Need Mice Advice

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Aug 16, 2019
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I used to pay Terminix to come here every 3 months but after 6 months and $198 I canceled it and maybe I should get them back. $400 a year seems like an awful lot but they guarantee there will be no more pests.
My only remaining pest is evidently mice in my cellar. I've checked the foundation and can't find any holes where they go out or in. My cellar is 80% crawl space and a dirt and clay floor. I left Ramik Green pellets down there and noticed last week that something has been taking them from the dishes I left down there. Can mice live down there without leaving the building if there is no food or water?

I've tried without success to trap them with little mouse traps.
They seem to be either eating or storing the Ramik Green.

I'm going to call more pest services tomorrow and see what they say. In the meantime I'm open to ideas.
I just want to put an end to the mice down there and stop any damage they may be doing.
 
I got 2 different electrocution traps, one for mice, the other for rats but I catch mice in it. They work! They even have one that will notify your smart phone when it catches something.
 
Mice can get in the tiniest holes. Twenty years ago I had a mouse problem in the house I lived in and found two things that pretty much eliminated them.

1) Get down on your hands and knees and look very carefully around the entire foundation of your house. Any crack or hole you see, stuff it tightly with steel wool. I found one place where the concrete had a gap between the plate about the thickness of a USB drive and that's where they were getting in.

2) Get rat sized sticky traps and put a small amount of peanut butter in the exact center. If you put too much on, they will roll around in it and can unstick from the trap, because peanut butter is a good lube. A small amount is a dollop about the size of a dime. Mice can not stay away from peanut butter. Check the traps every day, if you forget, the smell will remind you.

Good luck
 
Originally Posted by JLawrence08648
I got 2 different electrocution traps, one for mice, the other for rats but I catch mice in it. They work! They even have one that will notify your smart phone when it catches something.


That's an idea.
Battery operated?
 
Originally Posted by wwillson
Mice can get in the tiniest holes. Twenty years ago I had a mouse problem in the house I lived in and found two things that pretty much eliminated them.

1) Get down on your hands and knees and look very carefully around the entire foundation of your house. Any crack or hole you see, stuff it tightly with steel wool. I found one place where the concrete had a gap between the plate about the thickness of a USB drive and that's where they were getting in.

2) Get rat sized sticky traps and put a small amount of peanut butter in the exact center. If you put too much on, they will roll around in it and can unstick from the trap, because peanut butter is a good lube. A small amount is a dollop about the size of a dime. Mice can not stay away from peanut butter. Check the traps every day, if you forget, the smell will remind you.

Good luck



Thank you. Sounds like good advice.
They could only be coming in at 2 places around the house and I have steel wool.
smile.gif
 
I've given up on exterminators. All they do is find the holes and put out poison/traps for mice. Basically go around and find all the holes. Depending on the foundation, you may have to use cement/mortar to fill all the holes. Check your door sweeps and the gaps in the doors/windows. Check vent flaps. Basically eliminate any hole the size of a pencil eraser, that's all they need to get in. Also even if there's nothing to eat there, they could be using the house as a nest at night. They're basically going out to find food and them coming back and crashing for free at your house.
 
Mice are super hard to get rid of since they can enter into tiny holes that are less than a nickle or even smaller. As another poster suggested, stuff steel wool into cervises. I also use expanding foam in some places.

One area they often get in is the garage door. Unless your door seals complete on the bottom, they can slip through. They can also slip into the side where the door meets the wall. They even got through the chicken wire I stuff there. I eventually left a pile of cayene pepper which seemed to work, but have to be replenished.

The best way to get rid of them appear to be the old fashion mouse trap. Mouse are apparently not that smart, I put them out and initially several mice will be caught in one night but they eventually taper off. Because I have kids, I get the plastid version which doesn't take off fingers, but still works reasonably well. I don't use poison since I am afraid that the neighbor cat may eat a poison mouse.

A combination of blocking their path into the house and trapping them seems to work.

Paul
 
Deer mice will remove and cache Ramik Green into piles where pets can get a lethal dose. Vitamin K 1 is an antidote if you find a pet coughing up blood.

Traps have always worked for me. It is nearly impossible to eliminate all of the entrance holes.
 
I had a mouse problem at one home and they burnt out on peanut butter so next thing I did was tie a little raw bacon to the trap are with some thread. That got the last ones. They can't get it off without tripping the trap.
 
Originally Posted by Paul_Siu
Mice are super hard to get rid of since they can enter into tiny holes that are less than a nickle or even smaller. As another poster suggested, stuff steel wool into cervises. I also use expanding foam in some places.


I only use the proper materials to seal up holes. You get mortar in a tube if you just have a few small holes. Or try clear caulk or white caulk depending on the material. You can stuff steel wool in it first then covering with the appropriate material. I don't use foam.
 
Victor M240 electronic traps -- I have two of them and they are awesome!!

It essentially tazers the rodent with 6,000V, every 2 seconds for 2 minutes! Oh yeah!

The only thing missing is a built in camera and a Bluetooth notification that you fried another one!
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
[Linked Image]



I've got 3 house cats but I'm not letting them into that dirty dusty cellar.
smile.gif


Thanks for the ideas.

I want some Victor A240 traps and cement the openings.
It should work, and to heck with the exterminators. Too expensive.
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
Some don't realize that foam also puts off flammable vapor …


I've decided that foam is an amateur DIY repair solution. I won't let any of my repair guys use it. It's a quick and dirty fix and looks ugly. I'm just going to make the repair with the same materials that new construction uses. They don't use foam for holes.
 
Have not touched it in years … It probably damages more things than it fixes …
 
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