Can Simply Laying Out Traps Get Rid of Mice?

My exterminator said the best way to prevent mice is to find where they are coming in and close the opening. You may have to hire an exterminator once to find these places. They are trained to look out for possible entry points-places you would never suspect. You will be amazed how small of an opening they can squeeze through. Anyway, this could be an isolated event. But if one got in, another can.
Hope this helps.

I usually get mice in the fall - I live across the street from a large county park with lots of woods. They make me shiver too.

For the first time, I have had one in the winter, just in the past week.

Historically, I have not caught more than 1 or 2 at a time and then usually am done for a year. However, mice have fairly short gestational periods so if you get one that is pregnant, you could have 6-8 to deal with. That happened to me once and it was HORRIBLE!!! It's good that you put out traps right away, that will help.

What also will help is if you can figure out how they got in. My mom has seen them run in through her open garage door when she was pulling her car in and out, and given the cold that might be all it is, but if there is a hole or opening, you could get more.

Good luck!

C. (who found another one in a trap today! EWW!)

It will work, somewhat. For every 1 mouse you see, there's many more hiding out in their hole.

My parents' home was built in 1917, so we had mice in our house quite a few times each winter. What REALLY helped was about 6 years ago, when my little brother brought home a cat. They haven't seen a mouse since.

Another thing you can try--check your foundation for cracks and holes and fill them.

I personally hate mouse traps, because I am too squeamish to deal with the tiny carcass.

Sorry, but in my experience, no. Usually where there's one or two there's a lot more. They need only a hole the size of a quarter to get in. They have an incredibly short gestation period so they multiply fast. It could be you have more in the basement or garage, but ony a few/one in the kitchen. We had them in our basement years ago. Only one ever got upstairs that we saw/know of, but the basement was bad. We hired a professional. They walked around the house to look for the entrance points and then sealed them up. It is recommended to do this yearly because they make and find new holes. I'm with you on the poison because I have dogs too, but the professionals have poison baits that are pet-proof. They are locked, require a special key and have a mouse-size opening. (FYI, should a pet ever get into rodent poison the antidote is vitamin K. Either a shot at the vet for emergency situations or in pill form as a preventative if you aren't sureyour pet consumed any.) Hardware, home improvement stores also sell glue traps. I don't like them because I think they are especially cruel, but that is also an option to see if you have more mice. Are they any worse than a regular trap? I don't know, but I've seen them succeed and I didn't like it. Sorry I didn't give you the peace of mind you were looking for, but hiring a professional gave me peace of mind!

I just found a mouse in my washer a couple of weeks ago.....long story. Anyways, I set out traps that night and caught three more in a day. I reset the traps and haven't caught anymore since. I live right across the street from a square mile of open field, so I get mice all the time. I usually always have at least a couple of traps set, but I had been slacking this winter. I also don't like the poison route since I don't want them to die in a wall.

the house we're in is from the early 1800's so we've got them=( we dont want them dying in the walls and there is access towater in the basement so poison wont do. we've been setting the snap traps and catching one a week. live ones dont bother M. dead ones skeeve M. out big time.
i';ve never seen a live one though. also we put everything in plastic containers in the pantry so hopefully no food will be motivation for them to go elsewhere

We live on a farm, and whenever we see droppings we set a few traps. Generally, we catch a few mice, and then we're finished for awhile. We don't see anymore droppings, sometimes for a whole season. If we do see more droppings, we set traps again. It usually works pretty well.

Good luck!

You need to seal up any holes or cracks in the house that mice could come in through.

Traps will catch the mice already in the house, but you have to find where they are coming in and fix the holes.

Also, don't make food so handy. Drawers are bad places to store food because of easy critter access, so find a new home for your bread. An upper cupboard with a solid back, for example.

Sprinkle pepermint leaves in cupboards and drawers around food. Mice do not like peppermint, they will leave.

Once you see no evidence of mice in the house, put mothballs around the outside of your house. Again they will stay away.

I would also put mothballs in your garage.

I have to tell ya, your last line of "line to me" has put a smile on my face for 2 hours now. I have lived in my home for 9 years and never had a mouse in the house until June of last year. Since June I have caught 3. I have no idea what has changed besides my husband moved out. Even though I would like to be rid of him, I highly doubt the mice felt that way and that is why they never came around before. LOL I get the willies everytime I realize one is in the house. I have decided to leave a baited trap underneath the sink indefinitely. I guess I should be happy it has only been 3, but YUCK! I think they got in the house during the summer because the kids kept proping the door open while going in and out. My only other thought is that hubby was very diligent about spraying the outside of the house with bug/spider spray to keep the bugs out. I did not do this after he left and have gotten more random bugs and spiders so maybe the bug spray also kept mice out. I don't know...just an idea floating around in my head.

Each time I noticed evidence of a mouse, they were caught in a trap within 2 days and I never caught more than one at a time. I doubt you have an entire family of mice living with you. You would have noticed more droppings by now. I am not even lying about that part. LOL

I like to use glue traps. If the is one, there will be (or currently are) others. The only problem with the glue is that someone needs to "whack it" when you find it otherwise the death is inhumane. My husband is iin charge of it. You have to use poison too but put it in the drawer so your pet can not get to it. Also, try to seal up possible entryways. For us, it's a crawspace under the house. For you, it is probably the foundation of the house. If you have a basement (as most old houses do) you have to put traps and poison in the basement. Hopefully when they die they will go outside and not die under the floor...stinky is creepy...

It's possible it could just be the one. We found droppings in 4 different drawers and under the sink, and I was completely freaked out and disgusted. We put out about 10 traps, caught one mouse, and haven't had a problem since.

It's a good idea to try to find out where it got in and block the hole, but if you can't find any place, just leave a few traps in places the pets can't get to and keep the bait fresh, should stop any new "guests" before they make a mess.

we get a couple mice a year, traps always work just fine for us. We catch one or two (normally after seeing them, they like to come up my air return from the basement to try to find food) and then we don't see any more till the next year.

our housecats totally fell down on the job. we did the same thing, droppings in a drawer and ran for the mousetraps.
to our surprise, after we caught one the problem stopped. we assumed there had to be more but that one fat little sucker seems to have been it.
i won't do poison or glue traps either.
i'd keep traps out for a while, but you might get lucky and have eliminated the culprit.
my barn is another story........
;) khairete
S.