Mice

WinstonsGirl

Ok, so we have mice in our garage.  Not surprised, as everyone seems to get them here.  But, we found a dead one in the basement, so somehow they're getting through the garage somewhere to the house.  We can't find any entrance in the basement, which I know doesn't say much as they don't need a big hole.  But there is no trace anywhere in the basement of mice (droppings, chewed fluff, holes in cardboard boxes, etc.), just the 1 we found in the middle of the floor dead.

Anyway, we've put down poison and traps in the garage, and have found 1-2 possible holes the builder made that we think they're using to get into the house.  We put some poison in the holes too.  We've also emptied the garage and are cleaning it out (yay, we picked up wall storage organizer stuff today!!), but we're not sure when to fill in these holes in the garage.  We want to seal off the holes, but are a little worried that now that we've emptied out the garage, if there were any left in there, they will stay more inside the house and get sealed up inside the house instead.  Does that make sense?  Anyone dealt with this who has advice?

Will be a post and run, since we're heading out for dinner with MIL

charlotte989875

I had a mouse infestation in an apartment. Seal the holes first, then set out traps to catch any that might be in there hiding. Did you have any catboats boxes or boxes with openings? I'd empty them out too. You wouldn't believe some of the places I found nice (shoe boxes, dresser drawers, climbing up clothes in a closet). Worst place I've ever lived. Now I'll never live without a cat. Good luck. 

ahyatt87

Ditto what charlotte said. Seal the holes first so more mice do not enter then kill the ones you do have. They only need a hole about the size of dime, and they can fit in very small cracks and crevasses. The mice we had we entering through cupboard in our back entrance way. They made holes to enter our basement and then spread throughout the house. It was awful.

I highly recommend pest block for sealing any cracks/holes/crevasses you can find. Mice don't like the taste of it so they are unlikey to re-enter through the original holes.

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.pestblock-insulating-foam-sealant-454-g.1000741515.html

Also, if you have any pets, check their food supply. We had to start keeping our dog food in a glass jar because the mice ate a hole in the bag and then in the plastic tote bin to get access to the food. We are pretty sure this is what was motivating them. 

I know it's a gross problem to have. Good luck!

CMGragain

Daughter just phoned last week with this problem.  Her cat solved it.  Unfortunately, he caught one during a dinner party and came in to present it - still alive.  Ew.
They blocked any holes.  Cat did the rest.

missJeanLouise

Be careful using poison. The mice might get picked up by owls or neighborhood cats and kill them.

WinstonsGirl

We don't have pets, so no food around, other than the 1 bag of bird seed in the garage.  It's gone now.  Can't have cats as I have pretty bad allergies, so they're out as well.  

Thanks for the info on the pest blocking sealant.  I haven't heard about that.  We only have the regular spray foam, but I'll look into that tomorrow morning

lovesclimbing

Eh, is it really a problem if they get sealed up inside the house? 

My parents could hear a rat chewing in the wall growing up. The walls were not that thick and not much gap so not a ton of room for them to run around in. Dad found an old tomato can and stuck it in the hole and sealed it up. My parents heard chewing occasionally for a few days as it got less and less until it stopped. The skeleton is still in there somewhere because my dad has never removed the can. 

scrunchythief

One more thing to watch for with the poison:  We used it when we had a mouse (out cat is a terrible mouser, but we love her anyway).  A few months later I found a massive stash of it in the back of my closet.  The mouse had taken it from the bowl and squirreled it away.  I'm not sure this mouse even ate any of it.

WinstonsGirl

lovesclimbing said:

Eh, is it really a problem if they get sealed up inside the house? 

My parents could hear a rat chewing in the wall growing up. The walls were not that thick and not much gap so not a ton of room for them to run around in. Dad found an old tomato can and stuck it in the hole and sealed it up. My parents heard chewing occasionally for a few days as it got less and less until it stopped. The skeleton is still in there somewhere because my dad has never removed the can. 

I'm not concerned about them being in the house if they die, but more if they live and take over the house with millions of cute little mouse babies.  It wouldn't surprise me, if they're in the walls, that they would climb up to the attic and live there.  Though winter would possibly kill them, if the insulation isn't good enough

charlotte989875

Get the traps that they go in (and never come out...) no worries about them spreading the poison or not eating it. 

lovesclimbing

WinstonsGirl said:

lovesclimbing said:

Eh, is it really a problem if they get sealed up inside the house? 

My parents could hear a rat chewing in the wall growing up. The walls were not that thick and not much gap so not a ton of room for them to run around in. Dad found an old tomato can and stuck it in the hole and sealed it up. My parents heard chewing occasionally for a few days as it got less and less until it stopped. The skeleton is still in there somewhere because my dad has never removed the can. 

I'm not concerned about them being in the house if they die, but more if they live and take over the house with millions of cute little mouse babies.  It wouldn't surprise me, if they're in the walls, that they would climb up to the attic and live there.  Though winter would possibly kill them, if the insulation isn't good enough

I guess I was thinking if you blocked all the holes, they couldn't get food from anywhere and they would die. 

WinstonsGirl

lovesclimbing said:

WinstonsGirl said:

lovesclimbing said:

Eh, is it really a problem if they get sealed up inside the house? 

My parents could hear a rat chewing in the wall growing up. The walls were not that thick and not much gap so not a ton of room for them to run around in. Dad found an old tomato can and stuck it in the hole and sealed it up. My parents heard chewing occasionally for a few days as it got less and less until it stopped. The skeleton is still in there somewhere because my dad has never removed the can. 

I'm not concerned about them being in the house if they die, but more if they live and take over the house with millions of cute little mouse babies.  It wouldn't surprise me, if they're in the walls, that they would climb up to the attic and live there.  Though winter would possibly kill them, if the insulation isn't good enough

I guess I was thinking if you blocked all the holes, they couldn't get food from anywhere and they would die. 

I agree, but the problem is that we can't find the holes into the basement, just in the garage.  Still, they may not be able to get to any other food anyway, unless they want to eat the spiders in our walls too

WinstonsGirl

Thanks everyone.  Garage will be clean today and traps moved downstairs.  

DrillSergeantCat

You said the builder made the holes, if your house is brick and those holes are in the first row of brick above the foundation, those are weep holes and need to stay open. Good luck.

JeeGooDowster

I'd like to add that one disadvantage of poison is that these rodents can get stuck in the walls and the decomposing body can definitely stink up the house.

WinstonsGirl

DrillSergeantCat said:

You said the builder made the holes, if your house is brick and those holes are in the first row of brick above the foundation, those are weep holes and need to stay open. Good luck.

Nope, just some cracks in the drywall.  Filled everything last night and started putting up the organization shelving.  

I didn't even want to put the cars back in last night, cos I knew they'd start bringing in dirt again.  :P

DrillSergeantCat

WinstonsGirl said:

DrillSergeantCat said:

You said the builder made the holes, if your house is brick and those holes are in the first row of brick above the foundation, those are weep holes and need to stay open. Good luck.

Nope, just some cracks in the drywall.  Filled everything last night and started putting up the organization shelving.  

I didn't even want to put the cars back in last night, cos I knew they'd start bringing in dirt again.  :P

Gotcha. I used to work for a builder and had a client seal up all their weep holes which caused their house to mold. 

labro

JeeGooDowster said:

I'd like to add that one disadvantage of poison is that these rodents can get stuck in the walls and the decomposing body can definitely stink up the house.

I was just about to add this. Blocking the holes is certainly effective but OMG the smell. My parents had a rat die in the walls of their house one time and it was pretty awful.

OliveOilsMom

We had a pretty bad mouse infestation.  We awoke in the early morning to scratching in the walls.  It was so loud, I thought for sure a raccoon had gotten into the attic!  Mice like to go between the attic and the basement, as they outgrow their space, the just move up or down and repeat.

Thankfully, we never had a smell come from the walls after the exterminator did his job.  The poison used was an anti-coagulant, so when they shrink their bodies, they give themselves bruises and the anti-coagulant caused them to bleed to death since their bruises would not heal.  The stuff worked! 

We were also able to figure out where they were coming in from, we stuff that area with steel wool and then the expandable foam.  The mice will scratch through the foam, but not the steel wool.  They were also walking in between the insulation and the floor boards of the first floor.  So we removed that piece of insulation - DISGUSTING!!!! And then used spray foam to insulate that portion, so they could no longer use it as a walk way.

We also used the human traps that would flip up and not allow them to escape.  You could not re-use the traps.  I believe they were Ortho brand.  Make sure you place them along the walls as that is how mice will run around.  They will rarely run across a room, instead keeping to the side walls to get to where they were going.

Good luck!