There's a Mouse in the House

Actually, where there is one mouse there are usually four. Their presence is identifiable by tiny black droppings. Mice can squeeze through the tiny slits in heating grates therefore we found mouse droppings on top of a high cabinet in the family room as well as inside the pull-out sofa bed. I did not like the thought of these rodents running rampant in my house while we slept.

The droppings were most prevalent under the kitchen sink where there is a hole for the plumbing pipe connected to the sink. This cupboard is connected to other cupboards. The mice would climb the walls and access three other cupboards! We used every idea we could find to get rid of the mice.

First we tried traps. We set mouse traps in two of the kitchen cupboards. We were successful in catching a few mice but not all of them. One morning I got up and found one of the traps was actually gone. The mouse had been trapped but not killed and he carried it away with him. It occurred to me that there is no way the trap would fit down the hole in the cupboard under the sink. Early the next morning I heard what I thought was a slurping sound, like a child drinking out of a straw. I checked on my girls but both were sound asleep. I went downstairs to get a hot bean bag. While it was warming up in the microwave I opened the fridge door. The light from the fridge shone on the mouse I had just walked by twice, trap in tow. The sound I had heard was the mouse dragging the trap around. That was enough for me! Where had that mouse been all day? Under my stove? Time to move to Plan B.

I went out and bought some mouse poison. I sprinkled the pellets on the floor of the cupboard under the sink. An hour later I went in and found all the pellets gone. Those critters were coming up during the day! I think it worked and we were free of mice, until a few months later more moved in.

Time to move to Plan C. I bought a sonar device. It has a loud pitched sound that cannot be heard by humans but drives rodents crazy so they will not come near the house. This worked. We had no more mice after that…. until the unit started to die. I bought another one but it was different and had so many limitations. It couldn't be hidden behind anything like a curtain and had to be directly facing where the mice were coming in. Now how was I going to do that? I plugged the darn thing in behind the dryer in the basement (which is just below the kitchen sink) and hoped for the best. I'm not sure if it worked but we had to get rid of the existing mice.

I went to the hardware store and checked out different poisons. The sales person informed me that the best poison had to have bromadiolone in it for it to really work. I didn't have to sprinkle the pellets on the ground, just put the little bag in the cupboard. The mice would chew through the plastic bag to get to the poison. I helped them along by cutting a hole in the corner. But, if the poison gets wet, it is no good. We get moisture from the sink so sometimes it gets wet under there and the poison must be changed. So far we haven't had to change the poison. Between the poison and the second sonar we haven't seen anymore mice.

There is one more thing you should know. Mice hate steel wool. If you want to block off access plug the hole with steel wool. I didn't want to plug the hole in the cupboard because I wanted to know where those mice were, not send them to a different part of the house. I did plug up the hole leading to one of the other cupboards. I also checked the foundation of the house from the outside and found a hole. I plugged that with steel wool. This may be the real reason why we haven't had anymore mice.

My battle with mice started when I was a teenager living at home. My father made me check a trap knowing full well there was a mouse in it. He cracked up when I ran screaming from the room. I really don't like them, not even on television. So you can see why I went to such great measures to ensure they were no longer in my house. So far, so good.