I haven't seen them yet, but I hear them munching at night and sometimes hear them scurrying in the walls. I thought our cabinet was mouse proof but they chewed up our bag of rice last night, and a few days ago they ate a third of an avocado :(
I love mice but they are pooping on our stuff and eating our food. I want to get a cat but one of the roommates is allergic to them. Any methods you all have used that worked? They have seemed to ignore the traps that have been left for them. They are all over the upstairs too, but I just want them out of our downstairs bedroom!
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Hey, no idea about getting rid of them sorry BUT you need to be really careful to clean heaps whilst you've got them because when you've got mice, particles of their droppings will break down in to dust which when you breathe in can cause an illness called Hantavirus which can be very serious. So make sure you clean lots and always damp dust, dont sweep up/wipe up with a dry cloth because you're more likely to stir up the dust in to the air and then breathe it in.
Good luck with getting rid of them and in the mean time, stay healthy!!! xXx
Yeah, peanut butter works better than cheese. I tend to find polyfilling the hole they get in through works :P I dont' mind them scurring out in the walls, but I don't like them being in the house!
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What you should do first is make sure you have mice, and not rats. Pay close attention to where you hear them scurrying in the walls, and before you go to bed at night, sprinkle talcum powder around the baseboards in that area. The tracks will tell you whether you have mice or rats: mouse tracks won't be more than about half an inch wide.
The most important thing is to find where they're getting in. Listening in on where they're scurrying around in your walls will give you clues on where to look. Scour the outside of your house for holes or entry points. Mice can squeeze through very tiny openings, but they probably won't go much above ground level, since they can't climb. If your problem is rats, you'll have to look up too, because they are climbers. Block their holes securely with metal or plastic; mice can chew through wood.
When you first lay traps, bait them but don't set them. That will give the mice the idea that it's safe to take the bait. Peanut butter, oatmeal, or cotton balls are all good choices. Place the traps in bunches of at least half a dozen close to the walls where you hear the mice running at night. It might take them a few days to start accepting the bait, but once they do, then start setting the traps. To make the traps more effective, make sure you're keeping every scrap and fragment of food up off the floor and out of reach. Put anything that might be food in plastic or metal containers with tight lids; mice will eat grains, legumes, some leaves, fruit, insects, cereals, pet food...etc. A rat will eat nearly anything a human will. Also, if your intruders are trap-shy, try rubbing the traps with a thin coating of bacon grease. Makes them smell appetizing and masks the human smell. You can also try covering the traps up with sawdust.
If the infestation is really bad, it might be worth your while to call an exterminator.
Last edited by Pierrot : 08-09-2010 at 10:01 AM.
Reason: cleaned it up
We had a mouse problem.
We ended up using those plug in high pitched noise producers that scare them away basically as they can't bear the sound. They worked.
We had mice in our shed for a long time... We used humane traps, and then kept them in an empty fish tank for about 6 months... I guess there was no need to, but... We thought they were cool :P Then we let them go in a field far, far away from our house. We don't have mice anymore, and we didn't need to kill them.
Get some humane traps + take them far far away. They're cheap and reusable - I know a few people who have solved rodent problems like this. It's nicer for them too to be living in a field rather than a house.
I dunno about you but those high-pitched things give me headaches =[ even when they're too high to hear. Hope this helps ^^ xx
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thanks for all of the suggestions, one of them woke us up last night after I sealed up the cabinet so they couldn't get in and munch on our food. we discovered they were able to climb up the dish rag onto the counter top, and then we found the hole they got through so we are working on blocking it up.
I feel bad trapping them so I think we will just block up the hole and see what happens. definitely mice though, one sat and stared at us last night :)
We had a mouse problem.
We ended up using those plug in high pitched noise producers that scare them away basically as they can't bear the sound. They worked.
BUT you need to be really careful to clean heaps whilst you've got them because when you've got mice, particles of their droppings will break down in to dust which when you breathe in can cause an illness called Hantavirus which can be very serious. So make sure you clean lots and always damp dust, dont sweep up/wipe up with a dry cloth because you're more likely to stir up the dust in to the air and then breathe it in.
