Humane Mouse Removal

When trying to get rid of mice, you may have to be creative in your bait. Look and see what the mouse has been eating. In Ethel's case, she knew the mouse was eating the ketchup from the ketchup packets, so she should bait the traps with ketchup. My cousin had a problem with mice once but couldn't seem to catch many using the old standby baits of cheese and peanut butter. She started looking at what the mice were feasting on in her kitchen and it turned out to be chocolate of all things. She began baiting the traps with leftover Easter chocolate candies and the mice flocked to the traps. After catching several dozen, she found that she could even just put chocolate syrup on the traps as bait and still catch mice. Using this method, she finally got rid of all of the mice. Incidently, she is a "clean freak" and "neat freak" and did not leave food laying around. The mice came after construction crews began clearing some adjacent wooded property for new home construction. Their home apparently was disturbed by the construction crews.
Lisa

Some DO Like It Hot

I had to laugh when some of the readers said use cayanne pepper to deter mice. I moved from te city to a rural area almost two years ago. Each time we went to the new house, we brought some of our packed boxes. One box had all of my spices including a large full plastic container of cayanne pepper. I didn't open the carton for a few days, but the mice ate almost half the container of pepper! In another, box I had chocolate baking chips and dry egg noodles. They ate it all! There was only empty packages in the box. After we moved our four lazy cats here, we still had the same problem. We purchased some expensive electric rodent deterrents and they helped. As far as peppermint oil, I was told by a Vet that it was poisionous to cats.
Jo

Ultrasonic Pest Control

I have to say I am very encouraged by the number of people who don't want to kill mice just because they've wandered into human territory. Having lived with a white rat as a pet, I am very uncomfortable with the idea of poisoning these little creatures. It seems unnecessarily cruel, especially when the fine print on the poison label suggests it may take days for the animals to die.

That said, I didn't have any luck with the peppermint/spearmint oil from the natural food store, and I watched early one morning while my cat slept and the mouse ran by. That was funny, but still the mouse was getting into the trash. So I bought an ultrasonic pest control plug-in unit from Home Depot (3 for $20.) and so far it seems to be working. The mint made the house smell good but the cute lil' furry guy stuck his head out of the stove one morning right around daybreak so I guess he's not repelled by it.
Jules W., Baltimore MD.

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