Hey Pandas, Are You Dealing With Mice Problems? How Are You Coping?

I'm currently in the middle of dealing with the worst mice infestation I have ever dealt with. I've done everything from bleaching anything I suspect has been touched by a mouse, and/or it's messes, to plugging any holes and gaps in the baseboards. So far, they favour the cleaning closet, and chewed a hole above the old one they got through that I plugged with steel wool. I've sprayed Spray Nine all over the floors I've found mouse pee. My foyer, I just discovered tonight, looks like mice have been using it as their toilet. I didn't even know and we were walking all over it.

I'm absolutely terrified of getting sick with hantavirus or some other serious or fatal disease.

I live in the Canadian prairies. Some sites I Googled say getting hantavirus is rare, even with being in constant contact with mice. But that's still not comforting.

Pest control have been here a few times in the past couple months. They laid bait traps and other traps. I've caught one last week, but no others.

I went to the pet store to get an urine remover. It says spray it on and leave it to dry. I guess I'll know in the morning if the pee is dissolved. Spray Nine is a disinfectant and kills viruses and bacteria. I'm hoping it's not too late.

Put in a maintenance request. (That's how my management wants us to contact with them for issues.)

I'm at my wits end. I work an exhausting job. Just want to come home and relax after a hard day. Not clean until midnight and almost skip supper.

I'm feeling so overwhelmed and alone, even though I know other tenants have mice issues, too.

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I feel your pain. When i bought my house saw a field mouse in the kitchen. Took sympathy on the little guy. Next thing i now i had a whole family and extended family of mice living with us. Our dogs werent too happy with me lol. Tried glue traps ( i know not very humane) finally used the rat poison blocks. Those worked. Although my wife didnt like finding dead mice everywhere lol.

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Enochrises

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I live in a really old stone house and get the wee rascals coming indoors every winter. Only a couple last year which were quickly taken care off.

Cat/s.
If you are allowed/willing to keep a cat then getting one or two is the best thing you could do. They quickly learn to do their job.

I have a dog and two cats. They appear to work as a team. The dog seems to sniff them out and the cats go in for the kill. Or they're all sitting when sudden their ears shoot up and off they all go. I follow them to see a mouse getting caught.

Peppermint.
Rodents dislike the smell of Peppermint. I have the herb growing in pots. A pot sitting on a windowsill in every room and outside the back door. I put Peppermint oil on cotton wool and put it in random places around the house. I also put Peppermint oil in an oil burner. Lastly some Peppermint oil in a spray bottle and give certain areas a good spray.

Mouse wire mesh.
Like I said I live in a really old house. Lots of wee holes. I worked one room at a time and used the wire mesh to cover any holes I found. The actual holes in the wire mesh are tiny so a mouse can't get through. For difficult to reach holes there is a rodent wire wool that's rather good.

Food.
Make sure there is no food left lying around and the inside of the cooker is clean.

Things rodents dislike that I haven't tried yet.
Peppermint teabags left lying around, Eucalyptus oil, Bergamot oil, Clove oil, Cinnamon oil and tumbledryer sheets. Vicks Vapour Rub ... it must be the minty smell.
Oh and someone told me recently that rodents really hate aluminium foil. Either crumpled up or lying flat out they will not go near it.

Also check the outside of the house. I put mouse wire mesh in front of some holes and covered it with cement.

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Phoenix🇬🇧

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StrangeOne 3 months ago

We're not allowed cats, but I don't think it would be a good idea for cats to be catching these mice. They're being fed poison and that could kill a cat, too. Plus these mice could be carrying fleas and do carry other things, as I've found. The peppermint and other scents I do know about. I have a bergamot dryer ball in my linen closet where the mice haven't seemed to touch at all. Mind you, no bait trap has ever been put there. I have a spray bottle of peppermint oil and I also have spearmint put in my diffuser. I got a mint scented candle. I spray it all everywhere, every night. We shampooed the carpet, so a lot of the furniture has aluminum foil. We have been hearing the foil sounds at night, like something running past it. We almost caught a mouse on a sticky trap but it managed to rip itself off and the sticky trap we found was upside down. We didn't know you're supposed to bend them around to make tents for the mice to not be able to escape. We stuffed steel wool around all the

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StrangeOne 3 months ago

baseboards, corners, any gaps in the wall. Anywhere that couldn't get steel wool is sealed with tape. There's always new places I find they can get in. It feels like the pest control work never ends, and never will, unless management can finally kick out my garbage hoarding neighbour or if I move out. But I hear the whole city is dealing with mice infestations.

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Phoenix🇬🇧 (Submission author) 3 months ago (edited)

I hope you don't mind me mentioning about the food and cooker. It's just that two winters ago I noticed the dog staring at the oven. I opened the oven door and a mouse was inside looking at me. I quickly closed the door then put my smaller cat in side the oven. She caught the mouse. I find I'm always checking the oven now.

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StrangeOne 3 months ago

I totally get it. For the first time ever, I found out the drawer below the oven can come out, and there's a metal plate, not open floor, underneath the drawer. I found a mouse turd on that metal plate. I wash EVERYTHING in that drawer in bleach water, cleaned my oven and been checking behind and under my stove every day. There used to be a bait trap there. My daughter heard a commotion one day. When I got home from work I moved the stove and saw a bunch of mouse poop with blue stuff and also you don't want to know what else. It took about a week and a lot of cleaned before I started feeling comfortable enough to contemplate cooking in the kitchen. The blue meant that the mouse ate the poison. It likely ran into a wall and died. The bait poison apparently dissolved the mice inside so they're not supposed to just decay. But I also hear that's not always guaranteed. Eww. I threw out the bait trap, that had gross things falling out of it. So nasty.

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I use a havaheart trap set behind my oven on the floor (they are particularly fond of the insulation in the walls of the oven). It's small and will only hold a couple of mice at a time, but I check every day and then drive them to a park about 5 minutes away. It's annoying but the best way for me to feel okay about the whole situation.
I also went around the house with a can of spray foam insulation to plug up tiny holes around the plumbing.

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Jane No Dough

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Hey Pandas, Are You Dealing With Mice Problems? How Are You Coping?

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