The Smartest Mice in the World

lost_grrl · 11-11-2010, 01:37 AM

We live in a duplex that has a partially finished basement so we get all sorts of critters. We don't get mice every year but it does happen periodically. A couple of months ago we saw a mouse in the house--in the upstairs. Usually we would notice activity downstairs in the basement well before seeing anything upstairs so this in itself was odd. Where we saw it was just in the living room in the middle of the night so there wasn't really a place that we noticed them that we could easily pinpoint. We figured that he had somehow gotten upstairs but that he and any of his buddies probably live downstairs so we decided to put poison downstairs. Putting poison upstairs is out of the question because we have a bunny.

So a few weeks go by without any activity and we figure it is taken care of and then one night we saw one dart out of the kitchen. We placed several traditional traps with peanut butter on them in the kitchen. Nothing happened and so we removed all of the traps but one. THE VERY NEXT NIGHT I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and I heard something...it was a mouse in one of the traps (it was one of those nicer looking plastic traps that looks like a giant clip..not the usual type). The trap had not killed it all the way. After that we put out some more traps in the kitchen. Again nothing happened for weeks and weeks but my husband and I did some spring cleaning (in Autumn!) and found quite a bit of evidence that we had some living upstairs with us. We cleaned all that up, got rid of anything that might tempt a mouse to live in or eat and laid out more traps. Again, nearly a month goes by and no sightings, no mice so we stop putting up that traps.

Shortly after that my husband saw another one run from under fridge to under the oven. We carpeted the entire route that he took and any other route between the two and nothing...again we figure that they must have all taken the poison downstairs and died...and again shortly after we stopped being super vigilant about placing the traps we found a dead mouse on the kitchen floor in between the fridge and stove BUT NOT IN A TRAP!!! We continued to set traps in any place we had seen them but after probably 4 weeks we thought they were gone...until last weekend I was sitting out in the living room and one just runs out to the middle of the living room!!! The nerve on this mouse. I saw where he ran to, made another trip to to the store and again covered the area with traps...every single nook and crannie where he could have come and gone from his hiding place...and nothing. Yesterday I started to notice again little mouse poops here and there (something that really grosses me out is that there was a little trail of mouse poop right next to my bed...as if those little suckers are running around down there while I sleep!).

We have tried every kind of trap and various types of bait. We seem to have super mice who somehow know what a mouse trap does and how to avoid it even though it is impossible for them to have seen one kill a mouse because none of ours work! We are at our wits end...any help would be so appreciated!

PAbugman · 11-11-2010, 07:44 AM

Are you using pelletized rodenticide? If so, they may be stashing it and eating it later. That may explain the dead mouse in kitchen. I don't use pellets for this reason.

Place bait blocks above drop ceiling in basement or otherwise get it up on top of the foundation wall. Also, if an attic, even if it is a crawl space/hatch door, at least throw bait into the attic if you can't get in easily. Also bait behind kitchen stove, always a good place to bait, and safe. If attached garage, get some bait out there, too.

Realize also that re-infestation can and probably is occurring. Keep fresh bait in place even when no activity noticed. Better to kill 1 or 2 as they get in, rather than 6 or 10 all at once.

lost_grrl · 11-11-2010, 06:17 PM

@PABugman Thanks for the reply...We do sometimes use blocks instead of pelleted...the larger problem is the mice upstairs, in the actual living area. No matter how many we use, where we place them or what type of bait we use we are totally unable to take care of the mice upstairs.

MagicalHome · 11-12-2010, 09:34 PM

Try the sticky fly paper traps that I used. It is effective in catching small mice. It doesn't kill, though.

lost_grrl · 11-13-2010, 09:09 PM

So last night we FINALLY caught 1 mouse...we did nothing different and the trap that it went into had been there for a while so I can't figure out why it got caught this time and not the others. And the weirdest thing happened...several seconds before (and I am talking long enough that there is no way we were mistaken) it got caught in the trap it squeaked! I would understand squeaking after if somehow it is not all the way dead but this was before...so weird...I swear we have the most bizarre mice!

startrip · 11-14-2010, 03:32 AM

Two things. 1st- mice are very aware of "new" items in their (yes, their) space and will avoid them for up to two weeks. So, have patience with traps and let the mice get "used" to them being there. Once the traps start working keep at it. You will be surprised how many of the little critters are probably living in your walls. 2nd-Make sure your rabbit/pet food is kept in a metal sealed container. We had mice living off our bird food and never knew it. They were fat and happy until we bought a metal can to store it in.