Need some advice, mice in attic

Hello Everybody,
Appears I have a growing concern going on in my attic. This is an unfinished attic, mainly 6" ceiling insulation & the air handler for my 2 ton split system. So it is hard to get around up there. A few pieces of plywood to walk on near the air handler and one access door which I need to use a ladder to get through.

I trapped a few mice in the past but I am beginning to think there may be more than a few living up there. What the heck do they eat? Any suggestions other than a standard mouse trap or glue traps. I want them all dead. Damn rodent woke me up at 0200hrs last night scratching the ceiling. Thanks

Awwww Cap, even little meeses gotta winter somewhere.

Cap wrote:Damn rodent woke me up at 0200hrs last night scratching the ceiling.

Arrghhh I hate that! In my old place, which hasn't been plagued since last season, I threw the little green poison blocks all around up in the space between the ceiling beams and the roof. I then threw a couple whole boxes of mothballs up there! The spaces are closed up with 3" foamboard in the pic, but at the time, they were open. I saw a couple mice hanging over the end trying to get some fresh air! Had to cope with the smell of mothballs in the shop for a while.

I also drilled holes where the damn scratching was coming from and pump sprayed ammonia and then bleach into the holes! Then I covered the holes with masking tape. I never got around to spackling over them. Mice battle!!!!

The poison will kill them and I was willing to put up with the death smell until the little carcasses dried out.

There is another armament that I just got delivered. It's copper napthenate wood preservative. It smells similar to creosote. I looked all over the internet to find it. The brand I got is Black Flag Wood Preservative, sold by Homax. Previous brand was Jasco, can't find it anywhere. I will put it in a little oil squirt can and run it into the walls if I have to! The smell will drive rodents away, it's also an effective insecticide !!!! Get one drop on your hand and it will smell like crazy and take about three washings to get it off. Nasty I love it. Made by a corporation lol.

DECON works very well. They will drink motor oil because of the thirst. Make sure there is no liquid that they can get to and they will die outside looking for water.

Put a few Tin Cats up there. I use to keep them in my honey house when I had one.

Mom and Dad use to have a big mouse problem on their open back porch until she put a sonic Mouse deflector out there. It cut way down on infiltrators. That's the main problem, they run for winter cover like Fred said. Start feeding them poison packs outside now before they all find their way in. It becomes a game of probibilities, the bigger the population the greater the chance of invaders.

Of course, you could always set up an outdoor Mouse House to keep'm happy. It kept them happy, not me

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VigIIPeaBurner wrote: feeding them poison packs outside now before they all find their way in

Yep.
We put poison outside (where only mice can get at it) and set tin cat live traps around the exterior of the foundation of the house at ground level....catch 'em or poison 'em BEFORE they find a way in. It is approaching the time of year that we catch the most, sometimes two in one trap. We haven't had any in the house since we started doing this.

Conversation overheard based on Smitty's above photo : Hambden Bob asks: "Smitty,are those poor,cute little disease carrying vermin going to linger ?,Will they feel pain?" Smitty replies while racking in a round:"Oh Hell No !,Ham,those little Hanta Virus spreading Bastards wont feel a thing ! "...... Happy,Happy,Joy-Joy !

Cap wrote: This is an unfinished attic, mainly 6" ceiling insulation & the air handler for my 2 ton split system.

Might this be where the little vermen are getting in ? I had some in my attic and I believe they where comming in where the a/c condensor pipes entered the attic, threw a hollow piece of rain gutter downspout used to hide the pipe.

Cap,

Mothballs hanging in a stocking from the roof rafters should do the trick.

We hang them in the boat during the looooonnnnggggg winter season.



Rick

I've probably mentioned this here before, I read about an old Greek remedy: 1 part flour, 1 part sugar, 1 part PLASTER OF PARIS. Leave in a bowl dry, and leave a bowl of water next to it. They will eat the mixture, drink the water, and the plaster will harden inside them. Have no idea if this true.

I'll have to try that one & let you know!

I'm sure my wife would appreciate it if I stopped firing the shotgun in the house ....

They'll eat anything including the insulation on your wiring. You can imagine, in my old place I get a few. My cat, slim shady is a great mouser but the attic models I used the green cubes too. Last month I had a chipmonk in the walls every morning at 5 am it would wake me up running around. Finally, one morning I saw it come out under a gable where the barn attaches to the summer kitchen. That day I went up there and tried to close it off. (unreal how small a slit they can weasel into). Then I waited after supper till almost dust and took up a position with my ruger 10/22. Exactly 12 minutes later, problem solved.

I have found a way to git rid of the burrowing little chipmunks. After much reading I found this method advocated by a lot of people. It's kinda cuel and sadistic, but; all of these people say it works.
You get a couple of 5 gallon buckets and fill them half way up with water. Then you put a ramp up to the top of the bucket with a board. You leave the board sticking out over the top of the bucket like a diving board. You dump sun flower seeds into the bucket until the water is totally covered with the seeds so it looks like solid ground. A cork in the middle with a toothpick covered with peanut butter is irresistable to the critters. The rest is pretty obvious. The little suckers reach in to get the seeds or the peanut butter and they fall in and drown.
I haven't done it yet, but; I have to get rid of them before they totally destroy my foundation. I might feel a little guilty killing them like this but they have to go.

William is absolutely right!

I found that I had a small leak under my kitchen sink. The plumbers putty had come loose from the strainer but I was too lazy to fix it and put a large plastic bowl, kinda like a party chip bowl, to catch the water. Well, after a few days I wondered what the smell was coming from under the kitchen sink and sure enough, it was a dead mouse that had drowned in the bowl of water!