Ah, Mice!

[uncledrz]

Ed
We used to deal with rats with a similar trap that work quite well. Oil drum with the top cut off. Lay wooden path so that the rats could get up to the top lip of the drum. Place food material (animal fat worked quite well) in the drum itself and on the lip. The rats would climb up, jump in to eat the food, but not be able to get out.

Brewer
Sealing is required to keep the mice out every year. Try to caulk around the pipes, etc. Traps with cheese always worked for us.

 

[maddythebeagle]

Sounds like he needs to fix the foundation, too (or maybe too much work and money..)...we have a lot of older 100 year old farm houses around here that have mice problems also...the old rock foundations and cellars only under part of the house make it pretty easy for them to get in....

 

[SteveR]

Sounds like he needs to fix the foundation, too (or maybe too much work and money..)...we have a lot of older 100 year old farm houses around here that have mice problems also...the old rock foundations and cellars only under part of the house make it pretty easy for them to get in....

Our last house had a real mouse problem. We looked and looked for areas in the foundation and the sill area where a mouse could get in. We sealed cracks with expansion foam or wire mesh or both. We still had mice.

When we were selling the house and going through all our stuff in the basement crawl space we encountered one of the little devils whom we startled as he exited his hiding place. We sprang into action and started moving boxes and carpet that was next to the foundation wall. Lo and behold! A hole in the foundation just at the crawl space dirt level. The foundation had a mis-match and a couple of board forms were still in place which created a hole about 4 inches in diameter. As it turns out, this was further excavated by hundreds of mice over a period of years and they had created a tunnel 5 inches in diameter from the foundation wall, under the garage floor and then to an opening in the yard behind a group of bushes. The tunnel system was over 30 feet long and 3-4 feet deep.

We filled the hole in the foundation with wire mesh and concrete after putting three cans of expanding foam into the hole first. The opposte end we filled with small rocks after expanding the opening. We saw no more mice after that.

 

[Outtahere]

Besides closing off access you need to make sure you keep things they would consider dinner in mouse proof containers. I've given up the battle of keeping them out with an old stone foundation but I've learned to keep every thing in tin or heavy plastic containers. Dog biscuts are a delicacy as well as bird seed and peanuts, we keep all of those and other food stuff in containers now.

The other thing that helps to keep them out or away from your abode is to not have bird feeders near the house to attract them. We keep ours at the edge of the property and it seems to have helped some. We keep a heated bird bath on the back deck in winter to entice the birds come in close and a suet feeder near the deck.

 

[Nords]

I've given up the battle of keeping them out with an old stone foundation

If mice can't be kept out of a stone foundation, how the heck do you keep out the groundwater & runoff?

The other thing that helps to keep them out or away from your abode is to not have bird feeders near the house to attract them.

On this island the preferred rodent diet is dog food... especially when there's a dish of it left around the house or out on the lanai.

 

[Outtahere]

If mice can't be kept out of a stone foundation, how the heck do you keep out the groundwater & runoff?

It's a stone foundation but the stones are cemented in place. The entry ways are where the foundation has settled and cracked a little or along where the foundation meets the house. It doesn't take a very large opening for a field mouse to get in. Run off is handled by having gutters and a sump pump handles the high ground water in the spring. When I was a kid my dad and granddad cemented the floor and up about 4 feet up the walls, I wish they had gone to the top. (adding that to the RE tasks). This is a very old post and beam building, built in about 1819.

 

[Nords]

This is a very old post and beam building, built in about 1819.

Yikes-- time for Richard Trethewy and the This Old House team!

 

[Outtahere]

Actually the structure and foundation are in remarkable condition. We've remodeled the inside, replaced windows, insulated, did the vinyl siding, upgraded electrical, plumbing, heating system and a new roof. This was mostly done by family and friends but the This Old House team would be pleased with the results. I've dealt with bats in the attic, mice, chipmunks and snakes in the cellar and squirrls in the walls. Oh and an eave full of hornets as well as a few nests in the ground. Dealing with them has become second nature, I just wish the neighbors cat would hang out in my yard but the dog keeps her away, it would solve some of my problems

 

[Free To Canoe]

Any particular type/brand of poison you recommend?

I am deep into mouse warfare. Using spring traps, sticky traps and Decon poison. Would like recommendations on the poison.

Finally cleaned up our careless storage of bird seed.
Cannot for the life of me find their entrance from the outside. No basement but all craw space accesses look sealed. Checked inside of the furnace duct coming in from the outside (tip from another thread).

Caught a few in the house with spring traps but I know there are more because I can hear them in the walls in the morning. Also, finding their inner lairs (dishwasher space, cupboards) and sealing entrances to them up.

Also, working the garage. Going to build the trap that Ed The Gypsy described.

Free to canoe

 

[Martha]

For a second I thought Azanon was back.

My absent cousin is effectively using Ed's Spinning Can in the Bucket method. He includes a little ramp to the top of the drywall bucket. I go to his house and bail out the dead mice. I prefer the snap trap, it is a faster death than death by drowning.

 

[CCdaCE]

You're feeding the cat too well. Lessen up the food and he'll work harder for additional calories.

-CC

 

[freebird5825]

My field mouse corpse count is up to 6 as of this AM.
I use spring traps only and PB.

Little buggers are looking for their winter condo location. NOT!

 

[Purron]

You're feeding the cat too well. Lessen up the food and he'll work harder for additional calories.

-CC

Just watch out for setting out poison. Pets could eat the poison or eat dead or dying mice that have been poisoned. Not a good thing.

My Kansas grandfather was a wheat farmer. He spend a good amount of his energy fighing rodents. His favorite solution? Natural predators. Owls, cats, and black snakes. I've heard of people building owl houses on their property to attract them. An owl can eat a mighty number of mice and scare them away from moving in.

 

[samclem]

We bought a new garage door and the chipmunks really like it. Apparently one or moree got closed inside the garage and chewed through the bottom vinyl gasket to gain freedom. Since then, they chewed nice semicircular hole on the gasket on one side in order to gain entry again. I see them now regularly in the garage, along with at least two shrews.
We enjoy having the chipmunks in the yard, and I would like to avoid "extreme measures" in dealing with them. The plan now:
- Get the birdseed out of the garage, or put it in a chipmunk-proof bin (.50 cal ammo box?)
- Reinforce the bottom gasket of the garage door with something (hardware cloth?) to make it rodent-proof
- (Don't laugh)--I need some way to allow the little guys to get out of the garage if they get in, but which will be a one-way traffic route. We open the door and they dash in, and things will get stinky if they can't get out. They already chewed a hole through one side of the weatherstripping, I'm thinking of putting something there. Options include a few pieces of springy piano wire that they can push up for egress but can't be lifted from the other side, or maybe a similar setup inside a piece of 2" PVC pipe. Or, maybe I'll just build a little turnstyle and hope they'll not jump it.

"What do ya do all day" indeed.

 

[freebird5825]

I use standard metal garbage cans with tight fitting lids to hold dog food and birdseed. I use these ONLY for this purposes.
I do not want to meet the mouse, squirrel or chipmunk that can get that lid off.

 

[Martha]

- (Don't laugh)--I need some way to allow the little guys to get out of the garage if they get in, but which will be a one-way traffic route. We open the door and they dash in, and things will get stinky if they can't get out. They already chewed a hole through one side of the weatherstripping, I'm thinking of putting something there. Options include a few pieces of springy piano wire that they can push up for egress but can't be lifted from the other side, or maybe a similar setup inside a piece of 2" PVC pipe. Or, maybe I'll just build a little turnstyle and hope they'll not jump it.

"What do ya do all day" indeed.

Here was our one way door solution for squirrels:

One-way door

Block any or all holes except for one, preferably the main one, if you can tell which one that is.

Attach a piece of hardware cloth over this last hole but leave a 2 inch gap at the bottom of the hole, at its widest point.

Be sure to use the factory edge of the hardware cloth, where the gap is, to avoid any sharp points that may cause injury to the squirrel.

With your fingers, form a lip with the hardware cloth by bending it towards the outside.

The squirrel will be able to squeeze out of the hole, but with the hardware cloth bent to the outside, he will not be able to re-enter.

Spray all patched areas with a repellant such as Ropel®. Be sure to spray around the one-way door so that the squirrel will not be able to enlarge the hole and get back in.


Maybe do the same for the chipmunks, but make the escape hole a bit smaller.

 

[Free To Canoe]

"What do ya do all day" indeed.

I can see that one way pvc "dog door" now. Sounds like you need an owl in there.

Free to canoe

 

[samclem]

Here was our one way door solution for squirrels:
. . .
Maybe do the same for the chipmunks, but make the escape hole a bit smaller.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I'll look for Ropell at HD, Lowes and Menards.

The little guys are not much of a problem now, but two will become 16 in no time.

 

[Nords]

What about the little flapper valves over the dryer exhaust vent? Maybe that's too easy to chew through for re-entry.

Here's a thought-- could you make the garage a chipmunk-neutral zone? Give them an entry/egress hole or two so they can come & go, but have no reason to stay there? Locking up the food might remove the attractive nuisance, but I don't know if they'd just keep using it for shelter or a chipmunk toilet.

 

[packrat44]

The world's best mouse trap--no poisons, but lethal.

* 5 gallon paint bucket. I used a plastic paint bucket.
* Drill holes in the center of the lid and bottom of a small can.
* Put a small but sturdy rod through the holes so the can spins on its axis. I had to make washers out of pennies fixed to the rod with tape to keep the can from sliding to one side or the other.
* Mount the rod across the top of the bucket. I stuck it through the bail holes and taped it down so it couldn't move.
* Put 6 inches of water in the bucket.
* Smear peanut butter on the can.
* Place bucket where mice will find it.
* Lay a yardstick from the floor to the top edge of the bucket.

Mice are crazy about peanut butter. They smell it, run up to the rim of the bucket, walk out on the rod to the can, jump on the can, which rolls over, dumping them in the water where they eventually drown. It doesn't matter how many mice are floating in the water, they just keep coming. WAIT UNTIL THEY ARE ALL DEAD, then throw them out. (I pitched them into the woods before they stopped moving and my farm girl wife laughed at me, said they will come right back. They did. Had to do it all over again, this time with no mercy.)

A colleague of mine got this design from an old farmer. My friend had mice in a shed and had tried many other things first without much success. This worked 100% for him, and for me. (This was the most useful thing I learned at that company, where I worked for over ten years. )

It does not work on rats (I tried it).

Ed

I use a variation of this system.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket with about 4-5 inches of water with a little detergent to make it slippery inside.
Place a narrow board on top of bucket (without lid);
Take an old toilet paper tube and flatten tube slightly to make it into a "D" shape.
Place some peanut butter at one end of tube and place on board with bait end extending off the board in such a manner that it will readily fall into the water when a mouse crawls through the tube heading for the bait.
Place another narrow board as a runway up to the board on the bucket as a runway. Smear very small amount of peanut butter at several location to help lead the way without giving it the finally treat.

This trap has worked great for me and there is no mess (unless you leave the dead mouse for too long).

 

[easysurfer]

My own two cents...I wouldn't use poison and have a cat/dog at the same time. When I was a child, our family dog died by ingesting posion, very sad.

I'd say, let the cat earn his/her keep and have fun hunting. Don't know if it's true or just an old wives tale, but I've heard that once mice know there's a cat on the prowl...they tend to flee an go somewhere else.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I use standard metal garbage cans with tight fitting lids to hold dog food and birdseed. I use these ONLY for this purposes.
I do not want to meet the mouse, squirrel or chipmunk that can get that lid off.

Raccoons might be able to manage it.

By the way, in Alberta they have special outside garbage cans that are bear-proof. They are off-plumb, tall, square cross-section with a flush lid with a latch under a small hood and secured very well to a foundation. It took me years to figure out what they were. There are about ten black bear sightings in the city of Calgary every year. A woman jogger was killed a couple of years ago in a city park by one. The jogger was wearing an ipod.

Sorry. Got to thinking about big mice.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

For a second I thought Azanon was back.

My absent cousin is effectively using Ed's Spinning Can in the Bucket method. He includes a little ramp to the top of the drywall bucket. I go to his house and bail out the dead mice. I prefer the snap trap, it is a faster death than death by drowning.

It is nice to know I have made one positive impact on the world. (This may be the only one I get.)

 

[Free To Canoe]

Set up Ed's Spinning Can trap today and put it in the garage.

Free to canoe

 

[Free To Canoe]

Mouse Update:

No dice so far with Eds Spinning Can Bucket in the garage. I was sure that there are mice out there. Maybe they all moved into the house where it is warmer.

4 killed in the house so far. Peanut butter is a big hit.

Free to canoe