Comments on: Christmas mice

By: Three wise mice | GreenCouple.com

Three wise mice | GreenCouple.com — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:53:48 +0000

[...] weekend, so instead of a podcast, I’ll give you an update on our mouse problem. After getting lots of good advice about getting rid of mice, Maggie and I went to the hardware store and got a live mouse trap and an ultrasonic [...]

By: Will

Will — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:47:30 +0000

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! I think we’ve found out generally where they’re coming from (along the gas line leading to the stove), so we just need to get rid of the ones we’ve got and then plug up the hole. Eventually, we’d also like to seal up the crawlspace (to reduce heating needs, but keeping the mice out will be a nice benefit).

By: Student Doctor Green

Student Doctor Green — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:44:36 +0000

Alright I know it’s probably evil but one of the “poison” they use in mouse traps is actually a human medication, a “blood thinner” called Warfarin. It interferes with clotting and causes the mice to bleed to death. While it sounds gruesome I’m not entirely convinced it would be painful. The drug might be painful for other reasons but someone bleeding to death is going to pass out from the blood loss. I tried to find some info about whether it’s painful or not for mice but didn’t locate anything. If there’s a dog in the equation then you probably don’t want to you use it but otherwise I’m not entirely convinced it would be evil, especially if it is a painless death, which it very well may not be.

It looks like the main thing people seem to believe the mice on Warfarin suffer from is insatiable thirst.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:57:45 +0000

I swear by The Better Mousetrap, baited with peanut butter. They are not messy, are very easy to set, and make it easy to dispose of the mouse. They are also as quick (<10 seconds) and humane a kill as you’re going to get – waaaaaay better than glue traps.

You want to put them up against a wall or baseboard (or countertop backsplash), with the bait facing the wall. Mice don’t like to cross open spaces. Between the fridge and cabinet or wall is a good spot, and hard for the dog to get to. We’ve also put them up in the drop ceiling in the basement, with a string attached for easy retrieval. Keep resetting it until you go a week with no more mice. When we lived in the woods, we’d get a string of invaders every day for a week every fall, then no more until a similar run in the spring.

By: Gini

Gini — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:29:10 +0000

The guy who got rid of the bats in our attic said not to bother with the sonic devices. He said that though they annoy the critters at first, the critters become acclimated and then ignore them.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:35:38 +0000

At my friends’ place in Indy, I used standard traps, set in places the dog could not reach (pushed in via broom, generally) Not necessarily nice, and sometimes mildly traumatizing when the trap doesn’t fully kill the mouse an dI had to finish the deed, but fairly effective. Granted, I think we had a much more severe problem, what with me getting a good 8+ in a few weeks that way.

For note, if you don’t solve the entry problem, they will come back around this time next year, more than likely. Our houses are nice and warm, and it’s cold outside, after all.