Nibble, Nibble Like a Mouse
The scene above looks like our kitchen for the past two weeks. After having not seen a mouse all summer, one day, they were just there. And not just one or two, but a lot. On Saturday afternoon, Mrs. B walked in to the kitchen, and three of them were having a powwow on the…
The scene above looks like our kitchen for the past two weeks. After having not seen a mouse all summer, one day, they were just there. And not just one or two, but a lot. On Saturday afternoon, Mrs. B walked in to the kitchen, and three of them were having a powwow on the counter. As yesterday’s article in The Times points out, the common house mouse “weighs about an ounce, has a two-inch-long body and can slip through a hole just a little bit bigger than a pencil.” So the biggest preventative measure you can take is to seal up as many holes as possible. We had someone come in last winter and spray a hard foam-like substance around (steel wool is another DIY option) but in a house like ours, there’s really no way to cover all your bases. Traps and poison are the two standard remedies; if you’re going with the former, the article recommends, you gotta go all out: If you’re not starting with a dozen traps, you’re not serious about catching mice, said one expert. As for bait, forget about cheese and go with peanut butter.
When Mice Move in to Spend the Winter [NY Times]
Photo by viralbus
Forcing a mouse to slit it’s throat? You can’t be serious. Now that’s extremely cruel. I’ll pass on that “solution”.
we have a great mouser. wanna borrow her?
and i agree with the anti-glue-trap contingent. i used glue traps years ago, in my pre-cat days, and found them to be much more trouble than they’re worth. not to be too graphic, but the mice can get only partially stuck on them, and rip a limb off trying to escape. or they can just flip themselves over, in their desperate attempt to escape, and then you’ve got a half-dead mouse under a piece of cardboard, super-glued to your floor.
most of the time, even the smell of a resident cat (mouser or non-) will scare mice away. of course, nyc does attract the most aggressive members of all species…
Here is how to get rid of them i did. Put flour all over the floor from the wall to about 4 inches out . then you can track the movements. Now put glue traps every 3 to 4 feet. track there movements then plug the holes with steel wool and broken glass that will cut there throats. I know it is sad but if you have kids we don’t want them getting infected. Now make sure to look on all glass windows for any urine stains, they will show up in a black light or if you look hard for them. Put the peanut butter on the glue traps. After plugging there should be no problem. don’t like killing but i can’t live with rats.
I know mice create damage, have disease, are a nuisance, and there are plenty of them on the planet so they’re hardly endangered, but I can’t help it I’m SO sad about the use of glue traps. That is one of the most horrific images I can conjure up, is a little terrified mouse stuck in a glue trap. They don’t just starve, they suffer real pain, in their fur as it’s being pulled out, in their muscles and bones as those strain and break trying to pull loose. Just get a cat for goodness sake. I agree with those saying even cats who aren’t mousers can keep away mice by their presence. Cat + putting out garbage every night + plugging holes = no mice. We live in NYC, we just have to accept we are going to live with more pests than they have in the suburbs.
Try using this:
http://www.critter-repellent.com/mice/how-to-get-rid-of-mice.php
This product (non-toxic and non-harmful to animals) plus two cats have kept my home 100% mouse-free, despite lots of construction on the block and the fact that my upstairs neighbors have been seeing mice in their apartment.
I LOVE my RatZapper!!
I don’t even have to put bait in it. Just keep the batteries fresh and every so often the light is blinking! Pick up, turn off, dump dead mouse in plastic back, put back. Glue traps and snap traps…not for me!
Besides being clean and easy, it is also very humane – the mouse gets a zap and is dead in seconds.
I love you, Ben Dover!
We had some mice. I don’t like killing anything, so I used peppermint oil and “fresh cab”, which they don’t like the smell of. Haven’t seen ’em since. I don’t know which did the trick, but I tried both because I wanted to cover all bases.
This is happening everywhere. Why I was just reading about the rat infestation they have over at the WhiteHouse.
It looks like some big fuckin’ rat moved in a few years ago. A big stupid piece o’ shit rat that likes to be called ‘George’ and can’t pronounce ‘nuclear’ correctly for the life of him.
Last winter we had an influx of mice… one mouse even damaged our bathroom ceiling by knawing a hole from the attic floor. We heard about the rat zapper and decided to give it a try… boy did that work! You don’t even have to look at the dead mouse. The only caveat is the cost.. runs at about $50.00 for one unit. It was worth the price to me though… I’m ready to set up the bait for the new mouse season coming up.