Anyone Have Any Experience with Mice in Their House?

I'll never forget my middle daughter coming to me with a mouse in hand at 16 months,excited, saying Mama, MAMA! I was so scared it would bite her, I yelled, shook it from her hand... IT was already dead, thanks to my cat :)

You have the perfect solution by being married to an "expert." Though...I would recommend a cat because no matter where the lil suckers go...the cat will follow. If one ends up in the toybox...the cat will provide "back-up."
If you can, poke around craigslist and whatnot for a "farmcat" or "good mouser."

If a cat is not a good solution on top of what your hubby does...glue traps are the best. Poison will get tracked all over the house and you will have funky smells in strange parts of your ceilings and walls.

I didn't see anyone give you this advice, but it works to keep them out of your living area. Mice get in through small areas, usually around pipes (In the bathroom under the sink or from heating pipes in the floor) Where ever a pipe comes into the house.
Use steel wool (you can buy it at hardware store or maybe even the grocery store). Pull the steel wool apart and put it around the holes. It blocks their entance into the home and they can't chew threw it.
You should probably wear latex gloves when working with the wool.
Good luck!

get a cat and if you hear or see any trace of the mouse dont feed them they will get hungry enough to catch the mouse mine usually did it with in 2 days or less. I had one in my walls that one of my cats found. also put steel wool around any hole in the house. check your pipes and stuff especially for holes. you can do decon it does work but how long before the mouse finds it and how much is the mouse going to poop before finding the decon. most cats will eat the whole mouse.

the only problem I had with the cats is one of my cats would only mouse at night and do a celebration dance when she found it she would jump on the bed run across it and jump off and keep doing it when she found a mouse and wake us up doing it I would have to kick her and the mouse out of the room and shut the door. if you hear a mouse or see evidence of one you have to open all cabninet doors at night over night and the cat will find it. when she does she gets evaporated milk for a reward. after once or twice it will be their reward is the mouse.

I would get a cat. I had a cat in our previous apartment and the only mouse I saw she had already caught. I didn't see droppings or anything until I moved boxes when I moved out. I have heard that mother cats are great hunters since they have to teach their kittens. But my cat was older and declawed and still caught things.

At summer camp we kept food in metal tins because mice and other animals could chew through plastic and cardboard.

We've had a few mice in our house. The glue traps seemed to work the best, when placed in the pathway that the mice had already been taking. The other things that we have tried are the plug-in device that makes a high-pitched noise to scare them away, poison pellets(hidden well behind a cupboard where pets and kids couldn't reach it), and the plastic snap traps in the attic. We've also made sure that any holes on the outside of our house like around windows or pipes are blocked with screen, tape, or steel wool. And holes on the inside of our house needed to be blocked, around the pipes as well as around the bottom of the bathroom cabinets where there is dead space. The mice can squeeze through really small spaces, like under a door or in through the backs of closed drawers..
Also don't let stuff sit around the house untouched for very long. Don't keep baskets or old cardboard boxes in the back of the closet, always try to put food and other items in sealed containers. Clean up the droppings right away because the mice can carry diseases. If you do see a mouse when your child is there, make sure that he knows not to touch it because it lives outdoors and could be dirty and can bite (though it will be just as scared of you as you are of it).
Our problems were mostly outdoors, like the truck sitting in the garage while we were on vacation or the mower in the shed. We chased the mice away, cleaned out the nest, and started moving things around frequently so that the mice didn't come back. I sent the cat out in the garage so maybe it would scare the mice away too. The worst thing was my son finding a snake in the garage that had been attracted by the mice!

unfortunately most of our townhouses are experiencing a problem with mice. It is good you have an exterminator hubby so you don't have to deal with it. I finally hired someone because like you, I would lie awake listening for them and the traps snapping. And I have 2 cats, when they came face to face with the mouse, they ran the other way. Have no interest in the mice and the mice have no fear of them.

Dear D.,
We had 2 rats in a former apt. in a 'fancy' neighborhood. They came in through the pipes to get out from the cold. We were horrified. We used an exterminator and had him check out the apt. bldg for potential holes where they could come in. as was stated, they came from a nearby construction site which dug up stuff i understand.
GL.HTH. Jilly

We had some huge mice at at prior home. Had to use HAVOC to get rid of them, nothing else worked.

Both mice and rats. Mice once upon a time, and rats currently.

The mice we couldn't do anything about. We lived on the edge of the canyon preserve and the new construction sent gazillions of creatures into everyone's homes. Honestly, the mice weren't so bad... since there was no air flow (to carry disease) from where they were to the rest of the house (although the occasional mouse running across the top of the TV was a little freaky). What was REALLY irking was laying it bed listening to the skittering noises as they ran away from the swish swish swish sound of the rattle snakes that followed the mice into the houses. Rattle snakes in your walls... now THAT'S bad.

Currently we have rats. They made a nest in a mattress in the back corner of the basement and it's been a pain in the keister getting them out (also having to throw away a $2k mattress). My husband, ever so brilliantly, decided to sweep up all the mess right by the intake for the central heat... without closing the vent down there OR in the rest of the house. So the entire house got coated in rat poop dust a few days before thanksgiving. I nearly had a stroke. As a matter of fact I was so furious I posted on it, because I couldn't think clearly.

I think both our mouse and rat problems highlight a much bigger problem. During the 20 years I had cats, never a rat or mouse problem. We are currently without a cat (much less a good mouser). Keeping a home without a cat is just a bad idea overall, imho.

Okay, would you objecto to getting a cat? If so, do you have a friend who has a cat you can have visit you for 2 weeks. Once a cat leaves its sent in the apt. you will no longer have mice. They know when there is a cat. I did this for my sister-in-law. She has no mice now. :)

PS I have a domestic cat, declawed and he hunts fine. That is there nature. :)

Get a ferret! Your mouse problem will disappear instantly. We lived in a back to back town house and had a huge mouse issue. We were at wits end and tired of the mice. A ferret is a mouses natural enemy. We got a ferret and suddenly no more mice. The ferret was caged, but the scent of them discouraged the mice. It was a happy accident in our case, but it worked like a charm.

i have one now, i just got a cat. I need to get rid of a mouse, i wanted the girls to learn responsibility

two birds

I think your husband will handle it. This time of year they are common everhwhere b/c they are trying to find warmth. Cats don't always work.

At least your hubby will help you. Get some mouse traps figure out where they are coming in. And eliminate food and water sources. All foods should be containers and no drippy, leaky perspiring pipes. When there is a climate change like fall to winter the little critters try to stay warm and dry so they come in. Good Luck!