apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

sorry-- but I find all the sympathy for disease-carrying rodents a little ridiculous. They spread illness. You have a child. Kill the mouse and be done with it.

I repeatedly caught the same mouse over and over in an old apartment. I put my plastic, kitchen garbage can next to the refrigerator without a bag in it. The mouse would climb the back of the refrigerator to get into the garbage can, but couldn't get back out. I would let it go outside, and watch it promptly bound right back to the house, where I would catch it again the next day. Stupid me. Stupid mouse. Happy Hunting.

You need to borrow a cat. She has to be a proven mouser however; cat's that haven't been taught to hunt by their mothers or by necessity will not catch mice. We have a kitty who lived on the mean streets of Albany, GA until she was rescued. How she got to Cali is another story. Anyway, she is absolutely fearless and will even go after rats and possums if they invade her turf. Find a friend who has a good mouser, ask to borrow her for a week or so, and goodbye Mickey.

Please don't let the "humane solution" detract from the job at hand. You must get rid of the problem...or find another place.

chrisB shared a funny story about the mouse who couldn't get out of his garbage can unassisted, which made me wince... because I've seen mice (*shudder*) jump. Sorry, I'm still for ending it quickly for them.

I have to say, I find the whole "humane" thing a bit much. This is a disease bearing rodent. It's not an animal that is being raised for food and being held against its "will". Kill the damn things.

We recently had a mouse problem. We used the d-Con covered traps with a piece of turkey bacon (? - we set the traps on a Sunday after brunch). We got two mice in 5 days.

Maxwell:

It's no wonder you haven't caught the little troublemaker ... the plug-in sonar thingie drives them away, so they won't investigate your traps! Turn the thing off tonight before you go to bed (you can use it AFTER you've caught him, to ward off any future infestation). And try not to get up in the middle of the night every hour to check the traps ... give them dark and quiet and silence through the night (well, as much as you can with a baby) ... and perhaps you'll have something in the morning. Good luck!

A cat is the ultimate mouse killer. Seriously, borrow one - or get one for good, they're sweet. Good luck Maxwell!

I agree with Jane that you shouldn't use the sonar repellent at the same time as the traps (or at least, not as a test of the efficacy of the traps!).

i once caught a mouse at my grandma's with a triangular sticky trap with peanut butter smeared inside. it's a long paper strip of sticky tape on the inside folded with 3 sides so it makes a tunnel. he got stuck in there alive. worked the 1st night.

try peanut butter :)

p.s. you look waaaaaaaay more handsome in real life

i had a mouse jump out of my trashcan so i don't know so much about that method. i never thought they could jump until i saw it in my kitchen before my eyes.

traps don't work well on clever nyc mice. you need to get at the root of the problem...where they enter your apartment and fill every nook and cranny with steel wool. if you have big holes in your plaster, like around kitchen plumbing, stuff them with steel wool (you have to push the steel wool in as deep as it will possible go, use a hanger or stick) and then use the spray foam filler on top of that. also, buy one of those strips for the bottom and sides of your front door where they can squeeze under.

good luck!

I've heard that they HATE Bounce dryer sheets.
Perhaps you could keep a few sheets under carpet/rugs and under the cabinet shelf liners.

Those plastic victor snap traps are useless. We have lots of mice in our cabin upstate, and we've used those traps, the basic wooden traps, and these black plastic reuseable traps with a yellow snap bar. (The link is the only picture of them I could find--it's from Australia, but our local hardware store sells them.)

We've been using all of these traps for about two years and the Victor snap traps have never, ever caught a mouse. The wooden ones work once in a while, and we almost always have one or two mice in the black plastic ones. We fill the bait cup with peanut butter and stick a raisin in it. They're the best by far. (And easy to release and reuse.)

I like to think these snap traps are relatively humane because they kill instantly, not like the glue traps or poison.

Flic -- French slang for a policeman

Flick -- originally British slang, a film (movie, moving picture)

Im also curious about the catch and release suggestions. Where would you release the mouse so that it wont end up in someone else's building? Do you drive it to Jersey?

LOL SleepyDweller. Mouse elimination, Soprano-style!

Tie the mouse to a brick and release it in the East River!

Yes, SleepyDweller and I need to know where one releases these captured mice when you use the live traps in NYC. If you aren't taking them to an area where there are great distances and mouse habitat between houses, you're just passing the problem on to someone else. Plus, the relocated mice will very likely quickly be killed by the very territorial resident mice. How's that for karma?

I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where the dolphin is released to the ocean with great fanfare and is immediately gulped up by an orca.

I heard the Bounce dryer sheet story from an Aunt who lived on a farm. On a farm it may or may not have discouraged them from coming in the house when there was plenty of other places to feed and nest. I suspect it's just a modern myth. It does mask the mousey odor you may have, but my experience in NYC is that it didn't work to drive away the mice. Poison was the only thing that worked.

I had a mouse just like this - so clever; no amount of cheese or peanut butter could lure him to the traps (i also used all sorts of traps). He became so ballsy that he scampered out halfway across the living room floor while my dog and i were sitting on the sofa watching a movie, sat and looked at as for a second, then went further across the LR to the area behind the TV. Gross!

What finally resolved it for me was giving up on trying to catch him. Instead I removed all the traps, cleaned for the umpteenth time to remove any shred of oil, crumbs, etc from anywhere. I'd had a friend staying who'd been sleeping on the sofa and there were some crumbs under the sofa that i didn't realize were there; another lure. Then i put smelly fabric dryer sheets out on the fridge where he used to frolic and leave his calling cards. I also put some steel wool in a couple of evident holes under the sink.

Never saw him again! Not insinuating that you have crumbs and stuff around - at least not on purpose!

I once had a mouse that would jump into a box that was 13 inches high and contained single packets oatmeal. It would grab a packet and someone would jump out of the box and run under the dishwasher. These creatures are survivalists!

Be merciless, get a cat.

Roxana

The cat idea is the best, unless you're allergic. Keep in mind that not all cats are good mousers.

Humane, schmane. Pretend it's a rat instead of a cute little mouse and exterminate the thing. The excessive concern for an animal that carries disease is mind-boggling.

I lived in an infamous student apartment in Philly once with a plethora of mice. Let's put it this way, I caught at least 8 within a month and saw more. Disgusting. I have no sympathy for the creatures. I used the Dcon covered mouse traps. http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1279062&cp=&sr=1&origkw=mouse traps&kw=mouse traps&parentPage=search&searchId=19382480933. They're more powerful than traditional traps and are humane in that they kill 'em quick. They're reusable, but I threw them away b/c I had no stomach for looking at the dead mouse.

Maxwell, you must get rid of the mouse/mice and quickly or you could find yourself housing a second family.

If you're using traps, bait them with peanut butter. Make sure you locate the traps in secluded places along your wall baseboards and behind appliances and large pieces of furniture. If you can find them, enclosed sticky traps work best as you don't have to look at the result while disposing it. Place a dollop of peanut butter on or in the center of the trap. Avoid handling or touching the traps as much as possible and do not try to create your own sticky or other trap as the mouse will pick up your scent and avoid it.

D-Con is a well known, long-lasting effective remedy for mice. If your traps fail to work, use it.

Though borrowing a cat may seem romantic and cozy, they come with their own set of problems and potential problems.

As for the sensibilities of your wife and the other commenters here, the importance of quickly ridding your home of mice cannot be understated. Mice are not homeless pets. Mice are carriers of a number of major diseases and piggyback vermin such as lime disease ticks, fleas, bedbugs, infectious bacteria and viruses. These disease risks are not only carried by the mouse but left behind in their feces which they deposit everywhere they walk. Ever heard of Hantavirus? As for catch and release traps, people who catch mice and release them elsewhere are taking major risks of infecting themselves and others and worse, exporting a vermin problem to other locations.

As some of the posters are telling you - you have to get rid of that one quickly. More will follow if you don't stop the problem NOW.
The only way to rid your house of mice is to plug the entry holes.
Then you need to have traps to catch any mice that were trapped inside your home.
You can try peppermint oil, Bounce sheets (that is a new one to me), fox urine etc...to try and keep them from returning.
But first and foremost PLUG THOSE HOLES.
You need to hurry before the weather gets cooler and they move inside for the winter.

If all of your methods are failing, you are clearly doing something wrong.

First walk around your apartment and seal every little hole (as tiny as possible, because mice can be quite small). It's safe to say that right now, the mouse is not in your apartment anymore. It has escaped the same way it came in, or another way. If it IS still in your apartment, but you have it sealed and are not leaving any bit of food around, the mouse will eventually die from starvation. You will know by the smell of its corpse.

So. First, take time to seal any openings in your home. Second, leave dryer sheets around. It's true, they work. And finally, get a cat or two! Seriously, unless your building doesn't allow it, cats are the BEST mousetraps.

But I'm almost certain that leaving all these traps around is not going to help you. The smell coming from them might just attract MORE mice.

I have the best mouse catcher:

The Rat Zapper

http://www.ratzapper.com/

It sounds terrible, but it works. If you have a mouse, it goes in there and *zap* they are dead within seconds. I think it is more humane than anything else I tried (and I tried them all!)

I don't even put bait in mine (I agree with the above comment that bait just brings in more mice...). Just leave it turned on along the wall where mice tend to follow a path and the mice seem to just run in there on their own.

It just doesn't seem to make sense to try and save a mouse. I love animals, don't eat meat, donate to the WWF - but I just can't have mice in my house. And I don't want to set them free in the park just to have them move into a neighbor's house.

Anyone else love the tip about putting cotton in mousetraps, instead of food?

How funny that Maxwell is trying to catch mice by offering them help in creating a nice home!

If you'd read my first comment, you'd have seen a suggestion for a humane trap like the one in your "OMIGOD" link.

I really don't see why this guy is getting so much press for this mouse. It's not entertaining, nor particularly enlightening. He leaves (left) food out, after discovering it, so why is it surprising the mouse returns? And really, bothersome as it is, it's a mouse! It's not like it's a unique problem or he's even done anything unique in ridding his apartment of it.

We have mice in our weekend house - unavoidable in rural areas, really - our neighbors laughed at us when we asked how to totally get rid of them. We've done the steel wool, the dryer sheets, etc., but it's impossible to find every tiny place they can get through.

So, once or twice a month we put out snap traps to discourage them.

We found that if we put traps out all the time, we caught nothing. If we staggered when we put them out, it would be a sudden mouse massacre and their activity would drop at least for a little while.

I recommend alternating cheese and peanut butter in the snap traps. Just make sure that it is tightly packed into the trap so that they have to disturb the trap to get to it.

Good luck!

Cover the basics...seal up every hole into your hole with steel wool. But this is the time of the year when a lot of mice that have been summering elsewhere trying to make a new warmer home so don't mess around.

I do feel for the little guys and think the sticky traps are just ridiculously cruel. That said, I do have cats who really prefer to torment the mouse to death than go for a clean kill. Sometimes I can intervene and relocate the mouse outside in - witness protection style. But mostly I'll find it awaiting me on the bottom of my tub, feet up.

Borrow a cat for a few days. Their scent alone will scare off all but the most courageous mouse.

Have you seen these, Maxwell?

http://www.dezeen.com/2007/10/22/non-lethal-mousetraps-by-roger-arquer/