Safely get rid of mice?

Question

I live in a old building, in the city. My apartment is an old attic and I keep it very very clean. Every now and then I will find a dead mouse. There have been three since I moved in (in over a year). I know this is not a lot for my type of building and city life, but it still bothers me. I can't use poisons, glue traps, or snap traps becuase I have two cats and a chihuahua that will get hurt by any of them. I don't know how the mice are dying, maybe my cats are killing them but there is never any blood or bite marks, so if they are killing the mice it's by playing with them - not hunting. My cats are indoor only, the mice are not being brought in from outside. I have already tried to block holes with steel wool, but my playful kittes thought they were toys as yanked those out as well. I can never find out exactly where the mice are coming from but with this being an old attic my apartment has lots of funky corners and spaces. How can I keep mice out without harming my pets?

I do have a landlord. He is a good guy and I have no other complaints about him. But when I told him about the very first dead mouse and that my cat had found it he asked if he could borrow that cat to catch the mice in his apartment downstairs. Since he lives on the first floor they appear more often down there than up here. I have been in his apartment and it is also clean. I have no need or want to raise a stink with my landlord on this, just ideas to solve it myself.

Answer 1

The exterminators at our building advise: put PEPPERMINT OIL on a cotton ball and put it in the places of the mice infestation (where they enter or have visible droppings)--apparently, they cannot abide the smell~

Answer 2

It is quite likely that your cats are the ones killing the mice, and you have little to worry about. Being indoor cats, they don't have a "taste" for hunting, but they still have instincts, and once they catch and kill the mice, they lose interest. Normally when a cat first kills a mouse, there are no visible signs. As for "snap traps" place them in areas your pets can not get to. But do not use poison.

Answer 3

Get those Mouse Hotels. They're like large Roach motels, and the mice get stuck inside. From there you can simply open them and let the mouse go free outdoors.

As for steel wool, I don't think that would of worked anyway. If in need a Rat or Mouse will gnaw through just anout anything over time.

Answer 4

Get a can of expanding foam to fill in any holes that you think are entry points, anything bigger than a dime a mouse can get through. As far as traps, you can use them, just place them in areas not accessible to your pet, under the sink cabinet, or the bottom the pantry, etc. I have a cat and it appears his victims die from a heart attack, no obvious cause of death. So your cats likely do kill some mice.

Answer 5

I assume you have a landlord and a lease?

They are to be notified immediately of issues like this. You shouldn't have waited. :(

Report it ASAP and have them take care of it.

Had you done that, you would've saved more mice from populating and learned that the exterminator can use things that wont harm your pets. I know it's a huge inconvenience because you'll have to keep your pets out of the place for awhile, but you can get in trouble for not reporting it!

Answer 6

they actually have exterminators for rats and mice i think. look in the yellow pages for services. i remember when i moved in with my grandparents we had a mouse problem and then we got a cat and they just disappeared.

Answer 7

Bingo bango:

http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=HP200