A house built in 1940 has mice. How do you get rid of them?

I lived in a rural duplex for a while not long ago and we ended up having a couple of mice at one point. We tried lots of stuff but the thing that worked the best was the D-Con no touch traps (using peanut butter as bait). The trap doesn’t tell you this on the box, but it works by electrocuting the varmint while snapping shut to enclose it.

Man those things are awesome. And you never see the mouse, never have to touch it or anything. Get as many as you think you need. If it’s a big problem though, call pest control.

Here’s the trap I’m talking about: http://www.d-conproducts.com/no-view-no-touch.php

The poisons used will also kill the cats, if the cat catches a dead mouse they will ingest the poison (blood thinner) too.
Traps are good. If there is an obvious entry point you can plug the hole with fine steel wool, the mice eat through it and the steel wool causes massive bleeding.

I have always used the Havahart traps here, plus plugging all holes, including the vents from dryers and having caps on chimneys. ( I know that some of you disapprove of simply relocating them, but it as worked for me.)

The age or location of any edifice is irrelevant; rodents will show up anywhere these are a few crumbs of cheese or smear of peanut butter, or simply warmth in the winter.

We found a nest of baby mice (charbroiled) in the engine of a motor boat we had stored indoors over the winter.

It is very odd that the cats don’t make some effort. They are obligate carnivores and consider mice a tasty morsel, or barring that, an amusing toy.

My mother lives in mortal fear of mice. The thought of one makes her shake We lived in an older house and the neighbor mentioned she had some mice, and mom freaked.

We got these and never saw any mice:

http://www.bing.com/shopping/lentek-4-pack-pest-control-600-sq-ft-ultrasonic-pest-repeller/p/ADCAFDD5188B71245012?q=electronic+rodent+repeller&lpq=electronic%20rodent%20repeller&FORM=HURE

If they have any friends who have cats that are good mousers, perhaps it might be worth borrowing one for a week or two. It might have an effect on the mouse population, and possibly shame the resident cats into getting their claws in gear!

Mouse traps. They work. Use peanut butter, and when you hear them snap dispose of them promptly.

Don;t use poison because it will endanger other animals and it causes them to die in the wall and you smell it for months.

73yr old mice!! Just like The Green Mile mouse, I am impressed.

Why was the age of the house mentioned?

/boggle

I said it was that old because I know homebuilders that have told me that old houses tend to have holes around the foundation. The homeowner had told me she has a hole in the bottom of her closet. If she plugged it up or not I don’t know.
Besides that, I have always felt that an older home has more of a tendency to have rodents because the foundation tends to crumble after fifty years or more. If I view a brand new house the least thought I would have is whether or not it has mice.

I had a new house 26 years ago. The mice snuck in when we left the garage doors open along with the door from the kitchen to the garage.

They also discovered the dryer vent was a perfect conduit to the laundry room in the basement.

I had a house in another state that was about 12 years old but the foundation was sealed up enough to keep mice out. The garage was a whole other story. It had a storage room with a fairly poorly manufactured door attached to the back of it and Huge rats came into the garage but they didn’t get into the house. That storage room could have been an addition to the house. The basement was completely finished out with carpet and bedrooms . No rodents got in but insects did under the rubber seal around the double doors. Lots of rolly polly bugs.
Naturally, if people leave doors open to their home all kinds of things can wander inside. I am speaking of older homes; not carelessness on the part of the homeowners.

@redheaded1 those might bother the cats too… I vote for mousetraps, preferably of a type that the cats can’t manage to get themselves damaged by.

According to Desmond Morris in his book Cat Watching, if a kitten hasn’t been raised by its mother for the first six months and taught how to mouse for food, and said kitten was instead raised for those months by humans and fed by them, it very possibly will never make a good mouser.

I don’t understand the trap solution. In my experience that just catches the ones who manage to come in, but not prevent the rest of them from following. So I think the plugging in all the wholes with steel wool. is the way to go. They are clever as heck. And are they not faster than a speeding bullet or what?

I used the electric trap and that worked well. You don’t have to get too near the dead mouse and it worked every time. Our house was built in the 40s and it is now mice free after using the trap and plugging the holes we found.

Stop feeding the cats! You will stop them dying of cardiovascular disease as well.