View Full Version : Nothing like mouse poop on kitchen counters to motivate cleaning!
We usually only have mouse problems in our crawl space. But 2 days ago, I started seeing those little things that looked suspiciously like mouse poop on the kitchen counters. :(
DH said no, there's no signs of mice. (But he doesn't notice much).
He eats bread with flax seeds in it, so I thought it was just a few seeds gone awry.
BUT.........the next day I found them all over the counters. YUK!!
Went right out and bought a Tomcat live catch mouse trap. We use the kill traps in the crawl space because we can't check on them all the time. But I figured I could keep my eye on this one in the kitchen. I set it with peanut butter. Got up this morning and the trap was sprung. I picked it up, but if felt empty. I took it out to the edge of the front yard and opened it and out came the cutest little guy! I don't know what kind of mouse it is, but it wasn't the dark field mice we get in the basement. It looked at me confusedly, then ran off.
I'm really impressed with this trap!
Hopefully that was the only one, but I'll reset it again tonight. Hope it won't be the same one finding its way back! I had planned to take it further away, but it was dark out so I opted for something closer.
But.......now I'm on a cleaning mission in the kitchen. Nothing like mouse poop in the kitchen to motivate!!
It is motivating. On two occasions, I could see a pair running but DH used to deny that we had a problem until I found the poop and then he set the trap along the wallboard and caught them within 24 hours.
SteveinMN
10-2-13, 10:58pm
DW found one in our (detached) garage this morning, already dead. I wonder what got to it. Anyway, I had to make sure it was dispatched before her return. Mice are the critters which make DW want to retaliate in a nuclear fashion, so for the sake of the environment and our collective sanity, it was worth taking care of things right away. That garage could use a good decluttering, too. We (okay, I) undoubtedly will make some surprising discoveries when I get to that.
This is one of my top gross out scenarios...
Mrs. Hermit
10-3-13, 8:46am
Definite motivator!
Normally mice don't gross me out too bad but last spring I was moving some wood outside and a fat mama mouse with 15-20 babies clinging to her back ran out from under a log. I did that silly shake from head to toe a person does when their body is shocked with 'ick factor'.
The outdoor cat keeps mice from coming into the house thankfully.
We trap about 20-30+ mice every year in the crawl space. Its disgusting. Plus, in winter I can hear them in the walls. That's dangerous. They did chew the wiring in my golf cart up, so I'm sure they could chew our house wiring up too.
Last year, DH went into the crawl space with a shop vac and sucked up millions of poops. We have a white radon barrier throughout the crawlspace, so at least they were easy to find. Dang they poop ALOT!!
Sure wish we could figure out where they're coming from. We hate killing all these guys, but there's just no living with them.
Can't do the live trap thing down there, since you have to check on those every few hours (if you want to be humane about it).
DH is painting the end of the house that has a large exterior field stone chimney which has a huge vine growing all over it. He had to remove some of the huge woody stems, and found some pretty big holes in the cement between some of the stones. he's patched that........so maybe we'll get lucky and see a decline in the mice this winter.......but I'm not holding my breath. :(
When I lived in Nevada, kangaroo rats used to jump through our pet door to break into the house! I was aware that there was a mouse in the house, but didn't know where it was hiding. One day, I woke up and saw a big blood smear on the kitchen wall...apparently my tenant's cat had done the job. Well, it was that morning that I decided to use the electric stovetop for the first time in a few weeks. I turned on a burner, and POOF! A giant blue arc shot up from the stove, followed by the smell of burnt electricals.
I pulled the breaker switch for the house, and opened the oven. Couldn't see anything. Then I figured out that I could actually pull up the stovetop part of the oven, so I did. Lo and behold, there were about five, bald, wriggling, squeaking, baby mice in there! The mama rat had completely chewed out the wiring and had created an extremely dangerous fire hazard. My relatively new stove was completely trashed and I had to replace it, pronto. The babies, well, I gave them some water and a warm towel to snuggle up in, and put them outside under a bush to let "the circle of life" work itself out with them.
UGH!
Oh Selah, that's awful!! Those guys will live just about anywhere.
I thought we were home free after catching the one mouse. But this morning I found a bunch of poop on the counters again. :(
The trap is set. I sure hope this doesnt' go on very long. I don't want to have to clean the kitchen over and over......
Gardenarian
10-7-13, 6:24pm
We have recently had rodent problems. Trying to deal with them by sealing everything - I hate using traps - but maybe we sealed them in?
Ick.
There are a couple live traps that will hold several mice at once. The thing with live traps, though, is you have to check them often, or they're really tortured.
Its almost impossible to seal all the little holes that they can get into. :(
We usually have a big surge of them when it gets cold. And its getting cold tonight. I will no doubt hear them in the wall. :(
They chewed all the coatings off the wiring to my lights in my golf cart, and it could have caused a fire. I really worry about that in the house.
Gardenarian
10-8-13, 3:33pm
Thanks CathyA, I think we will try the live traps.
Also, moving the worm compost farther away from the house.
I have a compost bucket on our kitchen counter that might attract them, but I don't want to move that 'cause we use it constantly. I think they're going to find their way into a kitchen as long as they're anywhere in a house. One time, I found a big pile of dry dog food in the corner of a closet! They had actually gotten up through a bathroom plumbing access door in that closet. I ruined its fun by reinforcing the cover on the access.
But if you have a pet, they will take their food. I guess you can't blame them.
It also helps to not have bird seed that has fallen from feeders outside close to your house.
My trap wasn't sprung last night, but we did find some poop........although it may have been old stuff. I set a similar trap at the top of our basement stairs, since they come under the door. We're going to put one of those door sweeps on the bottom of that door to hopefully keep them in the basement............and then maybe catch them there.
Gosh, and the cold weather isn't even here yet! Maybe I could set up a little playhouse in the back yard, with heat, and food/water for them? Would they leave us alone then??:~)
I had a rat in my attic a couple of weeks ago. It chewed through my water line causing a leak above the ceiling in my bathroom and closet. I had to get a plumber on a Sunday morning and then called pest control the next day. They checked my attic and found every entry was sealed with wire mesh...except maybe 2 vents on the roof that he couldn't check. I'm waiting for a roofer to do a roof check and see if those pipes are open....I head another rat up there last night.
My concern is the damage they can do to wiring and flexible water lines....
This is getting very frustrating. I have 2 live traps set, but no takers.......BUT...we keep finding small amounts of poop on the kitchen counter, and other places. I have tomatoes and cucumbers on the counter, and they are never bitten. We have crackers and bread (in their wrappers) out, and they are never chewed. No sign of anything being chewed. What are these mice doing, if not after food? I'm getting so tired of this.
Why aren't they using the traps? I do tons of work in the kitchen, and its really getting me down. Yuk.
I'm still whining...........
Two nights ago, I caught one and last night I caught another one. Released them in the woods.
Thought maybe the worst was over...but........no...........
Last night (DS is home for a few days), comes running in my room yelling "There's a mouse on the stove!". We went out and one popped its head up through one of the elements on the stove. DS saw it go down the vent into the oven. Sure enough.........there's poop in the oven too!! I"m so #$%!ing sick of this. I think I've finally convinced DH that we HAVE to do a really thorough search of the house/crawlspace/foundation, etc.
Its just very curious that this started up when he patched the outside chimney.
Just when I thought I had more time on my hands, since the garden was done...........now I have to watch for mice poop, continually wash everything, set traps, check traps. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
Please feel sorry for me! haha
How is mouse patrol going CathyA? I thought about you as I was cleaning our shed which smelled like mice! Yikes- so I have been cleaning with bleach and throwing away all paper, cardboard etc. that they use to nest in. My husband is ready to use dcon, but I'm going to see if there's a better way to deter them. We already have groundhogs under the shed...
I hope your traps have worked.
Thanks for asking nswef! I have to tell you that after we patched a big hole in the floor of our shed, and then set a bunch of scented dryer sheets around in there (and also our deck boxes).......there haven't been any more mice in those places!
As far as the house........I'm happy to say there hasn't been any sign of mice in the house or the basement since we caught the last one several weeks ago. What a relief! We think they were, indeed, coming in through the small holes in the masonry around the outside chimney.
We do set traps in the crawl space and something has been springing the traps and eating the peanut butter......so there is still at least one down there. But that's ALOT better than before.
Good luck with your shed. Really, I'm very impressed with those dryer sheets. I use them in all sorts of places outside, where I don't want the mice. Find the cheapest, smelliest ones you can get.
I have gone to not using boxes to store things anymore, and use plastic containers, since the boxes get all sorts of varmints in them.
Let me know if you use the dryer sheets, and if they work!
Thanks CathyA, I was reading up and lavender is supposed to work as well, peppermint...all better smellls than poison! I'll try the dryer sheet and I have lots of lavender trimmings that I always hate to waste. Now I can give them a try too.
Glad you got rid of the kitchen pals. They are just creepy. I read about TinCat from Victor, they say it is a live trap, but the greenhouse forum suggested just setting it for the winter and the mice eat each other up? Not sure if I want to do that. I just want them gone.
All the cardboard and paper are gone from that shed. Thanks for the advice. I'll try the sheets.
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