lymednva
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Member # 9098
posted
Yesterday I noticed that there was gravel in my coat closet, when I moved my vacuum cleaner. That's not as strange as it may sound because the baseboards have been removed due to a flood I had in the late spring.
Then the insurance adjuster told me I had to wait 8 weeks to see if the wood floors would return to normal (lose the little ripples)- yeah right!
Due to the ups and downs of living with Lyme I haven't gotten around to getting the floors replaced yet, since it will mean completely emptying my office, which is covered in papers and boxes still.
So, there are no baseboards in it either.
Later in the day when I was cleaning the kitchen (I was really on a roll!) I noticed little droppings on the counter. I knew they were from mice.
It took a couple of hours for me to put it all together, but I finally figured out that the gravel was on the floor in the closet because that is where the mice are entering the house.
There is a pipe in there and they have probably burrowed along the pipe.
So, today I was on the phone trying to make arrangements for the flooring people to come and give me an estimate and then I'll have to have my handyman come and replace the baseboards and quarter round, plus paint it all.
I did buy mouse traps today and will be using them tonight. I am not sure how I will handle disposing of the dead mice. That is one thing I have never done and really do not look forward to doing.
Anyone want to come by and help me out?
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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CaliforniaLyme
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posted
SALAMI!!!
I had a mousery in Junior HIgh and know quite a lot about mice, had a 185 of them and won the 9th grade science fair (in LA!) using them in an experiment (non-hurtful to them). Also had pet rats- two of them- TweedleDum & TweedleDee (TweedleDum was VERY dumB!!). I adore them as pets. Don't have any now.
If you were going to give them a treat- peanut butter- but for a trap- SALAMI- they will be unable to resist it and trying to pull it from the trap it will be the end of them. If you use spring traps it usually does NOT kill them right away anyway and you will hear them squeal and should hit them with a shovel to put them out of their misery.
Other traps are nicer but the spring traps are the most effective.
My ex husband was a termite inspector at a pest company. That's how I know re salami- that was the mice & rat guys secret weapon!!!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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lymednva
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Everything I've read says to use peanut butter. So far no takers!
But my dogs are aware there is something moving around. They were acting very strnge tonight.
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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Carol in PA
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posted
We always used peanut butter with good results.
My dad would take a length of thread, and wrap it around the peanut butter on the bait paddle, and tie it.
Then the mice had to wiggle the bait paddle when they got the bait.
Heh, otherwise they would sometimes just lick it off and not spring the trap.
Do you have some rubber gloves to use when you remove the mice?
I keep some old cardboard milk cartons around to use to put the carcasses in, then staple the top closed, and put in the trash.
Or hubby digs a little grave in the garden.
Take a look and see if they are the White Footed Mouse. You can google for pics.
Carol
Posts: 6947 | From Lancaster, PA | Registered: Feb 2004
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lymednva
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I have given my son (28 y.o.) detailed instructions on how to dispose of them. You won't see me going near them!
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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just don
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1129
posted
Apparently MY mice dont like peanut butter either. MUCH better response with good old cheese. Another think mice cant resist is popcorn. never heard the salami thing,,,the smell might make it work well, never tried it!!
Disposing of trapped mice is easy. Grab the side of the trap,,,open door and a waiting cat usually has him out pronto!! OR buy glue traps and throw them in the outside trash.
IF you are so scared of them,,,there is MORE gunky stuff than the trap ,,,there on your counter. Did YOU know,,,mice dont pee like other animals,,,they excrete urine where they walk, as they walk , everywhere.
Grab the trap by the sides which stay clean,,,and take a stick or pencil and lift the wire bail!!
Place a half dozen strategicly around the house and the first night it will sound like popcorn for awhile.
here is a bit of a clue,,,where to look for mouse openings in exterior walls. BEST place is along side wires or pipes entering house. OR any place you can stick a pencil eraser in,,mice WILL enter!!
They come in sometimes while they are small size and 'grow-up' inside the house and raise LOTS of babies.
Listen for the tell tale signs of slight scratching sound in a QUIET house. You can hear them before you see them,,,mostly!!
Steel wool in ALL cracks followed by caulking to keep weather out is your BEST defense!! Go in basement or crawl space during day time with lights off,,see light?? There ya go!!
IF you have many mice like in an outside garage,,,a wind up tin cat,,,works great,,,repeating trap. Specially if you rig the sides so they HAVE to run thru it!!
Keeping mice and rat numbers low or non existant,helps keep health of home occupants safer,,,they carry LOTS of diseases!!
Hopefully helpful tips, of the ever present--just don--
PS -edit- Your LACK of baseboards has nothing to do with mice in house. IF you had baseboards they are still already 'in the house' at that point,,,they will eat a hole to get thru to get inside your rooms. Mice in the walls are worse than in the rooms. They EAT wiring too!! Dont want THAT!!
-------------------- just don Posts: 4548 | From Middle of midwest | Registered: May 2001
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lymednva
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posted
Well, the peanut butter on one trap is gone, so I'll put out more tonight, perhaps using the thread like Carol in PA suggested, if I can figure out what she meant!
Sticky stuff coming today. I'm covered under my exterminator plan, which I had to get due to these nasty little bugs, which they called "spring tails," that were covering the doorways to my house and all the neighboring ones!
No poisonous stuff was used in my home. I made sure of that!
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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map1131
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Member # 2022
posted
It's that time of year around here. The summer weather has changed and the cooler weather tells the critters it's time to find your winter home.
Beware mice are carriers of lyme disease and then they carry ticks into your home???? I thought poison sent them outside in search of water??
Pam
-------------------- "Never, never, never, never, never give up" Winston Churchill Posts: 6478 | From Louisville, Ky | Registered: Jan 2002
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charlie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25
posted
Take it from me if you poison mice in the house they will go into the wall and die and you'll have to have a bowl of clothespins on the coffee table for everybody's noses for awhile.
everybody around here uses pecans in the traps...the nut is oily and can be mashed into the little clip and seems to smell irresistible to rodents.
Cat seems to be the best deterrent...mice don't want to go anywhere near a place that smells of cat.
Also if you let the mice get out of hand other things that consider mice food will come in....we've had several visitors I had to eject....one night I walked into the dark laundry room and felt something pinching my ankle...It was a couple of feet long rat snake whose tail I'd trod on in the dark.
I tossed him outside, couldn't blame him for trying to bite me under the circumstances but I don't think they have any teeth.
Charlie
Posts: 2804 | From Texas | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
When we livedi in the country, we got outdoor cats and they eliminated even the indoor mice.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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CaliforniaLyme
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Member # 7136
posted
Yup, we have cats*)!!!
Once we were visiting family friends in India who had a mouse problem adn they used poison! How do I know?
We were all having afternoon tea when this poor little mouse ran into the middle of the room and had seizures and died and EVERYONE except my little 5 year old daughter Evan PRETENDED it wasn't happening because they were so embarassed.
After it was dead Lalitha called a servant and whispered and the servant quietly cleaned it up. But Evan kept whispering, "MAMA, LOOK! LOOK!" and didn't understand why everyone was pretending it didn't exist!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kept going, "Evan, shh, let's follow form!! If they don't acknowledge it we shouldn't acknowledge it!!" "BUT MAMA, IT'S DYING!!!!!" "SHH!!!"
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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lymednva
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9098
posted
Caught one!
By it's size and from the descriptions I have read, I would say it is a house mouse, not the type that carries dangerous diseases.
I will still use caution and clean thoroughly.
It came back to the same trap that had been licked off the night before. I hadn't even put more peanut butter on it!
I'll clean and re-bait for another try.
Hopefully there are not too many of them.
BTW, I have two dogs and do not need any more pets. I have never been a cat person anyway, so that would not be something I would get, for mice, or any other reason.
I'll just keep my two mutts!
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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Carol in PA
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posted
White-footed mouse
You should tie the bait on with a thread. For peanut butter, tie thread around the butter.
Set the trap at a wall, at right angles to it, not parallel to the wall.
Good luck! Carol
Posts: 6947 | From Lancaster, PA | Registered: Feb 2004
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
don, we used to have mice in our early 1910 built house.
everyone going into the mouse trap was escorted to our pot bellied stove and tossed in.... i remember thoe days well.
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Dawn in VA
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Member # 9693
posted
Have-a-Heart makes very effective anti-kill mouse traps. That way, you wouldn't have to handle the "disposal". We get a couple of invaders once in a while and those traps have worked great. If you do decide on them, just make sure to take the mice far, far away- I've heard they'll come right back otherwise.
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
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lymednva
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Member # 9098
posted
Found two more today. One is alive in a sticky trap. The other is running around the edge of my office!
I'm on a mission to finish cleaning my office and get rid of these pesky things!
Hadn't seen any for days, so thought maybe we got lucky. Unfortunately I was wrong.
Our yard is too small to put them very far away and I can't walk very far anyway due to severe dysautonomia.
We'll stick with the traps we have that are working.
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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lymednva
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posted
Those two are now DEAD!
My life is getting pretty pathetic!
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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