Mice in attic

[DLausche]

Figured out the other day that we have mice in our home attic and garage attic. House is fairly new (97) and I haven't yet figured out how they got up there. What's the best way to get rid of em? I've started with the rat/mice poison in the garage attic and I can see they have knawed on those bars quite a bit in just a few days. Up in the house attic, there are little "holes" all over on the blown-in fiberglass insulation so I know they are up there too. I figure poison will get rid of them up there too. Do those ultrasonic pest control thingys work well? Will it work in an attic with lots of sound-deadening insulation?



Thoughts & suggestions appreciated.



-Deon

 

[jtisdale]

Dont use poison. They will eat it up, crawl off somewhere and die, then STINK.

Traps work good, if you bait them with peanut butter, but that gets to be a lot of work.

Personally, I would go to the local pet store and buy two cats and turn them loose in the attic.

(When you want to git rid of the cats, I know the secret to that too)



Or you could just throw a bunch of moth balls up there. Mice dont like the smell of moth balls.

 

[BNH4221]

If you use traps, make sure they are secured to something. I have had mice get their tail caught in a trap then drag the sucker off and die in a wall. You are right, jtisdale, they STINK.



I like the glue traps because you can throw them away with the mouse right on it. Don't have to touch the critter who has god knows what disease.



I had mice in my shed and they got into some power equipment last year. Using mothballs this winter and no mice yet... .





Steve

 

[DLausche]

What you say about the poison and them stinking once they die makes good sense. I went back and removed all of the poison and put out some moth balls. Also got a 3 pack of those electronic pest repellers and pluged them in up in the attic. I suppose though that I will have some dead mice up there since the poison was out for a day or two. Maybe since it is cold and very dry this time of year the stink might not be bad or noticeable. Guess I'll have to wait and see at this point. Thanks for the replies.



-Deon

 

[TheWolf]

the peanut butter on a trap works great, it has worked all 3 times i have tried it. each time within 2 days of knowing i had a mouse around.





i seen somewhere that either wintergreen oil or peppermint oil keeps them away , something about them being allergic to it or irritates the skin? could probably get some cotton balls and soak them in the oils used to make hard-tack candy.

 

[The patriot]

You probibally dont want to put it in the attic...buy

I've heard that dried fox urine will stop them from coming in, if you find the little critters entry point.

If they think a fox in in the area they'll stay away, it's one of their natural enemies.

Eric

 

[trucknut]

Cats -Food- Mice

One caution if you do get cats. Keep the cat food out of reach of the mice. At my place of work the cat food was the main source of food for the mice.

Steel wool works well to block any small acesss holes. I also heard raisins work well for baiting mice traps. If you do use raisins I'd sure like to know if it works. Good luck.

 

[Sled Puller]

Don't feed the Cats, then they won't hun the mice!





Glue traps and my favorite toy- the "Rat Zapper!"





It looks simliar to a "Havaheart" trap with one major difference- it electrocutes the little buggers.



Sort of like a bug zapper for rodents... sweeeeet!

 

[daveshoe]

Better Mousetrap

That's what it is really called. I bought mine at target. They are made by Intruder companyand are super easy to set and are sensitive enough to catch even the small ones. Ordinary wood and wire traps draw blood and cannot be reused for long--the smell of death I guess. These[plastic traps] do not draw blood and can catch many mice as long as you do not allow them to get ''ripe''. I also like to use small amounts of poison right in front of the traps as an indicator of feeding activity. It seems to make the mice ''stupid'' and easier to trap.

A search on the web for this trap should locate it. That's where I found mine.

Judging by the evidence you found,I would say you will catch at least twenty. When you live next to a corn field in an old farm house, you finally learn what works

 

[DLausche]

Mice not digging mouse traps

OK, been 3 days now and not one has been caught on the two traps I set up in the attic.



Used 2 of these traps. http://www.lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=5320



Bait is peanut butter. Saw one mouse when cleaning out wall where they were nesting, but none since then. Don't really believe that there was only one up there.



Do these "Tip Traps" work well, or should I go look for one of those larger "Zapper" traps?



It's hard to tell if they might have left the premises or not.



-Deon

 

[TheWolf]

ok, might not work in the attic, but make sure there is no other food for them to get lying around for them to eat so they have to try the food on the trap. If they are in you attic I am sure they can get to the kitchen or pantry also. Make sure food is kept sealed and put away, nothing left out for them to feed on.

 

[AKAMAC]

I'm going to push the PETA envelope here.

Get the old style spring clamp trap.

Adjust the release of hold bar using a tongue depressor or something other than your finger.

Rub the wood base with olive oil, bait with peanut butter, then place traps where you have seen droppings.

Be sure to stake traps because you may lose the hole enchilada if the kill is not clean.

More is better, lots of traps = lots of bait.

 

[jtisdale]

Originally posted by AKAMAC

I'm going to push the PETA envelope here.

You know what that stands for right? Around here it means...

People Eating Tasty Animals

 

[kaffine krazed]

Originally posted by jtisdale

You know what that stands for right? Around here it means...

People Eating Tasty Animals

I don't know I don't think mice would taste good even if mairinated in olive oil and peanutbutter Maybe it's just me.



My prefered method is getting cats that know how to hunt.

 

[lschultz]

Try these http://www.bugspray.com/ look under mouse control

http://www.epestsupply.com/pest_information.htm under Rats & Mice

 

[TPCDrafting]

I got a pair of barn cats about a year ago. They wiped out all the mice, ground squirrels and many birds. We feed them well too!

Side affects have been using an automatic feeder in the barn has drawn in 2 skunks and 3 stray cats. I live trapped the first skunk and hauled it off, it sprayed me when I realeased it. 2nd skunk got a 22 in the head, sprayed me again. Can't shoot the stray cats as I can't seem to scare them off the hay pile and don't want scattered cat parts on my hay. Major side affect is I can't keep the cats off my vehicles. I've tried verbal, gentle physical removal and broom sticking them into next week to keep them off and they don't seem to get it. Any ideas? Maybe DL needs to borrow my cats...

 

[jtisdale]

Try shorting out an extension cord through your vehicles body. Cats jump on and BANG!!! Instant smoke... kitty a la flambeau. Although, it might be a little hard on the vehicles electronics... maybe it isnt such a good idea.

 

[TPCDrafting]

yeah, I've been thinking on that one for a while too. But then I figured I'd just zap myself everytime I forgot to unplug before jumping in. Then I got to thinkin about a shock collar system with the other end attached to the car so when they jumped on it would shock the bajeebers out of them. We have one for obedience training the dog, maybe I could rig it onto the cat! I know, maybe a sensitive car alarm so everytime I hear it go off I can hit the shock button on my wireless remote. hhhhmmmm.

 

[me4osu]

I get mice in my attic sometimes. Best thing is a tin cat loaded with some peanut butter as mentioned above. Even caught three at once with them. The ad says you can release them unharmed; I just drop the thing in a 5 gal bucket of water and drown the little bass turds.



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I had something tearing into my trash bags I keep in the barn until trash day. The wife wanted to use a live trap in case it was someone's pet. So, I put a cage trap out with some chicken bones as bait. Go in the next day and walk right by it, turn around and look, and its a skunk. So, I split a trash bag, held it in front of me and draped it over the trap. Then, I picked it up with my welding gloves and dropped it into a box, dragged the box out into the pasture with a hoe, and blewwey with a #2 steel shot. Didn't get sprayed.

 

[barbwire]

poison

Go back to the decon method. After sampling they (mice) leave the premises and die elsewhere. Old antifreeze works really well also. But you want to make sure nothing "or nobody" can get to it, that you do not want to get at it.