[/Bob the Builder]
Maybe you could put the poison inside a metal mesh box. You could make the box yourself from hardware cloth, or maybe they sell such things somewhere. You could use a small tripped have-a-heart trap for this purpose (the mice would be able to go in and out of the mesh and eat the poison but the cats and large animals could not get inside).
Poison doesn’t work instantly. When the poisoned, but not yet dead mice stagger out of the enclosure, they are easy targets for predators, who might be affected by the poison, too.
Acknowledging that this is purely anecdotal, hear me out:
We had a period where we were seeing a mouse every other day or so; sometimes one would scurry across the living room while I was watching TV. We set traps and caught three or four over a two-week period, so I knew it wasn’t just a single critter running amok.
Then, we bought a package of ultrasonic rodent repellers identical to these.
This was nearly two years ago and we have seen *zero *evidence of indoor mice since.
(and hey, you can always return them if they don’t work)
mmm
Post Hoc rides again.
So one company, when challenged, decided not to do any tests but remove their product from the market; another was able to prove their product worked some of the time, presumably enough to satisfy the FTC; and another company presents a test without qualifying it (how much is “significant preference”?) Not a ringing endorsement.
FTC Warns Manufacturers and Retailers of Ultrasonic Pest-control Device
When the Daughter and the Son-in-Law discovered mice, they called in an exterminator. Hubster specifically asked the exterminator about those sonic gizmos.
Mister Exterminator Person said: “They work. However, the sound waves will bounce off walls and furniture, and you won’t get complete coverage of the whole house. There will be dead spots (pun probably intended) where the sound waves either don’t reach or cancel out. The mice will find those areas and set up the DJ booth and kegs for the party.”
Well, okay, he didn’t mention anything about the mouse party, but you get the idea.
~VOW
What about putting one of those deer-bumper-whistley-things on a string and spinning it around over my head?
This really reveals how much of a wishy-washy hypocrite I am. While I have no problem with eating steaks or wearing wearing down or leather, when faced with the question I cannot bring myself to use poison. That there are pets and small children around is a cover is helpful, but I just don’t think I could do it.
I could use iocane powder (if the mice haven’t spent years building up an immunity), but the prospect of a slow death (same with glue traps) strikes some odd fiber in me as undoable. Also note that these are not zombie mice and have yet to have a direct impact on us outside freaking us out by leaving their disemboweled corpses at the foot of our bed.
Went for a walk around the house and found a few places that can be patched up but that seems a bit futile. First, there’s the garage. Well, I guess the garage can be sealed off from the rest of the house.
But what about the bilco doors? They don’t leak water, but there is a vast amount of space for mices to creep in. From what I’ve seen on the Net I shouldn’t seal them off or else we’ll end up with other moisture problems. The entryway to the basement is a frankendoor; I built a platform out of wood and backed it with solid foam-core insulation trimmed with flexible fiberglass (so it seals against the concrete when put up against the opening). This works great for keeping the cold air out and for maximum access when we need it. If I have any hope of conquering the mice question do I need to put in regular doors?
Or could I just chain up a non-venomous snake right by the doors?
So it sounds as if just because the house is in the woods it doesn’t have to share its space with woodland creatures (if I take the right steps). For a while I thought that was the reality of living out of a city. In the city you need to accept cockroaches as part of the background (if you don’t have them you just don’t see them).
(Oh, on a side note j666, that was a reference to The Wall. Not sure it wasn’t too obscure for anyone to get.)
You need to get over your squeamishness and invest in some snap traps. It’s a quick and (usually) clean death. You should put them out of reach of your cats, though - behind furniture and in other small spaces.
There are even disposable traps, if you can’t stomach re-using traps.
A combination of removing the mice that are already there, sealing obvious holes, and even reducing your cats’ diet - you’ll be mouse-free in no time.
Good luck!
Glue traps work great. I put them outside as well and supplement with a bit of poison.
My snakes always manage to slip their collars. Don’t know how they do it so easily.
[They don’t work. (for deer, undetermined for mice)](What about putting one of those deer-bumper-whistley-things on a string and spinning it around over my head?)
Also see this excruciatingly detailed report, which includes everything you’d want to know about deer whistles except a conclusion.
Rhythmdvl, don’t fuss with looking for exterior holes right away. Start with an INSIDE inspection. All your water pipes need to have the steel wool crammed between the pipes and the wall. Your furnace and your ductwork need to be checked. We cheated on that one: we got a wood stove. Hubster just sealed off all the vents. Then you start looking along the baseboards of all outside walls. If you have an attic, all vents need to have fine mesh hardware cloth installed.
THEN it’s time to go through EVERY SINGLE cabinet, EVERY SINGLE drawer, and pull out EVERY major appliances. You gotta look for the mouse poopies.
Once you see how pervasive those little shitz are, your compassion should evaporate like an early spring fog.
Upthread, kenobi_65 mentioned that since I’m in the Four Corners area, I need to be alert for a nasty disease that mice in this area carry. The mice transmit the infection through their urine. Which means ANYPLACE that a mouse has been, there’s a potential health threat. Mice PEE nonstop.
While you are cleaning up those little mouse poopies, just think, “Gee, there’s also mouse pee on every single flat surface!”
We found the itsy bitsy poopers EVERYWHERE. I mentioned dresser drawers. So, in my head I’m thinking, “They RAN ACROSS MY CLOTHES, and PEED on them!”
I pull out packages of paper towels. The ends have been chewed open, the paper shredded and nests have been sculpted throughout the bathroom cabinets. All the stuff under the cabinets has been PEED on. My soap. My toothpaste. My Kleenex boxes. My first aid kit. My cleaning supplies.
Go in the kitchen. It’s worse. Think of the little beasties INSIDE your toaster, feasting on crumbs and getting so excited it tickles the poop and pee out of them! Think about it! Mice have PEED in your toaster!
All of the silverware had to be taken out, washed in the dishwasher. The drawer dividers scrubbed and disinfected. The drawers wiped out and disinfected. There were poopies in the silverware drawer. They scampered all over MY SILVERWARE and excreted their waste on things I put in my MOUTH.
You have QUALMS about KILLING these creatures?
Do you swat flies? Do you smash mosquitoes? MICE go into the same category!
~VOW
But they’re sooo cute! Furry, whiskers, tiny paws, awww…
Why do you dis Mickey’s relatives? 
And teeny-weeny poops, and they wee-wee-wee, all the way home!
KILL 'EM ALL!
~VOW
When they tore up 40 acres of woods behind my house to build a new subdivision, all the rats came to my house. Cat-less at the time, I put out poison. Bad idea. Dead rats smell worse than live ones. The only choice was to run a trap line. I felt like a Canadian fur trapper. I’d get home every day, head for the basement, and pull about 9-15 critters A DAY!
Things subsided, of course, but we have traps down to this day. I haven’t caught anyone in months, but I never want to be behind the curve again. Our cat does her part, and the Doxies try.
There are some alternatives. You can get a prarie dog vacuum& suck them out of their hole…
If you have no small pets, I think a Corn Snakeloose in the kitchen would be a cool idea, and it will keep your MIL away!
We actually have a couple of electrictraps that do nicely. They’re probably your easiest solution.
Bounce dryer sheet!!!
They work wonders. Put a few of them in drawers or areas with droppings, I guarantee it will make a noticeable difference.
I am a certified “city-folk” who has had this issue. Try Bounce before resorting to anything else.
Then update us.
How? Making it smell better, repelling rodents, covering up droppings, or all of the above?
Living in the woods, our house came with a pretty bad infestation.
I have managed to get rid of the bulk of them in the house with a combination of snap traps, sticky traps, poison, steel wool and expanding foam.
As mentioned upthread, I too have had issues with the damn things moving into our vehicle air filters and into my car interior when it is parked for the winter. In winters past, I had learned to remove all paper from the car and then filled the trunk and glove box with glue traps. This past winter I found a solution that also keeps my car minty fresh: Cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil placed in with the air filters keep them out and only need to be replaced every few months. I have also put them in the glove boxes and consoles (and placed a few in the trunk and under the seats of my car for winter storage).
places like cars might be bad to use traps, unless you check them frequently, the trap no longer functions when it has been triggered; during above freezing weather you have mouse rot.
better might be poison baits anchored (put on a piece of wood, in a bait station) placed in the auto. the mice seek water due to the effects of the poison before dying and will venture out where they die.
I checked the sticky traps regularly after the Rotting Mouse Carcass Debacle of O-Eight.
Steam cleaning, two cans of febreeze and I still had to drive with the windows down for a month to get rid of that smell. Made me want to take up smoking again.
I’ll be another voice calling for you to put aside your civilzed city ways and embrace your inner savage. You need to kill those suckers. I am also a city slicker who doesn’t enjoy handling dead bodies so I went with these quick set mouse traps. You put some peanut butter on the underside of the top jaw and the next day you have a dead mouse. The best part is you grab the trap at the back, pop open the jaws over the garbage and dump the body. Then you get some fresh peanut butter and put in on the trap and replace it. No fuss. No muss. Got about 10 mice last fall.
I would also recommend using steel wool inside of any crack repair using foam. I’ve had a few holes re-opened through the foam. Not so when I put some steel wool in.