Mice in the House?!

Sorry this is so late. Better then the foil is to put steel wool in the gaps or to seal them with expanding foam insulation. Good luck with anything you try mice are hard to get rid of.

Call an exterminator! My sister used to the office manager for one in SLC, he was very helpful and nice. If you want his info, let me know.

I have used the glue traps too, work great. You can get them at Wal Mart for cheap. Or get a cat! I have two and have never had a mouse problem.

Gook Luck!

I agree - get a cat. But make sure it's a good mouser (only I don't know how to tell unless it's coming from someone else who knows the cat is). Our cat was so effective and catching the mice that we never saw them or their droppings until we brought another cat in. Believe it or not, the adult cat was teaching the other to mouse! She was not entirely effective at first and we'd see her with one, or she'd leave it behind after. (But I think she figured it out pretty quick).

And, cats are also great for controlling spiders too! Cats are a natural predator for Hobo spiders, and I've heard they aren't affected by the bite. Our indoor spider population dropped when we got the cat.

shove sos pads or some other type of material like that into the holes around the pipes.

My only suggestion is to get a cat. A good mouser does wonders with mouse problem. Our cat took care of both mice right away, and there have been none since! Better, IMO, than putting poisons around the house where small children play.
Good luck, B., I hope some-moms here will suggest more options!
Good job mommin'!
A

We don't have mice in the house, but in our garage and thankfully they haven't come in the house yet. But since I have purchased this product I haven't even seen them in the garage. We bought the Riddex system. All that is required is that you plug it into the outlet and it will use the wiring in your home to send impluses that the mice don't like and drives them out. For the first little bit you do still need to use the traps to catch them and get rid of them, but then you won't have to use anything as long as you leave the system plugged in. We have 2 because we have a 2 story house and I haven't had any problems after the first 2 weeks. I don't have to worry about my kids or my pets because it is completely safe for them. Good luck.
J.

do not, do not, do not use the decon with a child and a dog in the house!!! There is a reason the mice eat it- and your dog would also be very interested in it. The color of it is very appealing to kids- even if your wee one is too small now- there is a chance that some would make its way around the house- mice will often "store" it in corners for later- and your baby could find it. Good luck with the mice- but the chemicals are way worse-

Get a cat... No, really... a cat is a good, fairly clean answer to a mouse problem. We live next to an empty lot that brings mice into the house when it gets cold. We tried all kinds of things and then finally broke down and got a cat. She was a great mouser and took care of the problem pretty quick. When the mice were gone from the house she took to hunting in the empty lot.. We haven't had a problem since. Most cats are pretty good with children as well and are pretty clean creatures, especially if you have an outside cat that doesn't require a box. (And outside cats are better mousers.)

plug-in sonars from home depot - we put them in the baby's room and in room she played in the most and they worked great.

Hi, B.. Try the sticky traps. We had a few mice 2 years ago from our teenage daughter leaving food in her room. It absolutely grossed me out as well. The sticky traps work well. They got rid of ours in 3 days. U can put them in the cabinet under the sink & other dark areas mice like. Put them close to corners & walls since that's where mice like to travel. They smell like peanut butter & the mice are attracted to them....but have no poison, so other than being REALLY sticky, they are totally safe.

Good luck!

I found mouse droppings in my babies crib once.......thank
goodness she wasn't in the crib at the time. I am a clean
freak and about lost it. We use the glue traps, put a couple pieces of dog food in the middle. It is really gross
when you catch them, because they don't die. I don't use the D-Con due to the poison, especially with pets around.
Make sure your dog food, bird seed, grass seed is sealed
in some sort of metal or plastic tin. I also put all my
cereal, chips, etc in plastic containers, I found droppings
in my pantry. It took awhile, but we finally got rid of
them. Good luck......they are nasty little things.

When I first moved into my mobile home I had the same problem but worse. I used mouse traps with peanut butter and popcorn. Put them where you think they are coming in espeacially under the sink by the pipes, places where your pets can not get to them. I have a small dog in my home yet I got rid of all the mice.

Try hobo spider traps. You can buy them at Home Depot. (I cant' recall the brand name - it may have been Victor - Ours had a large red "V" on them) When set up, they look like a little paper box with both ends open. When you put it up against a wall, the mouse trys to run through the box, but gets stuck on the extremely sticky glue inside. We have caught several mice this way. I would set out lots of traps against walls and behind furniture - especially in the basement. Good luck!

B., I know your frustration! We live in the country, and our first house was a mouse-magnet. I used the traps that are very easy to set - you just squeeze them, set the bait (peanut butter or Velveeta cheese worked well for us), and put them along a wall or under the sink and they worked great (65 mice in one week!). (We didn't have kids then, so I didn't have to worry about little fingers getting caught!)

Another suggestion is to get a cat or 2 - unless your family has allergies or your dog will harm them. Cats will naturally attack mice and help keep them under control.

If all else fails and you can afford one, call an exterminator. A good one will inspect your house and be able to find where they're getting in. They will block off all entrances except for one, which they will fix so that the mice can get out but they can't get back in. After a couple of weeks, they will come back and seal that up, and your problem should be solved. My sister had a problem with rodents - from mice to a flying squirrel - living between the floors of her house, and this is how her exterminator got rid of them.

I wish you luck!

We, too have unwanted little pets. I tried a Have-a-Heart trap to no avail. I tried peppermint oil, no luck there. We got a cat...in a year and a half, he has caught one mouse. It was outside in the garden, and he didn't even finish the job. With traditional snap traps stuck in little places where neither cats not kids can get to it, we've got 15. A few tips: they tend to run along the baseboards of a room rather than venture out in to open space. The broiler drawer under the oven has been a gold mine! I felt bad about it for a minute or two. Finding my daughter's beloved bean bag from eviscerated helped me get over feeling bad pretty darn quick. Also, we learned that a mouse can squeeze through an opening about the size of a dime. That makes sealing them out of this drafty old 1924 house unrealistic.
Good luck!
Jen

We had that problem when we first bought our house. I would still suggest using traps, but since you have a pet, get the "closed" type of trap that they won't be able to disturb. I think they were made by D-Con also. They were a little more expensive than the traditional kind, I think, but worth it. We used those because they would still be safe around our little girl if she noticed them since she wouldn't be able to snap the trap on her fingers. Also, the traps were along walls behind the furniture and in the cupboards where she couldn't get them anyway. The trap looks like a round box with a door on one side and the bait is inside the trap when the mouse goes in the trap closes behind it trapping it inside and then you just toss the whole thing. We also used a "live" trap called the tomcat. That one is basically a box with a trip door inside that flips around when the mouse goes in so it can't get back out. The problem with that trap is that you do have to take the mice somewhere and let them go, far, far away from your house, obviously! My husband would take the trap out to a field and let the mice go. Another way they could be getting in is if you have an attached garage they could be coming in under the door, so make sure that the seal is good on the bottom of the garage door. We think that is how the ones we had got in the house because the previous owners would leave the connecting door open all the time and the seal on the bottom of the garage door doesn't meet the cement in one corner. Good luck and hope you get some advice that will work for you!

I know they now make mouse trap with a cover over the actual trap. It's a "so you don't have to see it" kind of thing. I would definitely look into those, especially with the concerns about the dog and the baby. If you get them, and you have to open them first (to bait them) you could use peanut butter as bait. My Mom had a rat problem once and the little turds kept pulling off the bait, activating the trap, and then walking away. The only thing that worked was the peanut butter. Don't forget to put traps in the garage if you have one. Good luck with your little mice!!!

You have gotten a lot of good advice and I would agree with those who say a cat or enclosed trap are best. The enclosed traps are made to be safe around animals, and the same tucked away places you would want to put a trap are probably not accessible to dogs and babies anyway.
As a way to put this in perspective, I'd like to bring up the fact that kids learn how to react to things like this from you. I don't know if you have any older kids than the baby . . . my friend's daughter, 8 years old, recently wrote a poem called, "That Darn Mouse!" about a mouse in her house that just couldn't be caught. Always takes the bait, but gets away. She acts it out - so very cute! My point is that because her mom made light of the situation, doesn't show disgust or anything (though she may feel it), but is just matter of fact about needing to catch the mouse, her daughter hasn't become afraid or overly disgusted by it, an attitude which I think will be to her benefit in the future. And, btw, my friend is a clean freak-her house puts mine to shame, so it isn't always a result of mess.

Okay...you cannot used dcon with a dog in the house...if the dog eats the mouse he is also eating poison..... So, bad idea.
You MUST set traps. BUT you only have to do it at night as they are more active then. If your dog has free reign kennel him at night and collect them in the A.M. before you let the dog loose. The BEST bait for them is Reece's Peanut Butter cups.
I AM SO SORRY that I have information on this.
Gotta love living on the prairie!

When we moved into our house it had been empty for about a month, I remember looking over the banister into our kitchen and seeing mice running every where. It was awful I had two kids under 3. We set up traps at night because that is when they are most active. I would suggest putting your dog in your room with the door closed and setting traps up at night everywhere you think they will run. Then in the morning go down and move them for the day. I would not use those sticky traps they are horrible, the mice run over them and get stuck and then you throw it in the garbage and they starve to death or suffocate in the garbage. They also tear hair and even pieces of their body off trying to get off the traps. It is very in humane. Snap traps are the best it breaks their necks instantly. By the end of two weeks we had caught 13 mice. Now we don't have any problems. Good Luck!

Mice can bring in nasty stuff and deer mice can carry the hanavirus and yes with a baby crawling around you do not want poisen around...your dog could get it too.

Something that may work find a friend with a cat, let the cat sleep on a towel or blanket and put it where you think the mice are coming in. We have three cats and I had to lay their blanket they sleep on in the basement where I think it came in because it wasn't afraid they were in the house or not getting their smell. Once I put the cat blanket in the basement, the mice disappeared.
There are sprays out there too you can get that give off a smell that they do not like, that is how I got rid of squirrels. It is safe but I think it is made from fox urine (yes gross but safe).
There are a lot of natural methods like that.
Good luck.
Make sure there is no food source either.

The only way I know that is effective is the traps. Can you find somewhere near the kitchen where you can put it that the dog and baby cannot get to, maybe a little small crevice? If so, put Peanut butter on the mouse trap and this attracts them to it and as long as the trap works you should find them right there dead in the trap. Hope this helps. I hate thinking of this but you cannot have them in the house with your baby and I have not heard of anything else that works to get them out of your house once they are in there.

We had a mouse on our deck and saw one in our front yard so we were very worried that they were in our house. I asked around and a bunch of people told me about those things you plug into the wall. You can get them at walmart by the traps and stuff. They come in packs of two. I think they were around $12. Anyway, we plugged one outside by our deck and in our kitchen and a few other rooms and haven't seen them. I was very skeptical but everyone has said they worked and so far they have worked for us!

Living in the country... we too have mice. I HATE them. I know your grossing out feelings. We don't use Decon because they eat it and die somewhere else. I don't want them decompsing in my walls...ewwww. We set traps where the dogs and kids can't get them. Along the fridge and stove, under the bottom drawer in the kitchen (there is a void under these spaces). Our problem is the mice get smart and change their movements. We have ordered a "live trap" that will catch 12 mice before needing to be emptied. Victor M310 Tin Cat Live Mouse Trap is the name of the trap and we got them on ebay. We are going to put those out in the garage and our back patio room. We bought a cat for in the house. I have not seen sign of a mouse since the cat came home.

The key is keep food cleaned up, trash taken out, and don't have nesting material around. (When we moved in, under the bathroom sinks were lined with carpet.. all the nests we found were mades from those fibers). If you set traps, change your bait choices often. Change between sticky traps and snap traps.

As for keeping them out. Use steel wool around your pipes and in gaps you can't fill with spray expanding foam. Check where your AC comes in and other lines or pipes. Check your roof for openings.

It is a lot to do butyou don't want your family sick. When cleaning up poo. Wear a mask and gloves. Spray the area with a bleach water mix so the dust around it is moist. One more ewww... mice don't have bladders so they pee while they walk, so you will have to bleach behind fridge, stove cabnets... sorry. I feel your pain. We had the mice out for over a year and now they are back. You have to stay on it.

HTH

If your dog should find a mouse that has eaten the poison he could get really really sick or die also if the mouse dies in your house it could make it smell for a very long time of a decomposing corpse. so don't use ingestable poison. break down use traps like glue traps or the regular ones. Put them in the cabinets that the dog can't get in. found out from prior experience

Nothing works better than a cat ...

Hi B. - We've been using one of those ultrasonic devices for several years and have been really pleased. We had mice and voles in our garage, probably attracted by all the crickets we had in there too! We have small children and wanted to avoid any kind of poisons or chemicals.

The mice and voles left right away. The bugs were gone by next season (it upsets their breeding cycle). You might need to install more than one depending on the layout of your house. We got best results when we put one in the garage and one in the basement.

Good luck!

I've used the mouse traps that are enclosed and put it where the dog or baby can't get to it. Glue traps I really don't like because they don't die right away and I've seen them try to eat at their own leg trying to get out. As much as I hate them I really don't want them to suffer make it quick and painless. I don't use D-con because we have dog's too and I don't want the mouse to die slowly and somewhere that the dogs can get to it if they decide to play with it or god forbid eat it then they have the D-con in their system. If you have your house sprayed then ask your bug guy to set some traps around the inside/outside/garage it should be a free charge along with your regular service. I had my bug guy do this for me and they have better stuff then peanut butter to trap them. It worked in just 1 night we got two of them. Good luck

Hide the traps wherever you find droppings. We discovered our mouse was in the couch (and to think we were sitting on it how gross). Anyways I put the trap under to couch, we also put one in the pantry behind the trash can and in the cabinet under the sink places where the kids, cat & dogs could not get them. The one under the couch worked in less then 24 hours. We have since removed the other 2 and have not found any other droppings so hope its over. Good Luck and hope it all ends soon for you because I agree it is really gross.

do sticky traps with peanut butter on them. if you put down a lot of poison, you probably got them. did you see mice after you set out the poison? we had the same problem recently(they want to get out of the cold weather). Stupid things would eat off the snap traps and not get caught. We had pest control come out (we rent and our landlord covered it). He put poison underneath the fridge and stove--they want to stay warm. Good luck!

I use closed traps as well. I have two little ones and I don't want them to get hurt or to see a dead mouse, so for me it is worth the extra money. Good luck :)

We have the same problem! We like to use the sticky traps, they work nicely. You can also put bounce dryer sheets in your cupboards and drawers. Believe it or not this actually works.

I HATE MICE!!!
We had them in our oold house, but haven't had them in our new house...The trick is to REALLY seal up the areas they are coming in. They can squeeze their bodies down to 1/8" to get in places. If they are coming in under the sink, use that spray foam in a can to seal up the hole. Also, check to make sure there are no windows cracked open--we had mice get in because we had a window open a tiny bit for an extension cord. ALso, if you put out the traps at night, and pick them up in the morning, then the dogs shouldn't mess with them. Keep everything clean, don't leave food, dirty dishes out, etc. Good luck...mice are the worst!

Get a cat? lol sorry, we have two cats and no mice in the house but lots outside! Seriously, if that is not an option for you, try these alarm things that you can get at Home Depot or Lowes, that you plug in and they emit a low pitched sound that repels the mice. Slick, I'm tellin' ya. We back to 5,000 acres of open space out east and had tons of mice and droppings all over our garage and for almost 2 years now, we have had one incident where we found one, obviously deaf, mouse in the garage. They really work. I don't know if they wear out but I bought new ones just in case. Give them a try and let me know if they helped.
Good Luck
K.

I hate mice. When we first moved to our house I saw one in the house. We cleaned up the backyard and found mouse nest after mouse nest in the fence line where the neighbors house and ours had sat on the market and no one had mowed. We got a cat. Now not even my neighbors have mice.

There is a pet safe trap that is made by BlackCat it is a short black cylindar. Just put an almond extract or vanilla extract soaked cotton ball in the bait hole. They love it, it's an old trick my Dad taught me and with curious kids it's needed.
Good Luck!

Be careful where you put sticky traps if you have dogs. I had one behind the curtain and when she needed to go out to pee she went to the door, sat down and proceeded to wag her tail.... right into the glue trap. I couldn't help laughing my guts out as she went yipping across the house. I felt bad for her when we had to try to pull it off.