I have killed (with old fashioned wooden spring traps and peanut butter) 4 mice in the last 3 months. I live alone and travel a lot so getting a cat or two is out of the question. I've checked all my closets and cupboards and stuffed steel wool in any place I think they could possible get in. Where else can I check? I'm at a loss and totally frustrated!
By Laura
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
Check around the pipes under your sinks, and around the electrical or gas pipes behind your stove and pack steel wool or cut a can lid to fit tight around the pipe or gas line or electric cord. That's a place they easily can get into. They can squeeze thru a 1/4" hole.
Something you may find more affective in your case is a mouse poison. My mother buys the poison that is a bunch of pellets in a "holder". She doesn't use the holder but spreads the pellets in areas she feels are succeptable to mice.
This includes closets and cupboards which include clothes and food that the mice may be attracted to (like noodles, cereal, chipc and hamburger helpers boxes). In the cupbords she does put the pellets in jar lids so they don't make a mess.
My father uses the same type pellets when he puts one of his old cars away for the winter. He puts the pellets in the trunk and on the floor boards, both front and back. This keeps the mice from chewing up the upholstery.
I have also noticed 2 to 3 inch sticks of the same material but mice like to pull their food away o I think the pellets are more effective.
You could use poisons but what do you do when the mice die inside the walls and begin to decay. Could be an unpleasant odor. I would locate all the entrances out side of the your home that the mice could enter and close them off. They can get through the smallest of openings so look around areas where pipes or wires enter the house.
Also I would replace the steel wool with copper wool also available at your grocery store. If the steel wool gets wet it will rust out. You could also use bait traps that capture the mouse. Those types could be placed inside the house. But unless you find and seal the entrances the mice come in from you will only control the mice population and never completely get rid of them. Maybe some posters have some other ideas.
A deterrent is peppermint oil. Good on a cotton wad. Refresh from time to time when you get home from a trip.
Irish Spring soap....original scent! Work like a charma and doesn't smell too bad! We put this in the camper for the winter! works great! Hope this helps!
We owned and operated a seasonal fishing camp/resort out in the bush. Our cabins, lodge and washroom facilities were basic & simple. It was a summer business. In the fall we closed down, and in came the mice, although we lived year round on site with 5 cats! I tried everything to protect the cabins, house, etc. from the mice! Now you cannot mouse proof over 11 acres of resort out in the bush, can you? Thanks to a old timer bush man we did.
You may laugh out loud at his wisdom on getting rid of mice or other rodents, when you think about how his bush man solution works out in the boonies, with seasonal cabins, a lodge, workshop, garage and our house.
Here it is, and it worked like a charm for us. It is to feed them Exlax, super strength if you can. Rodents love Exlax! We placed it outside & inside. If we thought a cat or dog could get at it, we covered it so that only a rodent could get in and eat it. Even if a bigger animal did get it, it wasn't deadly.
The old bush man told us. Rodents are smaller, their digestive systems are smaller. A little Exlax goes a long way! Rodents live in communities or families. If one gets sick in "home space". They learn fast and leave for a safer environment.
A mouse/ any rodent loves the chocolate wax like bar of Exlax! Add peanut butter to the bars if you like. It is "Dairy Queen Deluxe" for rodents. Once the word is out among fellow rodents about the "after effects" of the food supplied, they leave the area for healthier food, as well as, communicate and smell the
"Gastric Distress and Results" of the afflicted Exlax filled rodent to the community!
We thought it was crazy until it worked. The mice were gone and we were trouble free for over 5 years! Easy and Inexpensive! Yes, some rodents had diarrhea as they packed up and left, but we never smelled it. Anyway this worked for us up until we sold the resort and moved!
PS - As it looks and tastes like chocolate, DO NOT PUT where kids, adults or pets may eat it! You know what will happen with Exlax! Good luck and happy rodent free spaces!
I got this off of thrifty fun at least two years ago, and I (knock on wood) have not had a mouse in the house since laying Exlax around the house inside and out. I put a square right inside the front and back doors too, on the sill of the doors. and so far so good, it about six dollars for a box.
Don't use mothballs. The smell is worse than the mice. It infests wherever you put them. I used them in a camper, and it was truly terrible getting rid of the odor.
You seem to be doing quite well with the traps. Keep using them. And then try to block entrances with copper wool, or a metal mesh or expandable foam.
Something to consider is if there is something in your place that is attracting them. Do you notice them in one particular area of your house? We had a mouse problem when they were coming after our dog's food (both the bag of food stored in low cabinet as well as what was in the bow).
We started storing the dog food in a tightly closing plastic container, and fed the dog smaller amounts more frequently so there would be less sitting in her bowl. The dog food seemed to be the food source that was attracting them, and once we got rid of them after doing that they never came back.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
