Getting Rid of Mice in Three Easy Steps
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Getting Rid of Mice in Three Easy Steps
When you are working toward a mouse free building, whether it is your house… most important of all!… or a building you use for storage, the process of getting rid of mice, comes down to three things:
1. Block the Holes (entrance points). 2. Hunt -Remove the mice still inside. 3. Repel Prevent them from coming back.
If you go about getting rid of mice in this order, success is virtually guaranteed, how long it takes, really depends on how many mice have already gotten in.
Getting Rid of Mice by Blocking the Holes
If you recall, from the first of this series of blogs, Getting Rid of Mice or What About Bob? We talked about plugging holes. Starting with Plumbing and Pipes.
Other places to look for mouse entry are…
- Holes that have been drilled for satellite, or other cable to come into the house.
- Dryer vents.
- Missing baseboards, unless the mice have made it into walls, then you’ll want to leave these openings so you can first get the mice out, then seal the hole.
- Missing weather stripping
- Basement window wells
- Any place where something, be it pipe, wire, etc.. enters the house from the outside, or underneath
Once you have located the entry points, Block Them. Use steel wool, caulking, expanding foam, or a combination of these and weather stripping around doors. Bounce dryer sheets do not work to plug holes.. at least not for long.
If you are using steel wool, pack it tight and/or put caulking on top of the steel wool to prevent it from being dislodged. If you decide to use expanding foam, remember, it can be very messy, and isn’t just a quick wipe to get rid of the excess. Personally, I stay away from the foam, when I can. It is much like cement when it dries… and difficult to change the way it looks, after the fact.
Getting Rid of Mice – The Hunt!.
Now that the holes are plugged, it’s time to find and remove the invaders (Bob).
If you are planning to “catch & release”, you will want to get live traps and bait them with something like peanut butter. Remember — you have to take them at least 2 km away, so they don’t try and get back in. And, a mouse that has already experienced your hospitality, is far more determined and likely to find a way in.
If you are trapping the old fashioned way, snap traps work very well. The trick to making them even more effective is to put bait on them, but leave them unset for a day or two. Then bait and set them. Also, a little goes a long way when putting bait on a snap trap. If you use too much, the mice can actually eat some without setting off the trap.. yup.. it’s true!
Poison. The thing to remember about using mouse poison in getting rid of mice, is that the stuff is made to attract the mice. Then, they eat it and die. If you are using it, make sure that all the holes are plugged first.
The best way to get more mice in a building or vehicle, is to put in the poison block before the holes are plugged. The mice will come from far and wide to eat the stuff, and if you happen to attract pregnant mice, and they have the babies before they expire, you now have multiplied the mice instead of getting rid of them.
Mice are cannibals and will eat other dead mice. It’s gruesome, I know. But, if you have created (inadvertently) a place that attracts the mice (poison) and then the newly dead become food for others… and on and on it goes. There is a longer version of my experience, and it is quite gruesome… perhaps another time.
I had to tell that story, as it was one of my biggest mistakes! So, remember.. only use poison once the holes are plugged. That said, poison is great for getting rid of mice, where you have prevented new ones from coming in. Also, the poison blocks, when eaten, will kill a mouse, and dehydrate it, leaving no smell. That’s important, considering that that mouse may hide anywhere, even in your heating ducts!
Speaking of heating ducts, this was a favourite hang-out for the mice I was trying to get rid of. I would suggest that you purchase some metal window screen (not the nylon stuff, they can chew through this) to put over your floor registers. Make sure you’ve baited and placed traps (and caught what you believe to be – all the mice) before you cover the registers. When the furnace kicks in, there’s nothing quite as nasty as the smell of hot-dead-mouse.
There are, of course, lots of trapping tricks that can be used. I won’t go into all of them here; greased bowls, two-by-four ramps over a bucket of water, etc.. Perhaps you know and have tried something unusual, that worked….. if so, please leave a comment.
Getting Rid of Mice – Prevention (Repel them)
Once you have finished getting rid of mice in the target area, you don’t want to undo your work by attracting new ones. The best way to prevent a re-infestation, is to remove any mouse-temptations. Remove:
- Food sources – put pet food, bird seed, any other likely food into sealed tubs or trash cans.
- Nesting sites – store things in mouse proof containers. They love cardboard boxes, insulation, straw bales, newspaper, furniture cushions, lining from clothing, hats, shoes, even golf bags, and motorcylce helmets…. anything they can shred, or bury into.
- Get a cat.
- If you have a pet door, always keep traps set along the walls in your porch. Surprisingly, they too can climb in this way.
Hopefully, this is all you will need for getting rid of mice, at least in the house. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment on this blog, or any other you like.
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