Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Subphylum Vertebrata Class Mammalia Order Rodentia Suborder Sc

[jbsegal]

... Species Mus musculus.

During some room cleaning that dancingdeer was driving me to*, we discovered some unfortunately recognizable evidence of a bit of a mouse problem in my room.

With some hours of cleaning, shifting, moving, emptying of 100+ records off of a shelf, crawling on floors, vacuuming and so on, we figured out not only where they were coming from, but what in particular had drawn them around at least 3 sides of my room... a bag of microwave popcorn, still in its plastic overwrap, under a cabinet that it had no business having made it under. How it made it under there will remain a mystery for the ages.

Eventually, I managed to dig it out from under that cabinet.

... and then I flipped it over...

So, then, with that disposed of, we traced back the other way.

Behind my bed is a metal grate, a wall mounted air-duct grate. Of course, this house has baseboard heating, not forced air.

On the other side of that wall is the crawlspace behind tcb's room. In that crawlspace, we discovered where the air-ducts had once run. Later inspection would show that that core did, indeed, run all the way into the basement.

A quick trip to Tags, while Marlowe was staying fixedly in my room, waiting to prove his abilities as a mouser, 2 live catch traps and a small heap of "Rat and Mouse Bars_II" (Sorry, quietann and kirkcudbright, I'll catch and release what I can, but the ones wandering in the core of the house are not worth tracking) and one snap trap were procured, the live catches have been put where the cats might be likely to get access to a poisoned mouse, the bars are in the walls and core where the cats never go, and the snap's still looking for a home...

There's still some more cleaning to go, more places to inspect, but I think we've found what's drawing them to the 3rd floor (the path is Very distinct and there's been limited nibbling at anything else - mainly at a couple of towels.) and on the 2nd floor, the most obvious food source (RIP various packages of hot chocolate, including a small bag of Burdick's) has been removed and cleaned up.

Let's hope that's that.

*which is just another way of saying "was helping with by getting me off my butt to actually get it done." :)

Comments

[pir.livejournal.com]

During the inspection of this house the inspector found mouse traps under the sink and was very concerned about there being a mouse problem. fidgetmonster and I just said "Whatever". Within a couple of days of moving in Minou had already caught his first mouse (and we were not letting them out yet so it must have come from inside).

I have yet to see evidence of a live uncaught mouse in the building although there have been many dead ones, including the dessicated one in the old basement ceiling insulation.

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

"During some room cleaning that [info] dancingdeer was driving me to" I think it's more that I was helping you make it happen. No driving was involved.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

(Lightly) edited. How's that? :)

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

More accurate and good enough. I'll stop being picky now.
Speaking of which, get back to whichever other part of your room you're supposed to be working on now. :)

[avacon.livejournal.com]

If you need more resources in the battle,
you might try a RatZapper. They work quite well.

[xeger.livejournal.com]

While I suspect that I may have mice in the basement (where the cats aren't allowed, lest they gum up the works of more computers, and shed hair all over developing photos and garments), there's been no evidence of any elsewhere in the house.

Somehow I can't seem to persuade anybody else to let me get some either - even for the edification of the resident felines.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

our cats should NOT be able to eat poisoned mice, JB.

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

first of all, congrats on getting to cleaning your room. :)) a very worthy task, mice or no mice, and an excellent type of un-laming. watch out, it can become addictive... ;)

secondly: ugh. mice. we had some also, and live-trapped them out of the house. so far, no reappearances.

kimberlogic said:

our cats should NOT be able to eat poisoned mice, JB.

and for whatever it's worth, i wholly concur...

we've had *excellent* luck with the live-trap that A bought at lowes (if you're curious, i'll give you more info about the trap; which one did you get?). the mice simply love the peanut butter, and we love shuttling them from our house to the fells, a nice big woodsy area far, far away from anyone else's house. no harm to us, the cats, or to the mice.

the other thing about poison is that the mice don't necessarily get to the "core of the house" -- they might get into a wall, or under the furnace, or who knows where -- and then they die (i believe it's a rather nasty way to die) and begin to decompose. bleah.

you -definitely- don't want the cats to be able to eat the poisoned mice. :(

just a couple thoughts...

you, too?

[feydn2.livejournal.com]

I found "unmistakable evidence" under the kitchen sink (insert shuddering heebie geebies here) about a week ago. Since the amazing Baccadog wouldn't know what to do with a mouse if he COULD catch one (and I prefer to keep him bite/disease free) I bought some interesting new traps that look like giant clippy things and are easy release/dispose and reload. Peanut butter works best, and 3 mice have gone to their maker already. Poison is NOT an option. I once saw a poisoned and dying mouse wander jerkily out into a livingroom, then collapse and go into convulsions directly in front of a toddler. Dogs/cats can eat a poisoned mouse, which is actually MORE likely to come into the open when sick/dying/poisoned! The poison is just as deadly to the pet, regardless of whether it is in the MOUSE or in the BOX.

(Sorry about the nonPC cruelty implied by this, but this is war. I don't care how cruel it is, the damnable things were in my KITCHEN, they carry diseases (including ones that can be fatal to humans) and if you EVER have the misfortune of turning on a mouse invaded oven **nesting in the sidewall insulation** you'll fight dirty, too.)

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

If you find holes in walls or around the spots where pipes come thru walls, try stuffing some steel wool into them. Then put a bit of expanding spray foam in to seal up the last of it. Mice really don't like it. And it is useful when the pipes for your radiators or gas appliances were put in poorly.

[old-hedwig.livejournal.com]

The stuff generally used in household poison works by thinning the blood to the extent that the mice/rats can't get enough oxygen. This tends to drive them out into the open to die, which is good if you want to find the little corpses and dispose of instead if having them rot in your walls, but not good if you don't want something to find and eat them.

Our neighbor, who lived in a log cabin in the woods behind our house, used the live trap traps, but she basically let them go right out on her front porch and they just scurried right back into her house. Eventually she ended up with some impressively large black snakes.

Re: you, too?

[old-hedwig.livejournal.com]

I LOVE those traps. Although it is generally the spousal unit's duty to empty/reload the traps, I still end up doing it sometimes. I like being able to dump the deceased mouse without actually touching it, and they are much less likely to snap the fingers during loading.

We use a raisin, glued down to the trap with peanut butter.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Hear hear on the steel wool bit. After I found one deceased mouse (courtesy of Fax) in a previous apartment, we stopped up the hole in the baseboard heating with the steel wool. Never saw another mouse.

[skreeky]

We were getting mice at our last apartment, and did the professional exterminator bit. This is basically all she did. I came home and found the steel wool everywhere, and thought, well gee, I coulda done THAT. But no more mice.

A few days later, I started finding kitty barf with bits of steel wool in it.

I recommend liberal use of duct tape to keep the steel wool in the holes and out of the cats.

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

yeah, hence the spray foam on top of the steel wool. If you have animals in the house or even if you just like to walk around barefoot, finding bits of steel wool later can be bad. And being the owner of 3 bunnies that like to dig at things, I didn't want to try to hold them still and have to get the steel wool splinters out of their paws after the fact.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

well, I am more mouse-tolerant than you, because of who my husband is and because there is no way we can keep them out of this old farmhouse.

BUT I second everyone on the poison issue. You shouldn't be using it if you have cats.

(Not to mention that I get the heebee jeebies every time someone mentions poison, because if it's Warfarin, it's Coumadin -- which contributed to my mother's death.)

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the useful idea! In what section
of a hardware store would I find this expanding
foam you speak of?

[scliff.livejournal.com]

When I got some at home despot, the cans were in one of the aisle end racks. The stuff I have is labelled "Multi-Purpose INSULATING FOAM SEALANT". You might find it with caulk, plumbing, windows, or ducting.

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

you can usually find it in spray cans near the insulation materials. Sometimes it is found in the same spot as weather-caulking and bathtub caulk. Or just ask your local hardware store employee and they can point the way.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Yes, I absolutely agree.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

It took me a few seconds of, "But... she doesn't have a license, where was she driving him to..."

[luckylefty.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I read this as "room cleaning that dancingdeer provided me with automobile transportation to get to", leaving me wondering why JB was cleaning someone else's room in someone else's house (since he presumably wouldn't need transportation to his own room).

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I had evidence of mice in the kitchen a few years back. I bought various traps and poisons, and also went looking for the external hole that they'd come through. I eventually concluded that they'd found their way into the house through an open corner that had shrubs growing all the way up to it. I closed up the hole and trimmed the shrubs away from the house -- haven't had a mouse in the kitchen since.

I have, however, had at least two critters of some kind or another get into the wall on the 2nd floor halfway to the ceiling (!) and die there -- and the only way to tell was by the smell. Poison bait at obvious wall holes (for the heat pipes) in the area remains untouched. I have no idea how they got in.