Huge Rodent Problem and I'm crying

They kill the mouse. You won't have to touch it to empty or reset the trap.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

besides mice, what do you feed those kids? they look a little pail

As long as they have places to get in, you'll have mice, shove steel wool (brillo pads, etc) into any holes and use silicone caulk. Check around any pipes (baths, sinks, laundry) electrical (my stove had a hole big enough for a squirrel where the electrical came through the floor), door jambs, etc. Unfortunatly mice can get into an extremly small hole (pencil size) if they are determined. Until you block every hole you will always have mice.
I second the motion to get some adult cats, even if you have to borrow them. I'd keep your kittens locked away for a few days and let a couple fo adult cats loose in your house.
I would not use poison around kittens my worry is that they would eat poisoned mice and get sick, I had an adult cat die from eating a poisoned mouse.

If you don't prevent them from getting in, killing some will only make room for more to get in.

I heard having cats will make mice avoid your home- seems to work for us but sounds like that is not the cure for everyone. The prior homeowner had plenty of vermin- kept fish food under the house and I still keep finding rat bait wrappers- but without that, and with three cats and now two dogs the only mice I see around (not in) the house are ones the cats bring in from farther afield to present to me. However I have plenty of cockroaches (which I hear mice eat) and try to follow the rules for no food in bedrooms and seal food up properly.

We very occassionally get a few mice in the kitchen area of our funky DWMH. It is in no way airtight, as we have little cracks and mousesized crawl spaces throughout the house. I firmly believe that the guinea hens we keep have helped to prevent a mouse invasion. We live at the edge of a big hay field/ pasture and the previous owners sprayed/set out bait traps for rodents and bugs every 3 months

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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

Have lots of cats outside. Adopt about 5 from people, leave them live outside. Inside you need to actully do all the stuff people posted. Sticky traps, snappers, bucket traps, ect ect.

Don't stick to one weapon, this is war!

If you have a true mouse invasion and are overrun, poison is about only way to deal with it. And anything they can hide in has to go outside or into garage or whatever and sorted through. Otherwise you just select out the stupid ones with traps. The smart ones catch on quick and breed more smart mice.

I have 12 cats and only one of them gives a hoot about eating them. The rest kill them out of competition and jealousy. Its a trophy to carry around in front of the other cats. Even then I had one mouse living in cupboard and had to take every last thing out of it to get him. Once I had everything moved, up jumped couple cats and wiped him out. He was too smart to get caught by cats long as he had escape route to cupboard planned out.

I will say since the cats became adults I havent had to use any poison. Just occasional brainiac mouse like the one in the cupboard.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

There is a never ending supply of mice. Cats, poison, traps, voodoo, etc. are all useless in eliminating mice. Yes, you may get a temporary reduction in the rodents but more will appear. To rid your home of mice you have to eliminate their getting into the home. Mice leave a scent trail by leaking urine as they roam. This scent trail will last for many months and will route more mice into your home. You must seal from the mice all points of entry that they use to the home. If you do not have pets you can reduce the use of the scent trail by scattering lye (sodium hydroxide) around the perimeter of the exterior of the house. I, at one time, had a problem that 3 different pest control business could not correct. Using the sodium hydroxide barrier was the solution. It is necessary to completely distribute the lye in a continuous band around the home and to replenish the lye at weekly intervals until the problem no longer exists.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Will using the sodium hydroxide barrier solution be dangerous for my animals and children.

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~Jen
Married to my best friend and mother of 5.

Where would I get pure peppermint oil? Would peppermint smelling candles work?

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~Jen
Married to my best friend and mother of 5.

i would recomend using the bait in secure containers not only in the house but also in the out buildings to cut the recolonization ,any old cars and wood piles count as areas to place a bait station ,also use the traps in the house to monoter just how many are wandering about . small pieces of bacon as well as chocolate seem to work very well . we had a time whae some mice did not take the bait the sticky traps were placed and worked very well . mice dribble urine everywhere they travel and will stink up anyplace they are they carry disease and chew and ruin anything they can get thier teeth on they have been noted to chew electric wiring and cords causein g shorts and fires ,dont delay and yess they can be eliminatedit just takes a bit of work

You'll have to choose which capturing method works for you. But I thought I would comment on your fear. No I won't laugh at you! I am getting past the mousie heebie jeebies stage. You'll have to find your own point where mice won't matter anymore. In the mean time, you may be thinking they will eat your toes off while you sleep. They won't. Yes, I have had a mouse run across my face in the middle of the night; or atleast think it was because the cat was in hot persuit!. That little mouse was minding his own business. I also opened a rag towel drawer and had one jump on me and run down my leg and scurry off under the washer. I'm not telling these stories to scare you, but to show you examples that the mouse will normally try to mind his own business and avoid being anywhere near you.
And since your family things your fear of mice is funny; let them be the ones to empty which ever trap method you use.

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Iris
The Last Straw (aka Helinbak Farm)
Once a Marine; always a Marine

do everything that you can to get rid of the mice..go to the pound and pick up a good size adult cat, pick one that is in with another cat in the cage..that seems friendly ..preferably the opposite sex of the kittens you have..if you can get two..make them outside cats..allowing them inside at night..esp when cold..but mostly outside..they'll kill most of the mice before they get into your house..you actually may want to get more than two..if you can get cats that are friendly with each other or related first you are best off.

other measures will help but cats are what you really want..some dogs might also kill mice.

oh use break away flea collars on the cats so that fleas don't get on them from the rodents.

They don't live for days if you drop the rodent and glue trap in a bucket of water. I think it/s more humane. Just check the traps regularly.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

I would advise poison, traps, or whatever it takes instead of bringing in cats to hunt for them. Sure, the cats will keep the mice at bay, but also they will become the hunters that they are and wreak havoc on the small wildlife in the area. Cats are the biggest predators of quail, rabbits, songbirds, etc.

I have to put in a 2nd vote for Jack Russell Terriers. They are pocket-sized rodent death on 4 legs. If you've ever seen Shrek picture Princess Fiona whooping the snot out of the merry men and that's a JRT in a gang of rats. I used to manage a stable for someone who had become older and no longer able to maintain it. It had become infested with rats and mice, thousands of them. None were in the house because the woman had a small pack of pet JRTs in the house. I asked her permission to take them out to the barn and it was an amazing sight to behold. Each dog had a giant rat dead in its jaws within seconds and tossed it aside looking for the next one. Every night we went out and they had themselves a rat and mouse hunt. It didn't take long before it became rare to see even a sign of a rodent on the property. They are only a bit bigger than a chihuahua but they don't know that and have great, playful personalities.

I recently read about this traps in a magazine:

http://www.ratzapper.com/

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What are we up to? Come and see!

when dh and I first got marred we lived in this beat up old trailer...it was so infested! I hated hated hated mice! One day he heard me screaming,,,and came running. I was standing on the kitchen counter (kinda bent over) and shooting the bb gun at a mouse, It had crawled up the back of the kitchen chair I was sitting in. We get a few here every so often but the outdoor cats do a good job of keeping them under control and if they come in Peanut the dog takes care of them.

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Ginnie..
http://ginniequilts.blogspot.com/
You can say what you want about the South,
But you never hear of anyone retiring and moving North.

I've gotten 5 so far this week in my basement. I may have them all.
I set traps baited with peanut butter. Then caught the last 2 by placing the unbaited trap in the path where i saw them run.

We just built this house 2 years ago and this is our first occurrance.
I think it took them a year to realize that we lived here.
Once they found the chicken coop, it didn't take long till they got to the house.

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Having a deep emotional conversation with my quilted buddy..........

Did you get off the bed yet? Yeah, I'm laughing just a little
The poor mouse is just looking for a warm home for the winter, I assure you it's more afraid of you than you are of it. It's probably hiding in the closet saying to itself "wow I can't come out till that giant mouse-eating monster leaves" lol.
Seriously, we have a crawl-space and put a bait called "just one bite" under there when it's about to start getting cool at night. That takes care of them totally since they come in at ground level and are happy to find something to eat.