Here is the situation. I live in an a townhouse. Today I awoke to a note on my door from my neighbor stating that he had hired exterminators and had been informed that he had a problem with mice. According to his note, there were “signs of mice” outside in the garden and in his furnace room (which is off his garage, but AFAIK has no direct access to his house). He recommended that I also treat for mice at the same time. He did not mention why he called the exterminator or whether he had ever actually seen a mouse.
I have lived in my house for 14 years and have never seen a mouse or any evidence of mice. I actually tore down most of the garage wall that connected to his house after a flood last year and had it repaired and there were no mice as far as I know. We live in an area that is not too urban. In and around the house we have many birds, squirrels, little brown bunnies and even an occasional deer.
Of course, I want to talk to him to find out if he actually has seen mice in the house, but ISTM that if there is just evidence of them outside, is it worthwhile trying to exterminate them? I don’t want to harm any other wildlife and since he has the corner townhouse, I don’t see why they would not just keep coming back from the surrounding grassy area. OTOH, I don’t want to be a bad neighbor and look like I don’t care about his mouse problem.
In addition, I do have a pair of my own exterminators of the feline type, named Boris and Natasha. However, in the 12+ years since they were hired (adopted) they have never once killed anything aside from plastic bags and a rubber snake. That could mean that there are no mice but it could also mean that they are incompetent. Knowing them, the latter is certainly possible. I certainly could offer to lend them to my neighbor but, again, their only apparent skills are being warm and fluffy and vomiting hairballs.
I want to figure out what my approach should be before calling the neighbor. Opinions?
You’ve already got the cats, so I’d do something like set out cotton balls scented w/ peppermint oil in places mice could get in. No poison or traps, just keep an eye out and notice if your cats pay particular attention to one area frequently.
If he DOES have mice and the treatments shoo them from his place they may well wind up at yours. Of course, your wall being torn down may have shooed them to his in the first place.
Hey, that’s how I found a leak in the ceiling of my hallway - my cats were paying close attention to the same spot in the carpet when it rained heavily. They weren’t chasing anything like when there’s a bug, just staring.
We are in a suburb on the edge of the city bordering with the forest preserves. It’s an old house. More winters than not we have a mouse that I know of and my knowledge of them is likely an underestimate. They don’t get up to the food, or at least I’ve never seen any evidence of such. I heard one scurrying inside the dog food bag once, let it out outside but it must’ve come back for more as a few days later I found one dead in the bag and never saw another, or evidence of, that season.
They come in when it’s cold and leave for better pickin’s when it warms back up. Not worth the effort to do anything about in my book.
What is the treatment? If it is rat/mice poison, it will kill your cats if they eat it. I would make sure any poison is put where your cats can’t get it. If one eats it, it will seem okay for a week or so, then one day they start acting odd, and they’re dead that night. I’d be serious about what is going on. Non poisonous mousetrap will get the mice. I’d be really worried about “treatment.”
Just to clarify, I am not trying to find mice, but merely asking how to deal with a neighbor who wants me to treat mice that I have never had a problem with. Is it worthwhile to treat empirically in this situation? As for payment, I fear the mice do not make enough money to qualify for subsidies under the ACA and since this state declined Medicaid expansion, I suspect that they are uninsured and the chance of collecting payment is slim, especially if the treatment leaves them incapacitated or worse. I still haven’t collected from Boris for the cost of his duodenal resection after he ate a penny, and Natasha’s Lantus costs a fortune and she hasn’t paid me a penny.
If the neighbor is putting out mouse poison and there are mice transiting between your properties, Boris and Natasha are at risk of being poisoned too. Find out his evidence and what he plans to do for treatment.
Possibly she did pay you a penny, and Boris ate it. When that didn’t end well, she may well have decided that paying you (especially in pennies) causes more problems than it solves.
Note that many such businesses give clients a rebate for referrals. If you hire that exterminator, your neighbor gets a bit of money. Assume that this is what is going on.
There are a number of cheap, simple mice traps available. Put one out in your garage or whatever. If you don’t get one, no problem. If you do get one and want to spend the money hire that exterminator so your neighbor, at least, gets some dough.
In the utility closet at the cafe where I work I put out traps for mice, the old fashioned snap traps. Ther’s a drain there that the critters come up through having traveled through the pipes to our place. The library where our cafe is located simply can’t be made secure, what with the big front doors, the loading dock and such.
If you see one there will be others. Those snap traps get them at the source, we’ve never seen a mouse outside of the closet. Peanut butter and a fragment of Frito get 'em every time.
Tiny, little mouse condoms? Nah. Better to neuter them. No more mouse babies and you can turn a profit by selling their little balls to a computer manufacturer. Two stones with one mouse, so to speak.