What is The Best Way To Get Rid of Mice

[James S]

the DDT thing was way over blown.

http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm

I am very much of an environmentalist. But to see people mis-represent the science and therefore cause millions of preventable deaths from malaria bothers me. There was one study which showed it caused problems for quale eggs, and many studies that showed it caused no problems at all. There was never a statistically significant link to cancer at a dose within several decimal points of what even the people doing the spraying were exposed to.

But it was causing a population problem around the world, so many children were not dying of malaria...

Lots of good details at that website above. And all of them footnoted so if you like you can look up the original source and judge it's truthfulness and source for yourself.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not advocating the widespread use of pesticides in any way. I would rather have my food from organic sources, and when they are available and when I can aford it I do. But contrary to the hype, DDT and similar things are not immenatizing the eschalon

I just hate to be lied to and emotionally manipulated.

Oh wait, so dead mice with poison in them was the topic. Yes, well, around here there are no more big predators anyway so it's not likely to be a problem. If you are in a place where your own animals or others might pick up the dead mouse you can use whats called a "multi feed bait" This will not kill quickly and can take several feedings. But that also means that moving that dose up to a larger animal will not result in a toxic dose. (Unless you kill your entire mouse population at once and they find and eat the whole pile of them) The first that comes up in a web search is one called DITRAC, but I'm sure there are others.

 

[mindcrime]

How do you get rid of mice?

I bought a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet. No more mice!!!

 

[Wits' End]

Originally posted by mindcrime:
How do you get rid of mice?

I bought a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet. No more mice!!!

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[dano]

Seriously...If you can, goto the Pound and get a cat with a really high prey drive...I.E. a wacky cat that chases, stalks and kills everything it sees. The mice will disappear.

I had a cat when I was growing up that was like living with a Leopard. He was huge for a cat (about 20 pounds) and wasn't fat, he was all legs and muscle, and after I got him from a neighbor, a really bad mouse problem we had during the winter disappeared.

I think he might have been a Bobcat/Domestic Tabby hybrid (a cat equivalent to a wolf-dog), and would bring home rabbits, rats, etc as "trophies." He was very sweet to the family, but would stalk and try to kill anything else that moved...

Unfortunately, I think he was a bit too wild and was lost...

--dan

 

[Sigman]

Interesting brief on "Mouse Control".

 

[James S]

I was working in my basement office one day when we lived in Wisconsin and saw my cat behaving strangely. When I turned to look she had a little field mouse by the scruff of the neck. Having performed her biological imperative of stalking and catching it she didn't seem to have any desire to eat it (as she is rather well fed) and had never encountered one before. So she gave it to me.

I was unwilling to kill the thing and it looked at me with it's cute little beady eyes and it had suffered only slightly from being carried around by the cat. So I took him down the street to the nearest park and set him free.

I never did find out how he got in, and I never saw another one. The point being, yes your cat can catch them, but you don't want the cat eating them as they probably have parasites and would not be good to eat! But also, any house in an area with field mice, no matter how tightly sealed will eventually get explored by a mouse. There are a LOT of field mice out there looking for a way in.

Now, somebody ask me about the bat that I found sitting next to me in this house last summer!

 

[James S]

Sigman, a quote from the article you link to:

"'A few tools will make the job of excluding mice easier. A flash-light is essential for illuminating dark areas"

LOL, so we've got that much covered at least

 

[Magichunter]

How do you keep mice out of an RV

Within one month I will be closing up my RV for the season. I've been using ultrasonic pest repellants with great success...but these work off AC and soon AC power to the park will be shut off too.

Tried bay leafs, mouse traps etc and they don't work at all. Can't find any battery operated devices that can work for the long haul.

Any suggestions???

 

[raggie33]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

a small sign helps for the polite mice but use simple words they are awe full readers.a course dont have any water or food in there.and seall the holes ya have if ya can

 

[matrixshaman]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

Put D-Con near the inside of the tires. If enough of them eat it there won't be any left to bother your RV. You might also be able to power your ultrasonic pest device with a 12volt DC-DC converter and a small solar cell to keep the battery charged.

 

[TedTheLed]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

don't use poison. it's bad for the environment and kills other animals up the food chain. seeing a bobcat die of poison is ugly.
seal up the place, remove all food and nesting material; sheets blankets, towels, paper towels, toilet paper etc..
maybe you could keep a cat in there? or a ferret? that would do the trick for sure.
there are devices that capture multiple mice alive, but that's cruel if you don't release them eventually. alternately there's a water bucket rig that can drown many, but how cruel is that? you could put bleach in the water to keep the smell down maybe..at least that would be better than poison.

 

[LukeA]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

Keep the RV moving like in the movie Speed!

 

[BIGIRON]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

If the ultra sonic repellers are working, keep'em working with a solar cell, dedicated storage battery and inverter. The draw should be so light it would work forever.

edit - I'm interested in the make, model, etc of the repellers? And source.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

+1 for the cat. Just give it some water and leave it to eat the mice. Make sure you give it the shots it needs. You don't want to return to your R.V. to find a rabid cat.

 

[Sinjz]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

Do those ultrasonic things actually work? Which ones are you using? :thinking:

 

[HarryN]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

I cannot speak for mice, but I have had some luck with keeping ants away using a line of liquid tide concentrate. I didn't expect this, but it seems that tide works better than some other brands, even the industrial detergents, indicating that smell is a major factor.

I too am impressed that an ultra sonic pest system actually works.

 

[BenjiBot]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

You need to seal their exit/entry points, which might be a big job on an RV. If you can get a pencil through a gap, that's usually big enough for a mouse to get in. Use wire wool as they cant't chew through it, and consider smearing a bit of toothpaste near the site – they hate that stuff. Traps probably will work, but it takes time. If you introduce an object in to a mouse run, they will usually ignore it for up to two weeks. Once they get used to it being part of their environment they may start to investigate closer...

Never had any joy with the sonic devices myself.

 

[Sigman]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

Anyone ever hear of spreading fabric softener sheets around as a deterrent? We've got a friend who swears by this method.

A little WWW searching renders this:

Journal of Toxicology &Environmental Health, Part A, 60:124-136, 2000.
Respiratory toxicity of fabric softener emissions.
Rosalind Anderson Ph.D. & Julius Anderson M.D.-Ph.D.

Under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, we exposed groups of laboratory mice to air containing the fumes released by several types of fabric softener pads.

The mice exposed to these fumes showed irritation of eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. Some developed severe asthma-like attacks.The data demonstate that some fabric softener pads release toxic(poisonous) chemicals into the air. A tee-shirt dried once with a fabric softener also released toxic chemicals as demonstrated by our mice.

 

[bitslammer]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

Find the entry points and seal them. Traps work but you have to place them in a path where the mice run. As the directions say mice very often run along walls as a means of navigating in the dark. They also don't like running out into the open which exposes them to predators.

I had a 50lb. bag of grass seed in my shed get munched and strewn all over by some mice. First step was the clean/sweep up real good. Second was to put that seed in an aluminum pail with tight lid. Third was to place a couple pieces of 2" wide PVC pipe down. Made them just 12 inches long. Mice love to scurry into these as they provide "safety." Then I put the traps very close to the end; maybe 4-5 inches next to opening. They seem to do the trick working as mice magnets. It also allows me to "direct" them to the traps.

Caught about a dozen or so who must have enjoyed the seed and haven't seen one since. I'm sure one comes along to investigate from time to time but with no food they don't stay.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: How do you keep mice out of an RV

sticky traps work good as long as it is warm enough. We had 6 rats that wouldn't take any regular bait on traps and I got 8 sticky traps and caught all of the rats but one which was poisoned and we had tons of flies for about a week when I guess it died under the house somewhere. The traps also catch roaches too