I hired a pest control company about three years ago to go over my house and look for any places that mice could enter. The person used a mirror to check everything. They also put some poison in the kitchen and basement. The poison in the kitchen did get a nibble last year so I had a mouse plus there were droppings in there. No idea what happened to the mouse.
We have 6 of the commercial rat bait stations, like you see around grocery stores. Our bug service company refilled them every two months or so. I noticed one time the guy was shaking out the old remains of the rat poison bar, and leaving it on the ground.
A week later both my dogs were sick for a couple days. I cancelled the bait stations. I do not know if they ate it or chewed on some rats that ate it, I will be using the flip top bucket system soon.
My house must be on a designated 'National Possum Migration Trail', as the dogs nail more of them than anything. One of them tore up my Jack Russel so much we had to put him down.
Rick Potter
DIY journeyman,
FWW wannabe.
AKA Village Idiot.
Rick, Thanks for an important public service announcement.
I have a few hundred feet of my own wire in our basement, She leaves me alone.
I believe the rule is they can fit in an opening the size of a dime. I think the beset way to avoid them is to kill the food source. If it is not in our fridge its in plastic containers. We get lax every few years but and will get a few. We get back to hiding the food and cleaning after the kids and they go away(or at least any sign of them)
I stayed in a cabin in northern Minnesota some years ago. I was told to absolutely not remove the ultrasonic repelling devices from the outlet. Obviously, the primary occupant thought they worked.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
I had a bunch of mouse droppings in every part of everything in the shop(my garage).
I put two of those ultrasonic gizmos in the garage and the mice disappeared.
I was elated!
We put them in all 6 of our rentals, and put more inside our house and the new house we built and moved into a year ago.
When we we moving the tools and stuff out of the old shop, I ran across a snake skin that was about 4 feet long.
I strongly suspect the worlds fattest common garden variant snake lives either in that garage or close by and the sounds of the plugged in things don't bother it or the mice.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
Wife bought a combination night light, ultrasonic mouse thing a few years back. Must work as I have never seen a mouse on it, but have caught a few in other end of house. You can mix self rising corn meal, and baking soda and leave it out for the mice. When they eat it, they don't have the ability to burp, or phart. Makes life so miserable that just quit eating.
My main concern is our several cars, and I have had rats/mice in three of them. Not much damage, but damage still. I bought peppermint oil for $25, and put it on cotton balls in medicine containers under the hood of several like it shows on YouTube. About three weeks later, I cannot even smell the peppermint on the cotton balls.
So much for that idea.
Rick Potter
DIY journeyman,
FWW wannabe.
AKA Village Idiot.
Repelling is not the same as killing them. No matter what you use to discourage them, if they like the warmth and safety of your space, they will find a way to survive.
One interesting product I came across in my battles with mice, was expanding foam spray that had mouse repellent chemicals in it. For filling holes and gaps where they were getting in. They had chewed through some regular foam but not this.
< insert spurious quote here >
This will solve your problem with rodents. Bait with peanut butter, arm it, and wait for it to do its job.
Rat Zapper Classic RZC001-4 Indoor Electronic Mouse and Rat Trap - 1 Electric Trap https://a.co/d/7b1sUBY
No matter how good a trap is, it requires personal involvement. I'm in the same position as the OP: I have mice in the crawl space. I know how to trap rats and mice. What I'm having a problem with is getting my body which is getting older every day into a crawl space which is getting more uncomfortable every day. Sure I could wiggle around 1800 square feet setting and checking traps but I really don't want to.
We had good results with the electric execution traps at our old property when we had an unfortunate "invasion" of furry rodents, likely because of a barn coming down not far away for a development. They are best plugged in, but also work fine on batteries if that is available in the particular product one buys. We had to deal with this to avoid danger to our birds.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...