’ve tried to seal up the mouse holes in my walls with steal wool and thought I had sealed up the cracks in my foundation.
But still, the mice keep coming in!
At first I thought they must be coming in when we were letting our pets in and out. Then I found out that a mouse can get in through a 1 quarter inch opening. Do you know how small that is? In this big, old house that has 3 foot of foundation above ground, I’m now planning to cover the entire foundation with something just to be sure I’ve filled anything that small. I am also considering putting screen wire under the concrete patch so when it starts to crumble, the house will still hopefully be mouse proof. (The foundation had been covered with patch sometime before we bought it and the coating has started to crumble in a few places.)
In the meantime I’ve still got to get rid of the mice in my house and am considering the chocolate plaster and instant potato ideas. The only reason I am hesitant about using them is that, while they are supposedly safe for my pets, I won’t know about the dead mouse until it smells and what if it dies inside one of my walls? So while I might try one of these methods I know I will be getting more wooden spring traps and placing them along the walls behind and between some of my appliances and furniture.
If you have a way of getting rid of the mice in your house that works please leave a comment. Hearing a mouse scratching behind my stove is not music to my ears.
Susan
Related articles
- Resisting poison – the hybrid mouse (genome-engineering.com)
- Some Easy Mouse Control Measures (mydecorarticles.com)
