Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on November 18, 2021, 10:54:28 AM
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So this is a problem I never ran into in CA, but I guess it's pretty common in "real Winter" areas of the country. I've got at least one mouse inside my walls. Heard him scratching around last night when I got up to let Steve out.
I knew this could be an issue and had previously done what I thought was a thorough inspection around the outside of the house, making sure any areas where electric outlets are, the dryer vent, HVAC points, etc. were closed off, mostly using spray foam insulation. Obviously I missed something (maybe he got through the vinyl siding somewhere?). I guess all they need is a dime-sized hole. I did a very thorough check inside the house this morning and saw no droppings or other evidence of a mouse actually inside the house, nor any entry points to the inside of the house, so he seems confined to inside the walls.
Anyways, any tips for how to get him (or them) outa there, dead or alive (preferably dead)?
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When we bought our new house we tore out a couple of walls. In one of them we found dozens of mouse skeletons and one from a rat, plus a couple recently dead mice that were well and truly overwhelming the air freshener that the seller had installed. I guess they could get in through a bulkhead on one side of the wall but then fell down into the space between studs and could never get out. After tearing out that wall and removing the bulkhead over the cabinets from the rest of the kitchen we haven't had another, but if we hadn't been planning on tearing that out I hate to think how we would have solved that.
Do you know which walls they are in?
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At the old house I spent almost twenty years backed up to a field. Fall always brought lots of mice looking to nest for winter. Best for me were a couple of old fashioned Victor traps in the attic. Bait with bits of raw bacon. The bacon can be pushed into the trigger claw enough that it's hard to remove. Any gnawing or nibbling by Sir Mickey should result in enough force to spring the trap. It was nothing to catch eight or ten a year. I would start putting traps out around mid October and check them weekly until mid-December. Sometimes I didn't have to wait. More than once I would set a trap, close the attic hatch, and hear a SNAP! before I even got out of the garage.
I used peanut butter with ho-hum results until I discovered the bacon method. Mice would come to traps baited with peanut butter, sure, but it wasn't unusual to find one licked clean and unsprung.
Brad
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Get
A
Cat
(https://i.redd.it/8r1onqay6y351.jpg)
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Do you know which walls they are in?
It looks like they are currently in the wall between the laundry room and a small hall. The laundry room shares a wall with the garage, so I'm wondering if they came in through the garage? I keep a couple of glue traps in the garage most all year, but haven't seen any caught mice in a couple of months.
The attic access is pretty much in the opposite end of the house from where I'm hearing them, so I'm unsure if they would migrate to the other side of the house for a baited trap or not, or if I want to even introduce them to the other parts of the house. There is an access panel in my master bedroom to the jacuzzi tub in the master bath. The former owner left a couple of poison traps there which I saw after I moved in. That's a good bit closer to where I'm hearing them, so it probably wouldn't hurt to put a trap there.
As for cats, I asked Barney if he wanted me to toss him in the attic to look for mice, and he told me to *expletive deleted*ck off. =D
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Sounds like a good excuse to put a stair hatch in the garage. They're cheap and installation is pretty straight forward if you're reasonably handy with a screwdriver.
Brad
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Mice and rats cannot burp.
First heard that when I was on the farms, and then confirmed it with the vets at the labs.
And they LOVE them some coca-cola. The real stuff, not diet.
They'll crawl off somewhere to croak. Mice basically mummify - the rats, etc., would smell.
The regular snap traps work pretty well. I tried a roller on a bucket, and despite how great the videos said they are, no dice.
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I just open the attic and toss in some poison bait. One night one was carrying on in the wall and I couldn’t sleep. Went to the attic and poured a fair amount of ammonia on the insulation approximately above the wall. All quiet on the western front. Steel wool is great for plugging holes.
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As for cats, I asked Barney if he wanted me to toss him in the attic to look for mice, and he told me to *expletive deleted*ck off. =D
Well we now know who's the boss of that house :rofl:
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Sounds like a good excuse to put a stair hatch in the garage. They're cheap and installation is pretty straight forward if you're reasonably handy with a screwdriver.
Brad
The garage ceiling is the floor for the upstairs bonus room, so that might be a hatch to nowhere. =D
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If you've got one, you've got a BUNCH more.
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I actually just now heard the little bastard again while sitting in my office. My office is at the other side of the small hall from the laundry room. This could get annoying. Maybe I'll just take the French suggestion and toss some poison in the attic and that access hatch and hope for the best.
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Detcord and fire. It's the only way to be sure about getting rid of mice.
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As for cats, I asked Barney if he wanted me to toss him in the attic to look for mice, and he told me to *expletive deleted*ck off. =D
The standard cat response to pretty much everything.
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Do you bait the sticky traps?
I haven't used it, but I understand the poison baits can be just tossed around now. I would do that immediately as a start. Traps after that.
I replaced a shelving unit and cleaned up my garage last Spring. Found a rat nest under the low shelf in the garage. The rats were gone. I thought I smelled something that Winter. Bought a new shelf that has a wire shelf instead of particle board. I need to replace my other two shelves also. It took some time to clean up all the trash they left behind.
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With poison your walls are going to have a bunch of dead mice in them and with winter coming up airing out the smell may be a problem.
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I absolutely will not, under any circumstances, allow sticky traps to be used in my home.
When I had mice I told the exterminator that and he still put several out. I very politely blew up at him and made him remove them all and replace them with snap traps.
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Another cat or two.
We've got 3 in the house now. Mostly worthless and lazy, but haven't seen a mouse inside for a bunch of years.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv82jr6PcSw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv82jr6PcSw)
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With poison your walls are going to have a bunch of dead mice in them and with winter coming up airing out the smell may be a problem.
I might try one of the repellents first to see if I can drive them away.
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Baited snap traps, tin cat traps along the interior walls (house and garage) and bait stations outside. This is standard rodent control by pest control companies.
Tin cat https://www.amazon.com/iTrap-Multi-Catch-Clear-Humane-Repeater/dp/B00BLOMGY2/ref=asc_df_B00BLOMGY2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198059943785&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15840716437550534332&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017973&hvtargid=pla-514039277952&psc=1
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I absolutely will not, under any circumstances, allow sticky traps to be used in my home.
When I had mice I told the exterminator that and he still put several out. I very politely blew up at him and made him remove them all and replace them with snap traps.
The last time I saw a (fake) sticky trap used was outside a Lowes. It was about 4'x6' and had a scantly clad girl wearing mouse ears lying on it and making the most god awful screaming noises. I offered to get her a burger because lying there in the cold screaming she needed to keep her strength up. Who knew those PETA types were so anti-beef eating. :)
bob
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Baited snap traps, tin cat traps along the interior walls (house and garage) and bait stations outside. This is standard rodent control by pest control companies.
Tin cat https://www.amazon.com/iTrap-Multi-Catch-Clear-Humane-Repeater/dp/B00BLOMGY2/ref=asc_df_B00BLOMGY2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198059943785&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15840716437550534332&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017973&hvtargid=pla-514039277952&psc=1
I have already been doing traps in the garage and shop, running along the baseboards. Up until now, I've caught maybe a couple a year in the garage and a half dozen a year at most in the shop.
I have zero indication that mice are making it into the house proper, but at this point just for "better safe than sorry" I guess I will put a couple of traps in the house, maybe in the laundry room and just outside of it.
I did just do one of my most hated jobs and poke around the crawlspace. I saw mouse droppings near the hatch to it, which happens to be in the laundry room. I can't tell how old they are, but I guess I'll place a couple of traps down there as well. After seeing the droppings, I did a doublecheck of the laundry room, but cannot see any areas where they might enter into the house. I can see where they might get through the insulation in the crawlspace and maybe find their way into a wall while not having access to the interior of the house.
I have had zero mouse problems in the house up until now, so they've got to have some place they are gaining entry that I just can't find. I'm told they can get in through roof vents some times.
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poison. where the cats/dogs can't get it
""annoying" does not cover how bad it can get.
use everything in the mice killing world you can.
poison seemed to work the best for me, but there use everything.
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The last time I saw a (fake) sticky trap used was outside a Lowes. It was about 4'x6' and had a scantly clad girl wearing mouse ears lying on it and making the most god awful screaming noises. I offered to get her a burger because lying there in the cold screaming she needed to keep her strength up. Who knew those PETA types were so anti-beef eating. :)
bob
Should have had someone distract her while someone sprayed contact glue on the "tape" >:D
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With poison your walls are going to have a bunch of dead mice in them and with winter coming up airing out the smell may be a problem.
This. The little pests won't be considerate enough to die outside. They'll find the single most inaccessible place to expire, then proceed to make your place smell like dead mouse for a couple of weeks.
Brad
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This. The little pests won't be considerate enough to die outside. They'll find the single most inaccessible place to expire, then proceed to make your place smell like dead mouse for a couple of weeks.
Brad
Yep, agree.
Poison outside, traps inside. Keep pets safe.
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Okay. Ixnay on the oisonpay.
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https://thefactsource.com/1882-invention-from-texas-gun-powered-mousetrap/
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Detcord and fire. It's the only way to be sure about getting rid of mice.
No. The only way to be sure is to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.
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We have pack rat problems. I was just feeding the rats with the poison. Wife went to extract oils. No more gallon buckets of gravel under the car hood.
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I use Jaguar bait bars but not safe for dogs so you want em in bait boxes or use my free redneck bait boxes. (2 same size soup cans with a 1” hole in one can bottom then add bait and knock one can top into the other open top.)
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Well, that stupid mouse had been making noise in the same wall since I wrote the OP. Doing some interneting, it was suggested that if you hear the scratching continually in the same place, and especially during the day vs night, the mouse has probably trapped himself in the wall and will die there.
I heard no scratching last night or this morning, and coincidentally just popped the hatch to the crawlspace and saw a mouse in the trap that I set there yesterday. So maybe that's the mouse, or it might be another one. It flipped the trap and I'm only seeing it from the bottom, but it looks like a light colored mouse with a white tail. Unlike the mice I catch in the garage and shop. I despise my crawlspace, so won't be going down to reset the trap until before my evening shower, but I'll be curious to see what kind of mouse this is right side up.
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I’ve posted before about my deceased father and his hatred of mice in his shop around his antique cars. He used glue traps baited with a small bit of bacon or peanut butter. And he re-used glue traps.
One time I stopped by to visit and found him standing over the trash barrel with a glue trap in. One hand and snips in the other. He was snipping the mouse off at the ankles and leaving his feet in the trap and preparing to re use the trap.
I said something about being just a little bit cruel.
Dad said something like, “ This trap is still good and he ain’t gonna need those feet anymore anyway.”
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Well, that stupid mouse had been making noise in the same wall since I wrote the OP. Doing some interneting, it was suggested that if you hear the scratching continually in the same place, and especially during the day vs night, the mouse has probably trapped himself in the wall and will die there.
I heard no scratching last night or this morning, and coincidentally just popped the hatch to the crawlspace and saw a mouse in the trap that I set there yesterday. So maybe that's the mouse, or it might be another one. It flipped the trap and I'm only seeing it from the bottom, but it looks like a light colored mouse with a white tail. Unlike the mice I catch in the garage and shop. I despise my crawlspace, so won't be going down to reset the trap until before my evening shower, but I'll be curious to see what kind of mouse this is right side up.
Sounds like a deer mouse, they can carry nasty diseases.
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Get the rat sized sticky traps for mice. You can usually get two before they figure out to use their dead comrades as stepping stones.
The sonic deterrents actually worked long term at the shop. It didn't get rid of the mice already in residence, but we haven't had a mouse problem in years once we killed off the squatters.
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the poison has a chemical that makes the smell go away quickly, when i lved off grid - i started off kind of hippie and left being for mice genocide.
they have hanta virus too, ... by the way - the bucket trap works great when done right, put water in the bottom and toss 5 or ten dead away every morning
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I put out 6 snap traps last night. This morning 75% were sprung, with no dead mice... ???
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I had someone tell me they once hung the spring traps on a string so they hung just above the floor. Supposedly the rat had to grab the food to hold it still and that caught the rat they had.
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Well, that stupid mouse had been making noise in the same wall since I wrote the OP. Doing some interneting, it was suggested that if you hear the scratching continually in the same place, and especially during the day vs night, the mouse has probably trapped himself in the wall and will die there.
Mouse? You mean mice. For every one you're aware of there's 10-30+ more.
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Came home, had a double-header.
FWIW, I saw a mouse, so I pretty much... overreacted... because there is no such thing as overkill.
Victor snap traps, some other little plastic things, a rolling log with peanut butter above a water-filled bucket, and a "they check in, but they don't check out" box with a clear lid.
The snap traps seem to work. We'll see if there are more.
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We had a unusual mouse invasion this Fall. We'd occasionally get a few from time to time and either the odd trap or the dogs seemed to keep them either out or in check. This year it was wild. Set a number of sticky traps and snap traps with limited success but they just seemed to keep coming. Resorted to poison. a couple of child/pet resistant bait stations and a couple of open feeder type baits where there was essentially no chance of dogs or kids accessing them. Found several deaders the first few days but 10+ days now since putting out the poison and haven't seen sign of a mouse in over a week. So far no dead mouse stink bomb effect either.
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If you need a "safe" poison...
Mice LOVE regular sugary coca-cola.
Mice cannot burp.
We used it on the farm with some success. I confirmed the concept with a couple of the vets in the labs.
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Did you know that Amazon sells a 64-pack of Victor traps?
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I had some issues with mice in my barn so I picked up a trap that snaps on top of a 5 gallon bucket. Bait (peanut butter) attracts the mice onto a platform that tips them into the bucket. A little bit of water makes it lethal.
I emptied another four out of it today, and have gotten as many as six in a go.
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Unwanted thread necro, and necro in general.
Dammit. I heard a scratching just now somewhere around the bathroom wall where my jacuzzi tub is. There is a 12"x12" hatch to some of the tub plumbing that opens from my bedroom. I had been placing traps in there just inside the hatch, would occasionally catch a mouse, and dispose of it, case closed.
When I heard the scratching just now, I figured maybe I caught a mouse that hadn't been killed right away. That's exactly what happened, only it looks like the trap got him by the foot, and he dragged the trap a good four feet past the hatch and in between some plumbing. There's absolutely no way for me to reach the trap, even with a stick or something.
Now it looks like he's gonna die there and start decomposing. I guess I'll have to make a note to spray nature's miracle or similar in the hatch every couple of weeks for a few months. Dammit. From now on I'm tying the trap to a string in that location. Live and learn I guess.
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One of the long button-push springy snag things. Great for getting stuff out of relatively inaccessible places.
https://www.amazon.com/Cleaning-Flexible-Grabber-Reacher-Bathroom/dp/B0967XDWB2/ref=sr_1_2?crid=UWXGPH0VZGC9&keywords=extra%2Blong%2Bflexible%2Bgrabber&qid=1650289553&sprefix=extra%2Blong%2Bflexible%2Bgrabber%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-2&th=1
That, or 5-6 feet of bailing wire. Sharpen on end to a razor point then turn it back into a slightly-open J shape. Essentially a six foot long barbless fishhook.
Brad
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One of the long button-push springy snag things. Great for getting stuff out of relatively inaccessible places.
Hey, that might do it. I would definitely need something bendy like that. I think I'll order it. I want the mouse to be dead first anyway so that when I grab the trap, he doesn't get loose while I'm pulling it out and go back into the walls. Amazon two day delivery should do the trick.
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We are using poison in bait stations. They are eating it, so hopefully it is working. We only got a couple in snap traps.
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We are using poison in bait stations. They are eating it, so hopefully it is working. We only got a couple in snap traps.
Yep, you've got to use poison baits stations outside of the house, seal the most likely ways that they're getting into the house, and use traps inside the house.
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Lots of good responses here, but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned "Quikrete casserole", which I have used. 50 / 50 quikrete powder and bread crumbs or crumbled up crackers, dry bread, etc.
A chunk of dry ice is also an option in some cases (Co2 suffocation).
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I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
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We are using poison in bait stations. They are eating it, so hopefully it is working. We only got a couple in snap traps.
My fear with bait stations is a bunch of decomposing mice in the walls. I saw the previous owners used them though, as empty stations were spread around the crawlspace and attic hatches. I've been getting them with peanut butter in the snap traps.
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We are using poison in bait stations. They are eating it, so hopefully it is working. We only got a couple in snap traps.
Are they actually eating it? or are they stashing it somewhere else? That's pretty common.
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Ideally you don't use bait stations inside. You use them outside, and during the summer and fall months before the little bastages start taking up residence in your walls.
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I got best results with the Victor snap traps, and peanut butter. I bought one of the rolling log things, and set it up in my laundry area, and it got ONE. The live-catch thing I bought got zero, and is still sitting at the edge of the laundry room/pantry with peanut butter and crackers in it...