Mike wrote:
"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...
"Mike" wrote:
"brooklyn1" wrote:
I live in a very rural location surrounded by hundreds and thousands
of acres of fields, woods, and wet lands... every critter imaginable
lives here but I find very few rodents in my house because I don't
leave unsecured pet food around, and I have six cats... with their
food properly secured they very rarely catch a mouse and they patrol
constantly. As long as there is a food source critters will
congregate, remove the food source and they will move on, even humans.
And it's very easy to remove all food to sealed critter proof
containers... all one needs is to exercise reasonable hygienic living
habits... own a vacuum cleaner, a cleaning rag, a broom, and use them.
Applying poisons is a million times worse than a few mouse droppings,
don't you shit too... how'd you like to be executed for pooping.
I imaging the cats help too.
Cats help, but only if the cats have access to where mice are likely
to be... I leave many closet doors open, pantry and wherever
pipes/wire pass, especially at night when cats do most patroling... I
have one of those pet doors on my inside basement door too. Cats rub
up against everything to mark their territory with their scent, mice
can smell cats and stay way. Cats can smell mice too but mostly cats
have excellent hearing, much better than dogs, they can hear the high
pitched mouse sounds from a long distance... you only think a cat is
asleep, but they have their radar booted up 27/7.
I am not there that often so food isn't really
left around at all, but the house is very old with crawl spaces and is
very
difficult to sealup completely. They don't spray chemicals just place
traps
mostly around the perimeter and in the crawl spaces.
Baited traps will lure mice, even long after the traps are sprung and
gone mice will continue to come for food, you've trained them to
consider that a feeding station.
Do a better job of sealing up openings, there are all sorts of
materials at hardware stores, in fact hardware cloth is your best
friend, mice can't fit through a 1/4" hole. Wadded up chicken wire
works very well stuffed into oddly shaped holes (wadding it closes the
openings in the wire). Coarse grade steel wool works well too, and
it's dirt cheap... just remember to check it occasionally and replace
it as it rusts and disintergrates. Metal barriers are much better
than those expanding insulation foams and caulking compounds, mice can
chew through those, in fact they consider those food... use metal...
and then if you want fill the space around the metal with calk to keep
out draughts. There are many very old houses around here that have
laid stone foundations with many spaces between the stones, but a lot
of people have built a wood lathe frame all arond the interior and
staple on hardware cloth to keep critters out, including snakes... you
need to employ a little imagination, there is always a simple, safe,
and inexpensive solution. And it helps if your cat has access to your
crawl spaces. One good mouser is worth a thousand exterminators. I
have one cat that is so fearsome to mice that she only needs to stare
at them and they die of a coronary... she's so good that the Pentagon
wants to study her locking on mechanism for missle control.
Mice meet Mooch and die:
http://i48.tinypic.com/244w1lz.jpg
Thanks for the tips.
Mike
Having had cats and now having none, I'd say they make little
difference. We kept the cats in the house and out of certain areas
because of problems, e.g. a family room with a Berber carpet which the
cat raised fibers by clawing. Cat could also not get at mice in walls
and rafters. Cat would sit for hours watching wall where mouse was
scratching. In a few cases, I drilled hole in the walls and dumped in
poison.
Poison, traps and sealing entries are solution. I've recently been
stymied as to how mice are getting in a certain area of the house and
trapped a dozen but have seen none for a week. PITA but not a serious
problem.