Mice

[sneakyblueberry]

Got him! Leaving the traps out a few more nights incase he had some buddies.

This is good idea, usually there are more than one.

In our last rental we caught 5 mice in traps before we called the exterminator who set up bait traps - nothing after that.

I fucking hate mice and rats.  I'm a fairly big dude, but those things make me shiver and squeal like a wee baby. 

[Neon]

The old office building I used to work in had a mouse infestation the last winter the company was located there.  Luckily I never saw one (or traces of one) for myself, but several of my coworkers would come in and have mouse shit on their desks.  Our accounting manager found mouse piss in the paper tray of her printer.  Our shipping manager had one come out from under her desk at her and she shrieked so loud I swear they heard in the next building over.   

We called the landlord/exterminator and that helped for sure.  Ultimately we just moved buildings though (not because of the mice, but because we had severely outgrown the space we were in). 

[TempusVox]

Other than traps, preventing access is key. Walk around the outside of your house. If you have a crawl space check there too. Mice can squeeze through a hole the diameter of a dime. Fill voids around pipes, electrical or cable lines, or weep holes, or cracks with steel wool. This will keep them out.

[gmillerdrake]

Don't forget about the good ole fashioned pellet guns. I bought one for the shop, but never got the opportunity to cap one. If you really want to be a badass, get a cheap blowgun. Then you really feel manly.

I worked in the 'cart barn' at a private golf country club in high school. All the carts and member golf bags were stored there and we'd prep the carts and what not for the next morning/days tee times. Anyway, it was a large barn essentially kind of back out of the way in the woods among a couple other structures.

The two things there were a lot of were ferrel cats and freaking mice/rats. To EB's point.....we had a pellet gun with a scope and we'd have competitions shooting mice/rats. I couldn't even offer a guess at how many of those I blew away.

But, one of the cooler things we did was after someone had a good(lucky) headshot on a larger mouse/rat.....we'd put it in a cup of water.....put it in the freezer then the next day it'd be frozen in a clear block of ice. It looked pretty neat actually all gnarled up and as it'd freeze the blood and what not would float and ultimately just get frozen in a suspended position of sorts.

[El Barto]

Well that sounds like the behavior of a well-adjusted teenager. 

[El Barto]

Other than traps, preventing access is key. Walk around the outside of your house. If you have a crawl space check there too. Mice can squeeze through a hole the diameter of a dime. Fill voids around pipes, electrical or cable lines, or weep holes, or cracks with steel wool. This will keep them out.

Keeping them out is certainly the key. However, there are more places than you could imagine for them to sneak in. I read an article down here about a pest control specialist, and he works on a flat fee. You pay him 5 grand and he secures your house, offering a lifetime guarantee that you'll see no more rats. To do that he and a couple of guys spend a full day sealing up every single Point of Entry there is. Majorly time consuming. That's crawling around in the crawlspace. Sealing up the roof and all of the overhangs. Didn't really seem like something and amateur could accomplish.

[gmillerdrake]

Well that sounds like the behavior of a well-adjusted teenager. 

Yeah, no kidding  ....it was a pretty fun job actually. There were lots-o-shenanigans that were had. The evening shift was all of us high school kids and the morning shift was a group of retired St. Louis City Firemen. Lots of pranks and lots of good memories.

[kaos2900]

Well, since Thursday night I've caught 6 mice. I've since plugged where they were getting in. There can't be many left. Hopefully.