Mice

[ratherbetravlin]

We just purchased an older home (built in '68) which is on a pier & beam foundation. We're still unpacking, so we've got boxes everywhere some partially emptied and some still full. One of the boxes was in the kitchen and it contained the food processor and all its attachments. We heard a crash late one night this weekend and went to investigate. Nothing broken, but we noticed the contents of the food processor box had been disturbed. We didn't see anything and Laurel, our cat, had been in the bedroom with us when we heard the noise. I joked that perhaps the house was haunted, to which I got a disgusted look.:rolleyes: Next morning, we noticed some little droppings on the kitchen counter. David pronounces, "We've got rats!" and I just about lost my cookies! Seriously, I felt quite ill over that one. Anyway, after I calmed down a bit, I asked him how he knew, for sure, if we had rats and not mice. He sheepishly admitted that he didn't know and that it could be mice. Don't ask me why mice are more acceptable than rats - they just are.

After some research, I determined that we do, indeed, have a mice problem. We went to Wally World and bought EIGHT, yes EIGHT, of those ultrasonic pest repeller things and placed them in every room in the house, with two in the kitchen and two in the laundry room. So far, we've seen no more evidence of the little furry critters.

So, after being so long winded, I finally get to my question. If the ultrasonic things continue to do the job, I figure we're ok. However, I'm wondering what else we should try if they don't work. We don't want to use traps for a couple of reasons - neither one of us wants the duty of disposing of them, and we don't really see any reason to kill the little guys, just send them on their way. We also don't especially want to use any kind of pesticide that will kill them because we're worried about Laurel getting sick and we don't especially want dead rodents in our walls and attic. If any of you have any suggestions, I'd sure appreciate it. I'm a bona fide city girl (born & raised in Houston) and this is the first time I've lived with mice in the house. I cannot help but think of that movie, "Mouse Hunt" with Nathan Lane and wonder if that's how we'll end up!:D :D

[Turtleheadfred]

Honestly, the CAT is going to be a BIG help!!! The other thing you can do...

If you look under the kitchen sink, make sure there's no space... NONE... around the pipes. Mice are magicians and contourting their little bodies to get into even the smallest spaces. We found (in our older home) that in the kitchen, there was "dead space" in a corner of the cabinets where nothing is really stored. But when my husband climbed in there (after emptying all the pots and pans) there was a small hole in the flooring. He simply filled it with that expanding foam stuff and POOF! No more mice in the house! That's the only place we found where they could possibly be getting in, and that's where they were coming from. We'd never had them, but it was a hard winter and they decided to come visit.

Honestly, the kitty cat and I caught most of them ... the cat on one side and me with kitchen mitts on the other scooping them up. Then I'd just take them back to the woods and wait for the next! (Became quite the game for me, my hubby and the kitty)! :eek: But again, once we determined where the little hole was - NO MORE MICE! Check your kitchen cabinets... I bet you'll find their entry point! Close that off and the problem will be gone!
:D