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Old 09-21-2015, 08:58 AM
 
75 posts, read 520,861 times
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Let me start this by saying that I've had mice now and then in my previous home, and have NEVER had such a hard time to catch them. I'm farmiliar with baiting techniques, and Ive used snap traps successfully in our previous home. This time around, things are very different.

We bought a single family detached house in a very suburban part of queens (Bellerose) this past February. I've done demolition work in the basement, kitchen, and bathroom and didn't see any trace of droppings at all. I was keeping an eye out for droppings, having had mice in our previous home, I know exactly what I'm looking for.

The following happened over a few nights, between 1AM and 5AM:

Last week when the temperature first dropped at night, I noticed a mouse scurry along my living room. I placed a couple snap traps in that area baited with peanut butter. Caught nothing.

Next night, I woke up to go to the bathroom, and saw one run from one bedroom to another (!) right next to our bedroom! I placed 2 glue traps and a snap trap in the hallway along the edges, and still caught nothing.

Next night, my wife saw a mouse ENTER our bedroom!!! She woke me up and I jumped onto the floor, which caused the mouse to run out of our room.

Next night, I saw a mouse in the kitchen about 2 AM when I turned on the light. It was on the counter, and ran into the space between the wall an stove.

I've since had about 15 traps all around our home, and haven't successfully caught anything. I baited some with peanut butter, and some with nutella. There is no evidence that they are even nibbling on the bait. There would be droppings still on the countertop, but more than two feet away from the traps, and nothing caught in the traps. The bait seems undisturbed.

The strange and disturbing thing that we noticed is that the mouse has been more attracted to soft, plush cloths/cotton. I noticed a q-top dropped on the floor that the mouse basically ripped apart. I also left a pair of cloth work gloves in a corner of the kitchen, and the mouse ripped that up too. Additionally, I saw droppings on both of our couches (eeek), on top of our spare bedroom BED where a load of clean laundry was sitting, and also on a pile of folded clothes.

Why isn't the mouse attracted to the food???? I know they probably want the cotton for nesting, but I thought mice couldn't resist peanut butter...

The worst part about all of this is that we have a two year old daughter that likes to slide all over the place, and put random things in her mouth. We also have a SIX WEEK old baby whom I am terrified of the mouse biting.

This past weekend, we dug down around the foundation on one side of the house where there was a ton of brush. I found a deteriorated mortar joint that could practically be pushed in with my hand. I pulled out all the loose mortar and replaced with steel wool and fresh concrete. I also found a small hole on the second floor under a rotted wooden piece (tudor style house). I cut out the rotted wood and shoved steel wool in there and replaced with a fresh piece of treated lumber. We also placed a ton of poison along the outside of the house.

Since then, we haven't seen any trace of droppings or caught any mice. I am hoping they are on the outside of the house, but I am still so stressed to have to deal with this while having two young babies in the house. If anyone can offer any type of advice at all, I would be extremely grateful. Thank you!
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Old 09-21-2015, 09:08 AM
 
Location: New Jersey and hating it
12,158 posts, read 7,121,707 times
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Call professionals.
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Old 09-21-2015, 09:12 AM
 
Location: New York City
372 posts, read 396,016 times
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Get a cat.
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Old 09-21-2015, 09:17 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Never Shuts Up View Post
Get a cat.
An excellent suggestion. Plenty available at the local shelter. Keep them indoors at all times.
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Old 09-21-2015, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn, NY (Crown Heights/Weeksville)
993 posts, read 1,375,810 times
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We couldn't catch much with the cheaper store-bought traps, but this worked:

Go online to find a product put out by Victor that is sort of an execution chamber, a small black box. I recommend you buy several, not one.

You put any bait inside. The mouse enters the hole opening of the box, gets into an inner chamber there, and cannot escape. Motion detected, a battery-charged zapper kills it, beeping like a smoke detector sound when it needs a battery.

Later, you click open the box lid, shake out the dead mouse to dispose, and recharge the chamber. Little green or red lights on the outside tell you it's working, or that it caught something so you don't have to keep checking inside the box for success.

We put several near where we knew they had running paths, and solved it within 2 weeks. Before that, it was completely nervewracking, so I feel your pain.

We also had a handyman who lives in our neighborhood come in to scour the entire house, top to bottom, looking for any more openings, like the ones you already found and plugged. That also helped. We costed out the same work with a professional service but it cost 3x the price for same activity. They might have some sensor to find the holes, but the handyman has eyes and hands, crawled the entire house looking.

After many weeks of blessed silence, I heard one more scurry sound behind the oven, dropped 2 store-bought sealed bags of poison behind there (where no baby could get to), which took care of the last one for this year, anyway.

My mom had cats mousing in her rural barn, but in the city as mousers, I'm not convinced cats are a complete program. During our mouse episode, in the apartment upstairs to ours, my son's cat caught one but played with it all over the living room until it died, interrupting the final episode of a great TV series. It's up to the cat how long that game continues. In a previous apartment, their cat brought a half-dead mouse to my daughter-in-law's bedside to finish it off. One night, I heard a WHACK of a broom on their floor because son had to finish off a half-dead mouse and run it outside at 3 a.m. so his wife could get back to sleep and work the next day.

Plenty of other fine reasons to adopt a NYC cat, and raise it indoors. I think you can also foster a cat for awhile, just to see if it's a pet that suits you.

Have others done better with cats inside apartments for mousing?

Last edited by BrightRabbit; 09-21-2015 at 10:44 AM..
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Old 09-21-2015, 10:49 AM
 
75 posts, read 520,861 times
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I used the "rat zapper" before... it really eats through batteries, needing to be changed every 2-3 kills. I also happened to be awake when it went off one night, and the sounds were EXTREMELY unpleasant!!! squeak squeak squeak squeal zap zap zap bzzzzz....

I'd much rather the snap traps. I Don't use only traditional snap traps, I use the SNAP-E plastic ones from Amazon. I successfully caught ~10-15 mice in my old house with this trap and peanut butter, but couldn't catch even one in our new home using ~12 of the SNAP-E traps, 5 traditional wooden traps, and ~5 glue traps. I'm thinking to bait it with cotton swabs, maybe!

As I said, it's been two days with no droppings, so while I'm not convinced their totally out of the house, I am sure we put a dent in their normal operations. I just can't figure out why they are avoiding the peanut butter!!
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Old 09-21-2015, 11:37 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn, NY (Crown Heights/Weeksville)
993 posts, read 1,375,810 times
Reputation: 1121
If you prefer traditional snap traps, try putting two wooden ones right next to each other. The mouse eats bait from one but gets caught on the next-door trap. That was actually a suggestion from a professional.

You might be overfeeding them. Try putting on much less peanut butter. If you give them a lot, they can eat it without engaging the trap. It should be a thin oily coat and the tiniest drop of peanut butter.
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Old 09-21-2015, 03:50 PM
 
31,615 posts, read 26,458,929 times
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Have to second those zapper rodent traps.

Had a problem a few years ago and normal baited snap traps just weren't doing the whole job. We even found a mouse sleeping next to one. Yes, we had put down bait (which was being eaten), but that takes too long and you have to listen to them munching away all night.

Glue traps were a joke, they either jumped over the things and or worked themselves free before we got home/awoke. That or make a god awful racket while trying to get free.

Upon recommendation (Amazon.com) picked up one of those Victor zappers. Locked and loaded the thing and went out for a bit; came home and got the green light... Haven't been bothered since though keep it charged and in place.

Since you own a house the task is more daunting than say in an apartment but you have to find out where the things are coming from. Once all holes/points of entry are taken care off you are going to have to step up your game.

It is obvious you have "evolved" mice that know the deal with glue and other traps. So you are going either need to go the zapper route or get very creative. That or call in an excellent exterminator.

Finally please stop this knee jerk reaction about getting a cat. It is just cruel and not a very wise suggestion.

First of all any decent shelter/animal adoption place will kick you out on your bum if you mention the word "mice".

Contrary to popular belief not all cats are mousers. In the cases where they have been brought into a home for that job and fail the owners have done some cruel things (such as deprive it of food) to "force" feline into doing their bidding. It just doesn't work. Unless a cat was taught as a kitten or early on how to catch and kill mice chances are it won't be a great mouser. Yes, many feral cats and some indoor ones do learn, but I shouldn't go out and adopt one just because.

In any event mice and cats have been around for centuries and rodents have learned how to cope with their natural enemy. They will either learn to avoid the cat (easy to do in a large house), and also will actually step up their breeding in response to the predators presence.
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Old 09-21-2015, 04:16 PM
 
15,475 posts, read 15,442,495 times
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Since you're in a house, as opposed to an apartment, I suspect it might be a good idea to get a professional to check the exterior.

But I will say that I've never had success with snap traps. My mice have always been too smart for that. I've only been successful with glue boards, the large kind. I usually put peanut butter, and a small piece of chocolate.
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Old 09-21-2015, 04:34 PM
 
15,746 posts, read 14,352,621 times
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I never had more mice then when I had cats. The catfood attracts them, and is essentially an antidote to mouse poison the exterminator put down.

Also older generation traps have been figured out by mice. When I put them down, I found them in the morning untriggered, but with the peanut butter missing. So I wasn't so much trapping the mice as feeding them. This includes the old style Victor spring traps, with the wooden base, mouse sized glue traps, and also some newer designs, like the original Tomcat.

I've found two types of traps that do work. One is rat sized gel glue traps. They supposed to be self baiting, but I put some peanut butter in the very middle. They're big enough that if the mouse tries to get to the bait, they have to get stuck. This doesn't work with the mouse sized traps.

The other thing that works the are white plastic new styles snap traps that used to be sold under the Ortho brand. I think subsequently the Tomcat people bought them. What makes them better than the old Tomcat traps is that their trigger is much more sensitive.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Never Shuts Up View Post
Get a cat.
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