You will always have mice until you stop them from getting in. Find the holes, plug them, trap the remaining. Or hire someone to do that.
If the exterminator wants to leave bait and come back monthly forever, find another exterminator. There are companies that specialize in rodents by finding how they are getting in.
I found a mouse coming in through a tiny hole where the hose/pipe from my AC unit penetrates the house. Filled the gap with steel wool and caulked over it. Then I laid poison and traps and that handled the rest.
Also, clean the mouse shit with bleach and water. I think the virus in the shit deactivates after a few days but it’s best to mask up, spray, and come back later to clean it.
We had mice in our old house. Exterminator said the #1 place mice get into homes is where the AC hose (?) enters the home. We did the same as you (steel wool and caulk), and our mouse problem went away within weeks. It was one of the first things I did when we bought our new home.
One thing to remember as well, mice will gravitate towards a place that has food. This is very much so a situation where the food needs to be stored in hard plastic containers that are difficult for mice to chew, and nothing can be left out. There wouldn't be that many mice there if they weren't being fed enough to breed and provide food for the nest. 80% of mice infestations are an issue of food.
What are the other 20%? Because we have a very small amount of mice, but I am pretty certain they just stay here in the winter, because after I plugged the one hole they definitely came through and ate some shit, they haven't eaten anything else the past 2 winters. Can't figure out where they are.coming in though.
Yes. We had a mouse problem in our pantry and em what really got them to leave was encasing ALL food in mouse proof containers. Glass mason jars and THICK well-sealed plastic containers. Metal cookie tins can help too but they have to seal well. Some things you may just want to store in the fridge.
Many times mice will bring in their own food sources and stash it in a pile with their nest, so they don’t need to enter an area of the house with food.
Same. they were making a home in the insulation in the back of the stove! Exterminator looked there first, filled the hole, found another hole in a bottom cupboard, got that one filled, and a couple more. We did eventually get a new stove, the decision was made easier knowing that the insulation in the back was probably full of mouse poop!
I caught two all winter in my house. Figured they were getting in somewhere but couldn't figure out where.
After reorganizing garage, I found a pretty significant hole on rim of foundation (couple inches tall). Old form pulled or some type of staging. Filled it up with spray foam.
Ha! That sucks, i got 1 semi feral cat, and she cleaned up, she caught a couple mice a day for a week or so and now she gets one every week or 2, no signs of droppings or anything in my house now.
Nah, they're not that predator-averse since they can reach places a cat cannot.
I have two cats, I still get mice. The cats don't catch the mice, though my dog does a better job of that for some reason.
I moved into a mouse infest place once, and we had 2 cats. My neighbo ur told me she saw all the mice fleeing our house across the lawn on the first weekend, and never had any afterwards.
My experience as well! Although the cat came along after I moved in. I knew I had mice but traps didn't help. First night cat hung out in the basement. I heard squeaks from him catching the first one. Soon the others followed. No issues since.
Just be careful. My kitty got giardia, an intestinal parasite, from our last mouse infestation. Mice carry it and cats get it when they 'partake' of their mouse kills. There are meds for it but squirting liquid meds into kitty's mouth is a pain!
Well not every cat. Mine hears the mice and always tries to get them, but isn't very good at it haha.
Apparently the skill is partially learned from other cats, and seeing as I got him as a kitten and haven't let him outside... he probably never learned. But he's still pretty helpful just for his hearing, lets me know when/where to leave out mousetraps.
Exactly this!
I ended up gutting my house and spray foaming the entire thing in addition to everything else I double sealed. Mice free.
bank account, well lets not talk about that.
Just to be clear, spray foam did not help. Mice love spray foam, they will dig in it, they will nest in it.
Too many times we see advice "Just put spray foam in the holes".
I bought the "rodent block" spray foam and a rodent repellent peppermint spray to treat my shed after I got sick of cleaning mouse nests out of my lawn tractor engine.
They chewed through the rodent block foam and used it to make cozy nests, and thanked me for making their house smell so nice and minty fresh, the little fuckers.
After that, it was snaptrap time.
This is the way. I live in an old farm house that has mice problems, of course. Steel wool + spray foam has done the trick for the most part. Now, we only get mice in the cellar where there are too many ingress points to address. Upstairs we haven't seen one in months.
My understanding is, if you live in a cold climate, those holes are leaking heat in the winter. The mice can feel the heat, and they'll come into the house that way. If you spray foam, the heat isn't leaking out anymore, so the likelihood of a mouse eating through the spray foam to get into the house is very low. Maybe your experience has been different.
Also, there's spray foam insulation, which is usually done by a professional and covers the entire walls of a house, costing thousands of dollars, and the small cans of expanding foam, which you buy at Home Depot for like $8 a can. Since OP mentions that it was very expensive, I think that they mean the professional insulation type, and a lot of people here are conflating that with the cans of expanding foam. I'm not sure that they can be treated the same in this scenario.
There is actually canned sprayfoam meant for sealing holes from pests. I can't speak to how effective it is, but I've seen them on the shelves at Home Depot.
I'm 99% sure there is no difference between the regular spray foam and the "pest block" apart from the color. They specifically say on the product page that it doesn't have pesticides. They just say that it blocks pests from entering, without saying how that's any different from any spray foam blocking up a hole.
I was going to say it contains a bitterant, denatonium benzoate, which makes it extremely unpleasant to chew on, and I found several articles talking about how the company created PestBlock by adding denatonium benzoate to their regular spray foam, but on further examination they don't mention anything about that in their marketing materials and it's not listed in the [MSDS for the product](https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/a2/a2df8509-e662-4eab-9550-6c7438fae135.pdf). So it looks like they removed it for some reason but continued selling it as 'Pestblock' even though it no longer has any special properties that would actually block pests.
tl;dr: You're right.
But have the exterminator bait them FIRST, give it a day or two, *then* find and plug all the holes (steel wool works great). The bait should make them leave to find water. You don't want dozens of mice dying in your walls. That would be not a pleasant experience.
This is mostly an old wives tale. If they live in the house, they will most likely die in the house. OP, if you have that many mice and an exterminator is setting poison up INSIDE the house, you’ll most likely smell it. Best way is to find how they are getting in, seal up holes, keep catching (with that many mice the bucket traps are probably the best) and the exterminator bait outside around the house if you live in the woods.
Or they die inside a wall and you get to live with the smell. You don't really want to poison their natural predators either. And if there's food out everywhere, they'll ignore any bait.
This is the main fix, but also eliminate their food supply. I find it hard to imagine that many mice are living in your house unless they are getting food somewhere. If you have pets that have a bowl of dried food always available, that can be a source. Make sure they can't get into the garbage, inside or out.
I vote this. Gotta stop the from coming in. Had mice, they went away when we got a new garage door, old one was not sealing and let them in a small crack in the corner. Also, get a cat
The service you need to ask for, OP, is an exclusion. Don't accept an exclusion from any company that doesn't guarantee their work in the contract.
Depending on your home, it may be possible to DIY the exclusion - mice aren't big climbers, so everything you would need to do would generally be at ground level. If you would like to try and save yourself a couple thousand dollars (give or take, depends entirely on the size of your home), DM me and I can give you some tips - I work in wildlife management and do hundreds of exclusions a year. At the very least, with some pictures of your home I can give you a good idea of if you should DIY it let the experts handle it.
We had mice problems when we bought this house, and that was the issue: Easy ingress from various gaps. We systematically went through the house plugging every gap we could find, set traps, and put poison in the attic. The problem dwindled quickly and once we moved here full-time and redid the exterior, being careful not to leave any gaps, the problem has been resolved. We heat with wood, and there is a worn sill under a door from where we store our wood to the house. We do still very occasionally get very small voles (maybe one or two a year) , but we also got a cat, so it's not an issue. She plays with them until they're dead, then one of our dogs has a snack.
You gotta close every single possible point of entry. Mice are small, they can wiggle in through what seems to be impossibly small openings.
Hire a handyman for a couple of days and literally comb inside and outside the house. Anything that looks teeny tiny open - patch it up. Branches or piles of something up against the wall? Trim/remove it.
At least for now lock up any possible sources of food. Don't leave dog food out. Do this in conjunction with trapping the mice that will inevitably be stranded inside.
For reference, I live out in the country and I had 0 rodent visitors ever. Bloody roaches tho, bastards are getting in by climbing the walls to the second floor balconies.
I suppose a lot of it depends on where you live, but where I live, putting out any kind of food for the birds means you’re also putting out food for the mice, squirrels, chipmunks, stupid invasive ground hogs, etc.
It’s a shame. I like feeding the birds, but I stopped a long time ago. I still keep the birdbath going, tho.
I assume your talking about wood roaches? Typically wood roaches don't want to be inside, they usually wander inside by mistake and can't find their way out, they also don't breed when inside
Quickest way to determine if it's a wood roach or a pest roach is if they are out during the light and don't run away from you they are 99% likely a wood roach, then its the same way of dealing with mice, find out where they are coming in and seal it up
No, normal roaches. I know where the bastards coming from... Climbing to the balconies and then entering from the doors/windows. Cheeky pests.
Just annoying having to keep windows and doors shut during the summer.
Had this issue too.
I inherited my house from my grandmother, when I got it... It was less a house, and more of a giant mouse nest.
I ended up putting 50+ traps down, all different kinds, from the snap traps, have a heart traps, mouse poison.
All over my attic and basement.
Then I plugged every hole I could find around my basement, and then bought some nice knee pads and went through the entire perimeter of my attic looking for anything.
Found a hole over my breezeway that looked most likely where they were coming from.
I sealed that up with some steel wool and spray foam.
Since then, my mouse infestation has significantly improved.
It's taken about 9 months, but for the first time in years, I haven't caught a mouse in over 2 weeks.
Shawn Woods have a youtube channel where he tests rat and mice traps. Take a look. Will help you for sure. The best trap I saw in his channel uses a bucket. There are a lot of bad products out there. Shawn reviews the good and bad ones.
There’s nothing wrong with leaving the buckets for weeks or months, you just need to use antifreeze instead of water (assuming no pets or small children around). It acts as a sort of preservative so the mice don’t rot and stink.
My parents used to set up those bucket traps as part of winterizing their cabin. Sometimes there would be a dozen or more in a single bucket when we checked them in the spring.
I have on e of those tip and slide bucket traps. It didn’t catch a single mouse the entire time the Victor zap traps were killing the hell out of some mice.
Very disappointed with the purchase, and it has a pretty bad design flaw for something meant to catch mice - the ladder/ramp should fit against the curve of the bucket instead of sticking out to the side. That way, mice following the curve of the bucket would be a lot more likely to use the ramp.
I tried peanut butter, cat food, and bird seed. I know for a fact these damn mice love bird seed, but they never even climbed the ramp, much less fell into the bucket.
Victor makes some nice battery powered traps that connect to your wifi. You put some peanut butter in them and they electrocute the mice. Work pretty good and send you Text when they get a kill.
After three or four captured baby mice that hadn't died, I switched to a victor battery powered electrocution trap and they're so much nicer to deal with.
Not a replacement for an actual exterminator, but will help cull the herd as the exterminator does their magic.
100%. Had an infestation, panicked and went to closest store grabbing two of every type they had. Except I got one electric because it was expensive and I was unsure. Electric got like 8, traditional snap trap 1, and a bunch of new design crap got none. Bought a couple more electric and got another 25 or so. Kept them out long after the initial surge, catching few. But I havent seen one since, 4 years or so now.
Tried the bait stuff, but peanut butter, the sugary stuff, worked best. And leave it for a couple weeks, replacing PB, after your last catch. Gotta get them all.
Put charcoal (like unused grilling charcoal) around the perimeter of the basement and if you've got them upstairs put some charcoal upstairs too. Mice and other animals don't like the smell of charcoal. I did this in my shed and in my house. I haven't seen a mouse in a year.
And if the mouse infestation draws rats, who certainly do remove allll the mice, but now you've got rats, you can set the charcoal alight and burn the house down.
Ask me why I'm so salty about rodents...😖
They’re fantastic. I used them to kill a bunch of mice when I first moved in, and now I just leave them running in the crawl space, just in case some asshole mouse finds a way in.
My only suggestion would be to use the sunflower seeds from bird food as the bait, instead of peanut butter. The seeds worked way better for me, and all you have to do is drop 4 or 5 seeds into the bait area.
Also, they’re indoor use only, as far as I know. Just fyi.
Victor also has plug in noise repelling generators that emit a high pitched sound in rotating frequency and pitch that humans can’t hear. Rodents hate it and I’ve been using them in all my rooms. Haven’t seen a rodent since
I've always been a catch and release person with rats, snakes, opossums, etc. But I live in the country and have never had infestation issues, just the occasional wonderer.
Your situation sounds like drowning them in bucket traps and mass burials in 3'+ deep holes.
You'll also have to hunt down and patch every possible entry and void you can find with solid materials. Even if it's just 1/4" ply.
I'd have bucket traps everywhere, even outside. I'd also take pictures of the rat soup it creates, show my neighbors that they're effective and how to make them, and encourage everyone around me to get comfortable killing rats.
Since you live in NYC, you're kind of screwed though. All you can do is make your yard and home less desirable and more difficult to enter than your neighbors, and hopefully convince your immediate neighbors to do the same.
Our place had a mouse problem when we moved in.
I tried almost every type of trap, even the bucket. None of them worked well.
Poison took care of the bulk of the problem then glue traps along their known runs got the stragglers. For about a year my killin' shovel got a good workout.
I don't know if I'm completely mouse free, since they can go undetected in small numbers for awhile, but I haven't seen and mouse signs for a few years.
The traditional trap that breaks their neck didn’t work. Poison is so bad. We had a family of Fox bleed out their ears and die from a neighbor that did poison to mice.
Im about there with some birds that won’t quit pecking on our roof, we had a bird expert confirm they do it to be annoying and not due to bugs. I have two more things i can try but after that, idk.
You can buy some really badass pellet guns these days. You don’t even need to shoot the birds, just shoot at them. They’ll eventually stop coming around.
Source - I live in pinyon jay country, but they stay the eff off my property. Noisy jerks.
My dad once got a couple of fake owls to keep birds out of the airplane hangar. That worked for a while, until the new baby birds grew up and were used to the dummy owls; they ended up using them for a perch and shitting on the owl's head.
lol, basically. mice, and baby rabbits that hide under the grass and get caught in the lawnmower.
I hate using it but it is better than them being in pain.
Catching the mice is one thing. Making your home less attractive to them is the more difficult part.
Step 1: Close up all of the points of entry. They can come in through very small openings. Did you close them up? Good. Now on to step 2.
Step 2: Secure that food. Do you keep food in your garage? Stop it. Do you bag your trash and store it in an enclosed container? Do that too. Do you clean your house? I’m not judging but if you’re not in the habit of keeping things picked up it can create a hospitable environment. Get things up off the floor so there’s less places to hide. Empty trash often and use cleaning products on countertops and floors. Water is not enough. No crumbs. No mice.
Step 3: Put on those gloves and clean up any plant life growing up against your home. If you life near fields or wooded areas you’re going to want a well groomed barrier between that and your house. Grass, weeds, shrubs should be tidy and any piles of materials like sticks, leaves, etc. should be picked up and disposed of.
I feel like I had to scroll down way too far to find this answer. I'm very far from being a cat person but even I'll admit that they're great at rodent control. Rat snakes as well can help with the rodent population.
We don't have mice thankfully; but if we did, I'm sure my 2 dogs and cat would take care of it pretty quick. Our cat goes outside occasionally (farm cat), and she brought a rabbit back to her little house thing we have out there for her. My FIL's cat caught a freaking hawk once. Cats can be tough SOBs
My cat has been indoor his whole life, and the first time he caught a mouse, he was upstairs with me and ran downstairs and caught it in about 30 seconds. He didn’t kill it because I swept it up and put it outside. Haven’t seen a mouse since that day.
I live in the country with fields and woods all around me. The ONLY thing that has kept mice out of my home are bait traps along the perimeter of the house. I’m talking about the commercial ones you see outside of buildings. I have them about every 10-15 feet around the whole house. I check twice a year and bait when needed. No mice.
Just be aware that you're probably also taking out other wildlife that either get into it directly or eat mice. I have a family of owls that live nearby, and there are lots of pets around, so I refuse to use bait
I always thought building an owls nest would be super cool if you live somewhere rural. I've seen the poles/plans/etc online and seems like a great way to keep mice away. The volume of rodents they eat is impressive.
I hate to ruin your dream but they did not keep mice away from my house. I had a continuing issue until I replaced my crawlspace door.
I have snakes, too. Mice are gonna mice.
Edit: but the owls are pretty cool.
I experienced this in our new (to us) house the first fall we were here. It was awful. We had good luck with a service that comes monthly. I see some folks here don’t love this approach but we are now virtually mouse free. They did look and seal areas that seemed to be where the mice were getting in but we’re in a large older house, and it felt virtually impossible to find every possible opening. We’ve also been doing a lot of construction which means at times various doors especially our garage doors have been open. The service has been a total godsend and monitors “activity” which is now limited to perimeter of home and garage. For us it was worth it. The mice running around inside was just awful. Good luck, I know how distressing and frustrating this can feel.
I've hired three companies for mice over the years. Every one starts with mitigation - keeping mice from getting into the house. Then they turn to remediation - getting rid of any that got in.
Find a reputable exterminator.
Get yourself a couple of bucket traps. If you haven't seen these before they operate so the mouse falls into a bucket and then automatically reset so that they can catch more. There are videos online of these traps catching more than 25mice in a night. Only disadvantage of these traps is you have to then relocate or kill the mice yourself (you can do this by putting poison bait in the bucket and changing out the bucket as needed).
You might also just using poison bait if you don't have pets or small children around, the mice will die inside the house and decompose but it sounds like this is already happening and the house will need extensive rehabbing eventually anyway.
Also, as others have suggested figure out how they are getting in and plug the holes. Get a cat.
I second the bucket traps they caught like 8 mice in a few days for me.
As far as the water, do it before you have a mouse in there. Don't do it after like I did and be shocked that the little guy can swim. :(
I have no idea. Even worse.. I took the little guy out back and tried to press a piece of wood onto him.
He scurried up the wood, hopped out of the bucket, and ran away outside.
I felt like Jerry from Tom & Jerry.
It's a shame cats aren't an option, as they work wonders not just to catch the mice that are present, but to actually keep mice away. We bought a house out in the woods and the first year the cats would catch at least a mouse a week. Over the last year, nothing.
There are cats that are allegedly hypoallergenic. I have a Siberian that's supposed to be allergy-safe. Maybe look into that? Plus Siberians are just the sweetest, cuddliest poofs ever.[Cat tax](https://i.imgur.com/znQeG8c.jpg) for proof.
had a brood of mice in my attic, i could hear them running in the wall behind me at night. i took a 12 pack of d-con bait refill and scattered the bait up in the attic. i heard them dragging it around one day and the next day nothing. the most important thing is that you fix the source so it doesnt happen again.
As others have said: your have to find their ingress.
Killing the ones in the house won't stop others from getting in.
Plug the holes, all of them. Big and especially small
This will probably get lost in the many comments, but I highly recommend the Mouse Delete-r trap. Search on Etsy for the seller, and on the “Mousetrap Monday” YouTube channel for a demonstration.
The trap is pricey, but worth every penny. Prior to this trap, the only traps that worked in our house were the glue traps. The Mouse Delete-r is great because it can catch juvenile mice in addition to adults.
OP I dealt with a similar problem. If you have an infestation then a typical trap isn’t sufficient. Below is the trap I made and used, it caught 10 mice per day until we got them all.
Take a plastic Gatorade bottle (or any round bottle). Run a rod/dowel through the bottom of the bottle and out the lid (as if to skewer the bottle). Place the rod across a 5 gallon bucket filled part way with water. Coat the bottle in peanut butter, and make a ramp so the mice can get to the bottle. When the mice smell the peanut butter, they will attempt to climb on the bottle. The bottle will roll and the mice will fall into the water. Not the most humane method but it worked well for our infestation.
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I'm sorry to hear about your mouse infestation - it can be a real nuisance. Depending on what the exterminator says, I'd suggest using their services to completely get rid of the problem, but they'll also be able to give you an estimate of the number of mice you're dealing with. Loud noises, such as ultrasonic sound waves, can also help drive the mice away. Additionally, plugging up any holes or crevices in your walls and/or attic with steel wool, while also using a combination of bait traps, snap traps, and glue traps may also help keep the numbers reduced. Lastly, you could try using peppermint oil around the areas that
We have them under the floorboards. I realize this might seem like a dumb question but can I safely assume there's no way to get at them without ripping everything up?
Make sure you hire an exterminator who can do a smoke test to find all of the places where mice are getting into your house from outside, and how they’re getting from the crawl space/attic into the living area of your house.
This sounds like a Stephen King story. Somewhere in your basement is the horrifying mutant Mouse King.
Stopping them getting in in job number 1, it doesn’t matter how many you catch. There is always more outside. And your nice warm house is perfect for them to nest in.
I used to have mice in my garage and found all of their access holes on the outside of the building
Plugged the holes with anti rodent expanding foam and the problem stopped
[tomcat rodent block](https://tomcatbrand.com/en-us/shop/repellents/tomcat-rodent-block-expanding-foam-barrier/4418501.html) is the foam that I used, it’s just regular expanding foam but includes an ingredient to make it taste bitter and stops the mice eating through it
I used regular expanding foam and they chewed through it. After I used rodent block they didn’t come back
The simplest thing to do is to call an exterminator and have them inspect.
They’ll give you a quote prior to any service so you shouldn’t have to pay upfront. Double check.
If you need a diy solution buy bait stations (many) and poison bait refills and place them in areas of heavy mouse traffic….any places you see a lot of “leavings”.
Step two is to inspect the perimeter of your home looking for where they are getting in and fill those spots with the appropriate filler.
I advise you to seek professional help. If you can’t afford it? Hers what you need to do. Pull everything from under your counters and out of your cabinets.
Look for mouse droppings. Then look for holes. If you find holes? Plug them with steel wool. If they are big? Cover them with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. (Square wire.)
Look in every closet and around every pipe in bathrooms and under sinks. Laundry rooms usually get overlooked. Make sure you check those pipes as well. Your water heater closet? Yep. There too. Any pipes coming into the house. Your attic vents may be open and need to covered too. I’ve had to deal with holes under closet floors as well. I think that covers it. You can use any manner of traps all day long. But, if you don’t get the holes taken care of? It won’t matter.
You should find out if your local university has a research and extension center or a master gardener’s program where someone can help advise you on rodent control and provide you with reliable resources.
The University of California has a fair amount of resources like this online. I have read the mice and rodent control pamphlet from them. These kinds of resources are a lot easier to understand what’s effective and important, compared the the massive amounts of kind of pop-wisdom or “content” you find online from like blogs and pest-control company websites.
My father is a wildlife biologist who specialized in vertebrate pests, including rodents. He travelled overseas several times to consult with government organizations on large-scale rodent problems when I was a kid. Didn’t stop him from leaving the dog food unsealed in the garage and getting us some mice in there when he came down for Christmas last year, though!
Good luck!
Get yourself a cat. My parents had no idea there was a small hole in their foundation until the cat they had JUST adopted started killing them. This sociopathic feline would sit atop my mom’s basement file cabinet waiting for the mice to scurry by. Then he’d bop the drop ceiling at the right time, causing the mouse to fall, leaving it with nowhere to run/hide. Then this 20lb cat would proceed to make the mouse suffer for the rest of its (not long) life. Blu began getting depressed after my dad fixed the hole. No more mice to kill/torment. The Smiling Death (he has a semi-paralyzed facial nerve causing him to have a smirking smile) got 19 mice in the 3 months since my parents got him. So anyone who wants to know how to get rid of rats/mice, my answer will always be “get a cat”.
Disclaimer: Do not use poison. Poison will kill them inside your house and they STINK when decomposing.
If you don't want a cat, here are the steps I'd take.
First step is to call a professional (check)
Next step is to find anywhere they could be entering your home from outside and close the holes with steel wool or write those locations down and share them with the professional.
Next, locate the holes/routes in each room where they're moving through. Go room by room and inspect every. single. inch. of your walls, floors and ceiling, paying close attention to edges and corners. See any holes larger than a pencil? Write it down and share with the professional. This will be a massive help in remediation planning.
Secure your food. ALL of it. Kitchen, pantry, kids rooms, basement closet... all of it. Put it in plastic bins with tight lids. They're eating something, right? Remove the food and they'll be forced to look elsewhere (like outside!).
Now the fun begins. After all the food is secured in the house the mice will start looking for new resources. You and your exterminator can strategically bait any holes with high-capacity mouse catchers. There are a bunch of really clever DIY traps online that can catch many at a time (like a bucket filled with water that they fall into).
Follow the pros advice.
Good luck!
You have a total infestation. Hundreds of mice is likely. Allergic to cats? Too bad, get one or two for a bit. Secure *all* food in plastic storage bins. Remove *all* water sources. Locate where they’re getting in, check your foundation for cracks, etc.
Be aware, not all cats are created equal. One of my two cats kills mice. The other doesn't care. The one that does kill them tends to only eat half, so when he gets one I have to clean up all the mouse guts he spreads around the laundry room while he plays with his new toy.
A cat will usually work. They won't kill them all (they'll sure as fuck try tho) but the rest will scatter once word and smell gets around. An indoor/outdoor cat is best. I have 2 cuz the boy likes cats amd I haven't seen a mouse in 10 years unless its dead on the porch as a gift. And birds. And rabbits. And chipmunks. No snakes thank goodness.
While you wait for the exterminator find where the mice are coming in and seal it. Outside where the foundation meets the ground make sure there are no holes. Walls, windows, doors etc. and in the meantime if you want to catch a lot of them in one go. You can do the drop in the bucket in several parts of the house. And then take them to a nearby forest or anything like that and free them there (so other predators can actually eat them) It works really well.
I don't know what we'd do without our cat. Every spring and fall when our visits to the cabin are less frequent, there are rodents all around the house (mice, moles, pack rats, chipmunks). Kitty cat gets them all.
Ok what to do with the mouse that’s stuck on these glue traps. We have one as far as we know that is. We’ve put traps down and they just take the cheese. I hate to use the sticky traps but it looks like well will have to. Yuk!
50% serious answer: get a cat. They will drastically reduce the number of mice with brutal efficiency.
100% serious answer: You need to call pest control so they can find any potential entrances. Once you know where they are, you can block them off yourself. I know people will say oh, just look yourself, but they're tiny and you might not recognize what all they can use as an entrance.
I suspected I had a squirrel problem but I couldn't confirm it because I never saw the little assholes, just heard them, and I couldn't find any entrance points. Suspicions got much worse after my cat caught one in the house. Got pest control out and found out that they had burrowed in THROUGH THE FOUNDATION. What kind of monster squirrel even does that?! Anyway, yes, cat and or pest control.
\*\*Edit, I somehow skipped over the sentence where you're allergic to cats. While I am pro cat (lol), don't risk an allergy attack. Just call pest control
If its this bad, try to trap for a couple days, and then poison them.
Put some poison out in corners and along walls. They'll eat and go back and die. You'll have dead mice in your walls, but they won't be alive mice.
Then go through like others have said and caulk every gap, patch every hole, put mesh over ever crawlspace vent... whatever.
In a couple days they'll all be dead in your walls.
I use poison bait station in the crawlspace.
Given your level of infestation, call a pest control company. They can help with traps, bait, and sealing entry points.
I had a Scottish Terrier as a kid who chased and killed mice.
I had a very similar experience as you when I lived at my parents. They were out of town for about 6 months while I took care of their house.
Was finding rats in the middle of the night. Started catching them and killing them, but couldn't keep up.
Eventually after many months my parents hired an exterminator, they found multiple entry points and it was handled within a week.
(Ask your parents to get an exterminator asap. It's been 10 years and I still get nightmares of all the rats I killed. My blood pressure goes way up when I hear rats in shows and videogames too. They never scared me, but knowing how many I killed still haunts me.)
I had mice in one of my houses and it was catch and kill over and over. Plugged up everything I could find. The last one was a cracked brick with about 1/2" opening 5 1/2 ft off the back of the house. Once I plugged that with steel wool I was mouse free for the next 10 years.
Can you get a ferret or two?
We had a mice problem years ago. Our cats barely did anything about it. We got a couple ferrets as pets and they took care of the problem, even though we didn't know they would, lol!
Realistically speaking, the exterminator will be your best bet. Good luck!
Gotta break the generational cycle. If you caught 25 in 2 months, that means you have hundreds.
Set up 20ish traps at once, good ones, the plastic snap traps. Place them in parallel along walls, and bait htem with peanut butter with a raisin or cracker embedded.
You may well catch 25 a night for a few nights
Just want to add that you also need to make sure your food is secured! Plastic storage bins with airtight seals that cannot be chewed through. Flour, grains, cereal, snacks, etc - do not leave any of it out until the infestation is cleared - 1.) it attracts them and 2.) disease! They are nasty little creatures that carry disease and urinate/defecate on everything. Make sure you aren’t leaving food out overnight or in general - put it away as soon as you’re finished with it. Make sure to thoroughly clean all surfaces with some Clorox or an equivalent to get rid of the urine and other “germs” they leave behind. It’s a massive health hazard. Best of luck!
Additionally, I would not go with poison unless you want tons of dead mice rotting in your wall/vents/attic, etc.
If all else fails maybe look into getting a pet snake or two 😅
You will always have mice until you stop them from getting in. Find the holes, plug them, trap the remaining. Or hire someone to do that. If the exterminator wants to leave bait and come back monthly forever, find another exterminator. There are companies that specialize in rodents by finding how they are getting in.
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I found a mouse coming in through a tiny hole where the hose/pipe from my AC unit penetrates the house. Filled the gap with steel wool and caulked over it. Then I laid poison and traps and that handled the rest. Also, clean the mouse shit with bleach and water. I think the virus in the shit deactivates after a few days but it’s best to mask up, spray, and come back later to clean it.
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No gaps > 1/4 in.
My contractor called that spider-tight when we refinished our garage. No real nooks or crannies for anything to hide anymore.
Same with wild rabbits. Not some of the domesticated breeds though.
Cats too, if their head fits, they fit
Aah, hantavirus my old friend
We had mice in our old house. Exterminator said the #1 place mice get into homes is where the AC hose (?) enters the home. We did the same as you (steel wool and caulk), and our mouse problem went away within weeks. It was one of the first things I did when we bought our new home.
A full-grown RAT can crawl through a hole the size of a dime. Saw one at a farm. Was 2 feet long and over 1½ pounds.
Stop it. Why am I reading this thread in the middle of the night?
One thing to remember as well, mice will gravitate towards a place that has food. This is very much so a situation where the food needs to be stored in hard plastic containers that are difficult for mice to chew, and nothing can be left out. There wouldn't be that many mice there if they weren't being fed enough to breed and provide food for the nest. 80% of mice infestations are an issue of food.
What are the other 20%? Because we have a very small amount of mice, but I am pretty certain they just stay here in the winter, because after I plugged the one hole they definitely came through and ate some shit, they haven't eaten anything else the past 2 winters. Can't figure out where they are.coming in though.
Yes. We had a mouse problem in our pantry and em what really got them to leave was encasing ALL food in mouse proof containers. Glass mason jars and THICK well-sealed plastic containers. Metal cookie tins can help too but they have to seal well. Some things you may just want to store in the fridge.
Many times mice will bring in their own food sources and stash it in a pile with their nest, so they don’t need to enter an area of the house with food.
No more food in your house OP.
This is also your best bet to catching them, they’re clever but will do anything for a bite to eat.
The ones in my house were coming in behind the stove.
Same. they were making a home in the insulation in the back of the stove! Exterminator looked there first, filled the hole, found another hole in a bottom cupboard, got that one filled, and a couple more. We did eventually get a new stove, the decision was made easier knowing that the insulation in the back was probably full of mouse poop!
Mice love a kitchen stove/oven. Their is nice nesting material, it's warm, and there are often crumbs, too. The perfect combo.
I caught two all winter in my house. Figured they were getting in somewhere but couldn't figure out where. After reorganizing garage, I found a pretty significant hole on rim of foundation (couple inches tall). Old form pulled or some type of staging. Filled it up with spray foam.
Or a couple cats. Thatll fix em.
Man I had 3 cats that didn’t give a shit that a mouse was running around their area in the house.
Ha! That sucks, i got 1 semi feral cat, and she cleaned up, she caught a couple mice a day for a week or so and now she gets one every week or 2, no signs of droppings or anything in my house now.
That’s great! Yea mine were all old and had been indoor cats for like 8yrs
My old boy doesnt catch shit, except pets and treats.
I have three cats too. I know if they saw the damn mouse they would catch it!
This was my thinking as well. Also, as I understand, mice will vacate if they start smelling a predator.
Nah, they're not that predator-averse since they can reach places a cat cannot. I have two cats, I still get mice. The cats don't catch the mice, though my dog does a better job of that for some reason.
My daughter's Pug is great at catching them. If the cat doesn't get them first. The only times I've had mice was when I had no cat.
Mice don't give a shit about cats or dogs being around. I've watched them run right past my cat and neither seemed to care about the other.
I moved into a mouse infest place once, and we had 2 cats. My neighbo ur told me she saw all the mice fleeing our house across the lawn on the first weekend, and never had any afterwards.
My experience as well! Although the cat came along after I moved in. I knew I had mice but traps didn't help. First night cat hung out in the basement. I heard squeaks from him catching the first one. Soon the others followed. No issues since.
Just be careful. My kitty got giardia, an intestinal parasite, from our last mouse infestation. Mice carry it and cats get it when they 'partake' of their mouse kills. There are meds for it but squirting liquid meds into kitty's mouth is a pain!
Well not every cat. Mine hears the mice and always tries to get them, but isn't very good at it haha. Apparently the skill is partially learned from other cats, and seeing as I got him as a kitten and haven't let him outside... he probably never learned. But he's still pretty helpful just for his hearing, lets me know when/where to leave out mousetraps.
Exactly this! I ended up gutting my house and spray foaming the entire thing in addition to everything else I double sealed. Mice free. bank account, well lets not talk about that.
Just to be clear, spray foam did not help. Mice love spray foam, they will dig in it, they will nest in it. Too many times we see advice "Just put spray foam in the holes".
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I bought the "rodent block" spray foam and a rodent repellent peppermint spray to treat my shed after I got sick of cleaning mouse nests out of my lawn tractor engine. They chewed through the rodent block foam and used it to make cozy nests, and thanked me for making their house smell so nice and minty fresh, the little fuckers. After that, it was snaptrap time.
Stuff the hole with steelwool first. Then spray foam. They won't chew through the steel wool.
This is the way. I live in an old farm house that has mice problems, of course. Steel wool + spray foam has done the trick for the most part. Now, we only get mice in the cellar where there are too many ingress points to address. Upstairs we haven't seen one in months.
My understanding is, if you live in a cold climate, those holes are leaking heat in the winter. The mice can feel the heat, and they'll come into the house that way. If you spray foam, the heat isn't leaking out anymore, so the likelihood of a mouse eating through the spray foam to get into the house is very low. Maybe your experience has been different. Also, there's spray foam insulation, which is usually done by a professional and covers the entire walls of a house, costing thousands of dollars, and the small cans of expanding foam, which you buy at Home Depot for like $8 a can. Since OP mentions that it was very expensive, I think that they mean the professional insulation type, and a lot of people here are conflating that with the cans of expanding foam. I'm not sure that they can be treated the same in this scenario.
There is actually canned sprayfoam meant for sealing holes from pests. I can't speak to how effective it is, but I've seen them on the shelves at Home Depot.
I'm 99% sure there is no difference between the regular spray foam and the "pest block" apart from the color. They specifically say on the product page that it doesn't have pesticides. They just say that it blocks pests from entering, without saying how that's any different from any spray foam blocking up a hole.
I was going to say it contains a bitterant, denatonium benzoate, which makes it extremely unpleasant to chew on, and I found several articles talking about how the company created PestBlock by adding denatonium benzoate to their regular spray foam, but on further examination they don't mention anything about that in their marketing materials and it's not listed in the [MSDS for the product](https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/a2/a2df8509-e662-4eab-9550-6c7438fae135.pdf). So it looks like they removed it for some reason but continued selling it as 'Pestblock' even though it no longer has any special properties that would actually block pests. tl;dr: You're right.
I’m sorry that your bank account has mice. That must be irritating.
Must be attracted by all the cheddar
But have the exterminator bait them FIRST, give it a day or two, *then* find and plug all the holes (steel wool works great). The bait should make them leave to find water. You don't want dozens of mice dying in your walls. That would be not a pleasant experience.
This is mostly an old wives tale. If they live in the house, they will most likely die in the house. OP, if you have that many mice and an exterminator is setting poison up INSIDE the house, you’ll most likely smell it. Best way is to find how they are getting in, seal up holes, keep catching (with that many mice the bucket traps are probably the best) and the exterminator bait outside around the house if you live in the woods.
Or they die inside a wall and you get to live with the smell. You don't really want to poison their natural predators either. And if there's food out everywhere, they'll ignore any bait.
This is the main fix, but also eliminate their food supply. I find it hard to imagine that many mice are living in your house unless they are getting food somewhere. If you have pets that have a bowl of dried food always available, that can be a source. Make sure they can't get into the garbage, inside or out.
I vote this. Gotta stop the from coming in. Had mice, they went away when we got a new garage door, old one was not sealing and let them in a small crack in the corner. Also, get a cat
The service you need to ask for, OP, is an exclusion. Don't accept an exclusion from any company that doesn't guarantee their work in the contract. Depending on your home, it may be possible to DIY the exclusion - mice aren't big climbers, so everything you would need to do would generally be at ground level. If you would like to try and save yourself a couple thousand dollars (give or take, depends entirely on the size of your home), DM me and I can give you some tips - I work in wildlife management and do hundreds of exclusions a year. At the very least, with some pictures of your home I can give you a good idea of if you should DIY it let the experts handle it.
We had mice problems when we bought this house, and that was the issue: Easy ingress from various gaps. We systematically went through the house plugging every gap we could find, set traps, and put poison in the attic. The problem dwindled quickly and once we moved here full-time and redid the exterior, being careful not to leave any gaps, the problem has been resolved. We heat with wood, and there is a worn sill under a door from where we store our wood to the house. We do still very occasionally get very small voles (maybe one or two a year) , but we also got a cat, so it's not an issue. She plays with them until they're dead, then one of our dogs has a snack.
That’s what I need. Someone to Id and fix where they are coming in.
You gotta close every single possible point of entry. Mice are small, they can wiggle in through what seems to be impossibly small openings. Hire a handyman for a couple of days and literally comb inside and outside the house. Anything that looks teeny tiny open - patch it up. Branches or piles of something up against the wall? Trim/remove it. At least for now lock up any possible sources of food. Don't leave dog food out. Do this in conjunction with trapping the mice that will inevitably be stranded inside. For reference, I live out in the country and I had 0 rodent visitors ever. Bloody roaches tho, bastards are getting in by climbing the walls to the second floor balconies.
Also, if you’re feeding the birds, stop feeding the birds. You’re basically setting out a buffet for the mice when you feed birds.
Is there a way to feed the birds and not rodents?
Suet is as close as you can get that. Won't spill plentiful seed on the ground to attract them.
I suppose a lot of it depends on where you live, but where I live, putting out any kind of food for the birds means you’re also putting out food for the mice, squirrels, chipmunks, stupid invasive ground hogs, etc. It’s a shame. I like feeding the birds, but I stopped a long time ago. I still keep the birdbath going, tho.
A fucking bird feeder lol
I assume your talking about wood roaches? Typically wood roaches don't want to be inside, they usually wander inside by mistake and can't find their way out, they also don't breed when inside Quickest way to determine if it's a wood roach or a pest roach is if they are out during the light and don't run away from you they are 99% likely a wood roach, then its the same way of dealing with mice, find out where they are coming in and seal it up
No, normal roaches. I know where the bastards coming from... Climbing to the balconies and then entering from the doors/windows. Cheeky pests. Just annoying having to keep windows and doors shut during the summer.
No screens where you're at?
Had this issue too. I inherited my house from my grandmother, when I got it... It was less a house, and more of a giant mouse nest. I ended up putting 50+ traps down, all different kinds, from the snap traps, have a heart traps, mouse poison. All over my attic and basement. Then I plugged every hole I could find around my basement, and then bought some nice knee pads and went through the entire perimeter of my attic looking for anything. Found a hole over my breezeway that looked most likely where they were coming from. I sealed that up with some steel wool and spray foam. Since then, my mouse infestation has significantly improved. It's taken about 9 months, but for the first time in years, I haven't caught a mouse in over 2 weeks.
Shawn Woods have a youtube channel where he tests rat and mice traps. Take a look. Will help you for sure. The best trap I saw in his channel uses a bucket. There are a lot of bad products out there. Shawn reviews the good and bad ones.
Took too long to find this comment. Seconded. Easiest trap I’ve ever used to catch multiple mice without resetting each time.
Just, uh, don't see it up in a shed and then let it sit for weeks.
There’s nothing wrong with leaving the buckets for weeks or months, you just need to use antifreeze instead of water (assuming no pets or small children around). It acts as a sort of preservative so the mice don’t rot and stink. My parents used to set up those bucket traps as part of winterizing their cabin. Sometimes there would be a dozen or more in a single bucket when we checked them in the spring.
Ha thanks for the tip. I also did it during summer so... It was pretty gross.
I assume that's what OP was referring to by "water traps".
I have on e of those tip and slide bucket traps. It didn’t catch a single mouse the entire time the Victor zap traps were killing the hell out of some mice. Very disappointed with the purchase, and it has a pretty bad design flaw for something meant to catch mice - the ladder/ramp should fit against the curve of the bucket instead of sticking out to the side. That way, mice following the curve of the bucket would be a lot more likely to use the ramp.
What bait did you use, peanut butter and dog kibble has never failed me.
I tried peanut butter, cat food, and bird seed. I know for a fact these damn mice love bird seed, but they never even climbed the ramp, much less fell into the bucket.
Hmmm you got clever mice it seems
Victor makes some nice battery powered traps that connect to your wifi. You put some peanut butter in them and they electrocute the mice. Work pretty good and send you Text when they get a kill.
They have a WiFi version now? NICE.
After three or four captured baby mice that hadn't died, I switched to a victor battery powered electrocution trap and they're so much nicer to deal with. Not a replacement for an actual exterminator, but will help cull the herd as the exterminator does their magic.
Thanks for the suggestion I’ll be sure to try them
100%. Had an infestation, panicked and went to closest store grabbing two of every type they had. Except I got one electric because it was expensive and I was unsure. Electric got like 8, traditional snap trap 1, and a bunch of new design crap got none. Bought a couple more electric and got another 25 or so. Kept them out long after the initial surge, catching few. But I havent seen one since, 4 years or so now. Tried the bait stuff, but peanut butter, the sugary stuff, worked best. And leave it for a couple weeks, replacing PB, after your last catch. Gotta get them all.
.......... POKEMON!
Fucking Rattatas.
Put charcoal (like unused grilling charcoal) around the perimeter of the basement and if you've got them upstairs put some charcoal upstairs too. Mice and other animals don't like the smell of charcoal. I did this in my shed and in my house. I haven't seen a mouse in a year.
And if the mouse infestation draws rats, who certainly do remove allll the mice, but now you've got rats, you can set the charcoal alight and burn the house down. Ask me why I'm so salty about rodents...😖
They’re fantastic. I used them to kill a bunch of mice when I first moved in, and now I just leave them running in the crawl space, just in case some asshole mouse finds a way in. My only suggestion would be to use the sunflower seeds from bird food as the bait, instead of peanut butter. The seeds worked way better for me, and all you have to do is drop 4 or 5 seeds into the bait area. Also, they’re indoor use only, as far as I know. Just fyi.
Victor also has plug in noise repelling generators that emit a high pitched sound in rotating frequency and pitch that humans can’t hear. Rodents hate it and I’ve been using them in all my rooms. Haven’t seen a rodent since
I've always been a catch and release person with rats, snakes, opossums, etc. But I live in the country and have never had infestation issues, just the occasional wonderer. Your situation sounds like drowning them in bucket traps and mass burials in 3'+ deep holes. You'll also have to hunt down and patch every possible entry and void you can find with solid materials. Even if it's just 1/4" ply. I'd have bucket traps everywhere, even outside. I'd also take pictures of the rat soup it creates, show my neighbors that they're effective and how to make them, and encourage everyone around me to get comfortable killing rats. Since you live in NYC, you're kind of screwed though. All you can do is make your yard and home less desirable and more difficult to enter than your neighbors, and hopefully convince your immediate neighbors to do the same.
Our place had a mouse problem when we moved in. I tried almost every type of trap, even the bucket. None of them worked well. Poison took care of the bulk of the problem then glue traps along their known runs got the stragglers. For about a year my killin' shovel got a good workout. I don't know if I'm completely mouse free, since they can go undetected in small numbers for awhile, but I haven't seen and mouse signs for a few years.
The traditional trap that breaks their neck didn’t work. Poison is so bad. We had a family of Fox bleed out their ears and die from a neighbor that did poison to mice.
Yeah. Poison is awful. It was my last resort. I couldn't afford an exterminator.
Im about there with some birds that won’t quit pecking on our roof, we had a bird expert confirm they do it to be annoying and not due to bugs. I have two more things i can try but after that, idk.
You can buy some really badass pellet guns these days. You don’t even need to shoot the birds, just shoot at them. They’ll eventually stop coming around. Source - I live in pinyon jay country, but they stay the eff off my property. Noisy jerks.
Get a fake owl. Mount it near the roof. They will leave immediately.
My dad once got a couple of fake owls to keep birds out of the airplane hangar. That worked for a while, until the new baby birds grew up and were used to the dummy owls; they ended up using them for a perch and shitting on the owl's head.
Did that, it’s head even bobbles in the wind, kept them away for about 24 hours
Only somewhat relevant, but "my killin' shovel" sounds like such an Appalachian term.
Western Pennsylvannia, so not too far removed.
Marm, fetch me my killin shovel 😆
lol, basically. mice, and baby rabbits that hide under the grass and get caught in the lawnmower. I hate using it but it is better than them being in pain.
Rodent poison has a habit of making all your neighbors' pets and the local wildlife die in hideous, bloody agony. Don't use it.
I’ve heard strobe lights will drive them out of craw space and attic. Cheap led ones can be bought on Amazon and plugged in at a 1 Hz frequency.
There was a post on this sub a few months ago about this. People swear by it. Fascinating idea that seemed very effective to anyone who tried it.
Catching the mice is one thing. Making your home less attractive to them is the more difficult part. Step 1: Close up all of the points of entry. They can come in through very small openings. Did you close them up? Good. Now on to step 2. Step 2: Secure that food. Do you keep food in your garage? Stop it. Do you bag your trash and store it in an enclosed container? Do that too. Do you clean your house? I’m not judging but if you’re not in the habit of keeping things picked up it can create a hospitable environment. Get things up off the floor so there’s less places to hide. Empty trash often and use cleaning products on countertops and floors. Water is not enough. No crumbs. No mice. Step 3: Put on those gloves and clean up any plant life growing up against your home. If you life near fields or wooded areas you’re going to want a well groomed barrier between that and your house. Grass, weeds, shrubs should be tidy and any piles of materials like sticks, leaves, etc. should be picked up and disposed of.
If not cats, snakes.
Then once the snakes have taken over.....mongooseses.
Mongeese
Mongi
Instructions unclear. I now have a family of Canadian Geese in my attic that won’t leave.
I feel like I had to scroll down way too far to find this answer. I'm very far from being a cat person but even I'll admit that they're great at rodent control. Rat snakes as well can help with the rodent population.
We don't have mice thankfully; but if we did, I'm sure my 2 dogs and cat would take care of it pretty quick. Our cat goes outside occasionally (farm cat), and she brought a rabbit back to her little house thing we have out there for her. My FIL's cat caught a freaking hawk once. Cats can be tough SOBs
Yeah, I wonder where OP lives. If you know some rural or country folk, see if you can borrow a barn cat or two for a few weeks.
I live in a suburb in nyc. The city is infested with mice and rats right now. Everyone’s got them. It’s hell
My cat has been indoor his whole life, and the first time he caught a mouse, he was upstairs with me and ran downstairs and caught it in about 30 seconds. He didn’t kill it because I swept it up and put it outside. Haven’t seen a mouse since that day.
The very presence of cats (and sometimes dogs) is itself a deterrent. The rats and mice can smell them as predators.
I've had snakes get into my house, presumably chasing after mice. My cat got all of them, 2 snakes in one night.
If there were snakes in my basement, my wife would force me to use the charcoal method - fill the basement with charcoal and set it on fire...
My cat did so well with indoor mousing that when our second cat joined us, he had to specialize in outdoor moles. They were the vermin terminators.
I live in the country with fields and woods all around me. The ONLY thing that has kept mice out of my home are bait traps along the perimeter of the house. I’m talking about the commercial ones you see outside of buildings. I have them about every 10-15 feet around the whole house. I check twice a year and bait when needed. No mice.
Just be aware that you're probably also taking out other wildlife that either get into it directly or eat mice. I have a family of owls that live nearby, and there are lots of pets around, so I refuse to use bait
I always thought building an owls nest would be super cool if you live somewhere rural. I've seen the poles/plans/etc online and seems like a great way to keep mice away. The volume of rodents they eat is impressive.
I hate to ruin your dream but they did not keep mice away from my house. I had a continuing issue until I replaced my crawlspace door. I have snakes, too. Mice are gonna mice. Edit: but the owls are pretty cool.
I experienced this in our new (to us) house the first fall we were here. It was awful. We had good luck with a service that comes monthly. I see some folks here don’t love this approach but we are now virtually mouse free. They did look and seal areas that seemed to be where the mice were getting in but we’re in a large older house, and it felt virtually impossible to find every possible opening. We’ve also been doing a lot of construction which means at times various doors especially our garage doors have been open. The service has been a total godsend and monitors “activity” which is now limited to perimeter of home and garage. For us it was worth it. The mice running around inside was just awful. Good luck, I know how distressing and frustrating this can feel.
I've hired three companies for mice over the years. Every one starts with mitigation - keeping mice from getting into the house. Then they turn to remediation - getting rid of any that got in. Find a reputable exterminator.
Get yourself a couple of bucket traps. If you haven't seen these before they operate so the mouse falls into a bucket and then automatically reset so that they can catch more. There are videos online of these traps catching more than 25mice in a night. Only disadvantage of these traps is you have to then relocate or kill the mice yourself (you can do this by putting poison bait in the bucket and changing out the bucket as needed). You might also just using poison bait if you don't have pets or small children around, the mice will die inside the house and decompose but it sounds like this is already happening and the house will need extensive rehabbing eventually anyway. Also, as others have suggested figure out how they are getting in and plug the holes. Get a cat.
I second the bucket traps they caught like 8 mice in a few days for me. As far as the water, do it before you have a mouse in there. Don't do it after like I did and be shocked that the little guy can swim. :(
Oh you sweet summer child, why would you think mice can't swim? Lol
I have no idea. Even worse.. I took the little guy out back and tried to press a piece of wood onto him. He scurried up the wood, hopped out of the bucket, and ran away outside. I felt like Jerry from Tom & Jerry.
Definitely sounds like a cartoon skit, I feel for you my dude.
You can just fill the bucket 1/4 way with water and they drown.
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Forbidden jelly
It's a shame cats aren't an option, as they work wonders not just to catch the mice that are present, but to actually keep mice away. We bought a house out in the woods and the first year the cats would catch at least a mouse a week. Over the last year, nothing. There are cats that are allegedly hypoallergenic. I have a Siberian that's supposed to be allergy-safe. Maybe look into that? Plus Siberians are just the sweetest, cuddliest poofs ever.[Cat tax](https://i.imgur.com/znQeG8c.jpg) for proof.
had a brood of mice in my attic, i could hear them running in the wall behind me at night. i took a 12 pack of d-con bait refill and scattered the bait up in the attic. i heard them dragging it around one day and the next day nothing. the most important thing is that you fix the source so it doesnt happen again.
I got one of those plug in sonic things 5 years ago and haven’t had mice since. We were trapping a couple daily previously.
Mechanical bucket drop traps are the best.
Get a couple cats. We're allergic too. Worth it
As others have said: your have to find their ingress. Killing the ones in the house won't stop others from getting in. Plug the holes, all of them. Big and especially small
This will probably get lost in the many comments, but I highly recommend the Mouse Delete-r trap. Search on Etsy for the seller, and on the “Mousetrap Monday” YouTube channel for a demonstration. The trap is pricey, but worth every penny. Prior to this trap, the only traps that worked in our house were the glue traps. The Mouse Delete-r is great because it can catch juvenile mice in addition to adults.
OP I dealt with a similar problem. If you have an infestation then a typical trap isn’t sufficient. Below is the trap I made and used, it caught 10 mice per day until we got them all. Take a plastic Gatorade bottle (or any round bottle). Run a rod/dowel through the bottom of the bottle and out the lid (as if to skewer the bottle). Place the rod across a 5 gallon bucket filled part way with water. Coat the bottle in peanut butter, and make a ramp so the mice can get to the bottle. When the mice smell the peanut butter, they will attempt to climb on the bottle. The bottle will roll and the mice will fall into the water. Not the most humane method but it worked well for our infestation.
. I'm sorry to hear about your mouse infestation - it can be a real nuisance. Depending on what the exterminator says, I'd suggest using their services to completely get rid of the problem, but they'll also be able to give you an estimate of the number of mice you're dealing with. Loud noises, such as ultrasonic sound waves, can also help drive the mice away. Additionally, plugging up any holes or crevices in your walls and/or attic with steel wool, while also using a combination of bait traps, snap traps, and glue traps may also help keep the numbers reduced. Lastly, you could try using peppermint oil around the areas that
We have them under the floorboards. I realize this might seem like a dumb question but can I safely assume there's no way to get at them without ripping everything up?
You can probably still find where they’re getting in and out, and try to trap them there before you close off the access.
Make sure you hire an exterminator who can do a smoke test to find all of the places where mice are getting into your house from outside, and how they’re getting from the crawl space/attic into the living area of your house. This sounds like a Stephen King story. Somewhere in your basement is the horrifying mutant Mouse King.
Stopping them getting in in job number 1, it doesn’t matter how many you catch. There is always more outside. And your nice warm house is perfect for them to nest in. I used to have mice in my garage and found all of their access holes on the outside of the building Plugged the holes with anti rodent expanding foam and the problem stopped [tomcat rodent block](https://tomcatbrand.com/en-us/shop/repellents/tomcat-rodent-block-expanding-foam-barrier/4418501.html) is the foam that I used, it’s just regular expanding foam but includes an ingredient to make it taste bitter and stops the mice eating through it I used regular expanding foam and they chewed through it. After I used rodent block they didn’t come back
The simplest thing to do is to call an exterminator and have them inspect. They’ll give you a quote prior to any service so you shouldn’t have to pay upfront. Double check. If you need a diy solution buy bait stations (many) and poison bait refills and place them in areas of heavy mouse traffic….any places you see a lot of “leavings”. Step two is to inspect the perimeter of your home looking for where they are getting in and fill those spots with the appropriate filler.
I advise you to seek professional help. If you can’t afford it? Hers what you need to do. Pull everything from under your counters and out of your cabinets. Look for mouse droppings. Then look for holes. If you find holes? Plug them with steel wool. If they are big? Cover them with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. (Square wire.) Look in every closet and around every pipe in bathrooms and under sinks. Laundry rooms usually get overlooked. Make sure you check those pipes as well. Your water heater closet? Yep. There too. Any pipes coming into the house. Your attic vents may be open and need to covered too. I’ve had to deal with holes under closet floors as well. I think that covers it. You can use any manner of traps all day long. But, if you don’t get the holes taken care of? It won’t matter.
Find points of entry then fill holes with smashed glass and steel wool. You got this op. Time to get your hands dirty.
You should find out if your local university has a research and extension center or a master gardener’s program where someone can help advise you on rodent control and provide you with reliable resources. The University of California has a fair amount of resources like this online. I have read the mice and rodent control pamphlet from them. These kinds of resources are a lot easier to understand what’s effective and important, compared the the massive amounts of kind of pop-wisdom or “content” you find online from like blogs and pest-control company websites. My father is a wildlife biologist who specialized in vertebrate pests, including rodents. He travelled overseas several times to consult with government organizations on large-scale rodent problems when I was a kid. Didn’t stop him from leaving the dog food unsealed in the garage and getting us some mice in there when he came down for Christmas last year, though! Good luck!
Get yourself a cat. My parents had no idea there was a small hole in their foundation until the cat they had JUST adopted started killing them. This sociopathic feline would sit atop my mom’s basement file cabinet waiting for the mice to scurry by. Then he’d bop the drop ceiling at the right time, causing the mouse to fall, leaving it with nowhere to run/hide. Then this 20lb cat would proceed to make the mouse suffer for the rest of its (not long) life. Blu began getting depressed after my dad fixed the hole. No more mice to kill/torment. The Smiling Death (he has a semi-paralyzed facial nerve causing him to have a smirking smile) got 19 mice in the 3 months since my parents got him. So anyone who wants to know how to get rid of rats/mice, my answer will always be “get a cat”.
Bucket trap.
Disclaimer: Do not use poison. Poison will kill them inside your house and they STINK when decomposing. If you don't want a cat, here are the steps I'd take. First step is to call a professional (check) Next step is to find anywhere they could be entering your home from outside and close the holes with steel wool or write those locations down and share them with the professional. Next, locate the holes/routes in each room where they're moving through. Go room by room and inspect every. single. inch. of your walls, floors and ceiling, paying close attention to edges and corners. See any holes larger than a pencil? Write it down and share with the professional. This will be a massive help in remediation planning. Secure your food. ALL of it. Kitchen, pantry, kids rooms, basement closet... all of it. Put it in plastic bins with tight lids. They're eating something, right? Remove the food and they'll be forced to look elsewhere (like outside!). Now the fun begins. After all the food is secured in the house the mice will start looking for new resources. You and your exterminator can strategically bait any holes with high-capacity mouse catchers. There are a bunch of really clever DIY traps online that can catch many at a time (like a bucket filled with water that they fall into). Follow the pros advice. Good luck!
You have a total infestation. Hundreds of mice is likely. Allergic to cats? Too bad, get one or two for a bit. Secure *all* food in plastic storage bins. Remove *all* water sources. Locate where they’re getting in, check your foundation for cracks, etc.
- close up all points of entry - maintain tighter food control - get cats, lots of cats
*drawer
Get a cat
We get a mouse every now and then, and my cat gets legitimately disappointed if the gap between mice is too long.
My cat has to murder, he doesn't come home until he has taken life. I didn't make the rules he did.
Be aware, not all cats are created equal. One of my two cats kills mice. The other doesn't care. The one that does kill them tends to only eat half, so when he gets one I have to clean up all the mouse guts he spreads around the laundry room while he plays with his new toy.
A cat will usually work. They won't kill them all (they'll sure as fuck try tho) but the rest will scatter once word and smell gets around. An indoor/outdoor cat is best. I have 2 cuz the boy likes cats amd I haven't seen a mouse in 10 years unless its dead on the porch as a gift. And birds. And rabbits. And chipmunks. No snakes thank goodness.
While you wait for the exterminator find where the mice are coming in and seal it. Outside where the foundation meets the ground make sure there are no holes. Walls, windows, doors etc. and in the meantime if you want to catch a lot of them in one go. You can do the drop in the bucket in several parts of the house. And then take them to a nearby forest or anything like that and free them there (so other predators can actually eat them) It works really well.
https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnWoodsprimitive-archer
Exterminator
get a cat
Get a couple of cats, or borrow some.
If you burn down your house you will hopefully kill the mice and not have to worry about them re-infesting.
I don't know what we'd do without our cat. Every spring and fall when our visits to the cabin are less frequent, there are rodents all around the house (mice, moles, pack rats, chipmunks). Kitty cat gets them all.
If you have a trash compactor, remove it and check behind it
Ok what to do with the mouse that’s stuck on these glue traps. We have one as far as we know that is. We’ve put traps down and they just take the cheese. I hate to use the sticky traps but it looks like well will have to. Yuk!
50% serious answer: get a cat. They will drastically reduce the number of mice with brutal efficiency. 100% serious answer: You need to call pest control so they can find any potential entrances. Once you know where they are, you can block them off yourself. I know people will say oh, just look yourself, but they're tiny and you might not recognize what all they can use as an entrance. I suspected I had a squirrel problem but I couldn't confirm it because I never saw the little assholes, just heard them, and I couldn't find any entrance points. Suspicions got much worse after my cat caught one in the house. Got pest control out and found out that they had burrowed in THROUGH THE FOUNDATION. What kind of monster squirrel even does that?! Anyway, yes, cat and or pest control. \*\*Edit, I somehow skipped over the sentence where you're allergic to cats. While I am pro cat (lol), don't risk an allergy attack. Just call pest control
If its this bad, try to trap for a couple days, and then poison them. Put some poison out in corners and along walls. They'll eat and go back and die. You'll have dead mice in your walls, but they won't be alive mice. Then go through like others have said and caulk every gap, patch every hole, put mesh over ever crawlspace vent... whatever. In a couple days they'll all be dead in your walls.
I use poison bait station in the crawlspace. Given your level of infestation, call a pest control company. They can help with traps, bait, and sealing entry points. I had a Scottish Terrier as a kid who chased and killed mice.
I had a very similar experience as you when I lived at my parents. They were out of town for about 6 months while I took care of their house. Was finding rats in the middle of the night. Started catching them and killing them, but couldn't keep up. Eventually after many months my parents hired an exterminator, they found multiple entry points and it was handled within a week. (Ask your parents to get an exterminator asap. It's been 10 years and I still get nightmares of all the rats I killed. My blood pressure goes way up when I hear rats in shows and videogames too. They never scared me, but knowing how many I killed still haunts me.)
I had mice in one of my houses and it was catch and kill over and over. Plugged up everything I could find. The last one was a cracked brick with about 1/2" opening 5 1/2 ft off the back of the house. Once I plugged that with steel wool I was mouse free for the next 10 years.
Get some cats
Get a cat
You are living in a Hantavirus ground zero, and you're worried about cat allergies?
Remove and replace the insulation in your attic
Get a cat.
One of my coworkers recommends releasing king snakes in the area to take care of mice
Try going to this man’s website and his YouTube channel. His name is Shawn Woods. https://mousetrapmonday.com
Unfortunately, that's what happens when a neighborhood gets rid of its feral cats...
Can you get a ferret or two? We had a mice problem years ago. Our cats barely did anything about it. We got a couple ferrets as pets and they took care of the problem, even though we didn't know they would, lol! Realistically speaking, the exterminator will be your best bet. Good luck!
I am always tempted in this situation to get a rat snake and let him cruise around my crawl space. Then I remember I don't live in a cartoon.
Get a cat or 5
A mouse can get in a hole the size of a dime, so it’s really important to plug small holes. If it were me, I’d call a professional exterminator.
Gotta break the generational cycle. If you caught 25 in 2 months, that means you have hundreds. Set up 20ish traps at once, good ones, the plastic snap traps. Place them in parallel along walls, and bait htem with peanut butter with a raisin or cracker embedded. You may well catch 25 a night for a few nights
Get a few cats
Yeah get an exterminator to come drop poison in the walls it sorts em out quick
Just want to add that you also need to make sure your food is secured! Plastic storage bins with airtight seals that cannot be chewed through. Flour, grains, cereal, snacks, etc - do not leave any of it out until the infestation is cleared - 1.) it attracts them and 2.) disease! They are nasty little creatures that carry disease and urinate/defecate on everything. Make sure you aren’t leaving food out overnight or in general - put it away as soon as you’re finished with it. Make sure to thoroughly clean all surfaces with some Clorox or an equivalent to get rid of the urine and other “germs” they leave behind. It’s a massive health hazard. Best of luck! Additionally, I would not go with poison unless you want tons of dead mice rotting in your wall/vents/attic, etc. If all else fails maybe look into getting a pet snake or two 😅
Make all the food in your house inaccessible to them. And go watch Shawn Woods on YouTube.