I’ve been watching some old cartoons from the Cartoon Network. I thinking these old Warner Brothers cartoons probably date from the 40s or 50s.
In the cartoon with mice, I always see them come out of holes at the bottom of the walls. I’ve never seen a mousehold like that. Has anyone ever seen or lived in a house with a mousehole like that? Why do they portray mouseholes like that? And nowadays, if a house has a mouse, where do they live?
Well, I have never seen a mousehole perfectly shaped like those in cartoons but I have seen one along the bottom of a wall like those. It was just a little chewed-out roundish hole, not “door-shaped” like the cartoon ones. In houses now, mice live in walls very often. Our neighbors had a mouse in the wall in their office last fall. You could hear it moving around and chewing. It was rather annoying!
First, sorry about my typos. I don’t actually say “I thinking…” or “What about those mouseholds”, hey that could be a pun.
I’m shocked to hear that an office has mice problems. Will they call an exterminator? Rather than annoying, I would find it extremely hazardous to health.
My parents had a mouse hole along the wall and behind the door to their bedroom. It was a roundish hole, about an inch high, partially obscured by the carpet. I have seen mice going in and out of that hole, so I know for sure they made it.
In my closet, I have a similar hole in the baseboard (we ripped out the carpet and put tile and baseboard in there). It, too, is about an inch high, and it’s the same shape as the one in my parents’ room. No mice going in and out of that one, though; as my closet door is closed all the time, they probably couldn’t find a way out of the closet and into my room and the rest of the house. Thank god.
We caught the mice making treks to and from the bedroom and kitchen. Why they just didn’t move closer to the kitchen, I don’t know. I can only guess that the kitchen/hallway area was too high-traffic for them to have something as obviously “Here we are!” as a hole. It was far easier for them to sneak out when (they thought) we weren’t looking. Also, as ants are attracted to water sources, perhaps so too are mice-- the wall of my parents’ room contains the bathroom plumbing for ours and our upstairs neighbors’ units.
Mouseholes in old cartoons often have doors and doorbells, but you never see those today - Doesn’t anyone teach mice how to do carpentry these days? 
I figure that those mouse-holes are shaped like they were to resemble doors - the kinds of doors that humans use to get into and out of their various living quarters. In other words, the mice in cartoons are creatures that live according to human standards, with their living rooms and televisions. They are hunters (of refigerated foods) who have to fend with the pesky housecat, etc. Otherwise, in our real world, the mice make their egress in ingress to our side of the walls with their coarsely chewed holes, as alluded to by a previous poster.
When I was a dopey kid, I, seeing these cartoons, thought it would be neat to live in those cozy little mice apartments, with the carpeting and comfy living rooms. I wanted to be a mouse when I grew up. Just kidding!
In some of those cartoons, the camera actually entered the mouse’s abode. Man, them mice sure knew how to live in those days: comfortable chair and ottoman, T.V. set (remember we’re in the fifties), all the amenities. Sometimes even more tastefully arranged than the house of which it was a part.
My two nieces like to visit frequently, and, being 7 and 9 years old, are still impressed with cool kid things. So, in a spare room where I have their toys and crayons and paints and things, I created a couple of mouse holes.
I cut into the wall in a cartoon-like upside down U, inserted a small tin ‘room’ painted in bright colors, built a couple of those Oak beam doors and mounted them with tiny brass hinges, used brass nails as door knobs, and got a couple of doll house outside lights, stuck them on the wall by the doors, and put a few pieces of doll house furniture inside.
The kids were just delighted when they came over to find mouse holes in the walls just like in the cartoons. My girl friend painted little arches of vines and brightly colored flowers around each, and bought some of those tiny, tiny cloth roses from a craft store and glued them onto the vines for added effect.
They look cool.
I’m thinking of putting in some grain of wheat doll house lights so when the kids open the doors, lights will come on. Needless to say, my nieces just love their eccentric Unca Tinker.
Tinker, you have to be the coolest uncle alive.
Are they still in your house? You should take pictures. That’s real artwork.
Very cool!
This is a unique idea.
I knew a guy on my MST3K list who was making a lifesize replica of the door sequence from the Mike episodes for his niece. Only she changed her mind, and he made it to scale for her Barbie dolls-another family member even made a jumpsuit for Ken.
TinTinker14, that is absolutely brilliant! Why don’t you start marketing those?
Thank you. Thank you.
They’re well used, you might say, but I’d have to dream up a way to make them all in one piece to sell them, so folks could just insert them in the wall. Besides, they’re special, just for my two little honeys, who are starting to get used to my eccentricities.
They’re easy to make, you just have to remember that at the base of each wall is a 2x4. Craft shops sell all sorts of tiny hardware and doll furnishings. Even grain of wheat lights and battery packs. My lady friend is looking for some tiny stuffed mice to dress up and put in them.
As a kid, I always loved those little mouse houses in trees and outside walls of houses in the early cartoons.
Okay, I’ve had no small amount of mouse training and edumacation, not to mention experience. I’ll try to answer all your mouse questions.
First, mouse holes IRL don’t look like cartoon mouse holes because mice IRL don’t behave like cartoon mice. All rodents have an instinct to gnaw, and they will gnaw on anything softer than their teeth. This includes building materials such as wood and sheetrock. Mice are also curious, so once they chew a hole through something, they will investigate.
The space that will allow a mouse to pass through needn’t be very big. A dime-sized hole is adequate.
Where do mice live in a house? Garages, basements and crawlspaces are the most likely entry points, as they are at or below ground level and often are low traffic areas for humans. But once a mouse is inside, it will manage to get just about anywhere in the house by climbing through the wall voids (remember they don’t need a big space to squeeze through). Mice are excellent climbers. They also have a good sense of smell, and will be drawn to food areas such as kitchens or family rooms where people constantly drop popcorn and bits of Doritos between the sofa cushions.
The reason a mouse may take up residence in a bedroom wall rather than just hanging out in the kitchen may be because of the higher traffic in a kitchen, the presence of animals or other things which may make the kitchen too loud or frightening for them. Remember, mice don’t sit and chow down when they discover a food source. They carry it away and store it for later. So they may make nightly forays into the kitchen, carry their swag back to the attic or bedroom closet or whatever, toss it on the pile and enjoy it at their leisure.
This, by the way, is an excellent reason NOT to use poison bait if you have mice. I know of instances where the mice hid some of the poison in pet food, people’s slippers and even under their bedroom pillows. Don’t risk accidental poisoning or contaminations. Use traps, not poisons.
Just some info and helpful advice from your friendly neighborhood hired killer…