We have quite a few birds and actually had mice living inside the big flight cage so
they were closer to the seed. I actually killed a good number by hitting them with
my fist and other hard objects. I finally got fed up and got in an extermination
company and got rid of the resident mice with "bait stations". However, the bait
stations continued to be emptied so I had them do a complete perimeter survey and
they found the entry points where the bricks had come lose in the foundation. I
hired somebody to come and go completely around the house cementing everything down
and tuckpointing. In our house in the country (the dacha) that we rent out the
renters without cats hired this same company and he went around filling in every
hole. Evidently there were 40 years of mice sliding their greasy little bodies thru
the holes and peeing everywhere in addition to the turds. We had no idea there were
so many mice running thru the house. I am hoping it is still mouse free, the current
tenants have a couple cats so that may help. So I am wondering if our house also has
the "trails" that outside mice still use to find their way in. Our exterminators
come now every 3 months and they are still finding bait stations empty. They are
still getting in somewhere. Every so often I catch a whiff of dead mouse, probably
in the basement.

I had a problem with squirrels because they ate their way into the next door house
(unoccupied while the AH across the street dawdled while trying to "flip" it.) When
the new people tore the roof off the porch (main nest) and booted the rest out the
squirrels came next door and started eating their way into our house. 4 times we put
new wood, metal sheathing and finally heavy metal barriers and they still found new
ways. I got a trap and killed 12 of them last year, 4 this next. I have killed
every single one that has any memory of eating their way into a house and there are
no further attacks. Every time I see a squirrel climb my little cornus kousa (to
jump onto the roof of our porch) I set the trap. There have been no attacks on the
house this year.

INgrid

On Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:11:00 -0500, "Mike" wrote:
I had same problem. I would go with the extermination route because the
problem doesn't go away for good and the mice will keep coming back. The
exterminator will place the appropriate traps both exterior and interior and
can get into places you can't. Mice were gone very quickly. The
exterminator comes back every 3 month to refresh the traps. Problem solved.

Mike

Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan
on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago