quote:

We're going to have to do a lot more sleuthing to figure out what areas might need sealing/plugging up.

This is probably an area where paying someone with more experience makes sense.

Good point! Especially if they'll go into the crawl space and up into the attic!

I would strongly advise against poison. Strongly. Dead mice in the walls take a LONG time to rot and smell surprisingly awful for a surprisingly long time for something so small.

Plus if they eat the poison and go outside to die, critters that eat their dead bodies can also be affected by the poison.

We've used traps when we've needed to (had the best luck with snap traps and if you go that route, I'll be happy to offer tips on how to bait them so the mice can't steal the bait without triggering the traps - we had a lot of that before we figured out our secret method!) but honestly have had the best luck trying to figure out where they are getting in and sealing those up. Mice can get through stupidly tiny gaps -- look for places where pipes enter and exit your home (hose bibs, gas line, etc.) and stuff steel wool around them even if you think the gap is way too tiny for a mouse -- trust me, if you can see daylight, it's not too small for a mouse! We finally found one last gap a few years ago (around where the oil tank fill lines came in) and since stuffing that with steel wool, we haven't seen a mouse. (knock on wood probably just jinxed myself).

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I use D-con for mice. Not rats - they are bigger and might smell. Never had a problem killing mice that way.

" 'Cause D-con means dead end for mice.
Aren't you glad that you're not a mice?"

Random TV jingle from ages ago. I just dated myself.

My mice disappeared when i got a cat. I also had a red squirrel in the house. I could hear hime between the walls and once saw him poke his head out from a pocket door opening. I had a have a heart trap out but the mice kept stealing the bait and didn't trip the trap. Finally I figured out where he was getting in and plugged the hole. Sadly he was trapped inside and I found his body in the basement a week later. No food or water I guess.

jf

Lisa, thanks for the comments and advice!

We are not cat people (and my mother is dangerously allergic to cats, so she wouldn't be able to stay with us if we had one) so that option is out.

I did buy D-con, but I think we'll switch the catch and release traps. The release part is kind of a pain, yesterday we drove pretty far away to release, so we probably need to rethink our release location.

Lisa makes a great point about the poison and unintended consumption by pets or wildlife. My neighbor uses D-con routinely and I see the dying mice staggering around outside. I've always worried about the dog nabbing one of the helpless meeces and chowing down on it.


Also agree about the smell. We occasionally get them nesting in the wall between the house and attached garage and every so often one of them croaks. Terrible stench that you can smell in the house for a couple of days until they decompose enough.

quote:

My neighbor uses D-con routinely and I see the dying mice staggering around outside.

So Lisa, what's your secret method? By snap traps, do you mean the old fashioned kind that snaps closed on top of the mouse (which, AFAIK kills the mouse)?

I don't think Mr. SK would be able to tolerate that... I think we're going to try to the catch and release approach.

Yon can get professional poison blocks. They have blood thinner, which causes the mice to get very thirsty and to leave, looking for water. And then eventually die.

Those blocks are the same as D-con..

D-con bait contains an anticoagulant/blood thinner. They bleed to death, but I believe it takes a day or two.

Edit: or maybe longer.

https://answers.yahoo.com/ques...0090817132708AA21OP5

Quirt, do you know the name of that, or where I could find it?

Hmmm, I'm reading that the poison which is thought to make them thirsty doesn't necessarily lead to the mice going outside...

I'm also reading that you have to take a mouse at least 6 miles away in order to ensure that they won't come back. Hmmm

I think we might have to go to the snap traps...

I don't think mice have a very large range. Six miles doesn't sound right.

Yeah, 6 miles is pretty far. In any case, I think we need to use the snap traps. This is going to be especially hard for Mr. SK, who is a true animal lover.

I just talked to Mr. SK (I'm at my office "working" )

Anyway, in preparation for our washer/dryer delivery, he was looking at the outside near one of the basement window wells where the dryer will be vented. There's a cover, but it's super old and flaps open very easily. He said it's basically just a big ole entryway for rodents hole. On the inside, that's connected to a dryer duct that the sellers left, but it's angled in such a way that I never realized it was just a completely unobstructed opening to the outside. Jeez Louise! It's funny how you can look at something and be totally oblivious to what it is. It's a little bit of duct work, it's in the basement, looks official! But it's not hooked up to anything, and is basically just a welcome mat to any critter, come on in, make yourself at home!

Now, that might not be how mice are getting in, but it is in the direction of where the mouse came from yesterday. And it could certainly let in other critters as well.

We will dealing with that right away, that's for sure!