How to get rid of mice in the house?

[Carl Carlson IV]

I guess this could be considered a health post! It's starting to get cold outside so it doesn't surprise me that the wife and I just saw a couple of mice run across our floor. We keep our house pretty clean yet mice are pretty regular around here (Upper Michigan). When I was growing up at my parents house a few nearly always managed to sneak in each year.

However, the way my parents got rid of them was setting traps and killing them. I don't want to resort to murdering the little things, but I also don't want them to sex up and think they can move in permanently. I've heard that within a year over 100 mice can be born just from a population of a few.

I have no idea how many there are, they're living somewhere in our basement and getting up through our walls and vents. Maybe try setting some live traps and release them far away, maybe near a house of someone I don't like?

[ginkgo]

The mice can sometimes figure out traps and poisons. I had mice that used to get caught but figured them out and they did not work. The best way to get rid of them is to tape up all of the little holes that they can enter your house from. I did this and it worked.

[Peek]

Take some pets like cats and snakes!

Maybe you can just catch them in a cage without killing them.
As far as I know it is difficult to get rid of them.

Good luck,

[moonrambler]

I have problems with mice too on occasion and I use live traps. You have to get to them within about 12 hours or the mice will expire. I take the mice to a park that's about 2 miles away. I assume it's not likely they're going to survive, but I have a terrible time with the idea of outright killing them.

Gingko is right about checking around the outside of your place and blocking any possible entry.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

I have problems with mice too on occasion and I use live traps. You have to get to them within about 12 hours or the mice will expire. I take the mice to a park that's about 2 miles away. I assume it's not likely they're going to survive, but I have a terrible time with the idea of outright killing them.

Gingko is right about checking around the outside of your place and blocking any possible entry.

Actually I did this in my apartment. The places they enter is like the space around the drain pipes like in kitchen and bathroom and around the the gas pipes going to the stove. I do not know of holes going into the building so I do not know how they get into the building.

Actually the drain pipes and gas pipes all go outside into holes in the ground so they might be there in those tunnels in the ground. I learned this from many others trying different things until they did this and it worked. I would occasionally get mice coming in over the years until it became a bad problem. Now I never ever get mice. So the key thing to check are pipes. There are holes under the gas burners (in the stove) where they can come in through. I think that is where mine came in from

[Strangemagik]

I got a non killing mouse trap but never caught it, never saw it again either. It shuts when they enter and as long as you check it frequently you can save him and relocate him/her preferably a ways from any houses. I dunno the poor things just trying to survive can't say I blame them. Me I'd probably catch it and cage it. LOL Then again I'm looking into getting a pet rat soon. hehe I think mine had died in the walls because the bathroom had a strong odor for weeks but nothing in there to cause it.

I hear peanutbutter is something they love. Cats work too. They are mighty great with a more worrisome pest to me, the scorpions.

[Carl Carlson IV]

Thanks for the replies! We plan on going around our house to see if there are any points of entry soon. For now we bought a few live release traps and will set them up where we think they're sneaking in. I think they may be living in our basement, so some down there with peanut butter should attract them.

[Carl Carlson IV]

Oh also, we've been talking about getting a cat for a while and now the wife went from maybe to let's get one tomorrow.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Carl Carlson IV

I have no idea how many there are, they're living somewhere in our basement and getting up through our walls and vents. Maybe try setting some live traps and release them far away, maybe near a house of someone I don't like?

I have a six foot king snake and snake offspring which inhabit the nether regions of my house, that is the basement. I have no rodent problems and have not encountered evidence of a mouse or rat for years in the structure.

[BirraNulu]

Read your post about mice, I dont have a instant solution for ya just a bit of info that might help in long run. You are right in thinking that mice are coming in due to cold but you should also see snakes. If you have no snakes on your property I would encourage you to cultivate them as to restore natural balance. The over use of pesticides and human ingorance are a few reason for the lack of them. Soooooo reduce your use of pesticides and dont kill the snakes they control the mouse population all year long. Snakes do not carry disease like mice. We live in Idaho on 1/2 acre and are totally organic. We have seen a decrease in the population of mice since we moved in and started practicing long term sustainability on our property. Yeah some times we do have to tolerate a few mice but nothing to stress about. If all else fails dont supply food. This includes lawn & garden seed, animal food, human food and of course water. Wow this is long winded, hope its of some help.

[joelr]

Fill your house with giant tranchulas?

[Leondegrance]

ah, this takes me way back to growing up on a hobby farm... good ol' country living.

One time I opened my dresser, and a mouse jumped out onto my hand before sprinting away somewhere. Cute things, but you don't want them chewing up your clothes to build a nest.

We used mouse traps, but sadly it didn't always kill them instantaneously. One of our traps caught a mouse just by its fingers, and the poor thing managed to drag it almost half way across the room before finally collapsing. We'd been away for a while, so I'm guessing it died of starvation, exhaustion, or shock.

One way to catch them without harming them is to put chicken feed in a deep open bucket (garbage can, or barrel perhaps). The mice will jump in to eat, but won't be able to jump back out. We found this out by accident after returning home from a 2 week trip. This bucket was in our chicken coop, and empty. 3 mice had jumped in to eat the crumbs, but weren't able to get out. One mouse eventually died, and the other two began eating it. I guess they did what they had to to survive.

So if you use a bucket with small amounts of food, make sure to check up on it often to avoid witnessing rodent cannibalism.

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by Leondegrance

We used mouse traps, but sadly it didn't always kill them instantaneously. One of our traps caught a mouse just by its fingers, and the poor thing managed to drag it almost half way across the room before finally collapsing. (

Sounds like a scene from one of the Saw movies (I never saw any, but I've heard enough about them). Mice have fingers??

[ginkgo]

How can they jump in but not out. Were they near something higher to jump off of or do they take a running start before jumping like the old Superman. In the old Superman TV shows he would run before jumping and flying. The latest one (Superman Returns) does lots of floating.

[Aleksander Krstic]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Don't build a better mousetrap. Learn to love mice instead.

I've got no idea how you would deal with it in reality, but I just wanted to let you know.