Mice

[kendra]

Does anyone have any ideas on ways to get rid of mice, we just found one which probably means there are more. We are getting some live traps tomorrow but has anyone had luck with keeping them out once they are gone or keeping more from coming in?

My roommate heard of sound emitting things but I don't know anyone who has used them, especially since we have birds and a chinchilla I don't want it to be harmful or drive them nuts!

 

[eroomlorac]

Get a cat. I have always had cats and never had a mouse in the house that I know of. I don't think they even come in because I've never witnessed any of my cats 'playing' with mice, either.

 

[kendra]

My roommates allergic unfortunately to cats, we do have an upstairs neighbor with a cat that sometimes sneaks in though which may help a bit. I thought the same thing since I have two kittens but they live at my moms- one I'm pretty sure would be terrified of a mouse since he's scared of anything and everything.

I also read something about peppermint oil, so I figure that won't hurt at least. We are going to try and seal holes and stuff and try to make the place less appealing.

 

[Nancy]

We have 7 cats and 5 ferrets and we still get mice on occasion. I think they send out a scout to see if it's safe and if the scout doesn't come back they move in. This past fall, our newest shelter cat got the scout that two of the boys were playing with. :hilarious:

 

[addictedtochins]

My roommate heard of sound emitting things but I don't know anyone who has used them, especially since we have birds and a chinchilla I don't want it to be harmful or drive them nuts!

I wouldn't use that. If you were very careful you could use those green poison pellets from D-con I think, but they would kill the chin or anything else that has found them.

 

[Jenn]

It's unfortunate you are allergic to cats. I have 3 indoor cats and about 20 strays who live on my property. I've had mice in the house once, and one of my indoor cats took care of them. Otherwise my outdoor cats kill mice, rats, moles, voles and anything that gets too close to them. If I could just train them not to go after the birds and squirrels...

I know my husband bought a box of some sort of "food" that was poisonous to the mice. They are attracted to it and munch on it and then die. If you are curious, I can find out from my husband what it was.

I also had a mouse get into my car once. I had a pack of gum in my glovebox which he ate and then later died...the flavor lasted eternally for him!!!

 

[Vortex]

whenever we have mice in our house(we get them a few times a year seeing as we have a OLD house. LOL) we get the traps that catch them and dont hurt them.(because i WILL NOT kill a animal). i even got my dad to go along with the no kill traps. =D they work great and they always work for us. then we just let em go in a field.

 

[mishellyshel]

We have mice every now & again. And right NOW we have them. Keep all cabinents clear of food, and try to plug any holes you find with brillo pads (they dont like them).
I hate killing them, I feel so bad. After all chinchilla are rodents too and we keep them as pets! So I take NO part in it.........I leave all the dirty work to my fiancee'. He doesnt have a soft spot for furry things like I do! Last year I even found a mama with babies in a box and the mom jumped out and I left her babies and made sure she came back for them. and she did. now the little brats are probably the ones eating whatever they find!!!

 

[Spoof]

I had a really bad rental, caught 43 one summer (contest between the neighbor and I - he won with 50). I used the ones you get at the grocery store that kill them.

Put a little peanut butter on them, and we were in business. They come in packs of 6, filled all of them weekly the entire summer.

I don't like to touch them, so I had a pair of work gloves and a dedicated trap-opening butter knife. Open it over the toilet and flush.

Then you can rebait and reset.

I didn't use the humane traps do the the quantity of mice, and no poison cause I didn't want them to smell. (And waking up in the night with them running over me, got me over the 'can't kill it' real quick).

Good luck!

 

[TillyChinchilla]

We had a mouse issue where they were coming from our neighbor's apartment. Once they moved out, it wasn't a problem anymore (I think they were leaving food out). We caught 9 in a week before they moved. The peanut butter is the best thing to use, and just use a little dab of it.

 

[Courtney]

We get the odd mouse in the yard... and that mouse usually crosses paths with our mouser - Taz, the black lab. More than once, we've come home to find her prancing around with a mouse tail hanging out of her mouth. We have this theory that she simply wants to play with the mouse, it has a massive heart attack and dies, because we never see any marks or wounds on it.

Our cat is scared to death of mice, bugs... her reflection.

 

[Sasha]

We've been getting mice every summer since we built the house here. I think they are coming in through our fireplace, and there is so many of them because of the huge forested field behind us. We just set up traps with peanut butter around the fireplaces, and by my window in the basement since they tend to get stuck there, and we've caught up to 15 in one year. No cats here either because my dad and I are allergic. I remember that summer I could hear them crawling in the floor spaces. It was pretty gross.

 

[Sheri]

I have feild mice since I live on a farm. I have traps with PB on them. All low cupboards cleaned out. My biggest mouse deterent is Dottie Marie. She is a seven year old Jack Russel rodent killer. She never pays attention to the chins but if it's a mouse it's hers.

Tori, my 70 pound Boxer, they can run over the top of him and he won't budge. But if he gets one he runs around the house till he finds Dot then drops it in front of her to kill. LOL It's one of the funniest things to watch.

 

[alpayton]

I used to have Terminix come (for other reasons than mice but either way...) and when I did, I told them ahead of time that I had "chinchillas" and specified "rodents in the house" as well, so that they used some different kind of spray or they sprayed differently in the areas where the chins were. I can't remember what they did differently, but I know because I told them about the chins, they had to do something differently. I no longer have them do the interior of the house - as thank god, that problem is and has been long gone.

 

[3CsMommy]

Get a bottle of peppermint oil, dab some on a cotton ball, and leave the cotton ball around any openings the mice might use to get in/out. Around the dryer vent, windows and doors, and basement windows are my usual first stops. Also, aluminum foil balls are a good way to block any holes you do find until they can be permanently patched.

 

[kendra]

Awesome, thank you so much you guys! I figured the sound thing probably wasn't a good idea. I didn't even know there were other spray things that terminex could use.

I could never kill them so trying live traps, they are too cute- they just need to be cute outside! there's an estuary nearby so figuring going over the bridge and letting them go then. The poision pellets sound good maybe around places that Ferdinand can't get and where I think I may forget about a trap.

Also going to call the landloard and ask about some repair work there's some large areas that really need fixing, I'm in a really old building so I guess it's no surprise.

Maybe that was a scout, or running through on his way to the coffeeshop downstairs and not even bothering with staying. I have cleaned everything out and sealed food stuff (one good thing about being poor- not much along those lines to worry about hehe) I need to get a small garbage can to put hay in and be more diligent about keeping up with the bird seeds.

 

[Riven]

Peppermint oil will probably never work, you have no idea where they all come in at. They can fit through a hole the size of a pencil. Which means they are probably getting in the chins/birds cages.

One of the best traps I've used is a Victor Electronic mouse trap. No need to reset, you don't even have to see the mouse.

 

[kendra]

are the electric ones humane- I mean I don't consider the sticky ones humane since they starve to death, the snap ones are much better since it's fast although sometimes it can miss. If it comes to needing to kill them I would rather have ones in the snap catagory.