About Mouse Traps

As I explain below in "Mice Control = Mouse Traps" finding the right mouse trap is the key to controlling an infestation. Whatever you do, don't use mice poison on mice, because they will crawl into your walls, die, and stink up your house for at least a month. Why not substitute mice poison with a havahert trap and relocation?

How to Get Rid of Mice

To tell you the truth I've never really had the urge to actually get rid of mice. There's a story here. You see, when I was still shacked up with a friend of mine in a house that had a picture that was regularly used by the social work department as an illustration of subpar housing, I found one day that we had a mouse. It was a little baby mouse. He would come into my room late at night and nibble around on the leftover pretzel crumbs I'd left by my computer. Eventually our friendship blossomed and he would come right up to me in the middle of the day and beg me for Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. And that's what he would get, Peanut Butter Captain crunch. Well, sure enough a few months later I started hearing scratching in the walls and things getting knocked over in the kitchen. To my dismay, my little mouse friend had a family. I was conflicted. It was good that he had found the love of his life and made a family with that special mouse, but they were everywhere. That's when I decided I needed to find a way to get rid of mice. I'll spare you the details about my experience after using poison to get rid of mice, and tell you never to use mouse poison because you don't know where they're going to finally kick the bucket--and it's usually in hard to reach places. So, without further ado and my own idiocy aside, this is what I've learned about mouse control.

Natural Mice Pest Control

Havahart mouse traps, in my book, are the best kind of mouse trap available--the most humane way to get rid of mice. They don't harm the mice, which means you can release them later without having to worry about any damage you might have done to them. Of course, at $14 a pop, it's not hard to see that controlling a large population of mice could get expensive with Havahart mouse traps. Still, I would recommend live mice traps before mice poison any day.

A good mouser is probably your third best option for a chemical or snap-trap free solution to mouse control. Female cats are the best mousers, and if you don't have an allergy to pet dander, they make great companions--sometimes. Try to avoid Siamese cats. I've had nothing but trouble with them. Perhaps a Bengal Cat would make a good mouser considering the very small generational gap between them and their wild ancestors?

Getting Rid of Mice

The best way to get rid of mice is to make your home as uninviting to them as you can. Before you throw down some poison, make sure you understand how to keep mice out, natural forms of mice repellent:

Cleaning your room is the first step towards getting rid of mice. If you leave clothes lying around or objects on the floor, it gives any pest (mice included) a place to hide and more courage to migrate from one place to another in your home. Don't leave pretzel crumbs on your floor. "Tickles" (that was his name) loved pretzels.

Maintaining a clean kitchen will help you get rid of mice. Mice are scavengers, and as such they eat whatever food you leave lying around. Crumbs, seeds, vegetables; whatever scraps you leave laying around, mice will eat it. Whatever you do, don't buy Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. PBCC is to mice what brains are to zombies.

To get rid of mice, keep all foods in proper, sealable containers. A clean kitchen isn't enough. Mice are attracted to the scent of food. So, make sure you properly seal all of your non-perishable goods, except for Peanut Butter Crunch. That should go in a special safe next to your shotgun.

Knowing how to get rid of mice means knowing where they can get into your home. The average mouse only needs a hole a quarter of an inch (1/4") in diameter to squeeze through. Make sure you seal your doorsills, cupboards, walls and any places where mice might come in.

Getting rid of mice is about sealing off your home and not tempting mice. Make sure your home is sealed tight. Check your foundations to make sure pieces of it aren't missing. Make sure doors and ground-level windows are sealed correctly. If you find any discrepencies, use putty or caulk to address the problem before mice get into your home, your walls, and (sniff) your heart!

Mice Control = Mouse Traps

The key to killing mice and really controlling mice is to find a good mouse trap. Now there are such things as live mouse traps. There is a picture of a Havahart life mouse trap in on the right sidebar. Those are good mouse traps, and it's nice to be able to keep the mouse alive, but when it comes time to release them--do you really want to drive 20 miles in the hopes that the mouse won't come back? The mouse's tendency to return to your home is the reason why people use poison free mouse traps.

The problem is finding the right mouse trap. I recently purchased a mouse trap to catch just one mouse, and when I finally did, that damned trap nearly decapitated the mouse. So, in the morning my girlfriend walks into the kitchen, comes out screaming, and shows me the pool of blood this mouse trap had caused. Needless to say, I threw the other mouse trap away. The point is, you want to find a mouse trap that has just enough tension to make a clean break when it comes down on the mouse's spine, but not so much tension that it seperates one part of the mouse from the other. That's a big mess. So, do your research before you buy your next mouse trap. You may spare yourself a scaled down reenactment of the French Revolution in your living space. Apparently Victor makes a good mouse trap. I'll have to remember that next time.