apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've lived in mice-infested apartments before (one month I caught 25!). The best trick I've found to prevent them from getting in and around is to go around the entire place (both inside and perimeter walls), stuff steel wool into EVERY crack (no matter how small. I used a putty knife), and then seal with clear caulking. Make sure to check the plumbing under sinks as well as any gas pipes for ovens, and close those off as well.

They don't like steel wool - hard to bite through - but will try to push it out of the crack, hence the clear sealant.

After I did that at one century-old apartment that teemed with mice, well, no mice. A few squeaks and scurries heard in the walls, but otherwise no sign of them.

i hate recommending this, as it's gross and sad, but it does work (or has for us) every time: get one of those standard snap traps and leave it out one night with some peanut butter on it, without setting it. the mouse will eat the peanut butter and learn that the trap is just a snack station. the next night, set the trap with the peanut butter and you will have a dead mouse in the morning.

I tried the humane "tip" traps with no success. Real Goods/Gaiam sells something you plug into an outlet that emits some kind of waves that repel mice. I resorted to snap traps which did the job.

Oh noooo Glue Traps!!!

Here's a humane trap:
http://www.mousedepot.com

Instead of peanut butter, try a partially chewed tootsie roll. The mouse has to make more of an effort to get at it...unlike the peanut butter which they can lick without setting off the trap. Sounds gross, but it did the trick in my hubby's room at the frat house back in college.

The electronic thing from Sharper Image...keeps mice out before they even have a chance to get in the house.

borrow a cat.

I haven't tried this one, but it looks like it would work...without huring the mouse.

http://www.instructables.com/id/SJ6PRCPF4WXXKZ8/

Let us know how it turns out!

I honestly think the old-fashioned snap traps are more humane than glue. It's a quick death, no struggle. Set it correctly, bait it with peanut butter, and prepare yourself emotionally to be awakened by a loud and definitive SNAP in the night. Then steel yourself to get up and dispose of the mouse carcass.

Poison. This is an evil solution to a serious problem. But they will chow down on it and take it back to their nests where they will all die, the whole family.

Then make sure there is absolutely no way they can get back into your house. Sometimes this is impossible because they can get in from other areas of the building via walls, ceilings, floor, etc. But if you don't have any bait to draw them in the first place and no cluttered areas where they can nest that will help.

When it seems like there are no more, leave some traps along the edges of the walls and check them periodically. You could use live traps at this point if you wanted to.

i lived in a warehouse for a while that was FULL of mice. really brave ones too. i once woke up to one running across my pillow.

anyway, we tried catching them in a box (which i did wearing gardening gloves quite successfully) and getting rid of them, we tried glue traps which didnt work, and we tried poison cubes...those made them die slow painful deaths and we'd find half-alive mice out in the open, writhing in pain. it absolutely killed me to see them like that, so i just decided to get a cat.

two weeks later, no mice. i never saw the cat catch any of them, i just think her presence scared them away.

if you manage to catch them alive and can take them somewhere to release them, you have to go at least 5 miles away, cause they can find their way back to your house.

verdict = CAT

Whatever you use, please just don't use glue traps, they really are torture.

glue traps = torture
snap traps = so sad
poison = slow painful death and dead mice rotting in your walls
catch and release = let them go far far far away
cat = success

I also vote for a cat. Mine got rid of a mouse that took to chewing on my baking chocolate (and nothing else!) in the pantry. I wouldn't recommend using poison for many reasons, one of them being that if the mouse dies within your apartment but somewhere where you don't see it, the stench is going to be absolutely awful.

Do not use poison. That can backfire on you when the animal, as animals often do, crawls away to die in a place you can't get to. Once it's under the sink/counter or inside the wall, the flies will lay eggs that will hatch and find their way out of the hiding place (aka maggots). Harmless but gross. Then the decomposing carcass will bloom the most unique and unpleasant smell, which will not dissapate for 4 weeks. It is a loud smell, strong enough to be a presence. You won't want to go home and you certainly can't have anyone over.

In my experience just wait on those glue traps. Eventually, they all wind up in the traps.

If you do not already have a cat, you are maybe not a catperson (yes, they exist..). Therefore you may ask a neighbor or friend to rent you the cat for a day or so. Most of the time that is enough to scare mice away. Good luck.

My coworker grew up on a farm and the way her family dealt with mice was to add a few inches of water to a garbage can, rub peanut butter on the inside edge, and use 2x4s as little ramps up to the top of the the pail. The mice smell the peanut butter, scurry up the ramp, fall in the water and drown.

If the mice are nesting within an area that is unreachable they will most likely die there after ingesting poison. The decomposition will emit an odor but there is a chance it may not be detectable. Maggots can only be laid in a carcass if the carcass is accessible to flies. If you do see any zombie mice they won't have long to go. Some will die off quicker than others but they will all eventually die of massive internal bleeding. The mouse carcass is not toxic enough to anything that may later try to eat it because once the poison is digested it is no longer toxic.

We had a mouse situation which (crossing fingers) seems to be resolved... this is what we did:

1) set snap traps with peanut butter, toasting the peanut butter with a lighter to get it smelling really good
2) stuffed steel wool in all crevices - apparently if a pencil eraser can fit in the hole, so can a mouse!!
3) bought those sonic mouse repellers - you might not expect them to work, but right after I plugged them in, I saw the mouse RUNNING like crazy around the room - it was clearly affecting him.

No mice since then. Good luck with your situation, they are not fun to have in the house. I learned that you really shouldn't use the glue traps if you're concerned about being humane. The snap traps kill quickly, but the glue traps just leave the mouse stuck there to die. Likewise with poison you have the problem of the mice running into the walls and decomposing there. It's also not safe for a home with children. Get rid of the mouse's food sources, and points of entrance, and you will get rid of the problem.

Here's a really LOW TECH and NICE TO MICE solution that I came up when a bunch of mice invaded my lovely first floor flat in Melbourne. It earned me the nickname McGiver. I'm pretty proud of it:
Take a paper bag with handles on it and 1) drop a cracker or whatever your mouse likes into the bottom of it - it needs to be a tall paper bag, 2) tie a string, about 6 feet long, onto ONE handle and then put the string through the opening of the other handle, 3) lay the bag down on the side with the handle you didn't tie the string to, 4) go to sleep on the couch, bed, wherever mousie can be enticed to go where you can also fall asleep and be quiet enough not to scare the mouse and HOLD ONTO THE STRING. 5) When you hear crunching and rustling in the bag PULL UP THE STRING as FAST as you can. You should now have a live mouse in a paper bag. Take it outside, to your local animal shelter, mouse farm or wherever. Then try to keep the rest of the mice out when they hear what a nice trap you've got.

Buy a cat.

Many times I have been startled by a mouse running around in a garbage can containing the horse feed. I would suggest the method Rebecca South described without the water. Bait a garbage can, make a ramp, they fall in and you kindly take them to a new home somewhere else

Cats are not a guarantee. I have a cat and while she enthusiastically chased and caught mice (even saw one entirely in her mouth with the tail hanging out), she never successfully killed one. I kind of think she didn't want to hurt the best plaything ever.

We tried glue traps and those never worked either. Couldn't do the snap traps cause we have an inquisitive feline. We ended up catching only two - I got one under a colander and my husband lost that one when he tried to get it out from under it, and he caught one in a bunch of papers we had sitting in the craft area and crushed it between the papers as a half-accident.

My boss swears by the electronic "zap" traps that electrocutes the mice. Fast, more humane than glue traps, and, he says, easy to empty.

Me, so far this fall Cats: 1 Mice: 0 (well, I caught him before they could torture him too much and released him outside.) The only problem is, the cats get pretty confused when their toy suddenly disappears. You can see the mouse patrols going on - they are very dedicated about keeping the mouse menace out of the house. It cracks me up.

Snap traps baited with a small piece of gum drop. Like the tootsie roll, more effort is needed.

You don't want to use poison. The mice die inside your walls, and that smell is way worse than having a few unwanted pests.

the mice can also become resistant to the poison. and if they don't die inside the wall, you know what they do? bleed out on your floor--because the poison is a massive dose of anti-coagulant. a cat is the best way--the only one that has really worked for us.

also, sorry, but you are probably kidding yourself about there being only one mouse. sorry.

I vote for snap traps, the cheaper the better, baited with Skippy Peanut Butter. Skippy has the perfect amount of sticky that prevents those little suckers from just taking the bait and leaving the trap. I tried using the "have a heart" traps with organic peanut butter and I swear I saw one walk into the trap, eat, walk out, wave a "thank you" for the food, then go on about it's business. No lie.

The snap traps are mean, but so is mouse poo on your stove.

There's nothing "mean" about a mouse. Let's not give Disney characteristics to animals, please.

If the mouse problem is new and you think a few came in looking for a warm place to spend the winter (rather than the building having a colony you only just noticed)...

- Clean *everything*
- Remove all clutter/hiding places
- Seal all food away (cannisters, fridge, etc.)
- Put steel wool caulk in all cracks;
- Spray/drop peppermint oil at entry points (you can also soak cottonballs with it and stick into known mouseholes before sealing);
- Put out several catch and release traps (more humane);
- You can sometimes find a spray at hardware stores that is a compound that mimics fox urine (won't get rid of an infestation of mice, but will deter those who wander in);
- Cat or dog (we periodically had mice in our old place but our pup keeps them away - his smell, I think)... Maybe you could pet sit for a friend for a week?

The most effective thing I know of is the snap traps but smart mice will learn to avoid them, and there is the issue of disposing of dead mice.

According to this documentary I saw called Tom and Jerry, cats don't work for getting rid of mice. The mice just usually gang up on the cat, pull his whiskers, etc.

I second the caulking/sealing every crack in your apartment suggestion. After successfully catching a mouse on a glue trap (honestly the most horrible thing I've ever seen) we did that and never saw another. We also got a cat shortly after which might have helped. He's a big baby and I never saw him chase a mouse but I've been told that mice will stay away if they small the dander of a cat (same stuff that people are allergic to). That being said, do you have any friends or family members you can borrow a cat from for a few days? I know it sounds rediculous but it might work!

mice don't like the way their predators smell.

and it's green.

I think that's crap about the cat smell - our mice weren't scared one bit of the cat and she even caught them in her mouth on many occaisons! They stayed around just fine.

I think I had tough mice and everyone suggesting this had wimpy ones. =)

I was told that by someone at the animal shelter we adopted our cat from! Perhaps she was trying to convince me? Although I think we were pretty convinced we wanted a cat since we were there...

or wimpy mice :)

We just moved out of an tenement building that had an awful mouse problem - we tried sonic repellants, poison, steel wool, and glue traps with no particular success.
I will heartily and loudly second the warning against poison - you have no way of knowing when or where the little guys will eventually kick it, and often your only sign is the awful smell days after the fact. If you're lucky and they're not trapped in the wall, you still have to search them out and clean up. NOT pleasant.
Glue traps only worked the first few times and then I swear the mice got wise - plus they are horrible to deal with when they do work. Horrible.
Steel wool will definitely keep them from getting in, but you have to be absolutely certain you've found all their points of entry. We saw them get in and out of cracks smaller than a nickel that I would never have considered a viable entry point. If your building is older and falling apart like ours was, they'll always be able to open up new holes whenever you plug an old one.
The good news! The electronic zappers that Jen C mentioned really do work. We used the Victor brand "Electronic Mouse Trap". A little peanut butter on the back wall, the mouse walks into the box, and is instantly electrocuted. Way easier (and less scarring) to clean up, and the mice never seemed to catch on and learn to avoid it the way they did with the other traps. Buy one now and feel better immediately.

My cat killed a couple of mice (in the old house I was renting) one cold winter and I never saw another one. He had the first one on display so I could praise him lavishly for his skill (gotta do it, folks -- if you hire a cat s/he is going to want to get credit for being good at the job) but the second one he killed while I was at work and I found it because it began to decay and stink. So I would be very careful with poison (apart from any issues of humane killing) because you don't want the mice dying in the walls where you can't get at them.

Speaking of stinks, you have never smelled anything as bad as a dead possum under your house (this was in Alexandria, which is very close to Washington, so it wasn't the country). It took 2 guys in white suits hours to get the corpse out and spread lime, and months more before the smell completely dissipated. Anything I paid those guys was not enough for how utterly awful it was to crawl in the mud in a very shallow crawlspace and drag out a vile rotting dead animal. As my father said, "Just think of what it must have been like at Gettysburg."

Now that I've cheered you all up ..

It is interesting that a question posed about mice gets more responses than a question regarding a real design question. I can see the mice issue becoming like the bedbug one.

Shawn - would you provide a link to some info on Tom & Jerry? I'm super disturbed by this. Thanks!

Anusha73: it's because it's emotionally traumatizing to have mice and roaches and god knows what other vermin in your apartment! I've yet to be truly traumatized by bad design.

But yeah, snap traps.

Please, please, please - do not kill the mouse (or mice, as it may be). My husband's office of all places had a recent issue with mice and he and I went out and bought live traps before any other less-friendly actions could be taken. Within 2 HOURS we had the mice, released them in some nearby woods, and the office has been clear ever since, after closing up some cracks and whatnot.

Wanting to be humane is not the same as assigning "Disney characteristics" to animals. They feel pain just as accutely as we do. I'd suggest that anyone wishing to glue/snap/poison trap a mouse first take a moment as to whether or not they would do the same to a stray dog. Where's the empathy, people?

Wanting to be humane is not the same as assigning "Disney characteristics" to animals.

Huh? I never said anything of the kind. Did you read what I was writing in response to?

The snap traps are mean, but so is mouse poo on your stove.

I was saying it in response that mice are not being "mean" by pooping on your stove. Animals don't have motivations like that, and it's silly to ascribe them to them. This person was advocating snap traps, by the way.

Please don't accuse me of being inhumane because you didn't read carefully.

Borrowing a cat really is the only solution that will definitely work. In the early Spring when it got warm then cold again mice started appearing in my kitchen at night. It totally freaked me out. I borrowed my landlady's cat. She immediately sniffed out where they were coming from under the kitchen radiator, and waited there until they came out. Over two days she caught five small mice and the infestation was over. It was actually wild watching the way she would tease them, grabbing them, letting them go, grabbing them, taking them into her mouth, letting them go, then punching them down, until I could pick it up and throw it away. I'm not a cat fan, but after that, I must give them their due.

The electric traps have worked really well for me. I know that they may seem evil to some, but I could not handle the glue traps (plus I witnessed a mouse free himself from one) and I thought this to be a quicker way for the mouse to go.

I have an irrational fear of mice.
I need therapy. When I found "evidence" of a mouse in my apt a few years back I used the glue trap and enlisted the help of a friend to remove it.
THEN I went online and bought fox urine. Really. Foxes are a mouses' natural predator. When mice smell the urine they run in the other direction. I bought both liquid and dried/powdered versions and sprinkle the perimeter of my place evey few months. I haven't seen one since. I got the idea from a gardener at a golf course. Apparently lots of golf courses use it.

No, I can not smell it in or around my place.
Thought that might help.

Snap traps. I caught 8 in a week using the basic snap traps and peanut butter, and they suffered far less than via any of the other methods (including cats!). The only downside is having to throw out the trap, but even then you can just grab it with a used grocery bag and throw the whole thing out right away.

at the risk of starting a war, do we really need to worry about being humane to mice? do we care about how we get rid of roaches - or do you throw a phone book on them and call it a day like i do?

seriously, let's not personify them as these cute, adorable creatures. would we think a big, disgusting, slimy rat has the same right to a peaceful end-of-life scenario?

bye bye mickey. hope the trap kicks you in the ass on the way out.

coop,

your post is the reason why i love/hate the internet. you seriously found a place online that sells fox piss??? (nb: i googled foxpiss.com and i get something else altogether...)

I can't believe no one suggested ferrets. It's what they used 50 years ago. Those little buggers will eat up mice (and rats) so fast it'll make your head spin.

Ferrets are illegal in NYC. http://www.nycferrets.com/

I hope you read this:

1. Do NOT NOT NOT use poison. Mostly, you have no idea where the mouse will die. If it dies in your wall, you will have the smell of death behind the wall (and believe me, it's really pungent and nasty) and end up having to rip the wall apart.

2. The supersonic electronic gadgets don't work. I've tried. The only place they might remotely work is someplace without any carpet or furniture. Anything porous will absorb the electronic signal and stop it. Highly ineffective.

3. EASY PEASY HUMANE TRAP: Take a box over a foot high (alternately, use a tall plastic trash can); create a path to trash can (e.g. from window sill, or a "ramp" from floor to edge of container; put teeny tiny dab of peanut butter on topmost piece of "ramp" and more peanut butter inside container. Mice can only jump around 6-8" (I'm pretty sure), so anything taller will trap them. Once the mouse is caught, cover the container securely, drive 2-3 miles away, set mouse free. You really do need to drive 2-3 miles, as mice have an exceptional sense of smell, and if you take it only a couple blocks, it can pretty easily find its way back.

I've done this, and it works quickly and easily.

4. Glue traps. NOOOOOO. Unless you want to listen to mouse squealing when it's trapped, and you have the nerve to whack it and kill it yourself.

5. Get/borrow a cat. Make sure it's a mouser and not a cat that will consider a mouse something/one to play with.

Please! Do this. Here's a post on how to catch a mouse without a mouse trap:

http://glass.typepad.com/journal/2005/09/how_to_catch_a_.html

Where did I first find those instructions? I thought it was here, on AT - but I was dismayed to see no one in this thread has mentioned this. Hope I'm not posting this link too late to get read....

Let us know how this works!

Ah, just now I see that the post above mine does give the same humane solution. Try it! But I think you may want a taller box or garbage can than 8". Some mice can jump quite a bit higher!

I just caught a mouse in my apartment last week. I got a live trap from home depot for $4 and caught the mouse right away. He goes in a little tunnel, up a ramp which drops down inside the box, then snaps back up trapping him inside. I used peanut butter for the bait. Very easy and humane, worked like a charm!

Cats only kill mice if they were taught to kill mice by their mother. You may occasionally see photos or documentaries with cats and mice living together as friends. Those cats were not taught to kill. I have 3 cats now who would play with a mouse to death but not know how to land a fatal bite, yet alone recognize it as food. My old cat Gus enjoyed the hunt and the play and he always killed and then would eat only the head and front paws off it. The rest would be lying on the floor waiting for praise and clean up. So a cat may not be the answer. You need a particular cat.

I love the portrait of the fiesty mouse.
A couple of years ago I had a mouse that was mocking me. Ate the food out of the snap traps, played with the tip-traps, marched by the glue traps (I was that desperate), flew out at me when I opened my kitchen cabinet and (horrors) was caught lounging on my bed.
I am interested in being humane, but I don't think that relocating them is necessarily a humane solution - suddenly they are without shelter, a food source, their buddies - I suspect a lot of these relocated mice die of starvation or predators. That's why I go with peanut butter on a snap trap.
Mice are irritating - share the pain by watching Mouse Trap http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119715/ (cameo by Christopher Walken as the Exterminator)
Good luck.

Snap traps are awful, too. One winter, my roommate and I caught five mice this way - at the insistence of our landlord - and only one was a tidy broken-neck death. We came home to find others near-death in pools of blood or dragging the traps across the kitchen floor by one mangled limb.

Now I have a cat.

Get an old fashioned mouse trap and put a dab of peanut butter on it. I was told that it works better than cheese and, sure enough, it always has. Just put it in a spot that you know they frequent.

Hi,

Without wanting to add to the confusion...! I had a major mouse problem for a while when I lived in London.

I don't mean to be negative but in my experience I think its unlikely you've got just one left! If you've caught a few already that means they're in and they've bred and you've got lots. Sorry. We tried every kind of traps and baits all of which they avoided. Then we found these:

http://www.pestcontrolshop.co.uk/acatalog/PEST_REPELLERS_FOR_MICE.html

These ultrasonic repellers work brilliantly. You plug it into a socket and it sends out ultrasonic beams and also a pulse through the electric circuit. They're safe and they work really well. We had to get a few to cover the whole apartment but the investment was worth it. We never saw any evidence of them again.

Good luck!

Sorry, but I don't understand why people CARE about how a mouse feels.
I say KILL it by using a mouse-hating cat. The end.

Monkeyme,

I chose to only quote the "Disney characteristics" portion of your response because I felt it represented what a lot of people posting seem to feel - that it is silly to act as if animals have emotions. I can read perfectly well, thanks. I do apologize if you felt singled out.

Sleek,

Some people care about how a MOUSE feels because we recognize that causing them pain, especially in as torturous a fashion as trapping, is the same as causing pain to a cat, dog, horse, human... I could go on. Just because something is small doesn't mean it deserves to be killed off at your convenience. They may have a different shape and level of intelligence, but they feel pain just as we do.

-Joy R. (rescuer of chipmunks, moles, mice, spiders, bees...)

I do apologize if you felt singled out.

Thanks, I did. You didn't make that clear at all, and used an exact quote. It seemed as if you completely missed what was happening in the conversation. Be a little more careful next time?

PLEASE READ, I DON'T THINK THESE SUGGESTIONS HAVE BEEN MENTIONED YET!

We just had a mouse for about two weeks. We set a humane trap, which at first wast working. We ultimately caught the guy BUT I at first forgot something my mother taught me when we had a mouse when I was little -

1) Set the trap/handle the bait wearing rubber gloves. If human scent gets on there the mouse will be less likely to approach.

2) Hours after we switched from peanut butter to cheese in the trap we caught the mouse. Everyone says peanut butter is their fave, but in my experience they really like cheese?

3) Make sure you leave absolutely NO food out. Be OCD about it. A mouse can live on so much as a crumb for a few days. Don't leave dishes or silverwear in the sink with food particles on them. Wash every surface after you cut bread or have food out. No food out not in the trap will make the mouse be more likely to go into the trap for the bait.

Good luck!

I swear, people have thanked me since I posted this article....
http://reclaimedhome.com/?p=123

It seems the smelly things work!

joy,

do you really know that a mouse/spider/housefly/bee/etc. feels pain???

Not so sure about those ultrasonic things. I know that there have been a lot of lawsuits about claims that the ultrasonic things repell bugs. they don't . do they repell mice? I dunno. but I'd do research before I got one.

I had a friend tell me about this mouse catching technique. I didn't do it myself so I can't say if it really works. ( I have a cat). Get a 2 liter plastic soda bottle. Fill it with as many food items that a mouse would eat. Lay it on its side in a area where the mouse will find it. Theory is that the mouse will squeeze into the bottle and eat for hours and not be able to get back out. Take the bottle 5 miles away (goodnightdean) into a open field and when the mouse loses weight he will be able to get out and live in the country. Totally humane if it works.

If you use a glue trap and the mouse does not die you should really put them out of their misery.

They will pull their legs out of their sockets, get their faces stuck, etc. It's not a pleasant experience to have to go through, for you and the mouse.

All of these methods above can be avoided if you don't have mice to kill, maim, trap, etc.

But you must exterminate them first. Has anyone ever thought of hiring a pest control expert? They will come to your home, assess the situation, repair problem spots, bait, trap, erradicate and their work is guaranteed.

I've heard that if you leave out a shallow bowl of orange soda, the mouse will drink it and die. They die because mice can't burp. So they expand and... whatever. They die. Seriously.

I successfully caught one using a teacup once, and I was so shocked at finding one that I whipped off my sandal and whacked it. Liberation for the teacup mouse; instant death for the sandal mouse.

I had so much stuff in my basement ruined by nibbling mice that I don't feel bad about Death By Sandal.

My kitten liked to hang out in that basement, and then the mouse problem ended. Never saw any mousy parts. Maybe it was her smell.

I once rented an apartment in the West Village that had rats AND mice at the same time. After calling the superintendent (who attributed it to construction happening in the building and neighborhood) glue traps were placed around the apartment.

One night, I awoke due to the sound of the strangest noise I had ever heard. It sounded like rubber wheels of a bike making a high-pitched screech. After racing to the window and verifying that wasn't the cause, I followed the noise INSIDE the apartment. What I found, under an armoire, was a mouse stuck in a glue trap. It was screaming. God, it was awful! I shivered at the sound and the sight, racing in horror back to bed where I stayed buried under my pillow.

In the morning, I sickly returned to the glue trap, only to find it was empty. There was an outline of mouse fur in the glue. The critter had PULLED ITSELF OUT of the trap! It had been the victim of a full body wax! UGH!

I then called an exterminator who filled all of the areas around the heating units, and base boards with steel wool and a white powder (poison). I never saw another rat or mouse.

i also had an experience where the mouse pulled himself off the trap! this experience added even more layers to my irrational fear of mice. what an exterminator told me is that the mouse urinates on the trap and this dissolves the glue. gross.

I had a really bad mouse problem a couple of years ago. I live in a first floor West Village apt. The mgt company sent a real exterminator who found the entry by pulling out the kitchen cabinets behind the sink. He showed me the pathway - he said once one mouse makes a trail the rest follow the smell. The vermin leave a smell from their fur as they push through the walls and along the walls - you can see a dirty greasy streak. Anyway, he plugged it up and all was well. Next year the weather got cold - more mice. And worse than before. I tried the sonic sound thing - which was a joke. Then glue traps. Sorry, I don't care if they are not humane we are talking about filthy creatures who are not good for my health. The thing with any trap is that if you don't catch any in the first day or two you have to move the trap. I've even caught two on one glue trap.
The suggestions to use live bait traps in NYC are just not a reality. What, I'm going to trap a mouse, jump in a cab and ask him to drive me to Central Park! What do you tip for a ride like that?

What kind of sadist would want a mouse to die of starvation because it was glued down to a piece of paper or worse, it's neck was snapped while trying to get a piece of cheese????
Look at this:
http://www.abundantearth.com/store/mousetrap1.html
It is a safe way to lure a mouse into a plastic house where he stays until you can bring him to the woods or a park and set him free.
I have used it in my home.
Nothing is worse than watching something die or seeing it's head smashed in.
: (

And by the way.....I live in the East Village and have no problem getting to an area with grass and trees to bring the mouse too.......

throw some d's on that bitch

I'm amazed by the number of the people who advocate picking up live mice in any kind of makeshift container. Although they are living creatures, they are "wild" animals. If they get out while you're carrying them, you could get bitten, and depending on where they came from, God knows what kinds of diseases they may have (would you pick up a subway rat?).

A snap trap may not be the most humane thing out there, but it quickly gets the job done with minimal mess and pain. Just make sure to seal up any holes so they don't come back - problem solved, and you won't have to kill any others.

Be careful when making your own traps using paper bags or cardboard boxes, as some people have suggested - mice will chew through these very quickly and escape while you are trying to get rid of them. Use a plastic or metal container (like a garbage can), with some kind of cover, if you are trying to transport them.

By now I think you should have learned it's not about get rid of one mouse but preventing the problem by preventing the little home invader from taking up residence to begin with. On a rare occasion a rodent may slip in through an open door or window and get stuck but, you have to seal off your residence and get rid of all the exposed food until you rid yourself of that dreaded pest. Why would the mouse risk a potential trap when food is just sitting out ready to eat? If you have infestation you have little choice but, to bring in an exterminator and fog to get inside the hollow walls of your dwelling. If you live in an apartment or condo you really need to take action as a whole. Also, look both inside and outside for nests.

I've always prefered the old fashioned mouse trap - the kind that snaps closed. As horrible as it is, I think its 100x better than the glue trap where they just suffer horrible. The secret is to bait it with peanut butter.

In my old apartment we had an exterminator in and he used poison, the kind that they eat, get really thirsty, go outside looking for water and die. I have heard horror stories about dead mice getting caught between walls though and smelling - but that could be an urban myth.

And as for humane - mice can find their way home from up to about 1 mile away. So if you're going to pick them up and set them free, make sure you're far away. I, personally, always thought that to be rather cruel as well - taking them and dumping them in strange territory.

Good luck!

seems like the only way to rid the mice fall into these territories.

1 there is the sissy-I mean HUMANE way, this involves about a million and a half ways to secure the lil bastards, and priss away to a 'safe location. problem is for those of Us who live in the REAL WORLD, have neither the time nor the patience for this method. If you you do have the time, good for you. don't waste ours.

2 cats. yeah, cats SOMETIMES work. depends on the cat and the mouse. (tom and jerry lol) If you don't have one, or one that works, then you should go for the traps. (what choice do you have?) I have a cat that looks like mousy death on 4 paws, a narrow skull for those 'hard to bite places' radar ears for squek'o'location, and I never even see him coming if he's in a mood. (which he has yet to leave). I got a mouse problem now, and I still have the rotten cat! verdict? cats aren't surefire success. Maybe they do have to get taught? I don't know. thats an episode of mythbusters youll never see!(interestingly, chickens no longer 'brood' having their eggs taken from them soo early in their lives on massive egg farms. weird right?)

3 Poisons. like all the methods mentioned by evryone before me, they SOMETIMES work. depends on the mouse you know? there are a lot of kinds of mice, and some mice can probably take the punch. I'd recomend this before the cat. unlike pets which you invite into your hous, and are PETS, mice are VERMIN, PESTS, THEY BELONG IN THE WILD, you know, where WILD ANIMALS LIVE? IN THE WILD? If you odopt a pet, you Owe it, you chose the responsibility. not so with VERMIN! the poisons not a great choice, they MIGHT die in the walls and stink, I could quote about 40 of you for that little tidbit, because its TRUE. but thats only a possibility, and depends on the financial situation. which is cheaper? 5$ mouse trap? or 500$ drywall?

4Mouse trap yes, glue is gross, but it works. its painfull, but I'm only humane to human beings. (they don't breed soo quickly, or carry soo many DISEASES! they don't devour MASSIVE quantities of foodstuffs, necesary to support an ecosystem of Human Beings! or the human animal, if you prefer =P) I don't like these, ( I torture myself with the internet, I don't need to torture mice) but they work, and THATS the point. kill em off quickly if you can, but whatever works, gos!

5 SNap MOusetrap.
AHHH!! my FAVORITE! Snap, and your done, with minimal horror stories, if you BUY THE RIGHT KIND! Yes, You will have to kill the mouse, boo hoo, soo sad! better to kill a mouse than KILL YOUR CHILDREN THROUGH YOUR APATHY! or pet, or relative, insert whatever a mouse disease sufferable creature you want. they are humane, Mice and rats are a plague! C'mon people! the balck plague? killed 2/3s of Europe? I dislike the french, but this is rediculous!
If You take the time and money to by a decent mouse snap trap, they will not suffer. I hate the old balsawood style with the spring, go plastic! If human beings are willing to kill our own off, why the hell should we care for these PESTS? I have a responsibility to my fellow man, not to let my disease infest my neighbors! Verdict? SNAP TRAPS RULE.

and finally, the electronics. never used em, but consider this if you live in the south, or anywhere with Snakes, the rattling mice plug in attracts copperheads. I know, because a tried those as a deterent, and I wnt to the laundry room to find one in my dryer. yep, they climb through the exhause valve. I don't know why the rattle attracts snakes, and I don't much care. Id rather deal with mice than snakes.

the final verdict? for those few of us with common sense, is pretty clear. USE YER BRAIN! if something doesn't work, try another method! attempt not to be a psychopath by not torturing them, but don't be a sissy! if one of them is stuck to a glue trap, don't call for mommy and hide uner your pillow! Put the poor bastard out of his misery!

A mans house is his castle, (or cave, for the more primal of you) so man up and prepare for battle! its siege time.