As I have no doubt mentioned before, we live in a very large, 100 year old, wooden house. It has been clear since we first moved in that we have the occasional rodent lurking about. This was mostly clear because our two cats, Mingus and Moses would find mice, and then leave them – bloody and gutted in our front hallway. As disgusting as this was, I found it gratifying to think that the cats were doing their jobs, and keeping the nasty, disgusting rodents at bay.
Fast forward to fall, 2009, Mingus and Moses are now outdoor cats (actually, Mngus is indoor/outdoor) due to intractable bladder control issues (yes, we did try the $40 special Web-order only cat pheremones. Yes, we did take them to the vet. Yes, we did have enough litter boxes…blah, blah, blah) It came down to my furniture and rugs…or the cats enjoying the sunny outdoors. My rugs won out.
So now that the cats live mostly outdoors, the rodents have moved mostly indoors. We have mice. The evidence is overwhelming…and disgusting. Jon has been setting traps in the basement, but he didn’t believe me that he needed to set them on the top floor of the house as well, He apparently held the belief that all rodents who needed to be killed would happily migrate to the basement to do so. It is my opinion, however, that the rats and mice who are CLEARLY living on the top floor – where H, J and E have their bedrooms – have never and will never visit our basement, which is located approximately one MILE below them.
Tonight J cleaned her room and closets better than she has in a year. And suffice it to say that this thorough cleaning made it oh-so-apparent that my daughter has a family of rodents visiting her room on a not-infrequent basis. I was horrified. In fact, I am so grossed out – even after even more cleaning took place – that I know for certain I will have dreams tonight where I am old and alone, and rats are gnawing off my face.
We will certainly be putting lots of traps and poison on the top floor tomorrow, but maybe we need an exterminator? Or those electronic repellents from As Seen on TV commercials? Anyone have any fantastic ideas for eradicating rats and mice in a multistory, still half un-renovated, giant old Victorian house?
Because I don’t want to have my face gnawed off …in my dreams…or in my actual sleep.
13 Responses to “I don’t want to have my face gnawed off by rats. Can you help?”
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We have mice too. Did you know that a mouse can squeeze through a dime-sized hole and a rat can squeeze through a quarter-sized one? That makes it practically impossible to keep them out of old houses.
As long as I do not see or hear the mice I can co-exist with them. But at one time we had so many that you could hear them crawling in the cabinets at night if you were sitting quietly. And we had rats as well–roaming our kitchen at night via a nice hole that led directly into the cabinets from the basement. I could tell you lots and lots of disgusting stories . . .
Anyway, we called Thrasher exterminators (just down the street on Central) and they were great. They put bait boxes in various areas and big traps in the basement. I don’t know in what form you are currently putting out poison but with such a small child in the house the bait boxes are the only safe option.
We later had possums in the house but succeeded in trapping some and relegating the rest to the basement (which is kind of like a dungeon). They apparently prey on mice and rats so it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
A new young (indoor) cat?
I’d call the exterminators, but in my experience, nothing beats a cat. It’s not even that the cat necessarily kills so many rodents – I think the cat smell keeps them at bay. We used to have either rats or squirrels in our attic in Atlanta – as soon as one of the cats figured out how to get over the roof and in through a half-open window, the attic rodent noises were gone.
A cat works well at our house.
My aunt told me once that sonic “traps” helped her when she had a slight mouse problem. It emits a signal that only they can hear — and apparently don’t like. They vacate. The cat idea is good, too.
We had mice a few years ago in our attic and I FREAKED. I read everything there was to read on the Internet. We’d had them for a while, too, so they had multiplied- It wasn’t until they began hanging out downstairs that I realized they were um, a problem, and not just occasional visitors.
That said, we got rid of them two or three years ago and haven’t seen them since, despite the fact that every exterminator will tell you that you can’t get rid of them until every single dime-sized hole leading into your house is sealed. Here’s what we did.
We bought like, a thousand old fashioned wooden traps. They are the best. We put a dollop of peanut butter on each one and set them along the walls in every room where we had seen mice, and all over the attic. Then we waited.
I made Hubs go downstairs first each morning to check the traps because- GROSS. I think we caught two downstairs and about 14 in the attic. It took two or three weeks, too. You have to be willing to wait, and set the traps out every single night, because it can take a while to get all of them. We knew they were gone when… we never caught another mouse. Now, we set the traps out in the attic as soon as it starts getting cold outside, just to keep a handle on it and figure out if we have a problem- but we haven’t seen any mice in two years, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Oh, and it turned out they were attracted to our house because of the open bag of dog food in our garage. I actually found dog food IN MY CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS, which they’d been taking from the garage up to the attic. EW. The big advice is to put your dog food in a trashcan with a tight lid, if you aren’t doing this already. Mice LOVE dog food.
My final advice? Don’t google Hantavirus. Just. Don’t.
Oh, oh oh, and can I tell you last year my in-laws, who have an ancient house in CA, had RATS in their attic- They set out traps and one day, my mother-in-law pulled down the ceiling attic door and a DEAD RAT IN A TRAP FELL ON HER HEAD AND THE WHOLE THING THEN GOT CAUGHT ON HER SWEATER. I think I would have died if that had happened to me. Seriously. Died.
You need some good mousing cats, that’s for sure.
Put all your dry food into mouse-proof containers. All pet food, too. Get that expandable foam spray insulation and search for nooks and crannies. Set traps. Reclaim your boundaries!
Bait boxes are the way to go. The poison causes them to seek water which makes them (hopefully) go outside to die instead of funking up your house with their death juices. It is also not supposed to harm other animals that may ingest their carcasses. We use Heritage Pest Control.
I know they say that the bait will make them go outside to die but that has unfortunately not been my experience. We had one rat die under a piece of furniture and another to just come and sit in the middle of the kitchen looking sick. Two mice died behind the refrigerator. If this happens in your house, you will know.
We haven’t had rats but field mice. When I was young my mother set poison traps around the house. A few weeks later we had a horrid smell that we couldn’t quite track down. Turns out a mouse had taken the bait, climbing into the wall and died in the insulation. We had to tear out the wall to remove him. Since we have used the old 4 for a buck traps and kept all food in sealed containers. So far so good.
Ok Katie,
I don’t want to be an alarmist, but a bell went off when you wrote this. Did you ever consider you might have had Hanta virus?
http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DISEASES/HANTA/HPS/noframes/symptoms.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DISEASES/HANTA/HPS/noframes/rodents.htm
It is believed to be acquired by respiration of mice droppings, not just a direct bite.
We had a rat problem last year. Same type of story, older house and we have an old rock wall foundation, so lots of gaps for them to get in. We, meaning my husband, set a lot of rat traps. He found the most effective way was to place several traps in front of where we heard them inside the wall, sort of like a minefield of rat traps. I will say, it was very creepy to be sitting in the living room and hear the traps snap in the room below you.
Just be aware that whatever method you pick, rats will eventually adapt and learn to avoid the trap/poison/etc. Crafty little things!