Help mice are taking over my townhome!!!!?

Question

I moved into a nice two story townhome that has 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms and an attached garage and washer n dryer hookups. Because i am on section 8 my rent is only $297.00 a month. My friend who moved from one of the townhomes warned me that the townhomes have field mice that come in from the field.When the manager of these townhomes called me and told me that i was next to move in after a 1 1/2 yr wait i jumped at the opportunity. First i told the manager that i heard that they have mice and she replied that it was no longer a problem. I recently complained to the manager that there are mice and she sent out a stupid exterminator who only gave me some cardboard traps w/ really sticky super glue like stuff. He told me to put them in each corner of the house and add a drop of peanut butter to them and wait to catch the mice. Well after two weeks i've only caught one little baby mouse but there are still like 5 mice remaining. I threatened the manager that i was looking for a new

place and she got scared and said she would relocate me to a townhome that is away from the field. Also the terminator said that he could not poison the mice because there would be dead bodies lying around the house and therefore make the house smell. I really love my townhome and would like to take the managers suggestion up. Oh and on top of the mice problem i moved into this townhome w/ missing window screens, blinds that had huge amounts of food stains and a broken dishwasher. i am low- income and a single mother of two and really i cant afford to move again as i have only been living here for 11 months now.....help
?

Answer 1

Your townhouse sounds great so don't give up just yet...Call the local section-8 housing board and tell them of your complaints. Tell them you have spoke to the manager, what she has done, and that it did not help.....Poision and sticky paper are not my best choices...The poision will kill the mice, but you never know where they are gonna drop dead(like behind something). You will only know when you begin to smell something really bad...Sticky paper is cruel because they starve and dehydrate.. It takes a couple of days. Good old fashion, cheap traps are the was to go. Put several under sink, along cabinet bases, beside stove and refrigerator, and anywhere else you see droppings...Several in the garage close to door, but along the sides....Set trap with either peanut butter or cheese, personally I think peanut butter works best. Check all of your traps daily and dispose of dead mice and reset, or throw whole trap away and reset another. Buy a couple of boxes of moth balls, place them in the garage all along the sides, at your dryer vent, and around the perimenter of the house. This will keep new ones from coming in. If you have little children, keep an eye on them if they are anywhere near the moth balls or traps...This problem will take some time, maybe a month, but eventually you will get rid of them. Also talk to neighbors attached to your building, see if they will do the same. Then you will have complete success...Keep your floors and cabinets really clean. Don't give them any snacks to come looking for........

Answer 2

Yes, this is a Landlord responsibility and this is also a health code violation. You can notify your LL via telephone but it helps to follow it up with a letter sent certified mail, this way if you ever have to sue for expenses you have proof that you notified the LL of this problem. It doesn't matter how clean you are, mice will get in and they will breed at an alarming rate, your food in the cupboards is at risk as they will burrow into boxes etc, so if you are no longer living there remove ALL food from the cupboards and leave nothing for them to get. With no food or water they will have to seek elsewhere, however, unless you remove the nest the infestation will continue and I'm sorry but it will and can take months to fix this problem, it's not an overnight fix. Send a letter to the LL and tell them the infestation is really bad and give them a time frame to get an exterminator out to start laying out traps and poison. I suggest purchasing an electronic pest eliminator that can be picked up in a hardware store, they plug in and send signals and high pitched noises thru the electrical system, this causes pests inside the walls to scurry and leave as the noise something they don't like. You can also lay down Decon inside cabinets and pantries, around in the bathroom as they will seek water. Traps don't always work, if mice see other mice dead in the traps they can become "trap shy" which means they bill avoid them at all costs. To fix this you have to bait the traps but not set them this way they will feed at the traps without harm and when they are set will come back and feed again. If the landlord fails to do anything contact the health department as this is a health code violation.

Answer 3

I have had success with two different products. If you have pets that you are concerned might get the poison you can try the electronic deterrents. They just plug in and rodents and even bugs don't like the sound waves and stay away. I have used them for fleas and they work great. We had Norwegian rats get under the house and the electronic gizmo's didn't seem to effect them. And no way am I going to dispose of anything killed in a trap. We tried several of the poisons that are suppose to dehydrate them like Decon and those also failed too. Then I found Just One Bite on line and it did the trick. I took a small bucket with a lid, and cut a couple of holes at the bottom edge big enough for the rodent to get in, and put the poison inside with the lid on. Then my dog couldn't accidentally eat any of the poison. I put one bucket under the house and several outside. after a couple of days the bait was gone and so wher the rodents. You might see if any of your neighbors would like to go in on the cost since you can get usually get a quantity discount on larger orders at most of the on line stores.

Answer 4

easiest method: if you are allowed to have pets get a cat!

the best poison to use is called Rat Attack. go to your local home hardware store and get it. you may have to sign for it.
it is very effective.
the mice ingest it, it dehydrates them, killing them.
we had a huge mouse problem, [dozens of mice], a few years ago and used it. worked like a charm!
the mice dehydrated so when they died there was no odour. in fact many of them left the house looking for water as the stuff really makes them thirsty.
next thing to do is to make sure you do not leave any foodstuff out. and food in cupboards should be put in plastic containers, doesn't have to be expensive containers, the cheap containers from the dollar store will work fine. the mice will get into the boxes and bags the food originally cmes in but they can not get into closed plastic containers or zip lock plastic bags. this will ensure no food is available to entice them into the home.
good luck!

Answer 5

My Townhome

Answer 6

"Decon" is the best thing to get rid of mice. You just put it in dark corners of you're basement or attic. After the mice eat it, they will get dehydrated and go in search of water, usually outside. So this not only kills mice, but also get's them out of the house.
Good Luck

Answer 7

Mice like to come in during the Winter.
If you have a garage, dog house or covering that will keep the food dry;
try to place food outside the house like dry dog food away from the house.
set some traps there and possibly you will succeed if you are determined...check for avenues of entry outside and place traps there as well.

Answer 8

I second the vote for Decon. And you won't necessarily have dead bodies laying around... they may well leave and die outside, and they are so small, that a few decaying mice don't really leave an odor.

Have you considered getting a cat?

Answer 9

You could move but if it's in the same development you will still find mice. I don't like the sticky traps myself because it doesn't kill them right away, & you have to listen to them struggle on the trap. Sometimes they don't get completely on the trap & then they start crawling around getting all kinds of things stuck on the trap with them.

I have learned quite a few things about mice in the last little while since we started doing battle with them in our vacation home.

One of the most effective things we have done to stop them is to hunt around & find every nook & cranny that they can possibly crawl through & stuff the holes tight with steel wool. The mice won't knaw through the steel wool, & it's easy to push it in around access holes for plumbing pipes, & ductwork.
Don't consider ANY hole too small for them to crawl through. I once saw a mouse run through a 3/8" slat effortlessly.

After that clean, clean, clean, clean, & when you're done clean some more. Mice leave scent trails that attract more, so once you have killed the ones that are in your home now, if you don't clean up their scent, then more will try to follow. Also their droppings are toxic so wear gloves & filter masks when cleaning in areas where they are obvious.

There are three basic things wrong with putting out mouse & rat poison. 1) It actually attracts them into your house. That's why they call it bait. 2) They eat the bait go away somewhere in your walls or ceiling & die, & then stink up the house for the next 6 months while they rot. 3) If your town house development has a chronic mouse problem, then everybody there has likely been feeding poisoned bait to the mouse poulation for years, & they have probably built up a tolerance for the poison(s).

Meanwhile keep all loose, & lightly packaged food in hard sealable plastic containers in your kitchen cabinets so the mice can't get at any food. Don't think that because you have high cabinets that you are safe. I have seen mice run up a rough plaster wall just as if it was running across the floor.

Keep your windows & doors closed up as much as possible. Mice will run in through an opened door as soon as your back is turned for a minute.

Finally, we use snap traps. They are cheap, less than a dollar, so if you don't like clearing out the dead guys so you can re-use the trap then just put the whole thing into the garbage once you get one. Besides, for health reasons that is considered the best thing to do. We haven't had much success baiting our traps with peanut butter. Field mice are grain eaters, so they are better attracted to a little piece of bread. Just take a wad of bread & stuff it tight into the curved part of the traps trigger, but you'll have to re-bait the traps every day or two until you stop getting mice in them.
For some reason mice like to run along the edge of walls, so place the traps close to walls, & in corners. Also place traps behind the kitchen appliances, & in the backs of the floor cabinets. Check your traps every day so you can keep up with the level of infestation, & react accordingly. By placing traps all over the house, & monitoring where you are getting them, you can get a sense of where you need to concentrate your efforts. Of course the hotspot is almost always the kitchen, because that is where the food is kept, & prepared.
Discourage your family from eating food elsewhere in the house until you get the rodents under control. All you need is one of your kids to leave a plate of crumbs, or an empty candy wrapper under the bed, & they'll be attracting mice right into where they sleep.

Mice can cause all kinds of health hazzards, & damage. They like to chew things for making their nests. They'll chew up linens, paper products, & even electrical wire. I am an electrician, & I was called in to repair a circuit in a home & discovered an electrical wire had been chewed through the insulation by a mouse. I found the culprit at the scene of the crime, his body was charred between the two wires he had knawed the insulation from.

Good luck to you. Death to all mice.

Answer 10

I didn't even finish reading Honey because this is such a piddly problem that it hurts to waste the time.

In the first place go to the store and get several boxes of Decon and place them in places that humans don't go. Then wait a few days. Go around your "town home" and check (if it's a lower) unit for areas that mice can get in like, do all the Windows close tightly or are you leaving some Windows open for "air"
Do all the outside doors close tightly or do some have the bottom door seal off or ripped. The door should close solid. Look under the door when it's closed. Check everything like this, make a "mouse check" they will come in from the cold, wouldn't you?

Then cool it with management before you get tossed out. I was management and tossed many people like you out for piddly problems like this. Take care of it.