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Post by gus4emo on Oct 19, 2020 19:08:03 GMT -5
Let me know when you find a house in the mouse....lol...
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ttocs
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Post by ttocs on Dec 17, 2021 7:03:21 GMT -5
Let me know when you find a house in the mouse....lol... I found one! It's a new guy. Heard scratching couple nights ago, so I put out some bait blocks in a couple places. This morning I was awakened by what "must" have been nibbling from one of those blocks so I waited long enough after the nibbling stopped so I was sure the critter got a good meal and then began investigating. Sure enough, he was in the guest bedroom! So now it's DEFCON 1. Lots of bait blocks everywhere. And I need to find out where he got in. |
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Post by BigE on Dec 17, 2021 9:24:50 GMT -5
Let me know when you find a house in the mouse....lol... I found one! It's a new guy. Heard scratching couple nights ago, so I put out some bait blocks in a couple places. This morning I was awakened by what "must" have been nibbling from one of those blocks so I waited long enough after the nibbling stopped so I was sure the critter got a good meal and then began investigating. Sure enough, he was in the guest bedroom! So now it's DEFCON 1. Lots of bait blocks everywhere. And I need to find out where he got in. Simple snap traps w/slice of pepperoni worked for me. Put one under sink in cabinet and literally less than a minute later got first of 4. Happened when a nearby field got clear cut and think they squeezed in under gap of front door and threshold. |
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Post by 405x5 on Dec 17, 2021 9:35:12 GMT -5
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ttocs
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I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with. (Elwood P Dowd)
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Post by ttocs on Dec 17, 2021 9:36:44 GMT -5
I found one! It's a new guy. Heard scratching couple nights ago, so I put out some bait blocks in a couple places. This morning I was awakened by what "must" have been nibbling from one of those blocks so I waited long enough after the nibbling stopped so I was sure the critter got a good meal and then began investigating. Sure enough, he was in the guest bedroom! So now it's DEFCON 1. Lots of bait blocks everywhere. And I need to find out where he got in. Simple snap traps w/slice of pepperoni worked for me. Put one under sink in cabinet and literally less than a minute later got first of 4. Happened when a nearby field got clear cut and think they squeezed in under gap of front door and threshold. Well, for whatever reason, there's no "evidence" of mouse trails going from the bedroom yet, too new I suspect. When I heard the scratching a couple nights ago, it sounded like it was at bottom of the wall which would indicate that it was in the basement trying to get to the first floor. The bedrooms are at the end of a hallway leading to the kitchen. There is never any food anywhere after packages have been opened. No food in the garbage cabinet either, anything with a smell, as that goes into the freezer for storage until garbage day. I bought some snap traps today along with more of the baits. But I looked for possible entry spots weeks ago and didn't see anything, so now I'll need to do better. But later today I'll spray the bottom of the house outside with strong vinegar and keep doing that until I seal any possible void. It's a brick house. |
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Post by BigE on Dec 17, 2021 9:56:50 GMT -5
Simple snap traps w/slice of pepperoni worked for me. Put one under sink in cabinet and literally less than a minute later got first of 4. Happened when a nearby field got clear cut and think they squeezed in under gap of front door and threshold. Well, for whatever reason, there's no "evidence" of mouse trails going from the bedroom yet, too new I suspect. When I heard the scratching a couple nights ago, it sounded like it was at bottom of the wall which would indicate that it was in the basement trying to get to the first floor. The bedrooms are at the end of a hallway leading to the kitchen. There is never any food anywhere after packages have been opened. No food in the garbage cabinet either, anything with a smell, as that goes into the freezer for storage until garbage day. I bought some snap traps today along with more of the baits. But I looked for possible entry spots weeks ago and didn't see anything, so now I'll need to do better. But later today I'll spray the bottom of the house outside with strong vinegar and keep doing that until I seal any possible void. It's a brick house. |
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ttocs
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I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with. (Elwood P Dowd)
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Post by ttocs on Dec 17, 2021 10:14:21 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm not naming mine. Have a friend who, about 15 years ago, lived in a frame house in the woods that had a crawlspace. When he discovered "a" mouse, he named it Randy. After a while he began seeing more Randy poops so he got a humane trap and let him go pretty far away. "Randy" returned that day, which of course is impossible. So he let the new Randy out also, then another, and another, and so on . . . . . until he got serious about ridding the house of all of the Randy mice. He learned his lesson. |
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Post by 405x5 on Dec 17, 2021 10:18:27 GMT -5
Recently, I replaced the rubber gaskets on the bottoms of my garage doors.
Shortly afterwards, something (larger than a mouse) must have camped out in the garage. The only way out was to chew up one of those new gaskets.
What a thankless job putting those in….9 feet long each and greased them up with motor oil to pull them through the channel 🐭
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Post by BigE on Dec 17, 2021 10:34:00 GMT -5
Just a thought, but pretty certain they can squeeze thru weep holes to get into walls. I regularly spray pesticide into weep holes to keep out roaches and centipedes, ... Combined with missing mortar is a potential first ingress. Then stuff like romex wiring running through over-sized holes drilled in studs now allows mobility between places as well. For instance, somebody tore up sheetrock in kitchen wall behind built-in drawers for the cooktop wiring to be pulled through. That wall - running perpendicular to the exterior kitchen wall has likely allowed a critter entry and said critter then figured out how to access cabinetry above countertops - where dropping were found. I initially thought they were typical Texas cockroach droppings; ours are often found dragging away small puppies or kittens for snacks. Unfortunately, after heading up North, they look a lot like what were mouse droppings. The good news is that the mice are easier to get rid of I believe than la cucaracha.
Though there's been no recent evidence of activity since our kitchen remodel, I purchased 3M fireblock foam at HD to spray around the cooktop wiring and fill up the hole in the sheet-rock and I'll toss in a sticky trap to be certain; poison in with our dishes isn't a good idea. Under sink cabinet was foamed up years ago, but I'll double check as it backs up directly to exterior wall and that will get the poison bait station. BTW, after 3 separate issues with rodents in the garage climbing up shelving to get to bird food [compressed feed in 5"x5"x1" bars + loose bird feed] I've now discontinued feeding birds. This also, due to the squirrels frequenting our yard, climbing onto the hanging bird feeder to eat the bird feed and burrowing into the garden mulch with acorns. Squirrels are basically rodents rats with fur and - much to my surprise - quite tasty in stew as prepared by a Cajun buddy of mine.
Apparently skunks also like the bird feed the squirrels shake onto the ground around the feeder in our yard, but didn't appreciate being confronted by our 35# German shepherd mix. Our dog lost...well really we lost due to the smell and timing of the clean up. De-skunking your pet at 10:30PM as everyone is ready for bed is less than ideal. As an aside, skunks don't appear to climb up walls, so I zip-tied black plastic mesh over the iron entry fence and haven't seen any more skunks in the yard. Now, if my wife and I could just figure out how to keep the squirrels away from our near ripe tomatoes. Ideas anyone?
Happy holidays to all.
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Dec 17, 2021 11:05:27 GMT -5
Yes... there is rarely "just one mouse"...
Well, if only one gets in, then that might be the case... But, if two get in, during nesting season, you will soon have lots of mice... And they can get very messy...
If you use the humane traps try and release them a good distance from the house. That will make it quite unlikely that a given one will find his or her way back.
Yeah, I'm not naming mine. Have a friend who, about 15 years ago, lived in a frame house in the woods that had a crawlspace. When he discovered "a" mouse, he named it Randy. After a while he began seeing more Randy poops so he got a humane trap and let him go pretty far away. "Randy" returned that day, which of course is impossible. So he let the new Randy out also, then another, and another, and so on . . . . . until he got serious about ridding the house of all of the Randy mice. He learned his lesson. |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Dec 17, 2021 11:09:26 GMT -5
Back when I lived in New York I had mice in the basement one year. There was absolutely NO available food to be had... And we never saw them upstairs (quite possibly because I had several cats - who never went into the basement).
But the nut and seed hulls I found told me that they were bringing the food in with them...
They had nested in an old crate full of rags that was sitting in one corner of the basement... clearly just to come in from the cold. It was just that one "batch"... and once they were all caught and released far away we never saw any more. (We also never found out how they got in but there were lots of tiny gaps here and there in the cement work.)
I've lived in my current house for 7-1/2 years rodent free. That record, sadly, came to an end recently. I started seeing mouse droppings a few weeks ago. One, sometimes two, in the living area, and not often. I figured the basement was the home of the offender(s), so I bought some smell makers including mint packets and warm oil fragrance emitters using cinnamon oil and put these all over the basement. I fragranced up the whole house by doing this. I also bought bait stations for the basement which are unused even now. A couple nights ago I SAW a mouse in the living room, then later saw it in the bedroom. Now, I know this might have been two different mice, but if there are multiple mice - why am I not seeing more evidence? I didn't sleep at all that night. So I got nasty real quick, starting with spraying ammonia along where baseboard meets the floor and there are gaps. I doused rags with ammonia and placed them in unused areas. I also bought the standard traps and more bait stations but this time I put them on the main floor. And I also bought some Pine Sol. I normally use cleaners which have no lingering smell, so when you enter the house - it just doesn't smell. So I decided to start using Pine Sol to stink up the place, and that smell lingers. So now the house smells like cinnamon, mint, and Pine Sol. The ammonia dissipates pretty quick, it's just for where I thought mice might be using for their routes. Then I got the audio system into action. I played loud bass rumbles, and also played very high frequency sounds in the 14,000 - 20,000Hz range. I played the sounds for 20-30 minute periods every few hours. I use an SPL meter to determine how loud the high frequency sound is playing to keep the intensity at least at 80dB. It's pretty amazing that these high frequency sounds also bother "me" to the point where I wear ear protection. I didn't think I'd be able to notice when the high freqs were playing, but I do. I think I discovered an entry point for the mouse. A wood strip on the front windows had been pulled back that was covering a rotted portion it's attached to. The windows need replacement. I stuffed steel wool into the void and re-secured the wood strip and continued with the ammonia and sound assault. Since the night of the sightings there's been no discernible activity. No food. Sure there's canned and bottled goods, but I have just one kitchen drawer that has less than a 1/8" gap around the drawer front with unopened packages of pasta and noodles, and anything else - including cereal - is kept in the fridge. This is a hold-over from when I had a problem with roaches when I lived in an apartment and the roaches migrated to my apartment when the unit above was being renovated. And for the record, I bag and freeze food waste until garbage day so only non-smelly items are in the trash bin. So the only food is in the kitchen area since I don't eat in the tv area, and only water makes it into the bedrooms. I don't know what any mouse would be attracted to if it doesn't discover food. Does it leave? Does it bring in carry-out? Any mouse experts out there? I've often said that when it comes to mice, if you see one there's more, so I want to squelch this before it becomes a family matter, and so on, and so on, . . . . |
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Post by housetech on Dec 17, 2021 11:30:56 GMT -5
We have a 25 acre field behind us and a do-nothing, sits on his *bleep* all day, welfare slob who inherited the house next door, so we have mice around. I don't "hav-a-heart" once those sob's are in my house or garage. it's war. Rats & mice (most critters) have flees, flees carry disease. I keep bait stations strategically placed. My grand parents had a dairy farm that taught me about pest.
Our other neighbor feeds the birds during the day and every other critter at night within a 1/4 mile. She asked me to kill the skunks that nest under her out-building. I got tired of staying up at nights being 'have gun, will travel' for 2 years and now used rat baits after I saw them on our patio. Baits work but very careful with pets.
We had a possum die under my workbench in the garage the first year in our house and it was the most god awful, make you puke, stink ever and it's mate or offspring was standing guard over it. Oh, that was fun, I had to wear a respirator. I'm not a wimp but that was the most disgusting stink ever.
As far as how mice get into your house, who knows, but all you have to do is open the garage door.
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Post by housetech on Dec 17, 2021 12:09:30 GMT -5
Just a thought, but pretty certain they can squeeze thru weep holes to get into walls. I regularly spray pesticide into weep holes to keep out roaches and centipedes, ... Combined with missing mortar is a potential first ingress. Then stuff like romex wiring running through over-sized holes drilled in studs now allows mobility between places as well. For instance, somebody tore up sheetrock in kitchen wall behind built-in drawers for the cooktop wiring to be pulled through. That wall - running perpendicular to the exterior kitchen wall has likely allowed a critter entry and said critter then figured out how to access cabinetry above countertops - where dropping were found. I initially thought they were typical Texas cockroach droppings; ours are often found dragging away small puppies or kittens for snacks. Unfortunately, after heading up North, they look a lot like what were mouse droppings. The good news is that the mice are easier to get rid of I believe than la cucaracha. Though there's been no recent evidence of activity since our kitchen remodel, I purchased 3M fireblock foam at HD to spray around the cooktop wiring and fill up the hole in the sheet-rock and I'll toss in a sticky trap to be certain; poison in with our dishes isn't a good idea. Under sink cabinet was foamed up years ago, but I'll double check as it backs up directly to exterior wall and that will get the poison bait station. BTW, after 3 separate issues with rodents in the garage climbing up shelving to get to bird food [compressed feed in 5"x5"x1" bars + loose bird feed] I've now discontinued feeding birds. This also, due to the squirrels frequenting our yard, climbing onto the hanging bird feeder to eat the bird feed and burrowing into the garden mulch with acorns. Squirrels are basically rodents rats with fur and - much to my surprise - quite tasty in stew as prepared by a Cajun buddy of mine. Apparently skunks also like the bird feed the squirrels shake onto the ground around the feeder in our yard, but didn't appreciate being confronted by our 35# German shepherd mix. Our dog lost...well really we lost due to the smell and timing of the clean up. De-skunking your pet at 10:30PM as everyone is ready for bed is less than ideal. As an aside, skunks don't appear to climb up walls, so I zip-tied black plastic mesh over the iron entry fence and haven't seen any more skunks in the yard. Now, if my wife and I could just figure out how to keep the squirrels away from our near ripe tomatoes. Ideas anyone? Happy holidays to all. Welcome to TX life. We have 4 Pecan trees and herds of squirrels. Seems like the more I shoot, the more there are. Neighbor got squirrel(s) in her attic and tore into every storage box, made a mess. How they got up there, no clue. I trained my Labradors to avoid skunks, it can be done. But more than likely your dog has learned on it's own. lol Want to hear the most horrifying scream you wife can make, let her find a snake in the master bathroom. |
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ttocs
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I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with. (Elwood P Dowd)
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Post by ttocs on Dec 17, 2021 13:20:57 GMT -5
Just a thought, but pretty certain they can squeeze thru weep holes to get into walls. Yes they can! And that's first on my list to check. Found some holes a couple years ago, so must be something somewhere. At least I know the general area due to where the first noise was heard and today's sighting. My understanding is that mice "generally" will forage within about 30 feet of a nest, unless of course it's really easy to navigate from nest to food - like across one floor of a house. |
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Post by BigE on Dec 17, 2021 13:47:00 GMT -5
Ha. ex-girlfriend screamed from bathroom. Sat down only to find that a frog had made it's way in through sewer plumbing. LOL.
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Post by housetech on Dec 17, 2021 13:55:37 GMT -5
Peppermint essential oil works for mice and even some insects/bugs.
If it burns your nose when you smell it- that's the right kind/strength, per my better half.
Use steel-wool in your weep holes
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ttocs
Global Moderator
I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with. (Elwood P Dowd)
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Post by ttocs on Dec 17, 2021 14:36:53 GMT -5
Peppermint essential oil works for mice and even some insects/bugs. If it burns your nose when you smell it- that's the right kind/strength, per my better half. I knew about the peppermint, but not about the "burns your nose" stuff, but that makes sense. Use steel-wool in your weep holes Yep, this is what the pros use. |
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Post by housetech on Dec 19, 2021 12:59:51 GMT -5
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Post by DavidR on Dec 19, 2021 18:18:58 GMT -5
One of our cars is outside and not garaged. I found mice turds and acorns on top of the engine near the intake manifold. I've found the tried and true Victor traps as best. Just add peanut butter and watch your fingers. The pest didn't look much better than this guy..........actually looked a lot worse.
Please don't use Decon. The pests will eat it and go outside to find water. They can be eaten by predators. We had a beautiful tabby cat that we let be in an indoor/outdoor cat. My neighbor puts Decon out in his garden and she got into it (This is illegal use). She died a horrible, slow death. No more outdoor cats. I know nothing about all the pellet holes in Mr and Mrs NotSoFriendy's crap aluminum siding.
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ttocs
Global Moderator
I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with. (Elwood P Dowd)
Posts: 8,161
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Post by ttocs on Dec 19, 2021 18:52:16 GMT -5
One of our cars is outside and not garaged. I found mice turds and acorns on top of the engine near the intake manifold. I've found the tried and true Victor traps as best. Just add peanut butter and watch your fingers. The pest didn't look much better than this guy..........actually looked a lot worse.
Please don't use Decon. The pests will eat it and go outside to find water. They can be eaten by predators. We had a beautiful tabby cat that we let be in an indoor/outdoor cat. My neighbor puts Decon out in his garden and she got into it (This is illegal use). She died a horrible, slow death. No more outdoor cats. I know nothing about all the pellet holes in Mr and Mrs NotSoFriendy's crap aluminum siding.
Yeah, I've been reading about that over the weekend. I'll be collecting the little bricks now. Haven't heard any activity since early yesterday morning, so I'm thinking the little guy succumbed. I looked outside the house today and didn't find any place that could be an entry down low. So, must've gotten into the attic and found a way in down a wall cavity. When my roof was replaced in 2014, about a third of the 1x12's were replaced so there was really good access to the perimeter where there was open air space that went from basement to the roof through venting, which is how all the houses the same era as mine were built in my neighborhood back in 1955. I spoke to the inspector and he recommended, while I was spray foaming the roof anyway, to also close up the air gaps so no more warm air flows into the roof in the winter, so that's what happened. So if there is a tiny access hole somewhere up there I won't be able to do anything about it, so I'll have to close up the gap at the top of the basement, which I was told to leave open so the brick can breathe. The back of brick should have an air space, which is does, but there's conflicting info on whether or not to close open cavities to the basement in these types of homes. I'll be closing mine down. |
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