Let me tell you about MY morning so far!

I woke up to the phone ringing at 4:30am, hubby called me so things were starting out great!
I talked to him for about 30 minutes and then hopped online for a bit.
There were some really weird noises coming out of the kitchen, so I walked in to find my one cat up on the counter, perched, ready to jump at a moments notice to the other side of the kitchen. I figured a moth had gotten in the house so I went walking over to see what he was staring at. To my horror there sat a little field mouse on top of my pot rack on the wall!!!

I screamed, it jumped in the air about 2 inches and fell on the floor, then took off running behind my stove!!!!

For lack of better terminology, I almost crapped my pants!!! I won't go back in the kitchen now and I have to wait until businesses open in order to call someone to come get rid of this little sucker! ;D

My problem? My house is almost 60 years old so I have a crawl space for a basement. There are vents in the foundation and field mice can get in no matter what I do! Not to mention that my stove is electric, but there are still pipes in the wall for a gas range! Next to the pipe is the smallest hole that I thought I had sealed last year! The mouse managed to get through it!!!

Looks like my son is going to be doing all of the cooking until that furball is GONE!!! lol ;D ;D ;D

Good luck with the removal of the mouse!

Tam, the only way you can REALLY seal the holes from mice is with steel wool.  The nice thing about it is you can put it in the vents and air can still come in/out, but the mice will stay away.

BTW, I'm deathly afraid of mice as well.  We have a company that comes out and does "pest control" for us (wasps, spiders, etc) and their service includes mice so they've pretty much taken care of that (well, once I figured out how they were getting in).  Although, the poison makes the little suckers "dissolve" from the inside out so I've ended up with a few "melted" mice.  I pay my oldest to get rid of them :-\\

I know it's hard to believe, but the mouse is more scared of you than you are of him.  I get mice in my house a couple times a year, (80 year old house with fieldstone basement).  I just keep some poison in the basement, and if they do get in, they don't hang around long once they find the poison. 

I'm a big guy, and even I jump a bit when I see one.  It's just the "unexpected" nature of it.  Once the inital shock goes away, I grab a broom and try and bash them.  Especially in my workshop and barns.  Nothing is going to keep them out of those locations.

and like MamaK says, steel wool is the best thing to seal up the holes with.

Set out a small amount of peanut butter mixed with aspirin.  Aspirin is a blood thinner.

I got over my fear of mice over the past couple of years due to them infesting my parent's house. If you start getting too many of the little critters, get a couple of boxes of D*Con and set it in places where they hang out (and away from the family pets). In the kitchen, set mouse traps full of peanut butter (the bait of choice) around.

Our mouse infestation was so bad last year that they didn't fear us. I walked out into the garage one day, and there was like 15 of them sitting in the middle of the garage, eating D*Con. They didn't move, even when I walked towards them. Of course, they didn't move after eating all that D*Con either. :o

Another thing I've found to keep them away is cayenne pepper or peppermint.  Just sprinkle the pepper around where they're getting in; or take mint leaves and put them in a pair of pantyhose and throw them around or you can put peppermint oil on cotton balls and throw them around.  I guess they don't like the smell.  You can also buy some "predator pee" at some hardware stores.  It's supposed to fool them into thinking there's a predator around (although, I've never used that).

Good luck, I hope you can get rid of the little buggers.

Mice don't bother me...I don't want a family of them living in my house or anything like that, but I'm not afraid of them.  In my old apartment they used to get stuck in the bath tub, my cats would just sit on the side of the tub and watch them scurry around.  I would have to capture them and I would release them outside.  I even had one living in my car for about 3-4 weeks once (It got into my car when I loaded a bag of trash into the trunk, I fed the thing so it wouldn't die and stink up the car).  The only time I was ever scared of a mouse was when it ran across my foot while I was driving to work one day.  Eventually it jumped out when I opened the door one day.

Tam, i had about 12 mice last year, It must have been a family because everytime I caught one, another would take it's place. I STRONGLY urge you to not use poison, even though it is highly effective. Should the rodent die behind the stove or in between walls you will have rotting dead mouse carcass smell for weeks. I advise to just use traps, they sell the little box traps with glue on the bottom and the mouse gets stuck inside and you don't have to see it as you throw it away. put a small tidbit of cracker or peanut butter in the center, I do both and caught them every time, never took more than 2 days to nab them. and then dispose. WARNING, these traps leave the lil guys alive, stuck on the trap. My preference are the new plastic snap traps that KILLL KILL KILL and then you just tag em and bag em!  I wont even tell you about the monster rat i coaught in my attic  :o that was a big MF but I kicked his butt.  i will not use poison anymore because i had 2 incidents where the critters died in the walls and the smell of death is not good.

I used to live in a cabin on a mountain and mice were constantly coming in. The funny thing was, I had FOUR cats at the time.  :o :o :o  You would think the mice wouldn't DARE come in with all those cats around. I woke up one morning to find one of my cats with what was left of a mouse-he no longer had his head.  :P  I had discovered that 3 of my cats were pretty good mousers but one had the attitude, "Why should I bother when you have 3 others who will do it for me".  :D


Anyway, I hope you solve your problem.



Cat

We get little ones a lot, the cat brings them up here from somewhere in the basement and plays with them lol.

I'm guessing an Eviction Notice wouldn't help???  (PETA approved, of course! ;D)

Yikes, that had to be so scary! We are also having problems with mice. It's been going on for a few months and they're all over the house (inside the walls). I think they're breeding in there, because I hear little scambering noises and then big scampering noises. I just don't see the excitement of crawling through a house - but I guess mice like that kinda stuff.

So many good ideas!

I think I am going to try the steel wool option first.
If all else fails I will go to the traps.
I called aournd today and they want an arm and a leg to come remove the critter and they of course cannot guarantee that I won't get anymore. I am completely impressed though that my cat was eagerly trying to get at it - I just dont want him to leave me a present on my bed or something like that!!! ;D

Karma to one and all!

So many good ideas!

I think I am going to try the steel wool option first.
If all else fails I will go to the traps.
I called aournd today and they want an arm and a leg to come remove the critter and they of course cannot guarantee that I won't get anymore. I am completely impressed though that my cat was eagerly trying to get at it - I just dont want him to leave me a present on my bed or something like that!!! ;D

Karma to one and all!


If you have a cat, the poison idea is right out of the question.  You also can't use poison if you think you can block all the ways in (poison usually works by making them want to go back outside).  Before I got married, I had cats and they were excellent hunters.  Problem is when they leave part of the mouse behind, or decide they'd rather play than kill.  Worse is when they'd bring a still live mouse into the house with them.  I'd tell them to leave their work at work, but they would just sit there begging to come in.

I have a large piece of sheetrock in my living room with no paint at the moment, because I had a mouse die under my tub and removing part of the wall was the only way to get in and remove him.  Even with the mouse gone and the wall sealed up again, the smell lingers. At least I sealed up the hole where it got in there (so hopefully no repeat performance).

Make sure if you buy a trap, it's safe for pets too.

I did a lot of reading about this subject today, looking for hints on how to keep them out in the first place.  Turns out they can enter a hole as small as a nickle.  That's quite small!  So good luck find all those holes in your foundation.

the glue traps are square, about the size of a coke can with openings for mice to go in, once they do, they don't come out because the glue is so sticky, however you now have to dispose of it, I didn't want to put it in the garbage alive like that so i took my bb gun & point blank executed the little suckers in the head. I'm a stone cold mouse killa.  just place trap on the floor or near stove where they may scamper and if you have bait in it, they will be caught quickly and cheaply as the traps are only a couple of bucks. My preference is the snap because it kills em dead. they're easy to set, but then you see the lifeless victim with his head crushed in as he was millimeters away from what he thought was dinner. throw it in a bag, and hope that was the only one.  ;D  the company that makes the traps I've used is named Victor.

If you do decide to go the poison route, they make boxes that you can put it in (like the glue traps Mike suggested) so the cats don't get in it.  Trust me, if you saw one, there's more somewhere.  I'd try the pepper & mint stuff to see if it drives them out first because if they're inside when you put the steel wool in, they won't be able to get out.

the glue traps are square, about the size of a coke can with openings for mice to go in, once they do, they don't come out because the glue is so sticky, however you now have to dispose of it, I didn't want to put it in the garbage alive like that so i took my bb gun & point blank executed the little suckers in the head. I'm a stone cold mouse killa.  just place trap on the floor or near stove where they may scamper and if you have bait in it, they will be caught quickly and cheaply as the traps are only a couple of bucks. My preference is the snap because it kills em dead. they're easy to set, but then you see the lifeless victim with his head crushed in as he was millimeters away from what he thought was dinner. throw it in a bag, and hope that was the only one.  ;D  the company that makes the traps I've used is named Victor.



I used to work in a office that had mice and they used those sticky traps (with peanut butter as bait). The poor little mousy got stuck and died a horrible death-starved to death. Personally, I would just want to keep them away than try to kill them. But, that is me.



Cat

Have you tried mouse traps?

My dad used to get lots of mice in his basement, but it was never really a concern because the mice would get eaten by the snakes that would crawl in as well ;D

My dad used to get lots of mice in his basement, but it was never really a concern because the mice would get eaten by the snakes that would crawl in as well ;D


There were snakes in your basement?

There were snakes in your basement?


of course.  He lives out in the stix (aka Snake Central)

I used to work in a office that had mice and they used those sticky traps (with peanut butter as bait). The poor little mousy got stuck and died a horrible death-starved to death. Personally, I would just want to keep them away than try to kill them. But, that is me.



Cat
that does sound cruel, but I've lost my sympathy for the vermin when I saw little mouse turds in my food pantry. If I set a glue trap, I check it daily and if one got caught, he faces the firing squad.

of course.  He lives out in the stix (aka Snake Central)


As a pet?

As a pet?



Not in the basement.

As a pet?


Yup it's a Guard Snake.  Hisses at intruders.    :D ;)

I got one of those high frequenct emmitters from the hardware store.  It drives them away, you can't hear it they can and it drives them nuts.  I haven't had a problem since, and I have had them since I moved in, this is an old house in a wooded area.  Not only did it drive the mice away, but I haven't had a problem with ants either.  I noticed when I plugged it in an ant nearby started running in circles until I unplugged, then it ran away.  Try that, I haven't the heart for poison, traps that kill, and the tape is a horror the way they squeal, I could never do that.  The trick is not to leave it in all the time.  Leave it in for a couple of hours(overnight) Pull it out during the day so they don't get used to it.

http://www.safehomeproducts.com/SHP2/data/pictures/ES-BD-EX720.jpg

^ I wonder what effect it would have on my cats and dog??

^ I wonder what effect it would have on my cats and dog??



They are not SUPPOSED to have any effect but who knows.  :-\\




Cat

Yup it's a Guard Snake.  Hisses at intruders.    :D ;)


try not to pet the snake. :o