First, let me say that I have never once seen a mouse or a trace of a mouse around my house. I live in a townhouse, which is a part of a block of 4. It’s not rural, but it does back up to some grass and trees. There are various critters around and in the yard. I’ve definitely seen birds, squirrels, little brown bunny rabbits and the rare deer.
Several months ago, my neighbor who shares a wall with me and had recently moved in called and left a message that they had an exterminator in and they had found “signs of mice” in his yard and was going to treat and suggested that I also treat for mice. My only previous experience was seeing a mouse in my last apartment which I caught with a snap trap. I left traps out with peanut butter but found the peanut butter gone but the traps not sprung. I then switched to glue traps (never again!) and returned to find one with just a tail on it. Knowing that there was now an angry mouse (or rat-it was a very large tail) out there bent on revenge, I did the only sensible thing and moved.
Anyway, I called my neighbor back and left a message saying that maybe we could coordinate any extermination efforts to avoid sending mice back and forth. He never replied so I texted him and also got no reply. My main concern was that he not poison the mice that then could somehow come into my house and my cats could eat them and get sick. My thoughts at the time were that we would never be able to completely rid the outside area of mice as they could just keep coming back from the open areas and since I had seen no mice or evidence of mice that maybe they would stay outside. I also thought that maybe the cats would scare them away (the mice don’t know how stupid the cats are).
Today, I got a text saying that his nanny had seen mice outside by the garbage that then ran toward my garage. So, those of you who know about mice can advise me here.
Do I need an exterminator?
Can I avoid doing anything that would potentially hurt my cats?
Am I just looking to block any holes where they could get into the house or is there a way to get permanently rid of them?
Why won’t my neighbor ever call or text me back?