Eek! Wee beasties in my kitchen
I discovered yesterday that my dog and I are not alone in my apartment. We have a mouse or mice. (Hard to say: it/they move so damn fast!) I saw one standing still; he was very tiny and adorable, but the droppings he leaves are not and I want him and his compadres gone.
BTW, I already have the sealed, airtight containers issue under control.
I can tell it/they are mainly living behind the fridge. I have a mini-fridge to go with my mini-apartment, so it was easy to pull it out and see the little hole that is obviously it/their main point of entry. I'm on a first-floor apt, which according to neighbors means I'm more likely to have mice. It's an old building but the kitchen area is new, and because the floor is sloped, whoever installed the cabinets and counter had to use something like permanent shims to offset the slight slope and make sure the counter and cabinets beneath didn't slope too. Hence, a narrow crack between the floor and base of the counter/cabinet unit, perfect for a mouse to fit in.
First of all, what is the most effective, least horrifying way to get rid of a mouse/mice? I know glue traps are cruel. Effective is my priority here, but horrifying is an issue as is needless cruelty. I have a dog, but he can't get behind the fridge, so if I have to do snap traps or poison, I will. But is there a better way that's still effective?
Also, what responsibility does my landlord/super have here? We have an exterminator once a month and I haven't seen a roach. That's all I know...I'm new to the building and haven't had this issue elsewhere.
Finally, what's the best way to keep the mice from coming back? Family lore (from family that grew up in a teeny Bayside apartment) is that stuffing the cracks with steel wool is a good way to stop mice from coming in. Anyone who of anything newer-fangled than that?
In closing,
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle.
[Because I'd rather use something more modern]
BTW, I already have the sealed, airtight containers issue under control.
I can tell it/they are mainly living behind the fridge. I have a mini-fridge to go with my mini-apartment, so it was easy to pull it out and see the little hole that is obviously it/their main point of entry. I'm on a first-floor apt, which according to neighbors means I'm more likely to have mice. It's an old building but the kitchen area is new, and because the floor is sloped, whoever installed the cabinets and counter had to use something like permanent shims to offset the slight slope and make sure the counter and cabinets beneath didn't slope too. Hence, a narrow crack between the floor and base of the counter/cabinet unit, perfect for a mouse to fit in.
First of all, what is the most effective, least horrifying way to get rid of a mouse/mice? I know glue traps are cruel. Effective is my priority here, but horrifying is an issue as is needless cruelty. I have a dog, but he can't get behind the fridge, so if I have to do snap traps or poison, I will. But is there a better way that's still effective?
Also, what responsibility does my landlord/super have here? We have an exterminator once a month and I haven't seen a roach. That's all I know...I'm new to the building and haven't had this issue elsewhere.
Finally, what's the best way to keep the mice from coming back? Family lore (from family that grew up in a teeny Bayside apartment) is that stuffing the cracks with steel wool is a good way to stop mice from coming in. Anyone who of anything newer-fangled than that?
In closing,
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle.
[Because I'd rather use something more modern]
Comments
-
This worked great for us. Super easy to use and keeps the little buggers alive for whatever you decide to do with them.
http://www.amazon.com/Eaton-421CL-Multiple-Catch-Mouse/dp/B000WZ4KO0/ref=pd_bxgy_k_img_c -
Steel wool is good, but use a lot. You can buy it by the roll which is huge and useful.
For traps, I'm a fan of the Victor brand mouse zapper, as I call it. I can elaborate on its benefits if you like, but I and many friends find it to be the most humane while being effective. Found in many hardware stores. I have a cheaper version of this:
http://www.victorpest.com/store/rodent-control/m250pro -
The best solution I've found:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/huntergather/3947306345/ -
pleeeeeeeeeeeese for the sake of your apartment mates and neighbors, don't get any of those trap and release things. They'll just go and torment another person, breed and double the problem. This is a pestilence, not a pet.. they spread germs, virus and disease.
Use steel wool, and a mouse zapper. Buy a good one, don't skip with the price, as quality will last you a long time and many zappings. Then deduct the zapper's expense from your rent bill, let the landlord know the problem too. -
If you get a zapper, I suggest putting the bate in and leaving it in place for a day without turning it on, to get them used to it.
-
the humane trap I suggested is then submerged in water to drown them. :-'
-
Yes -- to reiterate. You definitely need to fill all cracks with steel wool... down to a 1/4 inch i hear those little bastards can get through. If you have steam or hot water radiators -- take a look at the hole in the floor where the pipe goes and fill it up!
When I went to fill my cracks and holes (oh my!), the 99 cent stores in my immediate area were out of steal wool, so I actually ended up using steel scrubby pads that I unraveled. That worked too, but a little pricey. (I was lazy and didn't want to leave my street)
10,000 snap traps baited with whatever you'd like (i've heard gum drops are very effective), placed perpendicular to the wall. Bait end against the wall. Cheap wooden ones are the way to go, then you just throw the whole trap away... metal trigger traps are better than the plastic triggers.
Then... LOTS and LOTS of poison. Sprinkle it liberally. The little bastards don't like to climb into the plastic cups... but they can't resist the tasty pellets!
Then the nasty droppings will start to turn green. That's how you know they are being poisoned! It's fairly satisfying. -
When I had a mouse problem in my apartment they were coming from a hole behind the stove...the super sealed it up and the mice went away
-
The hypocrites at PETA have a lot of people brainwashed. Mice are vermin. They do not deserve special consideration. People have become too squeamish and too sensitive to kill disease carrying vermin. They aren't Mickey. They are filthy mice!
I have been currently dealing with a reinfestation of my bird room due to cracked floorboard caulking (to be addressed shortly). I use glue traps and snap traps baited with the following attractant:
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/provoke-mouse-attractant-p-420.html
Experienced mice who normally avoid traps will jump right in with a dollop of this green goo placed in the middle of a glue trap. Much more effective than the peanut butter and chocolate routine.
Place caught mouse on glue trap in a plastic bag (be careful the nasty things can bite), place bag on floor, stomp and discard. They won't suffer unnecessarily after a good stomping.
I've caught five mice so far, including one so fat from feasting on bird seeds that he could barely fit thru the one half inch bar spacing (they can normally fit thru one quarter inch spaces). It was comical to watch him struggling to get out of the cage with his rippling rolls of fat. (Maybe he had the obese gene?)
Don't use poison. I've had mice die in the walls and stink for weeks. Uncool. -
Also poison is not good for pets, and wild animals (for instance poison a pigeon, it falls to the ground, get eaten by a feral cat= cat dies. Not OK)
-
agreed^^ poison can lead to some stinky situations, and if you have a pet or small children it might not be safe.
I like the zapper better than the glue traps b/c it works better and there's not a wriggling little rodent tempting my dog to get the trap stuck on his face and I don't have to try to pick up said wriggling mouse with trap to dispose of it. You just open the lid on the zapper and dump it out. -
I will rent you the best damn mouse trap ever. It's about time she earns her keep - especially when mama is unemployed
(she waited patiently for over 6 weeks stalking 3 mice in my last apartment. Of course, she jumped on me when I was sleeping and dropped them on my belly because she loves me and wanted to bring me a present)
-
My cat was a good mouser too...but I kept being woken up everytime he caught a mouse...I liked sealing the hole in the wall better :-)
-
the snap traps aren't cruel they are the quickest way to kill them. the glue traps are cruel.
move the fridge and see if there are holes and tell your LL about it. he could filled the holes etc....
I have two types of tenants. one would tell me everything and do everything other type wouldn't tell me anything at all.
Like i would change all the light bulbs etc.. in the rooms
.
other ones would have fallen apart stuff wouldn't tell me till i inspect the apartment. I rather be told than not. I'll fix it there and no charges etc... it makes for good tenants. -
my landlord put town some of those blue gel baits (they look like silica gel packets but are solid, they dont have pellets, and they're blue.) You can tell when they've eaten them bc there are little bitemarks. We threw them under the fridge and I havnt seen evidence of a mouse since.
-
Steel wool that hole! Personally, I'd see if that works before putting down traps or anything. But, I'm also not into killing/trapping them. But, I also have cats who do the dirty work of killing unwanted animals/insects.
-
The zapper is the cadillac of mouse traps, agreed. But mine only takes out one at a time, and you have to open it up to check it. I needed a blitz and the glue traps and mouse attractant worked best for that application. Shock and awe in the mouse kingdom.. :twisted:
-
During my old Siamese's 16 years in my apartment, he must have killed hundreds of mice. He would eat the head and leave the rest for me in the same spot on the hallway floor each morning.
I miss you, X. Best cat I ever had.
pit bull useless as a mouser. She killed a rat in Prospect Park once. -
Best thing is steel wool (the coarse grade) in any and all openings you can think of (the last one I finally got around to doing was where the gas line comes into the apartment to go into the stove...I believe I have finally mouse-proofed my apartment...for now...until they find another way in).
IMHO poison is no good, there's the "dead thing in the wall" problem other people have mentioned, and there is also sometimes the horrible "dying a slow painful death while squeaking" problem, usually way under a cabinet in the middle of the night.
Of the wooden traps, the Victor brand seems to catch them when some other no-name brands don't. I will usually spritz the latch mechanism with a little WD40 or some other lubricant to try to make it a bit more "hair trigger". I have tried all the other various traps and it seems like once in a while there is a mouse on the loose that just is un-catchable until I try a different brand/type of trap. I have a few different kinds of traps that I'm convinced just don't work, and I have some 'standbys" like the victor and the black plastic DeCon "no view" snap trap that have worked like a charm over and over again.
It's not like I have a serious infestation, I just absolutely despise the little fuckers. If I think there's one in my apartment, it is world war 3 until the deed is done. Some of them are either really smart or really lucky. But I have opposable thumbs and grim determination.
oh, I have also had good luck with a product called "ShakeAway" which is like powdered bobcat urine or something. It really works (until the stink wears off, which seems to be about a season). -
I went to Tarzian and the manager, who used to be an exterminator, gave me very detailed instructions for an "exclude and exterminate" stragegy involving steel wool and then this expanding foam stuff that fills gaps, and snap traps (which he showed me how to set.)
He told me to first stuff with steel wool and 2nd fill gaps with foam stuff.
Fortunately I did that experiment behind the oven first. I am not an expanding foam expert, and trying to aim it while cramped into the teeny tiny space behind my oven (there were had major crevices between floor and oven base) was a rather messy enterprise. The gap is filled, but even though I got the stuff that only expands up to one inch, it looks pretty ugly back there. I don't know that it's an experiment I want to repeat. I will, however, stuff remaining cracks with steel wool.
I'm going away for 3 days and I'm going to set the traps for while I'm gone. The Tarzian guy (Joe) said that a mice aren't scared of seeing other mice dead, so I should be able to catch several over the days. He also said there should not be much of a smell in such a short time. My plan is to invite someone of strong stomach to join me when I re-enter, just for company.
The whole trap aspect of the plan HORRIFIES me. Because it is gruesome, not because it is cruel. Anything that will result in a dead mouse freaks me out. And how do I know they won't stink? I may chicken out on the traps; I don't know yet. This is all very horrible. If only I weren't allergic to cats I'd definitely invite one over to hang out, but alas. -
fear not.
once dry, the expanding foam can be cut to be more attractive with a utility knife. -
Les jeux sont faits. Six of them, to be precise. Never have I felt so ghoulishly empowered as when I left my dog (see avatar) lick the remaining Skippy off my fingertips.
I will report back in due time.
PS, Landlord, apparently you're not alone. I told my super (left him a note with a diagram of where I'd seen and mice) AND got traps, etc. Several other tenants who also have mouse stories haven't told him a thing.
PPS, to the guy at Tarzian - NOT the manager Joe, who especially if this works is my BFF for E (that's a new type of BFF: forever); the guy I'm addressing was a passing helpful(?) stranger - who told me that the best way was glue traps and then pouring boiling water on the little beasts: Sir, some things are best not said in mixed company. And by mixed, I mean when you are mixing yourself with other people.
___________
And Brooklyinians say that the great mousetrap is the enemy of the mouse. -
UPDATE: I killed three. With Victor mouse traps. Then I disposed of them. One of them bled out disgustingly and stuck to the floor and I had to do some serious Lysol-with-Bleaching. I feel powerful.
As the old proverb says,
'Kill a man a mouse and he eats for a day. Teach a man to kill mice and he eats for a lifetime.' -
what abt those traps they walk into and can't walk out? you know, denial that you're actually killing anything (not a mice or peta fan, nor am i a cruelty fan. )
-
brooklynpotter wrote: what abt those traps they walk into and can't walk out? you know, denial that you're actually killing anything (not a mice or peta fan, nor am i a cruelty fan. )
i HATED killing them! they're adorable.
but i also hated having them in my apartment. and they're vermin. and i have to either feel empowered because i was able to do it or disgusted and unable to do it again.
to be honest, the task of transporting a live mouse caught in one of those the humane traps is probably beyond me. what if it wouldn't run away when i opened the door? what if it RAN TOWARDS ME INSTEAD?! and by run i mean scurry.
to continue with my frantic attempt to justify taking the lives of three mammals - MAMMALS! ACTUAL FOUR-CHAMBERED-HEART-HAVING MAMMALS! O GOD! - i considered various types of traps and ruled out glue traps on grounds of cruelty, even though apparently they're the most effective. i'm allergic to cats so i couldn't accept my neighbor's offer to lend me hers. given the options, i don't think the snap traps were especially cruel. it looked like an instant death type of situation. remember why the french invented the guillotine? it was to replace the axe for beheadings, because sometimes the executioner would swing wrong or too weakly and...well, you can guess the rest. yes, i know they overused the guillotine and the sans culottes eventually turned on themselves and killed robespierre and the monarchy was reestablished for a time, but i guess i'm willing to adopt a wait-and-see attitude vis a vis any kind of parallel situation (a mouse empire, i'm thinking) that could happen in my apartment. -
i don't mean the humane traps they walk into, i mean the dcon kind that's like a little mouse house that they walk into and then die in
-
oh. word is that those are less effective. maybe they'ere less tempting than what appears to mousey eyes to be unguarded peanut butter lying out in the open.
-
It's a shame you are allergic to cats, many many years ago we had unwelcome guests also, drove our dog nuts.
We had exterminators, all sorts of traps (glue, snap, humane), closed up every hole we could find in life, and we still had unwelcome guests. The cat did it though, now, we will never live without a cat, ever. Too bad they don't make "scent of cat' spray or something like that for you to spritz around your apartment. Almost worth adopting a cat and getting shots or taking meds until you aren't allergic anymore -
I can give you a life-size picture of Stella :-)
-
LongTimeSloper wrote: It's a shame you are allergic to cats, many many years ago we had unwelcome guests also, drove our dog nuts.
wow, my dog doesn't seem to care. i'm thinking of firing him.
Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 40K All Categories
- 27.1K Neighborhoods
- 5.1K Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens
- 7.1K Prospect Heights
- 2.3K Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy
- 8K Park Slope
- 549 Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- 442 Flatbush/Midwood/Ditmas Park
- 657 BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens)
- 151 Red Hook
- 104 Gowanus
- 304 Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst
- 130 Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay
- 270 Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Downtown
- 598 Windsor Terrace / Kensington
- 673 Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park
- 749 Brooklyn and Beyond
- 6.3K Stuff
- 86 Brooklyn Back When
- 1.2K Brooklyn Pets
- 257 Brooklyn Kids
- 241 Brooklyn Eats
- 51 Brooklyn Booze
- 3.6K The Lounge / Random Stuff
- 611 Brooklyn Politics
- 122 Brooklyn Sports and Fitness
- 111 Brooklyn Photos
- 339 Site Issues
- 8 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- 6.2K Listings
- 1.1K APARTMENTS and REAL ESTATE
- 1.3K Sales Openings Events
- 2.3K The Classifieds