Mice

c. dawson · Post by **c. dawson** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:06 pm

Is anyone having a problem with mice in their house this summer? I've had an infestation ... and to date I've trapped 5 of the buggers and then caught-and-released another one ... all in a single week. It seems quiet now, but a friend of mine on Bunts now has a mouse problem, and she's trapped 3 so far.

I wonder if this is completely isolated, or there's more of a problem this year than previously. I know last year we had no problems at all, and then all of a sudden, they showed up!

(and I've found that the old-fashioned and dirt cheap traps you buy at the hardware store, baited with peanut butter, are completely foolproof and lethal ... they worked so well that I got two in one night!)

Jim DeVito · Post by **Jim DeVito** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:15 pm

I have seen one... Scares the crap out of the wife. Might keep him around for that purpose.

Jennifer Desilets · Post by **Jennifer Desilets** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:24 pm

No mice but we had a chipmunk sneak in and hide out in our kitchen. Picture this : 7AM Monday morning - 65yo mother-in-law standing on chair screaming, 2 beagles barking at chipmunk while being chased by 2 year old, myself and husband chasing chipmunk all over house with brooms... all before coffee!

Kenneth Warren · Post by **Kenneth Warren** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:27 pm

Shortly after we moved into our house, circa 1984, I noticed a mouse in my living room. I figured if there's one, there's twenty. Somebody told us "Get a cat." We've had two ever since. A cat will solve the problem.

Kenneth Warren

Dee Martinez · Post by **Dee Martinez** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:05 pm

Mr. Warren is absolutely correct. Im a dog person but dogs are worthless. Cats like mice AND chipmunks.
Be forewarned though. Some cats consider mice "gifts" and will proudly present them to you. Do not discourage this behavior as hard as it might be.

No one knows really how this happens. You can live mouse free in a house for 10 yrs, they'll drive you crazy for a couple of months, and then move on.

Get a cat.

Suzanne Metelko · Post by **Suzanne Metelko** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:06 pm

Funny you would ask...I just saw one in my backyard. My cat had it!

Ken's right- a working cat will keep those critters at bay. I have two. I'm sure Lakewood Animal Shelter has some that need a home.

Stan Austin · Post by **Stan Austin** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:46 pm

Dee--- Perhaps dogs have different career paths?

dl meckes · Post by **dl meckes** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:27 pm

There are any number of dogs that are specifically designed to "go to ground" and catch mice and rodents. They're called Terriers (or Terrors, depending).

Not all cats are mousers, either. Traps are effective and mouse poison (a desiccant) works very effectively and you don't have to deal with dead mice.

Kate McCarthy · Post by **Kate McCarthy** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:51 pm

It seems whenever we move out (go on vacation), some mice decide to move in. I've always been afraid to use any poison because I'm afraid our neighborhood champion mouser (Salem), might ingest a dying mouse as well as the poison. And some of our neighbors have inquired as to whether anyone has used rat poison as their dogs had fallen ill and the vet thought their dogs' symptoms were indicative of ingesting some sort of poison.

Is there such a thing as a safer poison? I have two dogs, my neighborhood is full of dogs, and then there's Salem. I want to make sure the only critters being harmed are the uninvited pests in my home.

Ryan Salo · Post by **Ryan Salo** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:16 pm

We had a problem after the house next door sat empty for a year. We bought one of the electronic devices from sharper image and we have not had a problem since. It just stays on 24/7 in our basement.

lisa shaffer-gill · Post by **lisa shaffer-gill** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:14 pm

Just last weekend our cats chased one around the living room. After I watched it climb to the top of the rocking chair, and then the sheers of the front windows, I realized I was not safe on the chair any longer. The cats followed it with great interest, and even batted at it a time or two. It dissapeared into the shoe pile by the front door for a while. The cats would sniff and feel around inside the shoes until they found it. Then it would boink up into the air and down into another shoe. It was late, but by now I was no longer tired. After a long shower (with a towel stuffed under the door) pondering my options; I conceived that if the cats hadn't killed it yet I could chase it out the door with a broom. I decended the stairs, carefully, collected the broom and propped open the front and back doors. Pablo, my stealthy hunter, had grown bored with the game and went to take in the midnight air on the front porch. Olga was standing watch over the little guy who was now behind the printer on the computer table. I stood on another chair and shuffled my broom toward him. He scampered down, passed the gray cat and the food dish and headed back down the hole in the pantry wall.
I checked the traps on the top shelf of the pantry. They, had stolen the peanut butter, but clearly escaped with their lives. I added fresh biat and put one near the most recent exit. I had the poor feller in the morning.
This was our 4th mouse since last fall. In the previous eight years we hadn't ever had one. The fall after they took down the old Y we got our first mouse. This summer there has been a lot of construction on Detroit, and I bet that has disturbed some nests.

c. dawson · Post by **c. dawson** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 8:25 pm

All the construction may be behind the mice invasion. I chalked ours (just got another one last night) up to the Beck Center, finally cleaning away all the scrub and overgrown weeds next to the Armory, which is behind our garage. It used to look like a jungle back there, now it's all freshly mowed and cleared ... might have scared the local mouse family to see refuge in my house. However, since they're not paying rent, they gotta be evicted ... the hard way. Well, actually it's not too hard, it just involves some traps and peanut butter.

No cat ... I don't think my dog would like if we had a cat in the house. He seems to view them as akin to squirrels, which are the Dreaded Enemy in his eyes.

dl meckes · Post by **dl meckes** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:03 pm

The mouse season seems earlier this year. We have traps all over because our dogs are not mousers, darn it.

We also got some of those plug-ins and while I'm convinced they don't work, we're going to try them anyway. We probably need to get more to give them a good test.

I used to watch them crawl up a neighbor's brick house and it just made me sick.

I hate those meeces to pieces.

Beajay Michaud · Post by **Beajay Michaud** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:48 pm

Sadly our cat pass on last year. Shortly after that our pug mix presented us with a mouse. We did put poison down under our kitchen sink cabinet and behind some of the floor boards, haven't seem one since. We put the poison down again this summer just to make sure.

Richard Cole · Post by **Richard Cole** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:38 am

Beajay Michaud wrote:Sadly our cat pass on last year. Shortly after that our pug mix presented us with a mouse. We did put poison down under our kitchen sink cabinet and behind some of the floor boards, haven't seem one since. We put the poison down again this summer just to make sure.

Which poison did you use?