Mice - RRRRRRREALLY PISSING ME OFF!!!!!

[copynpaste]

I dont have a huge mice problem, but it seems one is always able to get inside the house somehow. From my observations they most likely enter from the garage as we've caught a few in there. Once we catch one, another one gets inside and its a non stop cycle.

One will come in, and roam around and stay in between my floors, basically in the main floor inside the floorboards and they run around all over the entire main floor floorboards - so I can hear them every single night and morning and whenever im home. I cant sleep because they make so much god damn fukin noise! ARGH!!!

I have no idea what to do anymore, I feel hopeless but Im extremely pissed off because I have god knows how many mouse traps set up all over the house, mice poison set up outside the house, and even a pet chaser box, that puts out a high deafening sound that only mice and rodents can hear and will scare them away and covers up to 2500ft (I have that set up in the garage) and its a heavy duty one with 2 speakers.

I bought it from home depot and after googling, it has gotten good reviews. I know for a fact these are very effective because I know a few people with the exact same box located in their basement and it keeps all the mice away in their entire house (and they have bigger houses than me!). WTF?

I honestly cant tell how they are getting inside the floor boards. If I can figure this out I would love to put some type of barrier so they cant enter, but where would I do this?

But the thing is, after talking to the company who makes them, the sounds do not travel through walls or floors. So that is where my frustration lies because Im basically in a knot here in what I can do to scare them away and keep them out of my fukin god damn house! I can get more of those sound boxes but they wont be able to hear it when they are in the floor! So I can put one in the basement and one right above it in the living room, and it will be a complete waste of time and money.

What should I do? Im at the point right now where ill pay anything to fix this and i might just call up an exterminator tommorow and pay the big bucks to have it professionally done for good! Thats only if the work exterminators do are a permanent fix.

Can any of you guys recommend me a good place? Because I was told finding a good exterminator is not as easy as it sounds since they all have different ways in going about fixing the problem etc.

Im so fed up with this sh!t, for all the money Ive wasted on traps, poisons, sound boxes, its obviously not working like I hoped.

:banghead:

[alloroc]

Mothballs

[freshprince1]

welcome to alberta, we live in the prairies, we will have mice in our homes, especially this time of year when it starts to get cold, they will all be looking for a nice warm place to hunker down for the winter.

The best thing you can do is keep a clean house free of crumbs and the like. have good solid weather stripping around your doors, and never leave the doors open, even in the summer. The sticky glue traps work the best - though are the most inhumane if that is a concern to anyone. Maybe get a cat too?

Good Luck.

[sputnik]

Find out where they are coming in and take a can of expanding foam to all of the holes and crevices.

[A790]

Get a cat dude, it's the only way ;)

[DENZILDON]

Originally posted by A790
Get a cat dude, it's the only way ;)

This is a good Idea!!! Airsoft guns also helps!!!! :D

[SunniSunShine]

cats kill them and leave them in your bed


sweet:thumbsup:

[funkytuqe]

Check for any fresh air vents that come to the outside walls of the house.
I have had the same damn problem in my house since i have lived there for the past 6 years. The mice lived in the floor and roam throughout the house through the utility ducts by climbing up the plumbing to get around. I found out that they were coming in through the fresh air vent on the side of my house that was put in place for the fireplace and vents into the house, just under the main floor. God knows how they get in there cuz the vent is up from ground level a good 2.5 feet on the outside of the house. I bought a piece of screening and blocked the vent off and now i have no more mice!!
So take a walk around your place and block anything that looks even remotely accessible for mice no matter how impossible you may think.
Good luck

[Canadian 2.5RS]

My cat brought me a present this weekend. He thinks dead mice make the best gifts. Ill take his gifts over some vermin running around in my house though.

get a farm cat. they are stone cold killers. :guns:

[D. Dub]

Mice are evil disease carrying vermin.

Part of the problem is the stupid city cat bylaw that now makes owners keep their cats in the house.

I'd much rather have cat shit in my flower bed than mice in my house :barf:

[Lex350]

some get in through the dryer vent

[copynpaste]

Originally posted by alloroc
Mothballs I have heard about that, but where would you place them? and where do you buy them?


Originally posted by freshprince1
welcome to alberta, we live in the prairies, we will have mice in our homes, especially this time of year when it starts to get cold, they will all be looking for a nice warm place to hunker down for the winter.

The best thing you can do is keep a clean house free of crumbs and the like. have good solid weather stripping around your doors, and never leave the doors open, even in the summer. The sticky glue traps work the best - though are the most inhumane if that is a concern to anyone. Maybe get a cat too?

Good Luck.

Do you have mice in your house? Ya im very picky about keeping my house clean - garbage always gets taken out daily, dont leave dishes or food lying around etc.

Sticky glue traps? hmm never heard of them. I already have enough traps in my house as is.


Originally posted by sputnik
Find out where they are coming in and take a can of expanding foam to all of the holes and crevices.

If I knew where they were entering from, I would be hard at work covering up those holes. I have no idea to even figure out. I mean they could be entering through the outside soil for all I know.

[copynpaste]

Originally posted by funkytuqe
Check for any fresh air vents that come to the outside walls of the house.
I have had the same damn problem in my house since i have lived there for the past 6 years. The mice lived in the floor and roam throughout the house through the utility ducts by climbing up the plumbing to get around. I found out that they were coming in through the fresh air vent on the side of my house that was put in place for the fireplace and vents into the house, just under the main floor. God knows how they get in there cuz the vent is up from ground level a good 2.5 feet on the outside of the house. I bought a piece of screening and blocked the vent off and now i have no more mice!!
So take a walk around your place and block anything that looks even remotely accessible for mice no matter how impossible you may think.
Good luck

Thats very good advice, thanks for the tip! Ill be sure to check it out later today. What kind of screening did you buy and where?


Originally posted by rotten42
some get in through the dryer vent

Hmm interesting, though i think blocking off the dryer vent would be tough to do would it not?

Anyways thanks for all the suggestions so far, I called a couple exterminators this morning and am still considering paying for one. THe only im strongly considering is $225 and it comes with a 3 month gaurentee (excl. structural damage) and they basically do a full complete inspection on the outside of the house and repair and fill holes. They said its permanent fix and the mice problem should be long gone by 1-3 months.

[freshprince1]

Originally posted by copynpaste


Sticky glue traps? hmm never heard of them. I already have enough traps in my house as is.


[/B]


They are little pads with a sticky glue goo on them, and if a mouse runs over-top of them they're stuck - the more they move, the more they get stuck. You should be able to buy them at any Home Depot or Rona.

Guarantee they'll catch 4 times as many mice as the convential spring loaded ones. I don't have any mice at the moment (that I know of) but those are the only "traps" worth using; and if a cat or child ends up stepping on it, all you have to do is unstick them, no chance of a baby losing a finger, or bruising anything.

[copynpaste]

Thanks freshprince, hmmm they definitely do sound effective. But I really want to focus on preventing from them entering then ill set up some of those traps too.

I would like to hear from some of you who have paid for exterminators and if its worth the money and etc. Im very close to booking one but just want to be sure its not going to be a waste of money.

[Doozer]

When my wife and I were renting a house a few years back, we had a mice problem. Turns out that they were getting in through a hole that was made when the city put water meters on every house. The city had put a screen over the rest of the opening, but it had long since come loose with the weather.

Mice can get in any opening that their skull can fit through, so basically most Alberta mice can fit through a hole the size of a dime. We screened that opening, and sprayed expanding foam all through the inside, and that was it. If you're screening dryer vents or other openings, it's a good idea to use the smallest holed screening you can find, and make sure it's metal since they'll chew through softer screen without breaking a sweat.

Although beware that if you start screening things up, you'll probably find a few more mice that are trapped inside. And potentially end up with some dead ones inside the floorboards if you can't lure them out somehow.

[DeMoon]

Originally posted by rotten42
some get in through the dryer vent

Yupe, same thing happened to us last year we had a few coming through the dryer vent. Closed it off with some thick wire mesh.

[copynpaste]

Stupid question, but where exactly is the dryer vent located? Just making sure here...and how would you go about placing a metal screein inside it?

I wonder if the exterminator would fix the dryer vent.

[Doozer]

The easiest way to find the dryer vent is run the dryer, and see where the hot air is coming from. It'll be a silver vent, pointing down. If the house is old, it might be covered with a plastic cover instead of a silver metal one. It'll usually be near the laundry room, but on the outside of the house.

As far as the screening goes, there's a ton of different ways. Some people staple it to the inside, some use duct tape. Personally, I'd run a bead of weatherproof caulking along the inside of the vent and stick the screen to that. I might even cover it with duct tape if it got messy.

[em2ab]

Get the glue traps and put them around any suspected openings into the house. Once you get 1 or 2 in the same trap, you'll find out where they're getting in. You might want to start with the room you find them in most to find out how they're getting into that room. Then move to that room, then the room from that one, and eventually you'll have the main entrance into the house.

[240SX17]

Originally posted by Canadian 2.5RS
My cat brought me a present this weekend. He thinks dead mice make the best gifts. Ill take his gifts over some vermin running around in my house though.

get a farm cat. they are stone cold killers. :guns:

lol i hear ya man. cats are great its just the presents they bring are mice!! its like thanks but take it outside! lol

get a cat man! they are cute and they do wonders

[slowep3]

i would check around all your door seals like garage doors and make sure there is no rips they can crawl in a hole the size of a quater. once one gets in the rest can smell that first one my friends had the same problems i would check around the siding of your house, and get some spray in foam and fill any cracks u find do u have a basement or a crawl space in your house ??

[TKRIS]

IMHO, cats tend to keep mice away without killing them, once territory is established.

I just moved into a new house, and with all the development going on there are a lot of mice around. Haven't come across a single mouse in the house or in the garage (aside from the dead one that caught a ride over from my last house in my car).

The same was true of my last place (lots of mice, none in the house) except there I got mice in the garage (it was detached at my last house).

I have 2 cats, and I'm pretty sure any mice around know they're there too.

[copynpaste]

Ok after speaking with a couple pest places, they both recommended to buy some steel wool and use it to stuff the open pipes on the outside of my house - its very effective as the mice basically cut their mouths from trying to naw on it. There is no way they will even try to go through it. So I ran out to home depot and picked up a bunch of packs.

Also picked up some of that expandable foam spray and some silicon spray to use on any cracks I may see on the outside of the house. It should work they said, and would save me a giant bill by ordering a professional to do it.

[86_lude_86]

if you still cant find out where they are comin in wait till the first snow fall and have a look around your house. i have mice living in my walls at one end and they have a nice little entrance in the winter and all sorts of tracks leading to where they get in

[jav_]

oh man there was about 5 mouse underneath my stove..2 of them had the guts to play chase around my kitchen while i was eating..ive alrdy killed 4...the last mouse is smart...snap traps arent working..food is always gone..it somehow managed to escape the glue pad and wont goto it anymore...i just feel like getting a cage trap so when i catch this mouse...imma torture it..

[copynpaste]

Originally posted by 86_lude_86
if you still cant find out where they are comin in wait till the first snow fall and have a look around your house. i have mice living in my walls at one end and they have a nice little entrance in the winter and all sorts of tracks leading to where they get in

thats good advice, winter is probably the best time to track them - after seeing all the holes on the outside of my house, im certain they have to be entering there.


Originally posted by jav_
oh man there was about 5 mouse underneath my stove..2 of them had the guts to play chase around my kitchen while i was eating..ive alrdy killed 4...the last mouse is smart...snap traps arent working..food is always gone..it somehow managed to escape the glue pad and wont goto it anymore...i just feel like getting a cage trap so when i catch this mouse...imma torture it..

If they are always in your kitchen, you should look into getting one of those sound boxes.

[Donmega]

I just heard one last night too. Even found droppings in the pantry:barf: Ur right, everything's going good for a while and one sneaks in.

[funkytuqe]

Thats very good advice, thanks for the tip! Ill be sure to check it out later today. What kind of screening did you buy and where?

I got it at Canadian Tire, it's the metal mesh stuff people use for their rain troughs to stop leaves and stuff blocking it up. You may also see the same stuff on ricer cars in place of their grille.

[copynpaste]

Ok just an update. So I blocked off all the possible openings and holes outside if the house with coarse steel wool (as recommended by pest places) and doing what they told me...which is to trap the mouse inside and kill him from the inside. But since hes still in my floor, ive been trying to draw him out.

I have the mice poison pellets still, and i was told that i could open my basement roof and place a couple bags up there (im sure itll work cuz he hangs out right near the basement roof door). THe only concern is that im worried it will smell once hes dead. But from what i was told, the pellets i have...cause the mices body to evaporate with no-very little smell and it goes away quick. I dont know how true this is, but this is the only thing holding me back from opening my basement roof and putting some poisons up there.

Another thing i might do (just thought of this) is since i found out that i have a basement roof/door that opens...im gonna pick up another one of those sound boxes that put out the defeaning sound to mice and run a cord up my wall and install it inside the floor. The door is in the centre of the house, so if i stick a couple up there, it should work. I hope ...

[punj_abi]

gluck mate.

[Impreza]

Honestly, there is really only one good solution: CATS. THey really are stone cold killers!

[copynpaste]

Im considering the cat idea, but im worried that they will be a lot of maintenance and expensive to raise?

So I might have to get a cat...have some questions for you cat owners
I dont want one but I want to keep the mice out of my damn house and nothing seems to be working. I would love to hire an exterminator but they arent cheap. So the only other option is to get a cat.

1) where would be the cheapest and best place to get one?
2) should i get a full grown cat or kitten? (not sure if kittens will scare mice cuz theyre so small)
3) how much does it cost say per month to feed a cat?
4) what stuff do you have to buy other than food?

I dont have to walk the cat do I. If I get one, it stays in the house 24/7

[Ihatetowait]

SPCA, thinks its 100 bucks for a cat with shots.

Food is cheap, depending though. My cat loves walmart brand, 9 bucks for 10 kilos, ect.. My moms cat pukes if she eats it.

Cats arent cheap in comparison to 200 for an exterminator. And then you might get a cat like mine, he eats spiders, but anything bigger he runs away from.

Kittens will take to you better as their owner, but they can take some training to not turn your house into a bathroom/scratching post.

Per month to feed... 9-150 dollars depending on brand needed.

Things you need for a cat:
- litter box stuff
- bowls
- food
- toys (seriously is mandatory)
- brush
- a decent chunk of change each year for vet visits
- patience.

[copynpaste]

wow sounds like a lot of time and work...time i dont have unfortunately.

Looks like i have no choice but to get an exterminator. I cant take this anymore, ive been googling up about the disease that mice release (starts with a H) and I think i need to do something about this. Im sure i have mice droppings inside my floor (since thats where the mice are) and the only way to get it all cleaned out is by hiring an exterminator.

[fastball]

Originally posted by A790
Get a cat dude, it's the only way ;)

I agree they will kill them and then bring them to you as a present...

[Doozer]

Originally posted by copynpaste
wow sounds like a lot of time and work...time i dont have unfortunately.

Looks like i have no choice but to get an exterminator. I cant take this anymore, ive been googling up about the disease that mice release (starts with a H) and I think i need to do something about this. Im sure i have mice droppings inside my floor (since thats where the mice are) and the only way to get it all cleaned out is by hiring an exterminator.

Good to hear you're almost making sense now. You do NOT get a living pet simply to get rid of mice. Getting a cat is a long-term commitment, and exterminating mice should be only one of a long list of other reasons you'd want to get it.

Also, the disease you're thinking about is likely the Hanta virus, which probably isn't carried by the mice in your house. It's generally limited to fieldmice, which are considerably bigger, and mostly only a concern if you're a hay farmer. (However, it's still nothing you want to risk)

[mekeni]

exterminator is your best bet.. before it gets out of control

[Donmega]

^^^Is that expensive, because i'm sick and tired of them running in the walls above my head. Hate that sound of their nails going across the ground from one end of the wall to the other and back.

I guess when it comes to health id rather pay the exterminator bill than catch something from the mice droppings :S

MY only worry is that if I end up hiring an exterminator whats the guarantee they won't come back.