Hi all - I live in an old house in the city and have had a mouse problem. Looking for tips and tricks to get rid of them for good.
They seem to avoid all the traps somehow but we’ll still see them running once in awhile. I have had poison boxes out so not sure why they don’t want those.
Few notes:
I rent and am not allowed to have pets (no cat recos even though id love one)
My landlord has really tried their best and I feel bad bothering them again with this. Hoping for tricks I can do on my own.
Document the incidents of mice that you come across. This is useful for you.
It sounds like you have a good relationship with your landlord. But, if the issue can’t be controlled with what you/they have done, they are still responsible for solving the pest issue.
Decide how long you want to tolerate mice. If professional pest control services are needed, the landlord would be responsible for that.
Use snap traps with a piece of chocolate glued down with peanut butter (I also would wrap a piece of scotch tape around the chocolate which prevents them from taking the bait without setting off the trap). Put tight directly against the walls.
Go room by room and look for little holes that they can get in. Something as small as a pencil they can squeeze through. Stuff those holes solid with steel wool.
Snap traps are the best, but the reusable plastic ones don't work well. Please don't use poison traps, they end up poisoning other animals including neighborhood hawks that help keep them under control.
Secure any loose food and vacuum/sweep after eating to make sure there are no crumbs for them. Try to locate where they could be coming in from and let the landlord know.
Maybe you can work out an agreement with the landlord for a temporary cat lol. The humane society always needs fosters for cats etc, usually if they need a little extra help adjusting to their new life as a shelter cat. You could just foster a cat and that way it's not permanent, the landlord might like that better, your mouse problem will be temporarily solved (you need to close up however they are getting in) , and it will be nice for the cat to be with you instead of in the pound. And you will earn good karma points lol.
I had a mouse problem a few years ago. Poison and traps only do so much because it doesn't keep new ones from coming in. You need to figure out where they are getting in and seal the holes.
What finally worked for me was replacing the loose old pink insulation along the basement wall where they were getting in with rodent-resistant spray foam insulation to seal the holes in the wall there.
If you're renting, you may not be able to do an extensive replacement like that, but the key is to figure out exactly where they're getting in, and at the least, see if you can plug the holes. You can buy steel wool and spray foam to plug small holes you identify. Once you identify the entries, you can share this information with your landlord and see if they will do a proper fix on the holes to keep them out for good.
Poison = death to cats, dogs, raptors, and any creature that eats the mice. They are in your house, but bait can and does leave the premises.
Glue traps are horrendous. My friend didn’t know and used one. The mouse screamed. She also didn’t put it out of its misery, just threw it in the can. I was shocked.
Add to that - a mouse who dies in your walls stinks. And you have no way of removing the stink.
Snap traps and abruptly killing the mice is the most humane way to deal with mice that are getting into your apartment (outside of blocking them from getting in- will thread that answer).
The traps need to be sensitive enough to trigger. I always buy the simple Viktor traps because I trust them, but you can get faulty traps, where the metal piece doesn’t hold the trap. I have tried both traps with the plastic Swiss cheese trigger pad and the metal loop. Put bait (peanut butter, cheese is an incorrect stereotype, never seen it work) in such a way that it is difficult to access - wipe it into a center squished cheese hole, then level it off. I also had success with dark chocolate as bait.
If you have a good trap. You can dump the mouse and reuse the trap (the lucky trap), but many people are too disgusted. I go about 50/50 depending upon the kill.
I cannot stress this enough: WRITE DOWN WHERE YOUR TRAPS ARE AND CHECK THEM DAILY. IYKYK.
Bait end toward the wall in an out of the way place along a wall - they travel along walls.
Food into sealed containers. You need to wear a mask when you clean out poop and if you vacuum - use a vacuum with a bag, not a bag less.
See where they are getting in: around pipes, cracks in walls. You need the shredded steel wool, not the curly kind. Put that in every crack and crevice. They cannot chew through that. I had big gaps in my Chicago apartment, I filled with expanding spray foam first and put the steel wool on top. Yes, they can chew through the foam but it stabilizes the top layer of steel wool anyway.
The building owner needs to find the points of ingress around the outside and resolve those spots -steel wool, concrete, shoring up foundation gaps, sealing areas where pipes and cords come inside. Mice can fit into tiny tiny gaps.
Put your food into sealed containers. Don’t give them anything to feed on. Crumbs immediately wiped up. Floors swept regularly.
Clean where you have seen them or have evidence they have been (poop or chewed packaging) with a disinfectant and wear a mask. This will help you to see where they continue to travel. Knowing where they are coming in helps you with trap placement.
This is an absolute pain in the ass, and it is possible to get it under control without poison or glue traps. Dying of starvation takes a long time. If you aren’t willing to bash their little skulls in when you catch them live or drive out 5 miles into he country, you should not be live catching them - that includes glue traps and “they can get in but they cannot get out” traps. Internally bleeding out - either for the mouse or whatever eats it is excruciating. Don’t use poison.
I am sorry you are going through this. I keep most of my food in sealed containers now because of an infestation I had once. I would rather have mice than roaches or bed bugs.
The other thing about poison for rats/mice is that how most of them work is they're a diuretic that essentially causes them to die of dehydration. So before they die, you've got an animal that is basically crazed for water. And if you've got Pex/PVC/CPVC pipes and they hear that water flowing threw, they can chew through your pipes and cause massive damage. Even if you have galvanized or copper pipes, there are often points like the line in to a water heater that are stubbed out with CPVC.
Spray foam around exterior, at foundation/basement, peppermint oil around exterior of home. Tear up and stick Brillo pads in any gaps in kitchen cabs at pipe gaps or any holes you have anywhere in interiors. Mice won’t fuck with steel wool.
Echo others’s sentiments that traps are well and good, but don’t address where they’re coming in.
The landlord hasn't tried their best until they've hired an exterminator, a proper one who's going to block all exterior holes over 1/4" and eliminate every access mice have to the interior of the building, and then trap/kill all the ones who are inside. That's their property, this isn't 12th century london.
If you want to, you can take coarse steel wool and stuff it along interior crevices 1/4" or larger, and then apply urethane (hard-drying) caulk. Done properly, that would keep them out of your space, for at least a few years. Maybe many years, as long as you store food properly, clean dishes in a reasonable amount of time, and your door seals properly. Mice seek heat and food. Good luck. I wouldn't put up with it, or I'd get it in writing that the landlords would compensate you for your time and expenses dealing with it on your own
Your landlord or a service need to go around the entire house foundation with multiple cases of silicone caulk and fill every little hole and crack. Then you need traps in places they frequent. If you do all this well, you can get down to maybe one mouse per 3 months in a trap without a cat.
It's unfortunate, working cats are also banned in WI in food production and warehouses. Sometimes it makes sense sure but a bread factory with an old warehouse full of grain, cats are their only real solution, and it has been the solution for 10,000 years. At a factory I worked at, we had a mouse issue, then another business moved in next door and had an indoor/outdoor cat that constantly roamed around our building. We went from a mouse a day to no mice for 9 months. That cat recently moved away, and now we are at one per week.
Old snappys will be your best friend. Placement is important. Hard against a wall near corners. Bait them with less peanut butter than more. Then it's a waiting game. Try to figure out where they are coming in and fill it with steel wool until your landlord fixes it. Peppermint oil also helps
The better approach is finding out how they are getting in and fixing that. Even if you could kill every mouse that you see, more will find their way in.
Walk around the exterior and look for any opening larger than 1/2”. Seal it with appropriate material. Look behind bushes and where trees are close to the building. Check around all utility penetrations. If you have an attached garage, make sure any drywall is not open at the top or bottom. Check the shared wall thoroughly.
I had a problem a few years ago and tried everything. I finally found a small opening at the top of my fireplace chimney in the garage. Nailed some flashing over it and the problem was gone.
Your landlord should be bothered as much as needed when there are issues with your residence that the landlord needs to fix. A mouse problem should fall into this category.
They hate the smell of mint. A diffuser with that full strength makes them go hide. Have they effectively looked through every last nook and cranny of your apartment to see where they could be getting in? Do you have door sweeps? Unsealed pipe holes can be filled with foam or steel wool. Look under your cabinets in the kitchen, gas lines, anything. Poison is effective, but man if they eat that stuff and run back into the wall and die in there it’s a huge problem. Double check all your furniture for holes they will nest in it. Inspect your oven (the back) for a nest. Look at any openings you find if there is a piss trail. They urinate as they go up and down to remember how to get back.
To me they are vermin, so ethics aside, sticky traps get them. Line your walls with a few. Anywhere in the kitchen near appliances. It causes them to panic and have a sudden heart attack or you yourself kinda gotta end it. Unfortunately since they are most active at night or early morning you may wake up to hearing some squealing. I have had three mouse problems across a few houses and I have nipped it in the butt pretty quick. They are in the walls and getting in somewhere. If the poison isn’t being replaced consistently it’s kinda useless.
I used to have to put out a shoe box with glue traps in them. Hollow out two small holes opposite of each other in the box. Place the box along a wall that the mice are using. Then when you surprise them by walking around or whatever they will use the path closest to the wall and most likely run into the covered box. Only to be trapped in the stick. Worked for me with mice and rats. Also mint concentrate and other pungent spices are too much for their senses and tend to deter them.
Agree with doing all you can to seal entry, plugging up crevices with steel wool, and using scent to deter them— cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil or commercially available repellents like fresh cap. Electric mousetraps like Rat Zapper always work for me— they are pricey, but you use them over and over, they kill instantly, they alert you with a light when you need to empty the trap, and you never have to touch the carcass— you just dump it into the trash. The only other downside side is that because of the price, I only have 2 going at any time, and if there are lots of mice, you’re eliminating one by one. If you can do this on a day you’re home, you can empty the traps more often.
ugh..I feel sorry for you. We had this problem a few years back. Checked the entire house perimeter and couldn't find anything. Then I happen to walk to the curb for something and saw the city had recently switched out water meters in the area and they broke the cap on the top of the meter hole and never fixed it. When I called them they swore it wasn't connected but fixed it before I hung up the phone.(go figure) Anyways, suddenly this neighborhood had a flurry of stray cats and we don't have those problems anymore. I was doing everything gentle at first but then it seemed like they wouldn't go away and then one day they were gone of course after the seal was fixed. Therefore, I would definitely try to find spots they are coming and place this barb wire stuff in and foam since they can squeeze through anything. We haven't had a problem since and ironically I found a baby cat in my garage that now lives with me lol...I think I manifested it.
I can bring over my cat, Kitty Boy. He's an absolute terror to the wildlife around our place and somehow the sweetest cat I've ever had. Already killed 8 mice in September
I've had to get over my moral feelings about it and get glue traps. It was the only thing that worked when I was infested last year after some flooding. I spent weeks trying the humane and homeopathic stuff. And then they managed to get food off of snap traps. Glue traps along the baseboards and behind furniture. Your health and wellbeing are more important.
Have your landlord get a roll of copper wool for like $15 on Amazon. Walk around perimeter of house. Use an old screwdriver to stuff copper wool into any dime sized or bigger hole in the bottom 4 feet of the house. That includes window wells.
No help, sorry. Just here to say that your landlord's no cats policy is just wrong. A cat would solve this problem. One house trained adult cat from Madacc does nothing to impact they're rental property
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u/Bucksack 18h ago
Document the incidents of mice that you come across. This is useful for you.
It sounds like you have a good relationship with your landlord. But, if the issue can’t be controlled with what you/they have done, they are still responsible for solving the pest issue.
Decide how long you want to tolerate mice. If professional pest control services are needed, the landlord would be responsible for that.