Mice!

[DuckSlayer1017]

A few years back I had one mouse in the house that had figured out his way around really well. So well I thought I had a huge problem. I found droppings up stairs in our bathroom, in the kids bedroom and down stairs in the kitchen. I finally got him under my daughters bed with a spring trap. Took spray foam and filled all the siding corners any any other small crack I could find. Never saw another one in the house. Now I just need to keep them out of the garage and barn but I think that is a loosing battle. I just put out decon and let them enjoy.

 

[dmccarty]

We had mice get into the house when we would open the back door. Best I could tell, they would sit on the door step to stay warm and when we would open the door, they would scoot inside.

D...mn things got into the closet and pissed and pooped over all of the towels, bed linen and jackets which all had to be cleaned.

The problem was that I was stacking firewood on pallets and moving the pallets to the back porch which has a roof overhang that would cover the fire wood. Course, the wood stacks were full of mice. I don't do that anymore.

We were getting mice in the ATTIC! :confused3: By design we have not large openings for attic insulation. Just lots of little holes all over the eaves. The mice climbed up the COAX for Directv that went into the attic. The "installers" cut a small hole in the eves for the COAX and there was just enough room for the mice to squeeze it. PITA! I put poison in the attic and eventually put in steel wool to plug the wee small hole. There is still mouse scat all of the attic which really tees me off....

Good Luck,
Dan

 

[JerryK]

That's about what happened to me and my pole barn... After I sealed everything up, they would sit under the corners of my barn late winter where there was still a little grass showing under the little corner 'overhang' and chomp on the grass. Then when I opened one of the sectional doors, they would get scared and run every which way, usually inside. I extended the corners way down below the ground line with bent up pieces of aluminum.... no more grass....

 

[tamu94]

Garage doors are favorites for them to enter and so are attic eaves/corners. Seal everything with hardware cloth (1/4 mesh). Rodents will chew through foam sealer.

We had a large rat chew through the corner area of the garage door to get at the dog food we keep in the garage. I had to replace the door seal with something more sturdy and we moved the dog food to a sealed bin so they wont want to come in again. We also cleaned every inch of the garage with dilute bleach solution to eliminate their smell which will attract them back food or no.

Traps work best and insure that you wont have dead and decaying rats/mice in your walls or attic.

 

[photogman]

Bought masks and a couple of tyvek disposable coveralls today in preparation of doing battle. No mice in traps, sticky paper and drowning homemade 5 gallon bucket for two days but I just don't believe they are gone. The bathroom smells heavy of mice in the basement and the storeroom shares a common wall. I believe that is where they nested. The contractor will take the Sheetrock off the backside of the storeroom on Saturday. It is unfinished Sheetrock with just screws in it. Problem is I haven't identified what kind of mouse it is,but I would bet deer mice living in the country. I heard I can't use vacuum or sweep any messes up and to spray a diluted 10% bleach spray on the mess. So how in the heck do you clean it up? I don't know what I will find. Maybe I ought to have the 18" barreled remington police special ready with #8 dove and quail load ready. Anyway I will be glad when this nightmare is over.

 

[Pilot]

This won't stop them, but it's a great trap.
No need to check trap frequently, never fails to trip.
You need a bucket, a stick a little longer than the bucket height, a beer can, a piece of wire and some peanut butter.

Fill bucket part way with water, suspend beer can (drink contents first) with wire over bucket so that it will spin on the wire. Put peanut butter on can. Lean stick against bucket to make a ramp. Mouse climbs stick, jumps to beer can which spins out from under it and it goes for a last swim.

 

[photogman]

Pilot, I have one of those set up and it has failed to have one fall in in over three days since I set it up. Maybe they have scrammed since all the food was removed from the area. Dogfood and birdseed is gone, gone, gone.

 

[photogman]

Well, I know a lot more now than I knew before. The carpenter took off the Sheetrock in our storeroom behind the bathroom that was smelling. Little or no trace of mice. So we went around the whole foundation and outside of house. We have two vents outside coming through our brick. One of them is a dryer and the other is a vent from a basement bathroom exhaust fan. Dryer vent checked out ok, but the other vent had a few mouse turds in in, soooooooo we theorize the mice walked up the side of the brick and made their way in through there and that is why we are guessing there is a strong odor in the bathroom. But we believe they chewed through the flexible vent hose and got out into the basement. The vent has been replaced with a new one with added metal screen on it. The question remains no mice can get in now so we just have to trap any remaining mice now. We haven't caught any in five days now in traps, rodent motels, sticky baits or rat zapper death by electrocution. The ceilings in the basement are all sheet rocked and finished so I can't get at the vent hose. My options are to 1) continue to trap to catch any remaining mice that may still be alive; 2) have somebody with a flexible seeing eye gadget look into the vent hose/tubing to see if they can see anything or any problems in the hose or blindly take out Sheetrock in the ceiling of a bedroom adjacent to the bathroom and the bathroom and replace the vent hose. Comments are welcome.

 

[FTG-05]

Well, I know a lot more now than I knew before. The carpenter took off the Sheetrock in our storeroom behind the bathroom that was smelling. Little or no trace of mice.

So we went around the whole foundation and outside of house. We have two vents outside coming through our brick. One of them is a dryer and the other is a vent from a basement bathroom exhaust fan. Dryer vent checked out ok, but the other vent had a few mouse turds in in, soooooooo we theorize the mice walked up the side of the brick and made their way in through there and that is why we are guessing there is a strong odor in the bathroom. But we believe they chewed through the flexible vent hose and got out into the basement.

The vent has been replaced with a new one with added metal screen on it. The question remains no mice can get in now so we just have to trap any remaining mice now. We haven't caught any in five days now in traps, rodent motels, sticky baits or rat zapper death by electrocution.

The ceilings in the basement are all sheet rocked and finished so I can't get at the vent hose.

My options are to 1) continue to trap to catch any remaining mice that may still be alive; 2) have somebody with a flexible seeing eye gadget look into the vent hose/tubing to see if they can see anything or any problems in the hose or blindly take out Sheetrock in the ceiling of a bedroom adjacent to the bathroom and the bathroom and replace the vent hose.

Comments are welcome.

Paragraphs.

Thanks,

 

[dave1949]

Have you cleaned the dryer vent pipe? They have flexible snakes for that purpose and they should be cleaned now and then anyways.

If you find mouse doo doo in the cleaning brush head, that would tell you something.