Mouse in the house and taking advice

Mouse in the house and taking advice

Property Manager · Blaine · Member since 2015 · 209 posts · 276 votes

So there we are on this beautiful Saturday morning enjoying some family time. I mean it’s year 2020 family fun, 2 kids playing their iPads with their headphones on lying on the kitchen floor, @karenhiggins reading what I can only guess is a romance novel, and I’m drinking water trying to shake a Friday night of beer and video games. Then all of a sudden chaos breaks out as a mouse stumbles all over the kitchen right in front of us. The kids scream, Karen runs, and I go to look for the broom, but by the time I had my weapon the mouse had hid somewhere in our master bedroom.

I threw $30 at the problem and bought 2 of everything at Menards. Used gloves to set the old school traps because I don’t want the wild animals being tipped off by the smell of my city hands. I baited all the traps with some “mouse food” gel. I had a lot of this gel so I put it all over the sticky pads that are strategically placed throughout the house and garage. I got a repellent spray and I sprayed down all the baseboards. She wouldn’t let me spray down the pantry because it would poison the kids. Seriously though, if food is accessible isn’t that the problem? But, clearly I know nothing. I got the big bag of poison where the mice are suppose to walk into the trap. Then I said “what the hell” and went rogue by just leaving some of the poison bricks laying loose in the utility room.

Just wondering if I missed a step? I passed on the sonar sound thing because I thought we had one at home, but I can’t find it. Is it necessary? Worried that if I can’t produce at least one dead mouse by tomorrow I will be moving into a rental. We do a pretty good job and have nothing available at the moment so we would have to move in to a flip. She refuses to let my crew work on “our own home” again so that would be a conflict of interest.

I thought it was a little odd that a mouse would stumble around a Kitchin during broad daylight in front of 4 people so I google

“seeing a mouse in home during daylight”

Google says

Mice are nocturnal creatures, so they are most active between dusk and dawn. They don't usually like bright lights, but a mouse may sometimes be seen during the day, especially if its nest has been disturbed or it is seeking food. Seeing mice in the day also can indicate a large infestation in a home

Jesus, thanks google........anyway any advice?

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Specialist · Riverside, CA · Member since 2015 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
6y

@Matt Higgins calm down it is a mouse, not a mass murderer, you have done more than enough just give it time, the mouse may have left or eaten some of the poison and died somewhere you'll never find it, or it was eaten by an owl, or cat or whatever.

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  • Realtor · Boston, MA · Member since 2014 · 159 posts · 75 votes
    6y

    Matt, I think that you have done all you can do at this point but just make sure that you check the foundation for cracks at some point.  Also, check to make sure your ceilings and windows have no gaps. 

  • Steve O.Pro Member
    Rental Property Investor · West Caldwell, NJ · Member since 2019 · 104 posts · 65 votes
    6y

    @Matt Higgins I went through the same situation. You have to find where the

    Mouse is coming from and plug the hole up. Check baseboard heating, where gas pipes come up into your house. Around Plumbing, check where plumbing drains Go into the wall. My situation was where the gas pipe was coming up from the crawl space- pipe hole was cut too big. There is never just 1 mouse. There’s always 3-4. I went through each room and checked for holes, you’d be surprised how small a hole a mouse can fit through. Stick Brillo in the hole, then caulk it or spray foam that is used for pests.

  • San Francisco, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 14 votes
    6y

    @Matt Higgins get a cat or two . Very friendly and it’ll get all the mice away. Goooood luck!! Btw you don’t have to take care of cats that much

  • Rental Property Investor · The Vampire State · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    Check for access points inside the house and close them up.  Most often that is where plumbing pipes go through a wall or floor, and also via the kickplates around base cabinets.  (There is a void underneath the cabinets and if plumbing goes through the floor itself, there is often room for them to enter.  Best to seal off kickplates, then.)  

    There is special expanding foam that has a sour taste that is supposed to deter them chewing through it.  I have never had them chew through it when I used it.  I always embed hardware cloth into the hole for good measure before foaming it.

    If you catch one in a glue board, you can use vegetable oil to free it once outside without harming it.

    I've always used the snap traps with PB as @Victor S. suggests, but the most important thing is to find their means of access and block that.  It could have run out through that same hole and no number of traps inside will catch it then.

  • Property Manager · Blaine · Member since 2015 · 209 posts · 276 votes
    6y

    @Wesley W. would you wait to see if I catch a mouse before going through all that?  If it’s really that much involved I will probably have a handy man or exterminator come out 

  • Rental Property Investor · The Vampire State · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    I wouldn't.  Find the access point and deal with that now, on your time.  If not, the mice will be back, infiltrating your home as it pleases them.  

    A true cat and mouse game, it seems.

  • Realtor/Investor · Spokane, WA & North Idaho · Member since 2015 · 5 posts · 1 vote
    6y

    @Matt Higgins    Sounds like it's almost time to burn the house down!  Just kidding but having mice in the house is unsettling and gross, especially if they are getting into your food and dishes.  We used to live on a farm, so I've had some experience in this area. Using steel wool to fill the gaps around pipes and other openings worked the best for keeping them out.  The glue traps are awful, they cripple the mouse and then it has a long, stressful death unless you can put it out of its misery.  Poison can work but the mouse will likely die somewhere hidden and you will have to smell the rotting carcass until you find it. If you can find evidence, or have an idea of where the mouse has been and the paths it tends to travel, disturb all around those areas daily (especially after dark), by vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing, moving items, etc. After several days of this, they will not want to be there anymore.  Good luck!

    @Matt Higgins

  • Naperville, IL · Member since 2018 · 330 posts · 357 votes
    6y

    I don't know how close your neighbors are,  but in my experience the other thing that makes a mouse show up in daytime?  It's been poisoned already (by said neighbor),  possibly by the kind that makes them seek water, bloat up, and die.  In which case the mouse may have just "passed on through"  by now,  is dead in the snow,  you'll find it's little desiccated body after the thaw.

  • Real Estate Broker · Hugo, MN · Member since 2016 · 688 posts · 596 votes
    6y

    @Matt Higgins for this one if you think that the kids left the door open you will be fine trapping and being done. If it happens again I would call an exterminator they are good at finding access points. One they find a way in, the constant pee trail will leads others in also. Better to seal it up right away before they form a caravan. Usually when we see a single mouse there are plenty in the house or apartment already. Hopefully yours is a solo wanderer that walked in with the kids.

  • Member since 2018 · 563 posts · 562 votes
    6y

    Peanut butter on glue traps, check the traps daily or you will hear the little guy fussing and fighting to get free, use a plastic shopping bag or two as a glove to pick up and wrap in the glue trap with mouse still on it in the bag and tie that in a knot, then proceed to step on him or give him a fast swing and slam on the side of the trash can, then dispose of the dead vermin.

    The poison, is not always attractive bait and then they can die in your place and smell, or be eaten by other animals that we don't want to kill(owls, bobcats, pet cats and/or dogs)

    About a dozen kills to my credit.

    Better a mouse than a roaches, better roaches than a rat, better a rat than bed bugs.

    Ahhh, passive investing in syndication or REITS, is looking more attractive every day.

    Good luck and prosperity to all!

  • Property Manager · Blaine · Member since 2015 · 209 posts · 276 votes
    6y

    @Isaac S. great post.  You win bigger pockets for today.  Not sure what I liked best, the step by step act of mouse/plastic bag disposal or the hierarchy of pest.  Really good stuff.  Thanks for the laugh 

  • Member since 2018 · 563 posts · 562 votes
    6y

    @Matt Higgins Hey Matt, Sweet, not only am I stone cold vermin assassin, but, I won BP for the day!Yipppeee!

    I forgot to mention, I currently have a mouse in one of my units so your post was at the perfect time for me to be deep in the mouse hunting mode.  And I saw another post in the thread that mentioned bedbugs, of course I dealt with another unit that had them a few weeks ago, and amidst all of that FedeX Ground made a Sunday delivery today of a bunch of my DIY roach supplies I need for several units, including the two mentioned above.

    It can be years of nothing but the easy life collecting rents, no turnover, sipping rum fruit drinks with bamboo umbrellas on tropical islands.... and then BAM! you gotta earn it! Or pretty much mostly the latter...

    Best of luck and may your vermin kill skills be true!

  • Eastern Michigan · Member since 2018 · 83 posts · 144 votes
    6y

    Jc  guy you've never had a mouse in your house before? You manage properties, what do you do for them??? 

    Anyway,  if your basics aren't working to get rid of then you can try rolling the mouse killer pellets in peanut butter to entice them to eat it.  

    And we've used the poison more than a handful of times,  it dehydrates the mice and thry are small anyway so I've never noticed a stink.  And this includes a time in college we waited until it was a full on infestation before dealing with it.  

  • Naperville, IL · Member since 2018 · 330 posts · 357 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Account Closed:

    Jc  guy you've never had a mouse in your house before? You manage properties, what do you do for them??? 

    Anyway,  if your basics aren't working to get rid of then you can try rolling the mouse killer pellets in peanut butter to entice them to eat it.  

    And we've used the poison more than a handful of times,  it dehydrates the mice and thry are small anyway so I've never noticed a stink.  And this includes a time in college we waited until it was a full on infestation before dealing with it.  

    Depends on the person---personally I can smell a mouse for a loonnnnnnggggggg time.

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