Can a professional exterminator effectively eradicate mice / rats?

Yes, but you can do it yourself with two rat/mouse traps. Set them both in different places until the problem goes away.

I had mice a few years ago. Caught some with traps but then got cold feet and called an exterminator. No mice since.

Two facts are evident. The infestation is heavy (they are plentiful). And second, they are eating SOMETHING. If they aren’t interested in the bait in your traps, it can only mean that they are dining better elsewhere. If the mice are ganging up at your parent’s house, the source of their abundance should be glaringly obvious as well as close. That they are not intimidated by people is such an alarming revelation, that you should suspect their deliberate cultivation by your neighbors.

There’s probably an entrance that they coming through. It could be a tiny hole. An investigation of the house, may serve you well. Look around, for tiny holes. I bet that’s where they’re gaining entrance. Cover that hole. And eventually, they won’t have rodent issues. You’ll still have to deal with the ones established there. But it should stop the invasion.

You’ll have to be really attentive. Any small cracks, or holes, will have to be filled in someway.

Whatever you do please do not use glue traps. Those are horrible and should be illegal.

^Agreed.

I would leave it up to the professional plus have window screen wire stapled on the foundations either from the inside or outside depending on if it will rust when wet etc

At work one day we caught sight of a mouse squeezing flat under a door frame!
There spines are pliable enough to get into/under small spaces easily!

Also when late Fall a lot of them look to hibernate indoors so hence the infestation.

All food in the home should be in containers either glass or maybe Tupperware and no food left lying around to incite them to come back for more.

A lot of people on farms store the food like that.

My late mother had many cats that did that job easily as it was there only source of food then.

@Inspired_2write Your mother didn’t feed her cats ???

Getting rid of mice doesn’t need to be friendly. That’s how they become unafraid of humans, by being live caught and turned loose. Glue traps, spinning blades, whatever. They spread disease and waste food. They taste every different scent they can to decide what they like. In one night they can chew into a dozen different food packags.

Those little bastards will scoot a sticky trap across a floor, even with their entire body stuck, including all four feet.

In using spring traps, the ones meant to be cute with the plastic cheese, skip those. They almost never go off. It requires too much weight to trigger. Your best bet for spring traps is the old fashioned Victor brand. Make sure it is the kind that the metal bar is held by a rib. There are knock offs which have it poked through a hole. Those rarely go off. Your best bait is peanut butter. Put some on, and under the trigger. They don’t always press down when eating, but if they stick their face under, and they will, the trigger will go off.

They look timid, but they are greedy, and can get quite mean.

I live in the city, but right near a wooded area which also has water access. I do battle every autumn. I wish I could get the neighborhood owl to stay near my house.

Shrews look like mice, but are meaner. If what you have are unafraid, it might be shrews.

@Patty_Melt Glue traps are hideous. The fact that you even mentioned them says to me you are a cruel person. Regardless of what mice can do, there are other ways.

Sure, call me cruel. So? I already stated that people who cry over mice have no sympathy from me.

@Patty_Melt Who ever asked you for sympathy? Surely not me. I’d rather cry over mice than torture a helpless little creature.

I agree that the glue traps present issues of unnecessary cruelty, but the glue traps have the efficacy of capturing bugs as well. The poisons present an agonizing death through internal hemorrhaging presenting the animal with an unquenchable thirst that drives the animals to seek water to the the extent of gnawing til dead on metal water lines. I agree that the peanut butter baited victor traps and plenty of them are the best do it yourself remedy—cheap, reliable and essential st the onset of cooler weather. Even if you believe yourself rodent free, it is a good idea to have a couple of traps set in your garage, basement, etc. as sentinels.

I agree that the swiftest and hence most painless death possible comes from spring traps. And no one wants to inflict unnecessary cruelty. However, @Patty_Melt is correct that killing them by any means necessary is—necessary.

Mice, rats, shrews, and their ilk will chew right through plastic storage containers and cardboard and walls to gain access to food, They spoil food, destroy walls and storage containers and chew on wiring, posing a fire risk. They can make a house unsanitary with no compunction about where to urinate or leave their droppings—soiling entire attics and storage areas and walls. They bite, They will make a house uninhabitable. So it DOES become an us-or-them battle. And we have a right to our homes,

I’m fascinated with the source of your mice. Are your parents located near a granary of some sort? When mice start popping up in broad daylight, their numbers must be enormous indeed. It’s creepy.

There is a lot of black oil sunflower seed put out for squirrels and birds.

Six years ago, there was a roof rat problem, though the rats, we thought were consigned to the attic and never came in the house, I was the one to discover that they had a virtual colony in the storage room and had chewed holes in storage containers of sunflower seed, a supply they had only discovered for a couple of weeks. We now keep the sunflower seed stored in a metal galvanized garbage can. We still feed birds and squirrels, and perhaps the mice / rats discovered access to the house from the proximity of the seeds.

Once inside the house, the rodents will eat through and into anything, but mostly are drawn to apples and potatoes in bags.

ARE YOU NUTS? Perhaps the mice /rats? No wonder they have no fear of you. Of course the damned things are tamed, and show up in the day time because you TRAINED them that way. I can’t believe you!!!! In fact, in all fairness, these mice are unworthy of extermination. You should be obligated to provide for them since you are responsible for them since their birth. Of course they want to be near you. They only need go out in the cold to dine like royalty. Unbelievable!

Be fair Stanley. They problem began with not thinking rodents. They had non invasive species in mind. The damage now done, it is lesson time. Switching to metal containment was a good start.
However, it can start in ways people don’t consider. When cold weather starts, and delicious cooking smells waft about the home, that is enough to bring them in droves.
They do need to be dealt with swiftly and completely.
There is blame only in that they want to survive, and we need them to not do it at our expense; an expense which includes more than crumbs. It is health and property, and we can be quickly compromised by their invasion.

Good luck, man.
By the way, snakes will take care of mice outdoor. If you have any area that they can comfortably take residence, they will reduce mouse numbers from outdoors.

@Patty_Melt 51 years I have lived around mice on and off, and I’m still alive and well. You must have had some shit experiences to be so angry and merciless.

Thanks for understanding that.
Someone who is autoimmune must look at many things as potential death threats.

@anniereborn
She grew up on a far in the 1920’s/1930’s and that was how the cats fed on the mice as a deterrant. I suppose that they gave them a bowl of cows milk as well.
I wasn’t born yet so I only know from what she said much later about her life, which was very little.

This one is effective and it’s about is humane as it gets. There are a lot of models like this out there. If you don’t like this one there are others.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI

I have to hand it to the ones with the partner approach.
But, can a partner ever be fully trusted?

@snowberry This is considered HUMANE??
“Mice will try to walk across and fall in the water, then all you have to do is flush them, no more touching those nasty traps!!! ”

@anniereborn Actually, yes. They drown very quickly. Compare that to a snap trap that sometimes catches a leg and the mouse is left there until somebody finds it and finishes the job. I have also heard of animals chewing off the limb that was caught and then they hobble away on a stub. Now that’s not humane.

You folks who think you shouldn’t kill mice must have never spent much time on a farm. There are only so many ways to keep the numbers down (and most of those methods involves killing in one way or the other). They multiply very very fast. If a farmer expects to stay in business, he must control the mouse and rat population. As others have said, it’s an us or them situation.

The conditions of the home where his parents live that @Yellowdog describes would likely be shut down by the health department if they were to discover it. He must kill them and do it effectively and quickly.

@snowberry Regardless, please do not call drowning any creature humane.

Steel sprung traps seem to have worked. I’ve killed nine. and seen no more for 36 hours.

Next time I’ll just use glue traps and toss them in a fire on the ole grill. That will kill them faster than glue traps alone.

Anyone want to share some recipies?

@anniereborn Haha! Ok, what kind of killing do you call humane then? LOL

Maybe you should go over to @Yellowdog’s House and find a way to humanely trap all of the mice and rats (one heck of a job if I do say so!), and then be sure to take them away with you! Don’t even think of releasing them somewhere so they will become somebody else’s problem and where they most definitely would be in “humanely” killed!

@Yellowdog Besides the fact that glue traps are a one use product so they are expensive, if you don’t find a stuck mouse or rat right away, they pull themselves off of it, leaving only hair behind. But any port in the storm as they say.

I meant inhumanely. Grrr! I ruined my own joke!

Recipe? Ew!!!!
I don’t think I agree with burning the stickies. It might cause toxic smoke

Let’s all give @annie a rest. Obviously she still doesn’t have a healthy relationship with her stepsisters.
Mice and birds are still her only friends.
She has six mice harnessed to a pumpkin right now.

@Yellowdog . When I was younger, I used glue traps. I shot the stuck mouse, or drowned it. A 9 mm, will take their pain away. Morality involved, or not. I couldn’t just leave them stuck there…

I don’t have the answers. I just know which ones I think are the most awful. I have never lived on or near a farm, this is true.
As far as Cinderella, I am more than happy to have that comparison :)

There are rescue cats that are more or less feral and will not set foot in a house. They need shelter (a soft and quiet place to sleep) in a garage, basement or shed and someone to keep an eye on them to make sure they get veterinary care when needed. Obviously, they do also require food and water. Many are very reliable predators because they grew up fending for themselves. If you can rid the house of all food sources, that together with the risk of cats in the vicinity could solve your problem in a fairly humane way.

There are also dog breeds (terriers) that will hunt rats and kill them even faster than cats. In some places, you can hire them. I personally would probably opt to live with the rodents rather than witness that, but at least it’s a fast death.

And I agree with @anniereborn – why anybody would choose to use anything but the least cruel option is a bit of a mystery to me.

Cats torture their prey. With all due respect, I fail to see how that’s better than most other methods.
Mice, and rats, are still widely used in medical experiments, and people who own snakes, buy “feeder” rodents. I was kind of forced to adopt a Ball Python, when I worked at the veterinary emergency hospital. He only ate live rats. I felt terrible feeding him, but I was absolutely fascinated, by the process. He usually killed them, in about 30 seconds. I guess, I think that’s better, than what a cat would do.

I had him for about 4 years. I grew tired of the way I had to feed him, and gave him, and all his stuff (like $500 of stuff,) to a lesbian couple who loved him. I gave him to them, and did not charge them.anything. There was a stipulation though. If they got tired of him, they had to do what I did. Find him a knew home, and charge nothing to the new owner.
He was about 4 ft long, when I got him. He was over 6 ft, when I gave him over. He was awesome. But I just didn’t have the heart to feed him anymore. And, he tried to kill me once. He wrapped himself around my throat, and tried to kill me. Luckily, I am FAR larger than him. So I straightened him out. Pulled him off, and threw him.in his aquarium. It must have hurt him, because he limped into his house (a upside down plant pot.) He didn’t come out for days, and I didn’t talk to him for weeks.

He only weighed about 5 lbs, but I had to keep 45 lbs, of weights, on his cage top. Sometimes, it seemed like he could move that. So. I added another 10 lbs. He was incredibly strong, for his size. And when he was “hunting,” he would try to get out of his large aquarium.

He was funny. Sometimes, I would let him.crawl around, while I cleaned his cage. I always found him in the kitchen. White floors. And he would stop moving, and be like “I’m a stick.” It was comical. A 6 ft brown, and black snake, on white tile, trying to be camouflaged. He usually didn’t make it passed the closest A/C vent. Then he’d have to curl up, or “ball” and try to keep warm.

I sometimes miss him. He was intimidating, but was actually really nice. We spent years with him wrapped around my arms, and back. And he seemed to massage me. We would watch TV together. He always had his tail wrapped around my left wrist, and his body over my shoulders, and would rest his head, on my right hand. I know it’s improbable, but he seemed to enjoy watching TV. And like I said, he would like massage my shoulders. It was like a symbiotic relationship. He enjoyed the warmth of my body, and gave me a massage, in thanks.

The time he tried to kill me, I had just finished an hour or so, of Olympic free weights. I thought he’d enjoy the extra heat, my body was producing. He must have inadvertently mistook me, for a different animal, with my added heat signature. But he wouldn’t let go of my neck. I went into the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. He was definitely trying to choke me, and he was looking at me, while he did it, like “die.” I showed him what a 300 lb man, could do to a 5 lb snake. He even bit me a few times, when I was removing him. Like I said, we had beef for awhile. But I forgave him.

I bet he’s still alive. Maybe 8 ft, by now, and thicker than my arm.

If you could keep him around, there wouldn’t be any rodent problems.

Monty was his name. You know, like Monty Python. I hope he’s doing well….

What a bitter-sweet story!
I don’t think he saw you as food that time. If you were hot and sweaty, your scent would have been more prominent. In the wild, that is a trigger for males that tells them there is about to be a fight to prove, you know, it’s my territory, if you want it you have to kill me. It told him kill or be killed. By tossing him home, you let him know you were satisfied with letting him live with his humiliation. His lengthy hide likely was demonstrating his acknowledgement that you rule.
You are alpha, baby!

^Yeah. I think I understand why he acted the way he did. I initially thought he would enjoy my body heat. But it was higher than normal, and maybe there was a scent change. Like I said, we eventually made up. It was a learning experience, for both of us. I learned not to put him on me, unless I was in general homeostasis mode. He learned that he shouldn’t try to kill me…

I learned a lot of different things, from having him. I know he didn’t love me, like a dog. But I loved him. I hope I didn’t hurt him.too bad, by straitening him out. But he was obviously hurt… Poor Monty, was just following his program. I took it personally, at the time. But, I avoided such future issues, and we were friends again. I also learned that he was moody, when shedding. So. I left him alone for those periods… I don’t blame him. He couldn’t see. His eyes shedded too, so he was feeling vulnerable. Turns out that all snakes are “head shy.” After all, they have no eyelids, so they to protect their face. I got him a nice big bowl, for when he was shedding. He would submerge his entire body, with just his nose out of the water. And got him a rough rock, so he could use it to pull off his old skin. I treated him, the best I could. He was a very interesting pet.