topic Re: MIce. in Home

MIce.

Pooky1 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 12:21:59 GMT

We have had a mouse get in ocationally and traps get them. Lastly it seems worse.I have caught over the last couple months liklike at least 8 have been caught. I put out extra traps and I bought poison you put inside a locked thing.I put a couple outside and inside. I'm hearing them around daily haven't caught any in a few days and when I opened locked poison boxes poison isnt touched. Like 5 years ago we had big blue bug come out and had them for 4 months. A couple got trapped but there poison never got touched either. I just ordered peppermint repellent. Coming in today. Anything you guys are doing to deal with this. Suggestions greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Re: MIce.

CalminHeart — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 12:30:13 GMT

IMO, You need to find out how they get in and fix that.

Re: MIce.

qualitygal — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 12:48:44 GMT

Call an exterminator. They may find the point of entry so you can get it patched up to stop the visits. Once and for all. All the mini stops so far, will add up to a visit or two by an exterminator. What will be done, by them, should be safer for you too.

Re: MIce.

We rescue cats — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 13:05:36 GMT

Apparently the mice have a scent trail into your home, we live in a very rural area and battle them often. . . especially in the camper. I encourage you not to use poison, it kills more than the rodent if another animal eats the dying mouse. We have tried using dryer sheets, Irish Spring soap, Grandpa Gus (I think that was the name) and the sonar plug-ins. I finally had our exterminator search the camper, find the entrances and we plugged them with steel wool and wire netting, in addition we checked it every few weeks. That worked. It wasn't the easy answer but it worked. Bad news is we bought a new motorhome this year. . . we start again.

Re: MIce.

Eileen in Virginia — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 13:33:02 GMT

I second the suggestion to get an exterminator to figure out where they're getting in and address the problem. Fresh mouse droppings carry the hanta virus which I believe killed Gene Hackman's wife. Have you considered getting a cat as a backup mouse prevention method? My in-laws lived in the North Jersey suburbs (not rural at all) and usually had a cat as a pet. The only times they had mice were when they were between cats.

Re: MIce.

gardenman — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 13:36:01 GMT

Mice always find a way to get inside. They can squeeze through ridiculously small openings. Block one, and they'll find another.

In Tracy Kidder's book "House" where he follows the construction of a new house, one of the contractors talks of a contractor who would never finish a house until a mouse had moved in. He felt that proved the house was livable. One of his subcontractors then started keeping mice as pets and would release one into the house so the contractor would finish the job and the subs would get paid.

Your house is everything a field mouse wants in the world. Warm, dry, safe from predators, and with enough food to survive on. Who wouldn't want to live there? Traps and poison are the best options.Most mouse/rat poison is warfarin which simply causes them to bleed to death and is metabolized by the mouse, so there's little risk to anything that eats the dead mouse. I wouldn't recommend eating one, but anything eating the mouse is likely a lot bigger than the mouse and whatever warfarin is unmetabolized is likely insignificant to the animal eating the mouse. You're not going to kill half the wildlife around you by poisoning mice.

Re: MIce.

nascarfan — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 13:53:13 GMT

We have a pest control company monthly and still would have the occasional mouse get in the house. A couple of years ago I purchased the plug in pest control devices from HSN and put one on every floor. I haven't had a problem since.

Re: MIce.

Still Raining — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:01:27 GMT

If you see one, then all their friends are also frolicking around. One is the tip of the iceberg.

Have you sealed all your pipes, vent screens and such? Is everything, including in the garage, being stored well? Pet food, granola.....

They are truly little devils.

Re: MIce.

hkrgrl — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:24:35 GMT

lots of good advice here.

what we did a couple of years ago:

1. clogged any gaps in pipe etc with steel wool

2. made sure ALL food items are untouchable

3. removed any standing water or water source inside and outside

4. sprayed perimeter of house with peppermint every month

5. bought plug in sensors expecially for mice, put them all on ground level and in crawl space.

we have had none for the past 2-3 years...

its very hard to find point of entry since they can squeeze in through a tiny crack and they are excellent climbers.

best to seal whatever you can and don't leave doors open when going in and out, especially in the Fall and Winter. they are so fast, you won't even see them..

worse comes to worse, get a cat or two. they 'know' and won't come in your house.

if you see one or their droppings, there are many more.... i did read that if you see them in the daytime, it means that there are a lot of them and they are looking for food. its very rare to see them in the daytime. they are night eaters...

our cat caught a couple the first years we had him and then, none! we are catless now, so other measures are taken.

best of luck!!!!

“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” — Rumi

"Winter is nature’s sleep.” — H.S. Jacobs

Re: MIce.

sunshine45 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:25:14 GMT

we have regular extermination once a month. it costs us about $60 for inside and outside of the house. if we have any other issues, they will come and take care of it.

that has been the BEST way for us to deal with mice because WE dont have to deal with them.

you also have to make sure that every little crack, crevice, spaces around pipes are all sealed well. this time of year especially, they want to come in from the cold and will be looking for food.

Re: MIce.

buddysgirl — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:28:30 GMT

Have you tried the plug ins that emit a sound wave that the mice do not like. I haven't had any trouble with mice but gave one to my son's girlfriend that was having trouble with mice in her horse feed barn. She said it worked great. I believe they are by Bell and Howell and HSN stocks them.

Re: MIce.

We rescue cats — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 15:38:20 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
Most mouse/rat poison is warfarin which simply causes them to bleed to death and is metabolized by the mouse, so there's little risk to anything that eats the dead mouse. I wouldn't recommend eating one, but anything eating the mouse is likely a lot bigger than the mouse and whatever warfarin is unmetabolized is likely insignificant to the animal eating the mouse. You're not going to kill half the wildlife around you by poisoning mice.

If only this were true. . .

Re: MIce.

Kachina624 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:38:25 GMT

@gardenman. Predator birds like hawks, owls and eagles find and eat poisoned mice which go outside to die. Birds eating the poisioned mice can easily also die.

When he was a youngster, my dog came in from outside one day with a mouse hanging out of his mouth. I had a battle royal getting the darn thing away from him. I was in fear of my little dog geting poisioned.

Re: MIce.

Carmie — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:50:07 GMT

Last year for the first time we had mice. In all, we killed 14 of them.

I think a pregnant mouse came in when she burrowed into the dirt of a plant on my deck. I brought the plant in when there was danger of frost and put it on my kitchen table. The next morning, there was dirt all over my table and floor and a big hole in the dirt in my planter.

The old fashioned wooden mouse traps didn't work. The newer plastic ones worked very well and we caught quite a few with them. Peppermint oil didn't work. My whole pantry smelled like strong peppermint, but mice didn't seem to care.

The sonic noise makers that my husband and I couldn't hear, drove our kids and grandkids crazy when they came to visit, but the mice didn't avoid them. I had two in every room.

I think there was no exit for them to leave, so they were stuck in our house. They caused a lot of damage to food in my pantry and to upholstered furniture.

The majority of them were caught in the plastic snap traps with peanut butter, but the last one who took months for us to catch, I hate to admit, was caught on a sticky paper trap. I don't like to use them because they seem cruel, but we were desperate.

Good luck. You need to get them out quickly, or they will breed and multiply.

Re: MIce.

chlema — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 17:55:45 GMT

We use the traps run by battery that lures them in with a small bit of peanut butter. Once they are inside they are zapped, a fast death. They cost about $20 each. We keep one in the kitchen behind the trash can, one in the garage and one in the laundry/furnace room. These traps last forever. When a mouse is inside you take the trap, flip open the lid and dispose of the critter, then reset the trap.

With poisoning they have a painful death, with the glue traps they suffer, often trying to bite off their legs to flee. Just seems to me the ones I am using provide a fast death, no suffering.

Re: MIce.

Zhills — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:00:42 GMT

A Janitor told me to clean with Pine-Sol.

A mouse leaves a trail of scents that welcomes others!

Once he did that ... mine stopped. (at my office)

I would never use poison! A dead mouse scent is awful!

Re: MIce.

Nightowlz — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:59:44 GMT

We just got rid of 2 than found out we had 2 more? Haven't seen anymore since.

The first 1 one died from rat poison in the attic.

We heard the next one in the wall. It couldn't figure out how to get out so it died.

I saw the next one in the middle of the kitchen floor. I always thought they stayed around the baseboards?

DH said he thought he saw one in his man cave. I told him to put a piece of cheese on the trap & set it by the baseboard so when the mouse runs in there it will jump right in the trap. The next night I saw the mouse again. It took off where DH was & jumped right in the trap.

I told DH I saw another mouse. He didn't believe me. Next day when I was cleaning the bathrooms going back & forth it flew into the bathroom. I told DH to set a trap with a piece of cheese. I was still cleaning the bathrooms when I went back to our bedroom & the mouse was dead in the trap in the bathroom. That was fast.

Try cheddar cheese on your traps. Seems to work. DH used peanut butter first but the mice lick it off some how?

I'm sure they got in when we remodeled the bathrooms. The guys were in/out of the garage leaving the door open.

I don't do that since I know there are mice all over the place. Our neighbors don't mow like they should. When they do mow the mice scatter. I don't think mice want to live in our house. There's no water for them or food. I'm a clean freak. Only food they will find is maybe a dead spider in the attic?

I have never seen any chewed on food products in the pantry? When I lived at home the mice got into dad's ding dongs.

The new vanities don't have a regular ac vent. It has some cut underneath from about one side to the other that vents out the heat & air. I think the mouse went through it when I saw it run in the bathroom because it hit the vanity toekick hard.

Re: MIce.

Pooky1 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:13:10 GMT

My brother in law has 4 cats and a dog and they still get mice. When we had the big blue bug exterminater they told me having a cat doesn't keep mice away. He also said he has a cat and he still has mice. They didn't do anything to take care of not getting any new mice from coming in. The poison they put out in locked boxes never got touched.

Re: MIce.

Zhills — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:49:24 GMT

We live in a community where there is a colony of feral cats and several have still had mice! Sneaky little things!

Re: MIce.

AuntG — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:59:33 GMT

Being that we live by a wooded park, combined with my irrational fear of mice, I pay a pest control service far more than I'd like to maintain outside bait stations. It's $50 a month, along with an annual fee. The good thing is they come out in spring and fall to check that everything is tightly sealed on the outside of our house.

My husband doesn't get why it's such a big deal. He says we should just set a trap if there's a mouse. Granted, we both grew up on farms where mice are prevalent, but somehow I developed a fear of rodents.