apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

hi grace,
my husband and i went to sleep to the sound of mice scratching behind the wall in our bedroom every night last winter- it was horrible so i understand. eventually it went away, but i also recommend placing peppermint extract on cotton balls all over your house, and in your case- maybe in the light fixture? they hate the smell. refresh the cotton balls every few days.

Sharper Image has a product I have used and it REALLY works!
It is called Mouse Mover .

Here is the link......
http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__SI310TNM

It may take 1-2 weeks for them to move out completely, but they will not be back!

1) have been scratching noises.

2) get a kitty. The mice smell the kitty and stay far away. But as this is Apartment Therapy, I must advise you to choose a kitty which complements your color scheme.

I agree with Hope; get a rodent repellant. They seem to work fine. Make sure there are no holes in your walls from which they may enter your apartment. There are cheaper models than the Sharper Image brand that seems to work fine. The problem will go away.

It does sound like you do have them, unfortunately, and I will be really interested to hear others weigh in on advice here, because I battled mice for over a year in (and around) my place. We've had so much construction in our neighborhood, that even after I got rid of them, they would come back in packs after being displaced from another building being torn down. In fact, the battle got so insane at one point, I ended up changing a book I was writing to have a side-story wrap around this ongoing story of this character and his interaction with these mice ... based on wild things that happened. (For example ... when I put poison down behind the stove, when the package was empty, they'd push it out to "ask" for more; I was making toast once, and when the timer went off, a mouse popped out of the top with the toast...)

I don't know what you could do about them in the ceiling, which is why I would like to read more advice here. I can tell you the ultrasonic things generally don't work, but I've heard a few good things about the really expensive one that Sharper Image has, but I didn't try it myself because I was skeptical. I know for me, the absolutely only thing that worked (and I tried EVERYthing out of desperation ... even the brutal stuff) was this Shake Away stuff (I can't remember where I bought it ... but you can google it) that I sprinkled around all the barriers of my apartment and it comes from fox urine or something which scares the crap out of them. I noticed after I put it down a couple of times that they didn't hang out here anymore, and twice I even heard them come in through a pipe and literally freak out once they got to the big stash behind the stove and scramble back up the pipes desperately squealing.

Unfortunately too, if they are in the ceiling/walls/floors, you will smell them die, but the smell doesn't last longer than a day, really.

Good luck!!!

p.s. By the way ... I've now moved on to bigger things ... I now have a squirrel living in my attic that runs around all night up there. Geez!

By the way, I've had that dream about them tunneling through and falling on me, too. It's awful, so I really feel for ya ;-)

Respectfully disagreeing with Ridge. I once used pellets on a mouse. It crawled into the wet wall to die. Not only did the most unbelievable funk rise and stand for four weeks straight, but a parade of maggots also issued forth from the kitchen sink and spread all across my kitchen floor.

Do not use the pellets. It is not in an animals nature to die where you can clean it up. You do not want that sickly sweet rotting odor in your house. Ever.

Not to make anyone skeeved any more, but my exterminator said to change off "ridding devices" (traps, poison, etc) every month because the mice develop "trap awareness" and will not only avoid whatever you've put down, but pass the awareness on to the other meeses! Eek.

Wow...ridge. That sounds awful. I'm glad that you only have a squirrel to deal with now instead of an army of mice. May I ask what neighborhood this was that you were having this problem? My boyfriend lives in Bushwick and in the summers you can really see the rat problem in the streets (not in his apartment, luckily). There was also construction happening next door to his building and there was a bad waterbug problem at one point. And I hate how those suckers fly!

I've never heard them in my walls but we did have one last summer, I tried the humane trap and that didn't work, the standard trap with peanut butter did though.

a friend of mine lived behind a restaurant that never cleaned out their dumpsters, so she had a RAT problem, she tried the sticky traps and some rats hopped right over them, others got stuck, but it's pretty brutal to see.

Can you ask your landord to call an exterminator over?

Cats DO work ... but I don't know how long they have to be in residence to have an effect. I do remember one old apartment building I lived in on 87th and Broadway years ago with a terrible mouse problem ... above, below, and on either side of me. I never had a single one, thanks to the presence of my two cats! Even after the cats got elderly and headed for that great litter box in the sky, I never had a mouse in that apartment. The cat pheromones or whatever they pick up on had left their mark (not detectable by human noses, by the way).

Thanks for posting my question so fast! I spent 2 hours last night (2:30-4:30am) banging the ceiling... I actually do have a cat and I am suspecting that's why the mice have not invaded yet. Since the mice are not in the apartment, I suppose my kitty's scents is not strong enough (maybe I should clean the litter box less often?... just kidding). She has actually caught 5 mice in my previous apartment. Good kitty... My issue now is more with the noise. I'll maybe try the Sharper image ultrasonic repellet since my 10 dollar Home Depot one doesn't seem to do much.

Isn't there some kind of city agency that oversees health violations in apartment buildings? I realize you might not want to upset the landlord, but...

i had a similar problem---that awful scratching/skittering sound in the ceiling above my bed. the sound got louder and louder and traveled from one spot of the ceiling to the next... i'd bang on the ceiling where i thought the sound was coming from and you could hear them "skitter" to another part so i naturally assumed it was mice or some sort of other four legged critter. but it wasn't mice---It was WASPS!!! the "scratching" i was hearing was actually the bugs eating away at the ceiling stuff, making nests... i finally figured it out when one day, they started to fly out of a hole they had eaten through the ceiling... me at 5 o'clock in the morning, naked and shivering from a shower... yeah.. fun...

The humane traps worked on my mouse problem, but I only had 2 and they were actually roaming around in my kitchen. Good luck!

ridge., your "squirrel" problem sounds more like a raccoon problem, since squirrels are not nocturnal. (Sorry!)

I like the pepperment extract idea. It's the most humane solution, and it smells nice during the holidays! :)

Re the smell. I've generally heard that if they die somewhere dry, there generally is no smell. (Caveat below.) If they die somewhere damp however, then they can smell for days or weeks.

That all said, I had a tiny mouse crawl into the engine at the bottom of my refrigerator a few years ago. It died and the heat from the engine caused it to rapidly decompose - the smell almost drove me out of my apartment. We had to track down the smell, recover and dispose of this tiny thing, and then douse the entire area in alcohol to get rid of the smell.

Please be careful about letting your kitty catch mice! Having a cat in your apartment may be an excellent preventative, as well as an overall improvement to your quality of life, you should do what you can to prevent him or her from actually catching the suckers. As is evident by people discussing poisions here, cats can be made very sick by ingesting whatever might be inside that mouse.

To continue sounding like a bleeding heart, you can find Have a Heart humane mousetraps pretty inexpensively. Catching and releasing the mice (in a park, by your ex's building) will save you from putting poisions around your home or dealing with dead mouse funk. The affectiveness of any of these solutions is obviously variable, but my parents out in Jersey had a lot of success with these.

Send an email to the health department and copy it to your landlord. The email should contain all your documented trials at ridding them yourself. Include the costs (monetary and non-monetary). And also explaining the threat to human health (bubonic plague anyone?)...

This should work. We had a stench coming from a wall shared by the bathroom and living room. The wall became stained. I thought something died in there. I told the landlord, she did nothing. One day flies started coming out of the bathroom. By the HUNDREDS. We bombed the apartment and took our 3 cats and stayed at a friends for the weekend. Of course, I told the landlord, again. We returned to an apartment full of dead flies, and new live ones! The landlord still wouldn't help us. By this point, I was so over this crap! I called the health department to ask for the appropriate contact person, and emailed them, discussing the threat to human and animal health and everything I had already done. I copied the landlord on the email. The health department replied telling her she MUST investigate and rid of whatever was behind that wall, or be fined.

It turned out to be that every time you flushed the toilet, the outbound toilet pipe (which was cracked) leaked stuffy-stuff (ew) into the wall. The landlord fixed it all up for us.

Oh my god, krapartist ... you just brought back an awful memory. When I was little, we were in the midst of building a new house ... one night in the bathroom, I heard scratching noises, and I poked the wall where it was coming from (which was just unfinished drywall at this point) and my little 5-year-old finger went all the way through the wall and all these wasps came out! They had eaten it away until it was mush! Thankfully I only got a couple of stings, but after that, I was scared to death of that bathroom!

But back to mice ... whew ... kk, this was in Astoria. Thankfully it was only mice and not rats ... in fact, they're actually so cute, it breaks your heart to catch them. One day I caught one in a glue trap (god, the worst means possible, but they'd outsmarted all the others) and I found myself crying and saying, "I'm so sorry! But you don't belong here!!"

And I don't know what to tell you about the smell ... I had TONS in this apartment .. in every room ... dozens died and the smell never lasted long. One died in the wall behind my bed, and I only smelled it one night, even. It was really strong, but by the next night it was totally gone.

And yes, it's absolutely true about changing the method of extermination (hence, the saga I wrote about in the book) because they absolutely do figure them all out (there's a reason why we have that old phrase about building the better mousetrap) ... they outsmart every one. If you are going to try one, try it full-force. For example, if you want to use snap traps, put a ton of them down all at once - not set - with peanut butter on 'em (end get the peanut butter in the coil, because they can eat it off without springing the mechanism), then the next night, fill them with peanut butter again, but set them this time. You will probably catch a bunch at once, but rarely again. The next time they will eat the peanut butter and run or not even go near them at all. The Shake Away, though, seems to have kept the place clear for a year now. Whew!

And cats yes ... they do work, too. They might catch one or two, but then you won't see any come back again.

p.s. The squirrel and I have a bit of a battle of wits going on as well, as he also hangs out on my ledges. He even tried to kill me last Memorial Day, but that's another story altogether. hahaha.

Are you absolutely certain that your upstairs neighbor doesn't have a little rat-dog or similar pest in her apartment? People tend not to hear their own pets' noise.

Ridge: what's the story of the squirrel trying to kill you?!

If it's in your book, what's the title of the book and when will it come out?

;)

I had the same RAT problem. Putting baits in the general area did not work and most exterminators were useless. After months of pleading with the Condo Board, they finally hired these specialists who drilled holes in the walls to put in poison(in powder form) and seal the holes. They did this in the general areas and inside the apartments. The problem went away within days and did not come back. Yeah!

Oh, and any cracks/gaps in baseboards or walls you find, stuff 'em with steel wool ... apparently they can't chew threw it. (They can however, pull it away from the wall and use it as a barrier around a mousetrap ... I swear ... you will not believe the insane things these little creatures get up to!

And D ... it's not in the book, but perhaps I'll save it for something else. It really is crazy/funny and completely shook my friends up when it happened at our party! (Oh, and the book is called Year of the Mouse ... yes, the saga gave it the title, but it's not really about the mouse stuff) and I hate to jinx stuff still in negotiations but I'll just say it will *hopefully* be coming out next year.

Okay ... enough from me ... I'm getting the creeps just thinking about all this again. ha

At first I thought my upstaird neighbor must have a pet, because the sound of rats running inside the walls was so loud. But it really was the rats!

Also, I do believe your neighbor upstairs. I live in a duplex so my downstairs ceiling is my upstairs floor. When I had the problem, I heard the rats in the ceiling if I was downstairs but could not hear the rats in the floor when I was upstairs - very strange but true.

In our house in Vermont we use a device called the Pest-a-cator. Actually we use many of them throughout the house. The device plugs into an electrical outlet, much like the ultrasound ones, but does not work with ultrasound. Instead it sends pulses through the electrical wiring of the house which drives the rodents away. You don't hear or see anything. It does not click like the ultrasound ones do. I don't know how this would work in an apartment building, but it's worth a try. They say it doesn't disturb non-rodent pets, so you're cat should be fine with it.

More info on Pest-a-cator at this link:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/pestacator

When I was in the Peace Corps during the training portion, I lived with a family. I had my own room. The room didn't really have true "ceiling" - rather it was a series of those plastic grain sacks sewn together. There was a family of rats that lived on the other side of the fabric. So while looking up at the "ceiling" you could see the weight of their little feet through the fabric as they would run around - kind of like being on the underside of a trampoline. They would chew on the fabric too, making little holes. Some sometimes their little noses would pop out and I could see them.

It was fine though, they never really made holes big enough to fall out of.

Come to think of it, though, I still sleep under a mosquito net, even in NYC.

Oh god, Lori ... you just described my worst nightmare. I do NOT know how you could stand that! I got the chills just reading it!

ridge,

I guess the first night it was a little surprising. But everyone assured me it was fine. I actually had forgotten about the whole thing until I read this question.

Mosquito nets are really good things. They also help to keep out (some) bugs and scorpions.

In my old apartment in Boston I had gnawing noises in my bedroom so loud I was sure it was a rat. I would bang on the wall and he'd just move a few feet and start again! We also had mice who would occasionally run through the living room. But the from the day I got a cat onwards, I never saw or heard another rodent. It's not that he's a Mighty Hunter - he's old, chunky, and pretty useless in the hunting department - they must have just smelled him and decided not to risk it.

You need to find out where the mice are getting into the building. They start from outside, right? So you need to investigate or get your landlord to investigate any openings at the base of the building. We had mice in our walls, but it was because the basement grate had a big hole so they were getting into the basement and working their ways up into the building. This is the only way to 100% solve the problem. In the meantime, try drowning out the scratching by turning on a fan that you face against the wall.

Oh yes! I forgot that! Definitely use a fan or something. We put one of those plug-in air filter things right next to our bed. It was just enough white noise to block out the scratching noise.

My neighbor (we have a common wall) has been having a bug/mouse problem. He is about 5 times cleaner then I am, but I have no problems and I give my cat credit.
One thing I did notice though is that the people who refered to their cats as "He" seemed to never see or hear a mouse again, while those with a "She" Kitty seem to still have the problem.

This is definitely your landlord's responsibility to fix. If leaving bait/traps didn't work, then they will be responsible to pay for an exterminator or something. You may want to look into a tenant's rights group to make sure you proceed in the best possible manner if your landlord is difficult about it. If the sound is really loud, you could tape record it for proof.

This is general "mice in the apartment, not ceiling" advice. I lived in an apartment in Philadelphia that was quite literally a mouse highway. They didn't eat my food--they just used it as a passage way from a hole in the general area of the radiator to the hallway, where I guess they partied the night away. Around 7, I'd be sitting there watching TV and I'd see one then another run out along my wall. They'd stop and look at me, and I imagine, laugh their little mouse laugh. I used sunbeam sonic repellants, and they did NOTHING. These were hardened mice who were not repelled by some silly ultrasonic noise. My advice is (as others have said) to seal up all holes--that is crucial. I caught EIGHT in a few weeks before the university (which owned the apartment) finally patched the hole. I recommend the black plastic covered traps. More expensive, but in my opinion, worth it.

Rats are sneakier and smarter than mice...fortunately, I haven't had to deal with that. My parents had some chipmunks and a squirrel once in their attic crawl space.

As for the mouse in the ceiling issue, I'd call an exterminator if I were you, even if the landlord won't pay for it!

I have two kitties and everytime I move they catch one mouse within the first week of living there and I never see them again! There a reason why every bodega in NYC has a cat - they're employees! BTW - all the cats I've had are much too domesticated to know what to do when they catch the mice... they just kind of look at them like, "Why won't it play anymore?"

Katie, I had a great experience at my old place back in the midwest ... I was out all night reviewing a show, and I stopped by my apt. at 2am to pick something up or something and just came in the front door without turning the light on and was going to walk back out. I heard a little "EEEEE!" though, and I turned a lamp on ... in the corner of my living room, my cat (which I don't have anymore, sadly) was laying on her back with her paw stretched out over her head under my end table. I got on my knees and looked under the table, and back in the corner under the table, she had a mouse cornered up on its hind legs scared to death.

I didn't notice anything when I came back later, but when I got up the next day and came out of my bedroom, there was that mouse ... without a scratch! ... laying dead in front of my proud little kitty. According to my vet, my cat likely just scared it to death.

Could not resist sharing this story. My apt.in Brooklyn had mice. I call my landlord (who is one tiny step up from your traditional slumlord) and tell him. His response? "Lady, this is New York. Everybody has mice. Madonna has mice. Get a cat". And that is how I wound up with my beautiful cat George. Named after Curious George. Just had to share.

How odd - I have had a mouse problem for the past month and came to AT today in part to see if there was any archived info, and VOILA. Grace, I know what you're going through with nightmares. I keep asking myself how such tiny beasts could make me so anxiety ridden and jumpy at my own shadow ...

Anyway my own unwanted guests started barging in when it started to get slightly cold outside (i leave near a park). There's also been work done on the apt. below mine, so I suspect they've come upstairs for a better view.

My apt is a prewar rental (read: old and not well maintained) with a lot of holes in the baseboards, and trying to get the super in there to fix them is taking a long time. The exterminator is coming next week, though. Does anyone know what the exterminator might use? I have a pet bird with a delicate respiratory tract, so airborne poisons will NOT be ok.

Here's what I've learned while waiting for the building to help:
- Remove any possible food sources. I had a bag of flour and some gel caps that the mice were using as dinner. (They also like paper to use for nests.) My bird also tends to drop seeds on the floor. I've been using my new dustbuster so much that it's become like an extra limb.
- Mice like chocolate: I've caught 7 so far in snap traps. Refreshing the bait every day is necessary.
- I tried a glue trap, but it was horrible. Snap traps at least don't make the poor beasts suffer.
- The peppermint essential oil on cotton does seem to work! So simple! So minty!
- Plugging holes with steel wool also works (my problem is that most of the holes are behind radiators, so I can't really get to them).

Good luck, Grace!

NYC mice are pretty smart. If they're in your ceiling the upstairs neighbor probably hasn't heard them. You should both check for droppings, that's the clearest sign they're around. You have to be very thorough but once you spot them, you might see them everywhere. Your neighbor probably has them but doesn't know.

As for traps, the best way to approach it is to hit them fast and hard. Glue traps are pretty effective (put meat fat in the middle). Get the ones without a ridge, the ones that are just flat pieces of paper. To those of you who get squeamish about this, think of it this way: mice are not cute, they are disease-carrying rodents who are crawling over the things you touch every day- food, dishes, table tops, etc.

Snap traps and the sound machines are less effective, but worth varying your methods so you can kill them before they adapt and breed again.

If you cannot find their holes (remember they need only 1/4 of an inch), I would put traps in the ceiling if you can. After, if you're lucky enough to have caught a few plug up all the holes with steel wool.

This is one of my great concerns about moving to NYC, the difficulty of finding decent housing and housing without rodents. Anyone want to weigh in on how big of a problem these things are? I live in Boston, and have lived in two buildings where I heard there were mice, but never saw them. I lived in one building where I saw one in my unit and had a near heart attack. Im happily rodent free where I live now. Will I just have to expect some kind of intruders in a new york apartment?

"me" it depends, I guess. I have had them in several apartments, and one apartment we had rats (although I didn't know until after I had moved out, thank god!)

And although I battled them for a while at this place, we didn't actually have any at all until the buildings around mine were torn down to put up new apartment buildings. When that happens, bugs and rodents are inevitable as they seek out new places to live. Since we got rid of them about a year ago, we again have not had any bugs or rodents (knock on wood) since.

Unfortunately, NY now has a big bedbug problem, though, apparently, but we won't get into that... ;-)

But as for whether or not it's a reason to not move here ... it's not THAT big of a problem ...

We get rats in our building at work (we're next to a McDonalds) ... this summer we had one die and the smell was horrible, for weeks. We had a wildlife specialist come out and he determined it died down in the wall and he couldn't get to it.

It's actually the size of the critter that will probably determine how long the smell would last if they die in the wall - when they're wet (still have bodily fluids) they smell, once they're decomposed to the point where there is no body fluid left they no longer smell. Thus, a tiny mouse wouldn't smell long because it decomposes faster than a larger rat.

I'd go for the good old fashioned snap trap if I were you.

Dear "me", every place has its own unique problems. I think once you compare them, the choice is clear.

New York: Rodents, bedbugs, high rent, noisy hipsters...

California: Earthquakes, forest fires, landslides, health food...

Middle America: Floods, unemployment, methamphetamines

Florida: Hurricanes, sunstroke, elderly drivers

Boston: The Irish

So, you're probably best off in NYC.

BP--I noticed you mentioned a pet bird. Please also be careful of poisons that are placed around on the floor. I don't know if a professional exterminator would use that method but if you ever have your bird out of the cage and he gets on the floor...well, you can see where I'm going. (I have two budgies and watch out for that stuff too).

When I had mice I had to get someone to move my stove out and plug up the holes in the wall with steel wool. I also plugged up the spaces in between my undersink cabinet and the wall. After that (knock wood) no more mice since last year.

Great rodent stories, and I do hope you are successful with getting rid of the critters. I do want to urge you to call 311 and ask them for the number of the city agencies -- there are more than one -- that regulate landlords and such and MAKE YOUR LANDLORD'S LIFE A LIVING HELL UNTIL HE/SHE FIXES THE PROBLEM. Every single time you hear the sound of vermin scratching, call and report your landlord. Believe it or not, the city actually responds and will have an inspector call or come out to follow up with you and your landlord will get cited. Do not let this go because of fear. Too many people in this crazy city (that I love, by the way) put up with CRAP from landlords because most of us are desperate for decent housing. DO NOT back down on this issue. Living with filthy, disease-carrying vermin is NOT acceptable. All of us here in NYC have been drinking the landlords' Kool-Aid believing that "nothing can be done" and other such foolishness. Be unrelenting. And forget that humane crap too. Kill the nasties and force your landlord to provide a vermin-free living environment.

Dear 'me',

I live in the Upper East Side in a nice building in what is supposedly a nice part of town. I got a mice infestation after a year. Coming from San Francisco, this was quite surprising and upsetting.

What was more surprising was that everyone I told this to in this city reacted in one of the following manner:

- apathy
- acceptance
- empathy

Not ONE NY'er I spoke to was shocked or disgusted, which surprised me even more. After a couple of months, I accepted defeat and moved to another apartment.

My friend was recently infested with bedbugs. The reaction by the people in her neighborhood was similar. No shock. No surprise. Empathy and good wishes though, which leads me to believe that mice and similar vermin like bedbugs are a common enough occurrence throughout this island.

I'm crossing my fingers, but I'm thinking that the rodents and the filth of this city will eventually drive me back to California.

Btw, isn't this the second mouse-related thread on AT in the past two months?

I truly feel awful for anyone living with this problem - not nice at all

But the whole hearing them downstairs and not hearing them upstairs is due to several things - first sound tends to travel down more than it travels up anyway - also they are actually walking on the bit of ceilling next to you not upside down on the bottom of the upstairs floow - and ceilings tend to be plasterboard and thin whereas floors tend to be wooden board and thick and usually have carpet and possibly underlay as well - you'll always hear then downstairs much louder than you will upstairs...

I live near the Big Dig in Boston, and our neighborhood had a problem with displaced rodents for several years as a result of the demolition. When our building developed a rodent problem, I met with the owner and explained that rodents chew through wood and wiring, and could create structural problems or electrical fires. He hadn't been too concerned with my sanity, but he was very concerned with possible damage to his investment. You might want to try this approach with your landlord before threatening him with legal action.

I just wanted to clarify, that my battle with the little beasts was with my landlord's (and an exterminator's) help ... she is very good to me in general, and as she and her family live downstairs, they were going through everything I was ... in fact, they even stopped cooking in their apartment altogether to try and help the matter. We had the exterminator in the building 3 times in about 6 months, but the problem was as soon as they would clear out (and honestly ... he mostly just put down poison which they quickly either ignored or developed an immunity to), more demolition in the neighborhood would bring a whole new pack in.

1) I wonder if male cats are more effective than female cats since they tend to 'spray' more to mark territories.

2) I've been sleeping with ear plugs for the past several days just so that I can have some sleep.

3) I've purchased the Pest-a-Cator and will keep my fingers crossed.

4) I am drafting a complaint letter to my landlord since previous communications have all been phone calls. Hopefully they will take it more seriously this time.

I really appreciate all your comments and am shocked that so many people have to live with this problem. Could people recommend some exterminators that they have good experience with? I think it is unacceptable that we pay so much more than anyone else in the country and have to put up with this. Even though I love the charm of pre-war buildings, this whole saga makes me feel that the next time I move, I’ll try a newer building and hopefully, they are better with this issue.

Hi Grace ... I hate to tell ya, but my building is only 5 years old. And the problem started at about year 3. So ... it happens everywhere ;-)

Thanks for those who answered my question about the prevalence of this problem. As much as I love the city, I am becoming more concerned about moving. I have applied to two grauate programs there, one which is my top choice and has one of the only faculty working on my interest area. If I am accepted, I really want to attend. But to come home every day and battle rodents? Even for five years? I don't know if I can handle it. Im sick of Boston. Other options are DC, Baltimore,and Ann Arbor (close to home). *sigh*

Sigh ... I moved into an apartment in an older home about 3 months ago in the suburbs of Philly. I've lived in Philadelphia and had mice on and off for years and, to be honest, they've never bothered me too much. Used both exterminators and my cat to rid the places and saw an occasional mouse. Somehow or another tho, mice have entered into my walls here (about 2 weeks ago) and it's driving me INSANE. Haven't seen a single one but at night, when I've finally drifted off, they start in. Called the exterminator and he sealed off a basement hole and placed bait and traps throughout the basement & in my apt. Found no evidence of mice within my apt. Still the noise continues ... today I bought Victor sonic repellent ... no change. HELP!!!!! Oh, and I have a cat - he seems as frustrated as me.

HI EVERYONE I HAVE BEEN IN MY HOUSE FOR 3 YEARS. THE FIRST WINTER I WAS HERE I HAD NOT A MOUSE ONE,BUT LAST YEAR AND THIS YEAR I GOT THEM.I HAVE BRAND NEW APPLIANCES AND THEY HAVE ALREADY TORE THEM APART MY NEIGHBOR HAS THREE CATS AND PILES HER TRASH TO THE SKY OUTSIDE. I AM GOING CRAZY TRYING TO KEEP EVERYTHING CLEAN AND WITH TWO KIDS I AM REALLY GETTING TIRED. LIKE I SAID THEY ARE IN MY STOVE AND REFIGERATOR AND NOW I AM SEEING THEIR DROPPINGS ON MY COUNTERS. I DID CONTACT MY LANDLORD BUT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HAS SAID ITS NOT HIS PROBLEM, SO I HAVE CONTACTED A HOUSING INSPECTOR SO WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THEM IN THERE STOVE AND IF SO HOW DO I GET THEM OUT? I HATE ANY KIND OF RODENTS AND WILL SCREAM WHEN I SEE THEM MY KIDS LAUGH. PLEASE HELP I AM AFRAID MY KIDS WILL GET SICK FROM THESE DIRTY LITTLE INVADERS.

I have heard about mouse bait that kills the mice by dehydrating them. And this relates to the smell. Apparently if they die in the walls, they don't smell because they don't have much moisture. Nice, I know

I just moved in to a new apartment, and realized I might have a mouse problem after I cleaned some droppings off the floor when I moved in. I havent seen any yet, but I certainly hear them, mostly under my floor. Sounds bigger than a house mouse, but I'm trying not to think about that! I had maintenence come in immediately after I realized I had some and fill holes/cracks with steel wool and foam. Im having them come today and move my stove and fridge to see if there is any enterances there.

Does anyone have any comments on those ultrasonic devices? Ive heard alot of them dont work (the FTC put out a warning not to buy them), but Ive also heard some people say some DO work...any reviews? Im deathly afraid of mice and will do ANYTHING to get my apartment free of them (I'm allergic to cats).

Also, if Im in a large building, is it possible to EVER get rid of them or will they always come back?

Any comments, suggestions are appreciated!

Amelia

I have a rat problem due to the drought. The best and most humane method I have found is a .22 loaded with ratshot. Kills them instantly and they don't suffer like they would with poison, also the ratshot won't penetrate walls etc. My dogs also are useful. I realise this is not an ideal solution for an apartment but if you are desperate...

Hey guys after reading all this problems people have has scared the living shit out of me, unlike all u guys i live in CANADA lol in Toronto. have been in this house for about all my life for actually no about 8 years but its about 20 years old the house. in the past we have not have much mice problems u know once there once not but we have a cat and a dog but mice never come here or anything, we may see their little poo somehwere but yeah thates about it. Although in the celing they wont shutup now after reading this i dunnt know if its mice birds or wasps :S your all scaring me i cant sleep its only from the upstairs whihc prob means they are in the attic because u cant hear them downstairs and they juss it seemes like they makign a hole not running what is there to do about this nasty shit i need MY SLEEP ?????? please guys HELP????

Thanks I have gleaned lots of info from here. My problem is I live in a apartmentbuilding built back in 1928 . there are many holes in the base board ( way too many to plug) to compound the problem there is a alley with dupmpsters and a resturant behind me. I discovered I have mice living in my closet. My landlord insisted on poison bait. however they have been eating this bait for almost 2 weeks with no ill effect. I went out an purchase the "better mouse traps " by intruder and was able to catch one the first night with peanut butter, but there are more I have seen . What is really upsetting is opening my dresser and finding it filled with mouse poo and having to throw all my clothes in the laundry. I currently have cotton pads with pure peppermint oil in the drawers of the dresser. Any Ideas?

I am really frustrated with my little visitors now. I was able to catch one with traps but now the othe one, who is quite bold I might add-sticks his head out from under the closet door to see what I am doing first and then runs out, has become trap shy. I mananged to catch one of his friends the other day and he has not gone near a trap since even though I move them as mentioned. He eats dcon everyday and still lives on laughing at me. I had to totally empty my dresser out of clothes. He likes to nest in there and go to the bathroom. I tried the peppermint oil cotton balls on in the drawers and he just laughed at me and took his meals and bathroom breaks in there anyway. I am at my wits end. Does anyone have any nmore ideas.

Well, I know how alot of people are feeling. I just started the mice battle a few days ago. They got into my stove, and were living in the insulation of the stove. I caught two of them with glue traps under the heating elements. Then a third one appeared and has managed to avoid all the snap traps and glue traps. ( I have both black and standard snaps). The apartment complex replaced my stove since it was full of mouse doo.

My apartment complex has called an exterminator and he is coming out tomorrow... Then the maintenance supervisor and the exterminator are going to be searching my apartment for entry ways (found one, behind the heater along the bottom of the wall in my kitchen). The mice are getting everywhere in my kitchen and branched out a little into my living room. Its hard to ever even want to cook anything because everytime I go into the kitchen there is doo all over my counters... Guess I will be eating out forever, and most likely moving.