I thought the poison worked :/ (more mice trouble)

They’re back :/ 

The poison...maybe combined with warmer weather? Seemed to get rid of them. Yesterday the girls are playing in their room and hear squeaking in the closet. Yup. Baby freaking mice...attached to Mommy. I had to chase this nasty motherberkeleyer around with one of the girls’ butterfly nets for a half hour. Finally got it out of the house.

What’s next? Call a pro? I am not opposed to the idea if it will WORK. We’d like to get moved in by the end of summer and I don’t buy this “just part of living in an old house” stuff. I need these berkeleyers gone and stayed gone.

Well, it kinda is part of living in any house in the country. Go crazy filling every possible hole and gap they can get in. Put traps in the basement, crawl space, attic,ducts, anywhere and everywhere. Behind the fridge etc. Get cats for outdoors. 

It isn’t the old house so much as the large population of mice literally right outside your door that is looking for better shelter. 

Agreed with mtn. It's a country house thing, not necessarily an old house thing. My house is all brick, and sealed up well, and I still get around 10 per year on my glue traps in the garage.

Control what you can control. Make sure there are no openings in the exterior of the house, especially the lower 2 or 3 feet. They can fit through impossibly small spaces sometimes, so seal it all up better than "good enough". (This should also improve heating/cooling efficiency). If there has to be a hole in the exterior (vents, plumbing protrusions, etc) then try and stuff some steel wool in there.

Obviously, don't keep garbage or anything that could be considered food outside, or near major entrances of the house (garages, mud rooms, enclosed porches, etc.) If they're inside your home, make sure your food is kept in airtight containers.

Place glue traps near walls/corners, especially if you suspect a location might be their entrance/exit. They're not humane, but neither is being ripped apart by a cat, or being poisoned to death. Glue traps have been working well for me, YMMV.

You don't just get rid of mice once.  It is an effort involving constant vigilance.

Wait until fall.  That's when it gets good.

My record for rat destruction is 28 killed in and around the house over one night. They would literally set off the traps as I was walking away from placing them. That was a super bad year. War was declared, and I won...eventually. 

You can not kill them all. You can only keep them out. Get some hardware cloth and Great Stuff. Cover or fill any opening in the exterior shell of the building. Every single one, from under the house to the roof. We fought them at our last house in a continuing battle until I spent 3 days inspecting the entire exterior shell armed with the above. They were coming through around the chimney, around the plumbing, and through the attic vents. The attic vents got hardware cloth fastened over them. Smaller hole got a stuffed with a piece of hardware cloth and filled it with Great Stuff. If you don't use the hardware cloth they will chew through the foam and be back in the house. Keep in mind, if their skull will fit, they will fit so you have to fill every crack and crevice you find. I found every place they were coming in and fill them. End of problem. 

10-4.

Considering the fact that I’m lucky to get one day a week off, and that day has been spent putting down floors, cutting grass, etc. I might check with the “pros” and see what they’d charge to seal it up.

There’s a semi-local, reputable company that advertises just what toyman is talking about. House is old as berkeley and on a crawl-space, so there’s no telling how many entry-points there are. 

I asked the guy we’ve been having do work for us to seal up any obvious spots. I can tell he “tried,” but he is not and doesn’t claim to be an expert in such things.

I thought about throwing a bunch of poison bait stations out in the woods around the house. “Couldn’t hurt?” Or “futile effort?”

Dragging mommy with fresh babies out yesterday was traumatic lol. I just kept telling myself “This isn’t real. You’re just watching a Tool video.” 

Had I been thinking clearly, I would’ve had a shovel or something handy in the back-yard to dispatch them swiftly. :/

PS: I dunno if I can do the glue traps only because of the kids. Is putting more poison stations back in the house a good idea temporarily, or am I just adding a “food source?”

I shop vacuumed a nest of babies out of my tool box once and another time fired up the chipper and it shot out chunks of baby mouse.  I’m over mice and want to lay waste to them, it’s just not possible because i live in the woods.  All we can hope to do is keep up

poopshovel again said:

 

I thought about throwing a bunch of poison bait stations out in the woods around the house. “Couldn’t hurt?” Or “futile effort?”

Futile effort and could hurt. I'm far from a tree-hugger, but don't do that. Mice get poisoned, then predators eat the poisoned mice and they too get poisoned... It is one thing in your home, quite another outdoors. 

Oh, and the old school mouse traps are the best. Get them, set them everywhere kids fingers can't reach. They're cheap too.

 M I C E,    These Rats are big as squrialls  Clearing lots around my house for new Homes, we used to have large number of Hawks AND   Ferral Cats but a   Neighbor Shot the Hawks others Trapped the Cats. don't bother with Stations break the poison blocks in half and put them everywhere, My Heeler Got 9 I night Alone, Thinking about 'Burning Down The House"

In reply to Patrick :

Funny. I did the shop vac deal last time we found a nest in the closet. 

Yesterday I was running through the house swinging the butterfly next left to right to keep mama & babies from jumping out. Should have gotten video.

When I got outside, she jumped out and went straight under the wife’s car, so hopefully they’re not hunkered down in there now. :/

In hindsight, I should’ve just sucked it up and boot-stomped the net. :/

Yup. Part of living anywhere.

We live next to a large green space.

Combine that with a city that has decided that food scraps will somehow not break down in a garbage dump but will be fine in compost and forces you to put the food scraps in what can best be described as a "slop bucket" outside for weekly collection. This results in all kind of woodland creatures roaming the neighbourhood.

The city can't understand why we suddenly had a rat problem right after we started composting.

My neighbours have been fighting rats for a while. 

I don't have rat problems but I also refuse to use the slop bucket. Go figure.

In reply to ShawnG :

We keep the food scraps in the deep freeze because bear attractant. Rats and mice aren't a big problem I think the bears, coyotes, cougars, hawks, and eagles keep them down.

I'd reiterate seal entries reduce attractants and trap  or bait stations inside the perimeter.

PSA: please don’t use poison bait - the mice/rats eat the bait, but don’t die quickly, then raccoons, possums, birds of prey & other beneficial animals eat the poisoned rats/mice, and unfortunately they often are killed by it too. 

We volunteer with a local wildlife rehab facility, and those rehabbers spend a lot of time(and their own money) trying to save these animals - and often their nursing offspring who are subsequently poisoned too. 

Cats. We got cats at old mans and our house and they seem to keep them at bay, havent had any in the shop our the house this year. 

I’ll give the sticky traps a shot...I guess. Do you guys have experience with these with kids? The 7 year old is pretty logical and cautious...a bit of a scaredy-cat even. The 5 year old is a wild monkey. On a shelf in the closet is fine for now, but not so much when we get moved in. 

We’ll also have one dumb, lazy old indoor cat when we move in. Trying to convince mama outdoor kittehs are a good idea, but she’s not sold, having worked at an animal hospital for a few years.

I have used fast drying plaster and oatmeal , plus a bowl of water next to it.......

Look up a24 rat traps on Google 

That's what they have been using in New Zealand  to kill off the rats out in the forest that are eating bird eggs etc...

It's a small CO2 powered hammer that hits the rats on the head !

You need a cat. Period. 

z31maniac said:

You need a cat. Period. 

There are a couple of neighbor’s cats that we see in the yard pretty regularly. Our kitty will be indoors-only, but again, she’s pretty dumb & lazy. Hate to piss her off with kittens, but we may resort to that once we move in.

californiamilleghia said:

Look up a24 rat traps on Google 

That's what they have been using in New Zealand  to kill off the rats out in the forest that are eating bird eggs etc...

It's a small CO2 powered hammer that hits the rats on the head !

That thing is awesome. 

poopshovel again said:

z31maniac said:

You need a cat. Period. 

There are a couple of neighbor’s cats that we see in the yard pretty regularly. Our kitty will be indoors-only, but again, she’s pretty dumb & lazy. Hate to piss her off with kittens, but we may resort to that once we move in.

Cats only work if you keep them outside and hungry. If they are treated like a pet, fed regularly and played with, they tend to be lazy. Leave them out in the cold and never feed them, they will feed themselves. They will also decimate the bird and squirrel population while they are at it. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

I have seriously considered going to the shelter, grabbing 3 of the gnarliest cats they have, and dropping them off at the bird-feeder. Sadly, I already divulged this plan to mama, so the element of surprise/ignorance is gone :/

Peppermint extract is the jam for getting rid of mice. Why have dead ones in the walls when you can put drops of xmas smelling oil around the foundation and they berkley off?