Getting rid of mice

[RC Didnt Offer]

Ok, so I've been in my house since last August. Apparently we have mice, mostly in the walls/ceiling (meaning I've never really seen them but hear them scratching).

I went to Home Depot and it looks like there are three treatment types:

1) Electronic, plug-in anti-pest devices
2) Glue paper/traps
3) Edible blocks/poison

Which of these three would work the best? I bought some of each but I'm not sure how to go about this. Its important to note that I dont have easy access to my attic -- no real ladder just a crawl hole or whatever you might call it.

 

[accuratehorn]

Gasoline, match.

 

[jmatt]

 

[Horn_Spanker]

Traps with bacon tied on with fishing line! And buy the big rat traps, they work fine on mice too.

Electronic gadgets are bogus, I did a lot of research on them and the consensus is they are rip-offs.

With poison they can get into an area that you can't and die. Nothing worse than dead mice smell.

Didn't try glue, but I would think there needed to be some kind of bait to get them to cross it?

 

[HoustonHorn]

Poison works extremely well. The downside being the smell of decaying rodents and the potential for a serious fly problem.

I would suggest using a professional.

 

[RomaVicta]

For rats I used those boxes of grain-like poison. The rodent eats it but it doesn't kill them until they drink water. If there are no sources of water in the house, they go outside to drink and die outside of your house. I had good luck with it twice in rental houses about twenty years ago. I believe the poison is an inert material that expands enormously when wet. Nasty death, but it is a territorial imperative after all.

 

[hornimal]

best thing to do is to trap them. the water activated poison works well, but you have to be absolutely sure there is no water source inside your house.

I had to hire a professional to take care of a rodent problem caused by major street construction that drove them inside homes on my street 3 years ago. I'll go ahead and save you $800 and tell you exactly what they did.

they come out to the house and check for tell-tale signs: droppings, entry points, accessible food/water, and hidding places for them (piles of sticks, leaves) and branches that overhang and provide access to your roof. I had to get some branches trimmed and seal up some vents that they had pushed the corner of a mesh covering to get inside. once the house is sealed up, they go inside your attic and bait traps with a mixture of peanut butter, bacon grease and bacon bits. the traps are placed but NOT set.

they come back a few days later and check them. traps are rebaited and set. second time works like a charm. the exterminator explained that rodents are very wary of their surroundings and you have to bait the traps but not set them. it might take them a few days to actually taste the bait, but once they do and know there is no harm, they won't hesitate to approach it when the trap is rebaited and actually set.

get some rat and mouse traps. sometimes the mice are too small for rat traps to be effective. bait the rat ones with the peanut butter mixture and use fruit and peanut butter no the mice traps.

 

[RC Didnt Offer]

Thats some great info. You know how I first came to the realization that they were in the house? I would come home and some old bananas I had were split open and looked to be decaying. I thought that was odd and then I realized it wasnt them naturally split open -- it was a friggin mice buffet.

The trap idea is a good one -- its just going to suck trying to get up there.

 

[hornimal]

if you don't have a big enough crawl space staple a string to the base of the trap and toss them near a wall. you have to be sure they land right side up, obviously. when you catch something you just have to reel it back in.

 

[cmvUT75]

It's my understanding that if you hear them above you (ceiling), then its ROOF RATS ... mice stay close to the ground.

Make an all out effort to look for their point(s) of entry and seal them by whatever means possible. You'll never solve the problem until you do.

I think conventional snap traps are the best, using whatever bait you desire (peanut butter is good). If they die inside the walls or in the upper crawlspace, standby for the smell + flies.

 

[horn4life]

I was going to say rats as well...

the only thing I have to input is that you should generally set your trap facing a wall. rodents tend to travel against walls (or along a beam in the attic).

great hint about baiting and not setting the trap.

i gad to kill of about 6 or 7 rats a couple years ago. my kids had left some big bags of Halloween Candy in the dorner of the grage and we all forgot about it. About 11 pm I would hear the snap of the trap...

 

[DMLonghorn]