Help! I have unwelcomed mice.

[pdrobber]

I live in an apartment building, I'm sure every building in NYC has mice, it's a matter of keeping them at bay. Under my oven, dishwasher, in my closets, behind my tort enclosures, and across my floor is not "at bay".

I keep a pretty clean place, but let's face it, I'm a college kid...
I've always heard them running around in the floor of the apartment above me, sometimes even their squeaks. A few weeks ago I thought I saw a tail go under my dishwasher, I didn't see one for awhile after that. The next time I saw one was Sunday morning, out of the corner of my eye as I was on the forum before going to work. It scurried under my tv stand, but I wasn't 100% sure. Then, last night, I was cleaning and tidying around the apartment and saw, on my extra tort supplies in the corner, a mouse. I turned to get something to catch it and I turned back around and it was gone. I will fill all the cracks and crevices in the cement under the radiator, floor, walls, etc. with that expanding foam or caulk but there's the crack under my door to the hall which I don't know how I should or could fill. I'm going to get some traps and sound plug in repellent devices and see what happens.

I always thought I loved all animals. Come to think of it, I was never really fond of the pet hamsters my sisters and I had growing up. Rodents just aren't my thing.

Any suggestions? What kind of traps work? Which repellent sound things work? What should I use to fill the spaces they're coming in through?

 

[dmmj]

At my place we had a mouse for a while, until the cat got him.

 

[Len B]

You could try bowls, something like a mixing bowl, put water in it, enough water so that the mouse cant jump (make it swim) and tall enough so that he will fall in when he tries to get a drink, mice need water. I have used this method before and it does work if they don't have access to water someplace near.Good Luck, Len

 

[coreyc]

You can get some spray foam to fill the hole s where they are coming in from a cat works great too

 

[John]

The pail of death is always a winner,you get a pail fill it three quaters of the way with water cover the water with sunflower seeds then provide a plank (not to steep) use a little peanut butter on the plank near the top but not to much,this also works well for chipmunks.Or you could just get a snake.

 

[Robert]

The pail of death is always a winner,you get a pail fill it three quaters of the way with water cover the water with sunflower seeds then provide a plank (not to steep) use a little peanut butter on the plank near the top but not to much,this also works well for chipmunks.Or you could just get a snake.

I use a similar setup. It's called a "bucket trap". Take a pail. Drill opposing holes at the top on either side of the bucket. Place a wooden dowel through the holes with a coffee can on it. Place a wooden plank going up to the bucket. Put peanut butter on the coffee can. Fill the bucket 3/4 with anti freeze.

It acts like a log roll. Mouse walks up the plank and goes out to the coffee can to get the peanut butter. The coffee can rolls and drops the mouse right down into the anti freeze. They slurp on the anti freeze and die very quickly. The bucket trap does not need to be reset, so it can catch multiple mice.

I can post pics of the one in my garage if that helps.

 

[SnakeyeZ]

Old fashion snap-traps worked well for us with nutella or peanut butter.

 

[John]

The pail of death is always a winner,you get a pail fill it three quaters of the way with water cover the water with sunflower seeds then provide a plank (not to steep) use a little peanut butter on the plank near the top but not to much,this also works well for chipmunks.Or you could just get a snake.

I use a similar setup. It's called a "bucket trap". Take a pail. Drill opposing holes at the top on either side of the bucket. Place a wooden dowel through the holes with a coffee can on it. Place a wooden plank going up to the bucket. Put peanut butter on the coffee can. Fill the bucket 3/4 with anti freeze.

It acts like a log roll. Mouse walks up the plank and goes out to the coffee can to get the peanut butter. The coffee can rolls and drops the mouse right down into the anti freeze. They slurp on the anti freeze and die very quickly. The bucket trap does not need to be reset, so it can catch multiple mice.

I can post pics of the one in my garage if that helps.

yeah last year I was averaging six chipmunks a day,best year for veggies out the garden in awhile

 

[Robert]

A few years ago we had a mouse in our garage that committed mouse suicide. It was terrible.

I set four or five snap traps in the garage. One day one of them was missing. I could hear a scraping sound, but could NOT find it. Two days later I found a mouse head first in one of the other traps. It had the missing trap snapped down onto it's rear legs and tail. I don't love mice, but I felt terrible that the mouse had hobbled around for two days with that snap trap on it's rear legs and tail. Must have been pretty painful. At least the final blow was quick.

I feel like the bucket trap is more humane. Supposedly the anti freeze is sweet and they suck it in quick.

And it doesn't need to be reset.

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Any suggestions? What kind of traps work? Which repellent sound things work? What should I use to fill the spaces they're coming in through?

They also seem to hate mothballs. I put some in the garage where they seemed to be coming inside.

Supposedly they hate peppermint oil as well. I've seen this recommended for use in apartments because it is safer than the mothballs and doesn't smell bad.

In my experience, the plug in the wall devices don't seem to work.

 

[pdrobber]

maybe a pic would be good. I'm not sure where the coffee can fits in.

 

[Robert]

I turned this around for the picture. Usually the base of the ramp is near the edge of the wall.

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I fear this picture might earn me some negative reputation points!!!

 

[pdrobber]

Ah, I see. thanks. I'll show it to my dad when he comes by tomorrow and we start waging war against the little ones. He insists on just using lots and lots of snap traps. We're also bringing some of the torts out to the house on LI to get in their outdoor enclosures soon, should be a good day if all goes well.

 

[Robert]

It can't be said that I did not warn the mice! I wrote, "Danger Mice" on there clear as day. I even included a skull and cross bones (universal symbol for danger) for any non-english speaking mice.

At least I know that if the Rats of Nimh come they will be able to read the warning.

 

[John]

just for the record killing is not humane we just needed a word to make us as humans feel better about it.at the end of the day dead is dead

 

[Robert]

just for the record killing is not humane we just needed a word to make us as humans feel better about it.at the end of the day dead is dead

True. I meant that I thought it was "more humane" than the experience I had with the snap trap, but you are correct. I'm sure many would agree that drowning an animal in anti-freeze probably shouldn't be called "humane".

Now my mole traps, those are definitely not humane! They look like medieval torture devices!!

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

For some reason mice hate dryer sheets too. We have a friend who is a fleet mechanic on cranes and all sorts of big construction type trucks. He said he was sick of opening boxes with engines and other parts in them that were filled with mice so he wrapped all of the parts in dryer sheets and that solved the problem.

 

[terryo]

If you get yourself a cat, you won't ever have a mouse again. Even if the cat doesn't catch any, the cat gives off a sent that the mouse ...well he just knows that he'll be dinner or a play thing, and leaves the building. Seriously, it works every time. One can of food a day, a kitty litter box, a cat and a few toys. That's all it takes. No mice, and hours of fun. When we lived in Brooklyn, (a place loaded with mice) everyone on our street had them except us. We had two cats.

 

[Isa]

The pail of death is always a winner,you get a pail fill it three quaters of the way with water cover the water with sunflower seeds then provide a plank (not to steep) use a little peanut butter on the plank near the top but not to much,this also works well for chipmunks.Or you could just get a snake.

I use a similar setup. It's called a "bucket trap". Take a pail. Drill opposing holes at the top on either side of the bucket. Place a wooden dowel through the holes with a coffee can on it. Place a wooden plank going up to the bucket. Put peanut butter on the coffee can. Fill the bucket 3/4 with anti freeze.

It acts like a log roll. Mouse walks up the plank and goes out to the coffee can to get the peanut butter. The coffee can rolls and drops the mouse right down into the anti freeze. They slurp on the anti freeze and die very quickly. The bucket trap does not need to be reset, so it can catch multiple mice.

I can post pics of the one in my garage if that helps.

I did the same thing once, but I did not put water or anti freeze in the bucket. When I woke up in the morning, I release the 2 mice outside (not near my house of course lol) . Anyway, if you really want to kill them, mouse trap are the best and of course I agree with Terry, the cat would be the solution

 

[Edna]

I fear this picture might earn me some negative reputation points!!!

To the contrary! You could get some +1s for giving the mousies fair warning not to go up the ramp. Assuming they can read, of course

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Erin, do whatever it takes to get rid of the mice. You could improve the water bucket idea with a little dish soap in the water, as it will reduce surface tension and make the end swifter. Be very careful with antifreeze, because it's toxic to any critter, not just mice. Mice will eat right through expanding foam. Use steel wool to stuff your cracks, they won't go through that, and it's pretty cheap at the hardware store. I've used sticky traps with some success, and they will also capture bugs. My best advice would be to use several traps/methods in combination, because nothing is 100%, even cats.

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

We are lucky in that we have only ever had mice in our garage. Our friends tell us that they are probably in our house if they are in our garage but we have never seen any evidence to prove this. For the record, I would never put Rob's "bucket o' death" in my house!!! Sadly, we get the really cute field mice they are tiny with big sweet brown eyes.