Something in the house!

I have some shelves plus a card table loaded with plants that I am wintering over down in the family room in front of a picture window facing north. I don't use the room only to go out the back door. (I am storing boxes and other things there and it is furnished.) Anyhow, I began to discover round holes in some of the plants while watering about 2" round. I figured it must have been the dog and payed no more attention. Then I discovered more dirt tunneled out on several shelves, and some of the plants in bigger pots on the floor had their roots exposed. I went and bought some mouse food (D-Con) and put several packs behind the sofa and in a corner(where the dog could not get to it. Today I went to see if it was gone, and it wasn't touched! I did have a toad digging in my plants early summer, but he disappeared back then. What do I do now??? Doris

Put some of that mouse food down those holes maybe? (Can you shut the door so the dog can't get in that room?)

Them mices (meeses?) CRITTERS will be making nests and making babies in your warm non-wintery house. Good luck!

Theres no one in the holes. They are in various pots. I've poured water in them and swept up the dirt and put it back inside. I haven't looked yet today. I thought mice only came in in the fall! It's so cold outside today or I would go out look and try to see where whatever came in.

No, they won't nest in those holes, they are looking for something to eat in there. They do that to me in the greenhouse...sometimes I get lucky and when I water them I see them dart out one of the bottom holes.

AACK! Dart out of the holes??? I think maybe I'd better start clearing out the plants and taking them down to the basement. Really, though, there don't weem to be any signs of mice unless they go out during the day and move in at night. I wish I knew where they get in!

Hey Shoe, couldn't resist. Reckon a good mean cat would fit down those holes? Or maybe your solution for pesky rabbits is worth a try? "get a ...." LOL

mice can come in around your pipes under your sink area.
To remedy this; take some steel wool and pack around your pipes under each and every sink you have in your house, including the bathrooms. It doesn't take much; just tear off a small piece, pack down in and around your pipes and tear off another small piece of steel wool and continue packing around your pipes until it's packed in there real good. The coarser the steel wool, the better; #3 is good. By the way, if you have an ice maker, don't forget about doing that line as well.Check around the foundation of your home for any small holes and plug them up as well. The steel wool works wonders and no need for poisons in the house
You can then get some of those 'sticky' traps and put around your potted plants and where your pets can't get to them.

This message was edited Jan 23, 2004 5:31 AM

HAH! I hear ya, bob! Cats work wonders, as will various types of explosives.

Coco, we actually have put steel wool around our pipe openings. It works. Sometimes we'd have to also put two or three of those sticky traps around the pipes at the opening and tape them into place. Some of them little boogers would eventually pull the steel wool out but then they'd end up stuck to the sticky traps.

ummm? you know, ummm last summer, ummm a chicken snake got in my house thru the doggy door I guess, or maybe it was in the attic--who knows? but it decided to come out to play in the kitchen one day---I almost wet my pants.....my mom found a snake skin in her knitting bag once....you never know..?

my oldest DD found a grass snake and brought it home, I put it in a tank until her father got home BUT it got out overnight. I still havnt found it yet. I think it might be in the laundry room downstairs and eating those dag gone hump back camel crickets (with the long nasty legs that jump at you) because I havnt seen any this year. I really dont think it got out of the house. Im waiting for spring when it warms up to see if it decides to come out again so I can put his little self back outside

Dravencat, be glad you don't have a coral snake or a pygmy rattler slithering around your house! At least grass snakes are not poisonous :) Not that it makes me WANT them in the house any more than venomous ones, but if I had a choice...

Shoe, LOL! You and the cats...why not a wolverine???!

Butterfly! You behave! (I'm scairt of Wolverines! A friend of mine used to wear boots that were called Wolverine...I even kept my distance them them!)

Sheesh! Now you guys are scaring me! I did go out and check the foundation and where the patio meets the house, there was like a 2 inch round hole. I pushed steel wool in there, crammed it in using a screwdriver. Only thing now, I can't find where the inside hole is because there are built bookhelves on that wall. (What if I trapped something inside the house????)

On a more serious note (but not as much fun), you can buy a product called "pug duct seal". It's a grey putty-like material that's sold in 1 Lb. bars. Plumbers and electricians use it for sealing up holes for pipes and wiring. It's great stuff. It lasts forever and nothing seems to want to chew through it. Since I plugged up every hole in my basement with it, I haven't seen the first mouse. I used to trap 2 or 3 a week during the winter.

Shoe, I AM behavin! You haven't seen me misbehave >;~}

djm...get out the traps. If something is trapped inside it'll wanna eat something. Feed it! (One place I used to live in I had to set spring traps. I set out 10 of them! As I lay down to sleep, my eyes beginning to close, all of a sudden I heard SLAP! I smiled, thought to myself 'got one!'. Thru-out the nite, SLAP! SLAP!, etc. It was very eventful.

OMG! Then how do I get rid of the traps??????? I'm not touching them if there is something in them! That duct putty sounds easier.

HAH!...reckon you might have to get someone else to "unload" them!

A friend of mine has a trap that catches them live, then she takes them up the road aways and turns em loose. Maybe that is more to your liking.

EEEK! put MY hands on a cage to let them loose? I think maybe I will invest in one of those thingys you plug in the wall that is supposed to drive them away.

djm, you just need a good neighbor or friend to come empty the traps. I could handle mouse traps, but not rat traps. We had rats living in the eaves of our house. One AM I woke up and walked out the front door and my pothos plant was stripped almost bare of leaves. They were all stuffed up on top of the brick pillar in the entryway. Then I heard growling--freaked me out! We had no clue what was in there until one night I happened to be walking out the front door exactly as one big brown rat was running down that pillar. I don't know which of us was more scared! You could try putting out mouse poison (if you don't have pets or kids, or could ensure they wouldn't get in the at it). Rat poison worked well--guess it dehydrates the little buggers so they die and don't even smell. There is the issue of little carcasses laying around that you won't be able to get to...but no traps to empty :)

What a horrible experience! And it was eating your plant on top of it! We do have field mice in the fall that try to come in and the dog did catch one, and no more so I thought that was the only one. But now several months later, this!

The first time I saw a rat I couldnt grab that shovel fast enough, I couldnt swing it fast enough either cuz I kept missing him.

heheh...

When I was about nine yrs old, my GrandMother was sweeping out the back room. (the back room was my GrandFather's shop area.) At age 70-something she was swinging that broom back and forth, back and forth, pushing the sawdust and such out the back door when all of a sudden a mouse came across her path. Without missing a swipe she raised her foot, stomped on the mouse, and by the time the mouse was belly up the broom was swooshing it out the door.

I just stood there in amazement, then smiled!

LOL, Dravencat! I could see me doing the exact same thing! I have poor hand/eye coordination (having a cataract in one eye hasn't helped my visual acuity--even after surgery it leaves a little to be desired as you can't focus at all).

LOL I hear ya. When I lived in Ohio with my sister she had a mouse in the house that only bothered me. It would wait till I came in the kitchen barefoot and run across my feet to get to the other side of the kitchen. No one else was bothered or believed me there was a mouse until my sis was in there with me and watched it run across my feet. After the 10th time or so I got used to it but before that I squeeled like a pig and jumped.

I don't think I could handle a mouse running across my feet--no matter how many times it did it!

I really think mice are cute but wild ones don't make good pets. And they like to eat holes in things I don't want holes in. We use the bait/poison you get in farm supply stores called One Bite. You do need to keep it out of the reach of pets tho. It does dehydrate(thins the blood & they bleed to death internally)them so there is little or no smell. By the way, that's the same stuff(Coumadin/Warfarin)used to thin people's blood to prevent blood clots(embolisms). I also use the snap traps. There is one that is black and yellow that lets you empty it without touching the mouse. Kind of pricey, but I like them better. I hate those sticky traps for mice. You can't get one off without injuring it horribly and having to kill it. I do like them tho for insects. The live traps don't require you to put your hand inside to release the mice. Just pull back a sliding top and out they go. I like those too.

*WARNING* This is gonna get gross....On those sticky traps, I have heard that mice and rats will actually chew their feet off to get off the traps.

Yikes! I think its mice! I found a dead mouse down in the family room. At first I thought it was just standing there, alive, and it didn't move as I went slowly down the stairs. I used a dustpan to scoop it up and raced out the door and pitched it over the fence into the neighbors yard! Didn't know what else to do!

All I can say on this one is be very, very careful not to kill you dog. I hate d-con or poison, I would hate for an owl or a hawk to eat a stumbling mose or rat. It causes secondary posioning, so if your dog ate the mouse it would also kill the dog. I'm a animal lover. I just want you to know this. Please use the traps that break their necks; it's fast most of the time unless they get caught by the tail.LOL.Thanks, Jody

I found a second one in the basement. the original d-con I had put down in the family room wasn't touched. I did spray the basement plants rather heavily with plant spray after noticing a few spider mites on one of the plants. I thought maybe that is what did the mice in! No more new holes!

Im sorry djm906, laughing here, you threw it into the neighbors yard?! Oh my I can see you trying to sneak to the fence and tossing that puppy. LOL Im sorry but when I picture these things I cant help myself.

Jody I understand you feelings about the poisons, I would prefer traps myself, but, if I cant catch them this way and they are destroying my home then yes I would use the d-con, and also keep a close eye around my house trying to find any that got out and to close up the spot they got in in the first place.

I have three "indoor" cats and several neighborhood cats that patrol outside. No rats. No mice. No creepy-crawlies. Anything that moves is fair game. And, thank goodness, none of the outside cats have laid "trophies" on my doorstep.

I'd love to see the look on the neighbor's face when they find that dead mouse! LOL.

Probably the neighbor had the same look on his face when he found the dead squirrel I pitched over the fence!

What a scream! I used to pitch some of my pulled-up weeds over the fence. We ought to start a new sport.... Fence Pitching! LOL.

I get such a warm feeling when I share with the neighbors!

All done to promote that warm community spirit....

One of my high school friends always used to put extra cheese and mushrooms on his frozen pizza before cooking.

One day we were waiting for the oven to pre-heat and had left the prepared pizza on the counter. Their cat jumps up and drops a freshly killed mouse on it.

Kinda gives new meaning to, "Extra Special Topping".

Needless to say, we didn't eat pizza that night.

;-)

OMG! Did you sail the pizza over the fence???

LOL! Glad I'm not any of YOUR neighbors. Geesh! Heavens only knows what I'd find coming over the fence at me.