I would put a baited trap in the cupboard.

To keep your kitties safe, please don't use poison inside or outside your house. If your cats find mice when alive, they'll also find them when dead and will suffer the same fate.

If you're serious about ending the problem, you need to seal the house and use what's called enclosed or covered traps inside and out to kill to end the infestation. Anything short of that won't be effective. Remember that rodents multiply quickly. Half-measures won't work.

Any house can be sealed. If yours has many openings, I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to do something about that with or without an infestation. If such a campaign is beyond your ability, hire a pest control company to do it.

Good luck.

Thanks for your responses.

I can't bring myself to put out traps - the spring kind that will result in me having to release dead mice from it. I know - call me crazy.

I agree about not putting poisons out; keeping my pets safe and healthy is far more important than a few mice. I just wondered if, perhaps, the cats might not be interested in a dead mouse, because they really like to stalk and catch and play with a live mouse (ewww). But - you're right - it's just not worth the risk.

Yes, I will likely call a company to seal gaps in the foundation. Not the answers I was hoping for, but the answers I was expecting.

Thanks again - I can always count on the KT!

I use live traps. I had a mouse in a cabinet last week and I took out a lot of the contents and reset my live trap up in there. It took two days but he finally tripped it and was captured. We took him outside and released him. And we found the little gap in the bottom of the cabinet where he was getting in there after climbing up the TV. Stuffed that with steel wool and hopefully the problem is solved. Because we have cats and dogs, I will not use any poisons or snap traps because I don't want anybody getting sick or a broken paw. In the cellar, you could set up some bigger live traps just using garbage cans and some good tasty food for bait. Put the can next to something that they could climb up and then they will jump into the can. Then they are trapped and can't get out until you take them someplace and then turn them loose.

There are enclosed traps that you don't even have to see the mouse just throw it in the outside trash. We used some of those in the garage at our Dallas house. We had corn fields behind us and in the winter after harvest the little buggers wanted in the warmer garage and house. The sticky traps work too but definitely get the enclosed ones because pets can get paws stuck to them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Enclosed mouse traps

First, cut them off from sources of food! Move and contain the food and seal off any access to it for the mice. Crumpled aluminum foil or steel wool stuffed into small holes usually does the trick... like the spaces where pipes enter the house.

I'm in the PLEASE don't use poison camp! My mom won't use traps that kill so she just got a have-a-heart trap for mice -- it captures them live and you can then release them elsewhere. :)

In the middle of my kitchen floor? Day before yesterday, we came home to orange peeling strewn about. In the evening, the cats and both heard something? over there, under the chair. Next morning, dead mousie in my kitchen floor. Poor thing. He did have a bag of my pistachios beside him, so maybe he enjoyed a good last dinner.

I agree no poison. Not with kitties! Just throw the whole trap out, no need to open it. If you're going to deal with dead mice either way (dead on your floor or in a trap), then trap is good so kitties don't eat it.

I would never, ever use a sticky trap. Ever. Those are just terribly cruel. Mice and other have been known to chew off a body part to get free. And even if not, they just stick there until they die. Those things should be outlawed, in my opinion.

But the enclosed traps, yes, I'd use those. It I think I will call a few masons to see what it'd take to seal the little buggers out.

I have no problems killing mice. We use the old fashioned mouse traps and bait them with peanut butter. We don't have to worry about cats finding them and our dog is 70 pounds so we just place the traps behind heavy appliances where the dog can't go. We also have some in the crawl space and along the top of the inside wall and on top of the HVAC ducts.

We don't have a major problem with them. We've never even found evidence in the kitchen, only in the basement where they seem to wander when the weather gets cold and every fall we catch 1 or 2.

Our vacation home sits on 100 acres of forest so we also have outside bait stations. These are the size of a shoebox with an opening sized for a mouse.

For every mouse that you're aware of, there are many, many more. Mice can cause a great deal of damage to a home...eating the insulation from wires, using house insulation for bedding, gnawing through wood, plaster, and drywall. They defacate everywhere and die anywhere.

What should frighten you is their horrifying rate of reproduction. That equates to a very unhealthy, even dangerous environment for you and your pets.

Find a reputable pest control company to help you with this. You might want to interview a few to find one that communicates with you the best. You want them to exterminate the mice already in your home plus seal it against the entry of future invaders.

Years ago I kept an open box of Milk Bones under the kitchen sink for our dog. The treats started disappearing really fast. It seemed as though I always had Milk Bones on my shopping list. I lectured DS and his pals about not giving so many treats to the dog.

We decided to add a shower to a powder room that backed to the kitchen. When the contractor started breaking into the wall in the powder room I heard him laughing. The space between the two walls was *packed* knee high with Milk Bones. Ms. Mouse was getting into the under-sink cabinet via the water pipe hole and had a supply to last many generations of mousies.

In this house we have twice in a dozen years heard mice in the attic and use bait. They die and shrivel to nothing -- never an odor. (Since our dog has never 'done stairs', he's in no danger.)

There's a saying about mice that says, "Don't blame the mouse. Blame the hole." (In other words, it's your fault.)

Chisue, you are lucky you didn't have an odor with the dying mice. Many years ago I had a terrible smell coming from a bedroom wall. A friend told me it had to be a mouse that feel from the attic. It took several weeks for the smell to go away. In that particular house, mice were a problem. I had a cat that caught one indoors and traps killed the others. I refused to reuse the traps, I just picked them up and put them in the outdoor garbage.

My mother in law could not figure out, where the mice came in. After the house was sold, the new owner found a spot, sealed it with "great stuff", the expandable spray stuff, and no more mice.

It was a small crack, between the house, and the footing.

Moni

Poisoned mice or rats when sickened, leave their homes and travel away to die. a cat finding such poisoned rodent will also be poisoned if it eats it. Poisons are effective on rodentns, but are also a danger to your and your neighbor's pets. A predator such as an owl or hawk will also suffer a poisoned fate if it consumes the sick rodent.

Trapping the little buggers either by killing traps or live traps is effective in reducing the incursion. Your residence's entry points must also be sealed to prevent re-entry of new rodents. As you remove the present occupants, new ones will eventally replace the old ones.

Mice are particularily invasive at this time of the year. They are looking for a snug place to ride out the coming winter, and one with food is to their liking.

If you keep bird seed within the garage, it will attract mice. Put the bird seed in mouse tight containers such as heavy plastic buckets with tight lids. I have saved a couple of bird seed buckets from a few years ago. These work great, but unfortunately, I haven't seen any bird seed packaged in buckets lately. A good alternative are buckets used to package driveway blacktopping. These clean out with water if cleaned before the stuff dries.

And for seed storage you can also ask restaurants or delis if they have any food storage buckets with lids they would like to get rid of. DH gets pickle buckets from a deli near work. Put a couple of charcoal bricketts in and close the lid for a few days and the smell goes away. Or reuse cat litter jugs. Hope you get the mouse problem solved.

Mice! Ggrr-r-r-r!

They chewed holes in my bag of cookies, ate (or, more likely stashed quite a few of) all but the first few that I got to first ... and ... as I tell folks who are unhappy at my veggies having chew marks, or the eruptions on beans and other veggies that result from piercing insects, etc. ... the critters eat first!

Chewed and emptied a bag of pasta ... found some, later, under the chesterfield/couch.

I used large Folgers or M H coffee cans to keep them out of the cookies. And gallon ice cream buckets.

They chew holes into paper flour and sugar bags.

When my telephone quit - they'd chewed not only the insultation (actually "insulation") ... but the wire, as well. Twice! Same with speaker wires from the stereo.

My landlord gave me some bait, which I used in the house, as the cat does not come in there - they wouldn't touch it. They spurn (almost always) both the Tin Cat and the snap-traps, baited with peanut butter, or a date, or a nut. I did catch a mouse that has been confined for an extended period to the bathroom the other day. I have no problem with taking the trap to the garage and dropping the contents near the cat's food dish ... they disappear.

Recently, while working in the garden, the cat often brings me a mouse or two a day, and has some enthusiasm, but not much, for having me drag it by the tail near her.

They get up into my desk, and chew papers, sometimes, that seem to have nothing to do with food.

Also rats ... that chewed a corner of the door from the basement into the kitchen. They chew large holes in cardboard boxes, and the other day chewed a hole about an inch and a half across in the lid and the top of the barrel of a gallon plastic pail for ice cream where I'd kept the cookies. So much for that deterrent!

So ... now I'm keeping the cookies ... the sugar ... and flour ... and pasta, including KD ... plus breakfast cereal in those large thicker plastic tubs that are used for storage. Son and his friend have some stored here, so I'm using them temporarily, but will have to get several of my own ... got one, with some other needed things, at an estate sale, the other day.

A (larger) rat trap caught a rat a while ago - it wasn't snapped in, but lying beside it, with a bloody nose, so I guess the trap had hit his head so hard that it did him in. And another, caught in the snap trap: he didn't lie around long in the shed, after removal from the trap.

Having heard some squeaking in a corner by the cupboard (the overhang from the base isn't blocked) the other day, I saw one run out into the room ... and when I gave chase ... quickly turned and ran back. Haven't got that situation investigated fully, yet.

I need to ask some who are more familiar with the game as to whether one needs to boil, dip into water treated with bleach, or otherwise treat such a trap after it's caught one, as there may be a scared message left by the deceased which would scare off others.

I was going to say that these beggars don't even pay room and board ... but they don't even "beg" - just damage the property by "chew and grab" kind of burglary!

End of rant.

Well ... not quite!

They have chewed scores of pieces of foam out of old uncle's recliner in the living room and left them lying scattered on the floor. Set a trap - they ignored it. Tried to block their entry - they found a way around. Didn't think to attach aluminum foil all around the bottom - likely need several layers. Will have to try that ... but it's probably too late, as I figure that they've likely ruined it.

End of rant ... I guess. For now, anyway.

ole (sometimes less than more) joyful

Use Spin Traps. I got mine from Lowes. Bait it with peanut butter. You can tell when you have caught one. Just toss the trap in the trash. You will never have to see the mouse.

Earlier in the year I had a mouse problem in the kitchen. I already knew they were in the basement. Then I had a fender bender and when they took off the rear quarter panel of the car they found a mouse nest! Later I found evidence that a mouse had been inside my car. After I traded the car (yes that was one of the reasons) I haven't had anymore mouse problems. Strange because the garage is detached from the house.

Caught two mice in snap traps lately ... and two rats.

The cat eats the mice, but wouldn't eat the rats, so they'll be dug into a corner of the garden.

o j

Why bury the rats o j?

Fewer flies ... fewer maggots.

(Maybe) rats rot quicker underground ... enrich the soil.

(People do, too - but we usually box them).

o j

I have never had a mouse in the house, but almost every day I find a dead mouse or a vole....I think that is what it is...has a shorter tail than a regular mouse. ??? One of the cats kills them and brings them to the sidewalk. Since they are fresh dead and I don't put out any poisons, I feed them to one of the possums I am raising. That is their number one favorite food.

You might put clumps of cat hair (from a groomer) in likely places-
by the dryer vent, etc.

Hi Sylvia from taxes,

...just don't call your place a "cat house", O.K.?

o j