I forgot to suggest checking for how they’re getting in, the wee beasties. Otherwise you’ll just keep having the issue. Have you walked around the house and looked for likely entrance points? You can get that spray foam insulation and plug up small holes fairly quickly… It’s usually something like the utility pipes not being sealed correctly where they run into the kitchen IME.
No, I haven’t done that. And I probably should.
My wife said when she was a kid they had a humongous rat in the house, so her mom borrowed a live trap meant for possums from her brother.
They caught him, and the whole trap was jumping around so her om got freaked out the rat would escape so her mom threw a pot of boiling water on it. My wife said she was crying because the rat was screaming and screeching for hours.
Her mom’s bro was PISSED, the trap was decades old and since her mom’s stunt no animal would get near it no matter how much it was washed.
I have posted previously about an apparently solitary mouse (a remarkably coherent account if you factor in the low level of blood in my alcohol at the time) and now, some 3 years later, have had more intruders. There were no droppings or other indications of their presence until a few months ago but it’s definitely more than one this time.
One fact I forgot to mention in that old post was that the trap which caught the mouse had no bait. Instructions included with some of the traps indicated that bait was unnecessary, that positioning was more important and this proved to be true. After trying various baits three years ago (except peanut butter because I don’t like it and refuse to buy it for vermin) I tried empty traps placed on likely mouse routes and it was at a suspected entry point that the mouse met its doom.
This same position got one this time round as well, with the other three kills being against walls the mice would most likely follow while exploring.
This is not always true: at least one of my traps has killed more than once (with 2 instances of traps set off with no kill). I have moved the traps around several times so can’t be sure but one trap may have killed three times. After a kill I soak the trap in a bleach solution, rinse thoroughly and leave to dry before re-deploying.
One of my traps caught 3 mice, so obviously this isn’t true.
And I just got another one. I noticed the ripped kitchen bag a couple of days ago.
Between this and skunks in my garbage I’m almost willing to give up rural life.
I grew up on a farm, so killing mice is like killing a roach to me. That said, D-Con is probably your best bet. Put some out and let them feed. Don’t put too much out as mice hoard.
There is no fool proof way to catch mice, cause they are different. Country mice are fairly easy to catch as they are trap stupid, while city mice know their way around traps well.
I’ve seen mice actively avoid such favorites as peanut butter in favor of a cracker.
As for cats? Forget it. For ever good mouser, there is another cat, that couldn’t be bothered to chase a mouse, much less catch one.
Mice will figure out very fast which cat you have.
Mice are smart, once you place a physical trap, they learn about that trap and avoid it. It’s also very important to remove a dead mouse quickly as other mice, see it and avoid that area. So with physical traps it’s important to change the way you trap each time a mouse is caught.
This is why I would recommend the poison if possible, as the mice eat it but don’t die till later so they don’t learn to associate feeding or surrounding with death.