MOUSE problem...HELP!!!

[jen_in_southtexas]

Where I live with my Mom in the city in an apartment, just recently like within the past 3days you can hear a mouse digging really HARD between our ceiling and the upstairs unit. It is so annoying because i know that eventually they will multiply. We have NEVER had a rodent problem as long as my Mom has been here. I know that with winter approaching they are looking for shelter. We have not seen any droppings or mice inside the apartment but it is scratching that wall hard so its probably a good sized one.

My question is: How do you get rid of mice when they are between walls? I know that the landlord needs to know and i will tell her tomorrow but I would like to also do something about it. I cant really cut thru walls as it would be very obvious. This will get out of hand. Last year at my travel trailer it was a nightmare with mice everywhere. I trapped quiet a bit but I have since then got rid of the travel trailer.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, any suggestions welcome. I know how bad a problem this can become.

-J

[rockymtngirl]

Hi Jen - assume the indiv apt does not have an access point between the units - like an attic would have. Any way you can get some traps in the heating vents? Or I'm wondering if you did put traps out in the apt if the mice would come get a snack? If you hear them then your mom's apt is probably not the only one - landlord should definitely take action there!

[cinok]

Sometimes you can get behing the walls from an outlet or switch box or even better if you have cable the plate is just screwed into the wall

[walls0stone]

your sure it's not squirls?
traps are great becouse the critter must come out to eat some time.

[Bones]

We just caught 4 of the little buggers last night. Chocolate covered cashews on a sticky trap.
Anyway we had been mice free for 4 years. First year we moved in we had them I trapped them and then bought a sonic repeler(plugs into a outlet) from Lowes maybe it stopped working because we have them again or they know something we dont maybe it will be a cold winter. I am going to buy another one and give it a try.

[WileyCoyote]

I tried, I really tried, to have a live and let live philosophy about my mice. When we could hear them playing soccer in the attic every night (I felt sorry for whomever had to be the ball), and caught them eating out of the cats' food bowls, the cats went outside and the traps came in. The best mousetrap bait (IMHO) is peanut butter. I would barely put one down in a cupboard, close the door, and SNAP! some other mouse let his cravings override his sense.

I don't really care for or believe in the mouse poison. We were cleaning up the new homestead and I found some of those open half-eaten boxes of blue pellets in the basement - and a mouse in a glass jar. The previous owner said she never had a problem with mice. Un-hunh. We have seen them out in the garden and between the shop, garage, and corrals, but none in the house yet. Nevertheless I am on the list for any trapped adult half-wild cat in the nearby town. I need me a barn/yard cat! Of course even a cat or dog will eat peanut butter, so you have to be careful where you set traps.

I hate to say it but a mouse digging hard in a wall? I've never heard it. You might have something else in those walls... We had to knock down some drywall in a place I worked once, because a cat had gotten in and couldn't get out. There are squirrels, bats, coons, woodpeckers, and even (shudder) rats that dig hard, but mice are usually not that noisy. I've only had rats once when I was a little girl and that scared me - the ones we trapped were HUGE.

[Gwynyvyr]

Find some penny royal.
It's a member of the mint family. You might have to find some (dried) online.
Unscrew any outlet you can and put a wee bit in there.
If you can get in the attic space, strew penny royal around in there.
Mice hate the stuff. Just the smell will make them look for friendlier places to live.
DO NOT INGEST PENNY ROYAL!

[JeffColorado]

We had almost the same thing a few months ago - same noise as you between the 1st and 2nd floors. Turned out to be RATS, not mice – but rats need to gnaw down their teeth and are always chewing on something. Looked around and found the place they were getting in, just a small slot the builder left open, no more than about 1/2" X 4" - trapped one with peanut butter but rats learn quickly - never got another one with a spring trap - not even the new clamp style - had my best luck with the sticky plates placing peanuts in the middle - caught seven more over the next couple of weeks. the downside to the sticky plates is they’re still alive when you find them, they just can't get away, so you've got to "dispatch" them, - I always knew when I had one - I'd turn on the light in the garage that they would let out a scream - like they were scared out of their skin. Don't do what I did, I plugged the hole without making sure they were outside - VERY BAD IDEA - the then dig their way anywhere they can - I re-opened the hole and put some water out, waited until I couldn't hear them inside anymore then sealed it back up.

Turned out the moron neighbor had been "feeding" them - when I mentioned to him that I couldn't figure out where they all came from all of a sudden, he mentioned that they have been getting into his bird seed for a couple of years and it got so bad he decided to put the seed in a metal trash can - DUH!!! - now no food and they started spreading out looking for food - after sealing up where they were getting into the floor space in the house, they moved into the garage - that’s where we went to war - tried everything - even some new poison that they seemed to thrive on- until I found the sticky plates. It became a real challenge - like I said they learn quite fast and once they figured out one thing you could never get them again - they never did figure out the sticky stuff.

[Gallowglass]

Locate an access point....then drop in mouthballs. For a non toxic trap, a large kettle filled half way with water, and a streak of peanut butter at the water line...

[CarolAnn]

I like to put this out here once a year - and this is the season for it!

CarolAnn's Mouse Potato Cascerole
1 shallow container mashed potato flakes
1 shallow container of water
1 mouse infestation

The mice eat the potato buds, drink the water, and die from indigestion as the potato buds absorb the water and swell up. Cats love it and won't get sick from a poisoned mouse.

On the downside, if they don't stagger out into the open with their full little tummys, they'll stink inside your walls for a while!
:P

;D ;D ;D

[alaskaboy]

I had mice when I lived in the projects, and they seemed to like under the sink - so we would stick some kool-aid under the sink and put a little bit of cheese, just in case. But the mice always liked the kool-aid! I still use that trick in my boss's house when I go up his house to drop something off!

[LABeekeeper]

Neighbor gave me a kitten some months ago. Kitten now just under a year old. Since cat came, I've killed 3 rats with snap trap baited with peanut butter. Cat hasn't killed a one yet.

Cat still has not learned that when it chases and captures honeybees from my colonies, they sting cat.

Cat seems to be a slow leaner. My previous cat who died at 17 years old was much smater than this cat. At least I never had a rodent problem when she was alive.

[mungsurfers]

I had the problem in my walls for a month or so and my poor little Jack Russell (a mouser) was up all hours of the night watching the walls (literally following them with her nose as they ran in the walls) waiting for RATS to come out. They were rats, not mice, It got so bad and I felt so bad for my dog that we finally had to put out rat poison. It worked really quick, they died and dried out like salt pork :-X. One did get stuck under the tub, the poison is a desecant so the mice seek out water, and we had to open the outside plumbing unit part to get it out. But there just was no other way to take care of them.
On our land when we moved here, we got inundated with mice. LOTS of field mice. >:( It was to the point where I was asleep on the floor(didn't have a bed yet) and could watch them running across the floor in front of the orange flame of our propane heater. I set out so many traps and would have bloody traps to empty every morning that I got sick of it and did not think it was healthy and they weren't going away. After a few months of torture (do you know what it's like with four dogs chasing a mouse in your house while you and your daughter are screaming jumping up on beds and the little boys have b-b guns trying to shoot them???) OH BOY, I set the rat poison out again and within one week we got rid of all the mice.
Oh yeah, we had a rat too. That one jumped down off my Kitchen cupboard shelves while we were in the middle of Sunday brunch, and we all screamed and the dogs went bullistic, my daughter and I again got on top of anything we could jump on while the rat ran after us, my hubby and dogs tore apart the living room and the rat ran under our couch! Finally my hubby got the rat with a book and all four dogs freaking out trying to get to the rat. OH BOY! :oThe three little boys were screaming in the background too, talk about a funny sight!
I have to say, when you live in the country you cannot beat the mice without poison. There are too many. Once the poison is used for awhile, it seems to deter them until the next season. I have not had a problem of my dogs eating poisoned mice, nor my chickens. They tend to steer clear away from a poisoned mouse or rat. I have been unsuccessful with cats because my 2 Jack Russells love to chase them away :-[

[fnfredux]

sounds something like MY house when we get a mouse. This has been a busy week for us too. I put out poison.
Please be real careful with that poison a vet once told me that the smallest speck was capable of killing a dog. And be sure your dogs do not EAT the poisoned mice, burn the thououghly or flush'em. Eating poisoned mice can kill a dog too (cats too I imagine).
Don't EVER have pity on mice, everywhere they travel they leave a trail of urine, the spread disease and destroy enough food to feed tens of thousands of people, they are not cute, they are disgusting.
Walt disney must've been smoking some of that hemp...a good Missouri farm boy creating "cute" mice. Bha humbug!