How would a mouse get into my apt on the sixth floor?
I have one of those sticky traps. No mouse but my daughter has stepped in it twice. Other ways to get rid of it?
I’ve been here about 16 months and never saw any evidence of one before. But if it came from the neighbor’s (don’t they all? ) how would it get into my place? I don’t think it’ a window, all the screens are shut? Could it be someplace in the kitchen, like behind the counters? How about that vent from the hood above the stove?
How do they climb walls???
And is it possible to starve him out?
I admit I haven’t been as good as I used to be about wiping all the surfaces down after dinner so there’s nothing to tempt roaches… I also made the mistake more than a few times of not taking the garbage out every evening because it was too darned cold. But I’ve rid three apartments before of roaches just by being careful about food and crumbs… one little mouse can’t be that hard, can it???
Aeh, well, they just climb them. And they can squezze under gaps you wouldn’t believe.
I think the only solution is to trap it. Use a conventional “break the neck” trap with some cheese as bait, out of your daughter reach.
You could place it on the cupboard for example, the mouse will surely get up there.
I discovered a mouse in my apartment last January – after living here vermin-free for nearly 3 years! I noticed mouse droppings in a closet, and then couldn’t keep inoring the scratching sounds I heard out of the kitchen area at night
Finally, I bought sticky traps at Wellcome (I found two brands). I put them in strategic places near where I heard the sounds at night. I also put small its of food in the middle.
Caught the little bugger withing 24 hours (it happened inthe early evening). I then had to figure out how to actually kill the animal since it was pathetically stuck in one of the traps. I was afraid that if I smacked it with something really hard, it would make a mess around my hallway (as if I’m THAT strong, but still).
I took another sticky trap I had laid out and placed it on the squirming critter. I actually heard it squeak as pressed down on it from above. Then I smacked it repeatedly to end its misery. It was an altogether unpleasant experience.
I wondered about the “break the neck” traps. I passed on them becuase I actually worried about losing a finger!
Thanks Rascal and Gus. I need to go and find some new traps in the neighborhood. I could ask DH, except that he’s going to have a cow if he finds out. So if I have to catch the little thing myself, I have to choose between finding a dead mouse in my kitchen, or hearing it squeak and trying to get rid of it. Maybe I’ll pay one of the security guards to take it away for me…
Your story reminded me of my friend’s recent rodent experience. I was afraid to find out how they killed theirs. She said it was pretty awful.
Braxton, because we are related (your friend with the nice blog mentions my former co-worker and friend Kristy) I feel compelled to respond. Mice and rats are a problem. They can climb and squeeze virtually anywhere. While it may be hard to starve them out, one should definitely try. Make certain first that you’re not feeding them anything, including dog or cat food. After all, they are visiting you for a reason.
I, too, favor the break their neck variety of traps over the sticky ones, but the former are very hard to find. If you do find them, I prefer peanut butter over cheese as bait because it’s smelly and sticks to the trigger. Here’s a former discussion for what it’s worth:
you can get cage traps that, well, cage them if you don’t want to kill the innocent little things. Then you take the MRT to the end of the line, find a nice park, release.
Rats have homing beacons though so you have to take them at least a mile away, ideally to the other side of a river. I speak from experience.
No worries about the break-the-neck traps for mice, it can hurt your finger but shouldn’t break it. Be carefull with rat traps of the same kind though, they are way stronger.
Personally I think that’s a better method then the sticky traps, which appears to be rather cruel.
If you want to get rids of rats here is another way: catch one alive in a trap or nail the tail to something heavy so it can’t run away, then use some gasoline and light it up. The screaming of that rat will ensure others will stay away. Sounds horrible, is horrible but it does work - so I have been told.
The most humane and effective rodent repellent I found a few years ago was a device that you plug into the wall and it emits a light sound that keeps rodents away. I worked in a shop in a large city that suddenly developed rat problems during street construction. We bought a couple of these devices and they did the trick in a day or two. I remember you can also buy them for various insects. We bought these at a large DIY home improvement place like B&Q. I don
Thank you! I’ve had a trap out with cheese in it, but no bites. I know the little stucker is still here, or may be coming and going between my place and another…?
I have definitely seen those plug-in high-frequency sound-emitter devices here, but I can’t for the life of me remember where. The box has a drawing of a distressed rat on it, so its easy enough to recognize.
I got one of those high frequency whining plug in things and it doesn’t seem to do anything. Thing is, how can you tell between a plastic box that plugs into a socket and emits a sound beyond the range of human hearing and a plastic box that just plugs into a socket?
You never know though, maybe I’d have been overrun by rats without it (my father used to put clear plastic bottles filled with water in the back garden to “keep away the heffalumps” and sure enough we never saw none).
I think I got it at a hardware store or one of those NT50 NT plastic buckets shops.
Through a window that was carelessly left open, we had a furry, four-legged, pointy tailed flatmate move in with us for a day and a half. A day and a half only, but it was able to make its way from the 7th floor up to the 8th floor, droodle and dribble all over the place (particularly in MY space ), climb up my bath towel to nibble a hole through my bathroom window screen (where it found no route down and out), then work its way back to the kitchen on the 7th.
The mess was bad enough, but when I discovered it had eaten a sizeable chunk out of my luscious persimmon – it called for immediate action. Although not a heinous enough of a crime for me to bring myself to smash something larger than a monster cockroach, I had to get that little bugger as soon as possible. So after a quick jaunt to the neighborhood stuff and bric-a-brac shop, I returned with a nifty wire cage trap that set me back only $150.
Using my precious persimmon as bait, during the bright light of day, with another flatmate watching TV in the living room, we heard the distinct slam of the trap door as the young rat was caught wet pawed in the kitchen.
That afternoon we took a small hike up the hillside and I released it. Afterwards, I employed that trap 4 more successful times at my office, where there was a whole clan of vermin inhabiting our work space.
I believe in the live trap because I can’t stand knowing the plight of the rat once it stands on a sticky pad or eats poison. Plus they often end up evacuating body fluids and stinking up the area. A helpful hint regardless of the method: put newspaper under the trap to avoid having to clean up the nastiness that will undoubtedly ensue.
) how would it get into my place? I don’t think it’ a window, all the screens are shut? Could it be someplace in the kitchen, like behind the counters? How about that vent from the hood above the stove?
But I’ve rid three apartments before of roaches just by being careful about food and crumbs… one little mouse can’t be that hard, can it???
), climb up my bath towel to nibble a hole through my bathroom window screen (where it found no route down and out), then work its way back to the kitchen on the 7th.