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Mouse (or mice) in my kitchen!! — Brooklynian

Mouse (or mice) in my kitchen!!

cheflady
cheflady
edited November -1 in Park Slope
Last week we saw the guy creepin on the floor. So I patched up his hole. Now he's poopin' all over the counter every night. Previously we did not see any sign of him on the counter until recently.

I'm appalled about having mice poop where I fix my sandwiches - that is totally disgusting.

Please tell me what you have done to get rid of mice (besides the obvious snap trap, which I'm getting closer to accepting as his fate) and anything else you know about mice sneaking around my kitchen at night.

:twisted:
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Comments

  • seven24
    seven24
    didja know that mice involuntaraly pee as they move so they can easily find their trail...ill!
  • steve
    steve
    The one time I had mice the thing that fixed the problem was having the super come in and patch every, and I mean every single gap in the floorboards and behind the sink and so on.
  • cheflady
    cheflady
    We have called our landlord several times and have written him letters - with NO response whatsoever.
    That perhaps is the most annoying part, when your attempts to fix problems in their real estate and they completely ignore you. It makes me want to say, "Fine then. I"ll let the fridge leak all over the hardwood floors and into the downstairs apartment. Fine then...I'll let your building become infested with mice breeding in the walls. Fine then...."
  • caaahyoko
    caaahyoko
    Glue traps never fail me. :twisted:
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    Path the holes with steel wool and/or a mix of plaster and ground glass. Then get a cat or two.
  • erikka
    erikka
    Wanna borrow a cat? I'm sure fostering a cat for a couple weeks would help clear them out AND would help a cat in need of a home (foster or otherwise). BUT, on the flip side, you'll find dead mice.

    Check your foundation and look for cracks or crevices they can enter. Don't keep any foot in plastic bags or materials they can chew through. Try using one of those ultrasonic repellants.

    http://www.pestproducts.com/rodent_removal.htm#Repellents
  • quijibo
    quijibo
    with the weather getting cooler. a lot of them there varmints are
    gonna try and find shelter and food in our homes

    what i've used in the past that worked were the humane traps
    the green plastic ones that you dab some peanut butter on the
    inside of the trap and when the mouse goes in for his PBJ sandwich
    —he can't come back out.

    the problem then lies in what to do with a green plastic box with a live
    mouse wriggling around inside :-k

    maybe. you should just get a cat...
  • quijibo
    quijibo
    erikka wrote: Wanna borrow a cat? I'm sure fostering a cat for a couple weeks would help clear them out AND would help a cat in need of a home (foster or otherwise). BUT, on the flip side, you'll find dead mice.

    Check your foundation and look for cracks or crevices they can enter. Don't keep any foot in plastic bags or materials they can chew through. Try using one of those ultrasonic repellants.

    http://www.pestproducts.com/rodent_removal.htm#Repellents
    everything i hear about the ultrasonic repellents is that they don't work.

    as you said. get a cat...
  • cheflady
    cheflady
    I like your thinking, people.

    Another delimma I failed to mention: Both me and my boyfriend are allergic to cats, and both hate them (sorry cat lovers).

    We have considered the idea of a humane trap. A friend suggested that it would need to be taken 10 miles away, otherwise it would find its way back. Which I find both disturbing and hilarious all at the same time. This is an option - not the first choice, but however, it is an option.
  • sweet tea
    sweet tea
    cheflady wrote:

    Another delimma I failed to mention: Both me and my boyfriend are allergic to cats, and both hate them (sorry cat lovers).
    how about a nice snake then?
  • cheflady
    cheflady
    Oh Hell No!!
  • quijibo
    quijibo
    if you're allergic to cats, perhaps one of these guys would do the trick. for a mere $3,950

    image

    http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2537618
  • 8thandprez
    8thandprez
    Funny you should mention this... My building has a sign-up list for extermination service and this week's list has a lot more people than usual, all of whom have mice. I wonder if there's a neighborhood-wide infestation happening.

    Luckily, we have 2 cats and therefore no mice. Even the roaches are given a run for their money.
  • erikka
    erikka
    cheflady wrote: I like your thinking, people.

    Another delimma I failed to mention: Both me and my boyfriend are allergic to cats, and both hate them (sorry cat lovers).

    We have considered the idea of a humane trap. A friend suggested that it would need to be taken 10 miles away, otherwise it would find its way back. Which I find both disturbing and hilarious all at the same time. This is an option - not the first choice, but however, it is an option.
    Maybe you could confine the cat to the kitchen to help with the allergy problem? Mice usually come out at night and he's primarily in the kitchen (looking for food).

    Those human traps are pretty crummy--when I was a kid we used them for small rodents in the garage. It only took a week or two before they figured the trap out and avoided it. Plus, TEN MILES for a mouse?!?!
  • anonymous
    anonymous
    I got a cat. After trying everything in the book-plugging up holes, glue traps, humane traps, spreading stuff everywhere, I decided I never wanted to see another mosue again. there has been a cat in this house for 16 years now-and, have never seen another mouse.
  • anonymous
    anonymous
    Oh-just saw that you are allergic and hate cats! oh well-enjoy the mice!
  • jjb
    jjb
    Go to Pintchik and get a Rat Zapper. It's a long, narrow battery-powered box that's open at one end and has a metal plate built into the bottom of it. You place some food (the thing comes with a little bag of dog kibble to use as bait) at the closed end of the Zapper, and when the mouse walks into the open end and over the metal plate to get the food, it gets electrocuted. Sounds gross, but it's much less messy—and more effective—than a snap trap, and far more humane than a glue trap. This is foul, but I recently had a mouse infestation and caught 11 mice in this contraption. The guy who owns Pintchik swears by it.

    Of course, you will still need to pull out your appliances, check the backs of your cupboards, etc., and plug any holes you find. I found holes/cracks all over the place in my kitchen—several behind the stove and the refrigerator, and a huge hole behind the kitchen radiator, which my landlord had to de-attach and move so we could plug the hole. Such a delightful way to spend an afternoon ...
  • pitu
    pitu
    I just finished reading an almost identical thread to this one, with a few additional bits of helpful info . . .

    http://brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2006/10/nibble_nibble_l.html

    I agree the plug-in ultrasonic mouse thingees are useless....
    I've had okay luck with peppermint oil in the past, but you really have to keep renewing it.
    house smells nice too
  • rose
    rose
    I was going to point you to the Brownstoner thread too. It seems like a lot of people are having trouble with mice. We had some terrible infestations in years past. I started out with humane traps (releasing the beasties in the park) but I was only catching a mouse or two per week and it really didn't make much difference. Putting out lots of snap traps was more effective -- put two or three in every area where you see mouse poop. I think glue traps are cruel but the snap traps aren't always instant kill either.

    Right now I have three young cats and am hoping that will discourage the mice from even coming in this winter. My husband saw a stray cat catch a mouse in our backyard this morning -- so, even if you hate cats, be nice to the strays.
  • seven24
    seven24
    there is a huge mouse infestation going on in park slope
    because of all the construction goin' on....damn condos
  • apollonia666
    apollonia666
    seven24 wrote: there is a huge mouse infestation going on in park slope
    because of all the construction goin' on....damn condos
    I was just going to bring that up! Mice and rats often crop up when construction is going on -- they get displaced when old buildings are torn down or vacant lots are dug up and head into the buildings nearby. So if you're near a construction site, that might 'splain why your place is being infested.
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    You could try squirting fox or wolf urine in the holes then patching them up. They sell it at some plant stores.
  • quijibo
    quijibo
    apollonia666 wrote: I was just going to bring that up! Mice and rats often crop up when construction is going on -- they get displaced when old buildings are torn down or vacant lots are dug up and head into the buildings nearby. So if you're near a construction site, that might 'splain why your place is being infested.
    RATner Must Die!!!!!!!!!!!
    he is making all these poor meesses homeless :cry:
  • raw
    raw

    Subject: Brick 'em

    Join the club. I hate to kill any animals, but it's you against them. I put green poison pellets down (D-Con), but my pet ate them and almost died, while the mice who did eat them, died very slowly, inside the walls, where I could not see them and only smell their teeny, fury, rotting bodies for two weeks straight. I then laid down the traps designed to snap their necks. But the trap only snapped their feet, so I had to take the mouse outside to the brick.

    The best case scenario is catching them live with your hands, throwing them into a paper bag, and strolling a few blocks to set the little mousie free on in front of your neighbor's building. I confess I did this with two mice, who are probably now pooping on my neighbor's counter.
  • brooklynpotter
    brooklynpotter
    this is the time of year rats look for warmer places to come into: our homes.

    you need to plus up the holes and get humane traps.

    glue traps are deeply, deeply inhumane. (i'm not against killing the rodents, but torturing them is gruesome). poison can kill everything including the mice, and snap-traps don't always kill the mice.
  • raw
    raw
    brooklynpotter wrote: this is the time of year rats look for warmer places to come into: our homes.

    you need to plus up the holes and get humane traps.

    glue traps are deeply, deeply inhumane. (i'm not against killing the rodents, but torturing them is gruesome). poison can kill everything including the mice, and snap-traps don't always kill the mice.
    Agreed. After my bad experiences of snap-traps, I will never use them again. What's worse is the glue traps. Do not use glue traps. The are absolutely horrible.

    I currently have this thing plugged into my wall that emits some sort of noise at a frequency mice can absorb, but humans cannot. I have no idea if it's working or not.
  • cheflady
    cheflady
    hey guys -

    here's the latest update:

    i've tried the peppermint on Q-tips and I'm leaving all the lights on. So far so good - no sneaking around of mice. Also, we called the landlord...again! this time we informed him that if action was not taken to plug the holes, etc. that we would call 311 to report a heath code violation. he said he'd have someone here by the weekend.
  • mdgately
    mdgately
    Snap traps baited with a bit of peanut butter - so the little f*cker trips it as it licks it off - have always worked for me. There's a reason no one's invented a better one. They're cheap, easily disposed of, and more humane than glue traps or poisons, since death is instantaneous. It's an unfortunate fact of city life, particularly amid construction sites, and as the weather gets cooler. Be thankful you don't have rats!
  • laura
    laura
    Everyone says the ultrasonic thingabobs don't work, but they seem to for me. I had mice in my old place, and two of my cats caught one each, but after I got one of those boxes they seemed to pack their bags and stay away.

    A few nights ago I heard something scratching and crawling in my ceiling, I plugged in a repeller and all's been quiet. I think they're worth trying ... could help, and can't hurt (unless you've got a pet hamster!).
  • cheflady
    cheflady
    I'm telling you guys - since I put out the pepperming oil Q-tips - NO SIGN WHATSOEVER!!!

    And the kitchen smells terrific!!
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