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My pest control service swears by copper mesh (Stuf-fit), but I suppose the stainless steel stuff (Xcluder) should also work well.
As a last resort, you can put rodent bait stations in the crawl space or around the foundation.
I've got bait in the crawlspace and steel mesh blocking the spaces I could find around the siding. Last time pest control was here he said there were dozens of dead nice in the crawlspace. That makes me nervous with my cat's in case the mice get back in the house.
The fabric softener, Bounce, does work. We buy it in sheets for use at our camp. When we close it up for the winter we leave a whole package of Bounce sheets scattered around on the beds and furniture. We put it in the kitchen drawers and cupboards too. In the three years since we learned about this we have had no signs of mice in camp.
Our prior method also worked. Get a 5 gallon bucket and put some peanut butter in the bottom. Lean a board on the bucket. The mouse runs up the ramp and jumps in the bucket to get the peanut butter. He can't get out. We used to have lots of frozen mice in the spring.
Don't bother with the plastic trap, just toss these all ove the perimeter of the rooms that you saw mice. I even bait my cars with them in the fall. I had two mice in the trunk of the Buick, two baits and a day later they were gone. You neber see the bodies, they run away in search of water after eating. Never had a problem using them in the house with our cats.
I have a big mouse infestation - I am hearing them running and scratching in almost every upper wall of the house (strangely, not the lower walls in the house) - ceilings, etc. A pest control guy showed me where they are getting in our garage, which has a loft that probably communicates with the upper walls in the house and is a possible mouse route. (He also showed me chipmunk turds in the garage as well)
We don't have an attic any more - everything was converted to rooms/extensions years ago. The only thing resembling an attic is an unused loft over the garage.
We are sealing exterior holes as best we can find them, and putting D-con in the garage... but we cannot figure out where they are getting their food. No signs of mice in the kitchen. The cat caught a mouse two days ago in a downstairs hallway, so clearly they are gaining access to the ground floor too. But what happens when you hear mice in the walls but can't find their ground level travel path or feeding areas? I don't know if setting out traps in the garage is going to be enough... what if they don't go back there to the garage, but stay in the walls only? I'd like to set snap traps in the house but have no idea where to start.
Anyone have mice in their walls but can't really figure out where they're getting their food from?
I had that problem with mice up in the ceiling. Those spring loaded traps don't work. If you can find a place to put a few glue pads in possible places they're entering, I dabbed little amounts of peanut butter on the glue pads for to attract them. Works every time.
I did wind up using D-CON in the garage, and fortunately, the mice came out and took the stuff - ALL the stuff. Two trays worth. In fact, I the night of the day I set it out, they were rampaging through the house very excitedly, and I think they were carrying it off to their nest(s) in the walls.
It took 5 days for it to finish them off. The first 2 days I heard noises as usual, then on the third day I noticed the noises in the wall were closer to where our house connects to the garage (where I think their main nest was), and not so energetic. Then all sounds just stopped, so I guess that means they're dead. It's been over a week. Haven't smelled any dead bodies yet, but that's not a bad thing.
Fortunately for me, they went into the garage and ate that stuff, because if they hadn't, I would have been stumped as to what to do. I still have more exterior holes to seal. Hopefully they took so much of that stuff back to their nests that any other mice that decide to move in will find a "snack" waiting for them.
Jeromeville, Hope the mice left before they died off. Nothing worse than the stinch of dead mice inside your walls.
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