Humane Ways to get Rid of Wild Mice (& Rats)

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SQ

Senior Member - Vegan for the animals
Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
17,208
Location
central New Brunswick Canada
please see: http://everydayroots.com/how-to-get-rid-of-mice

8 Poison-Free Ways to Get Rid of Mice


mice.jpg


Mice are cute little critters, but that doesn’t mean we want them sharing our homes with us. As adorable as their tiny whiskery faces are, the disease they spread via urine (which they communicate with, and therefore leave a lot of lying around) and feces-not to mention the extensive damage they can do when they put their teeth to something-is no joke. But a lot of us (myself included) don’t want to turn to traditional snap traps (have you ever seen one go wrong? It’s not pretty) or rodenticides that pose serious risk to children, pets, other wildlife, and the environment.

Being naturally nocturnal, voracious nibblers, and rapid reproducers (starting at the tender age of 6 weeks) how does one go about dealing with mice without turning to mainstream methods? Enter a fun little idea called integrated pest management (IPM.) It takes some more work, dedication, and thought than other methods, but you can manage without using toxic chemicals, which makes it far superior in my opinion. IPM involves pest proofing your home by sealing up any potential entrances, keeping food well sealed and securely locked away, knowing your pests habits, likes/dislikes, and eliminating any water sources.

Combine an IPM program with a few of these DIY deterrents and repellents, and you can come up with a successful comprehensive plan to get rid of mice naturally.
How Poison Works: Most rodenticides on the market today are anti-coagulants. They essentially inhibit the body’s ability to clot blood, which results in the mouse hemorrhaging and bleeding to death internally. Warfarin, brodifacoum, diefenacoum, and flocoumafen. While all of these are nasty and toxic, flocoumafen is so powerful that it is only legally certified for indoor use. In addition to prohibiting blood clotting, the poisons will make the mice extremely thirsty. They then leave the house in search of water and die. On top of all of this, and the risk you pose to pets and children, there is secondary poisoning to consider. Many poisons are toxic to animals that will eat the mice, such as birds of prey-or your dog or cat.

How Traps Work: Fairly self-explanatory, the two main traps on the market are sticky traps and snap traps. Snap traps are triggered when the mouse goes for the bait, and a powerful spring mechanism snaps a wire down, breaking the rodents neck. I have, unfortunately, been witness to several trap malfunctions-one particularly gruesome one involved the mouse pulling back so that its neck didn’t break, but its snout and the front part of its face was crushed and caught in the trap. It was very much alive afterwards. It may sound soft-hearted, but I can’t stand the sight of even a pest struggling and in pain.

Combine an IPM program with a few of these DIY deterrents and repellents, and you can come up with a successful comprehensive plan to get rid of mice naturally.
How Poison Works: Most rodenticides on the market today are anti-coagulants. They essentially inhibit the body’s ability to clot blood, which results in the mouse hemorrhaging and bleeding to death internally. Warfarin, brodifacoum, diefenacoum, and flocoumafen. While all of these are nasty and toxic, flocoumafen is so powerful that it is only legally certified for indoor use. In addition to prohibiting blood clotting, the poisons will make the mice extremely thirsty. They then leave the house in search of water and die. On top of all of this, and the risk you pose to pets and children, there is secondary poisoning to consider. Many poisons are toxic to animals that will eat the mice, such as birds of prey-or your dog or cat.

How Traps Work: Fairly self-explanatory, the two main traps on the market are sticky traps and snap traps. Snap traps are triggered when the mouse goes for the bait, and a powerful spring mechanism snaps a wire down, breaking the rodents neck. I have, unfortunately, been witness to several trap malfunctions-one particularly gruesome one involved the mouse pulling back so that its neck didn’t break, but its snout and the front part of its face was crushed and caught in the trap. It was very much alive afterwards. It may sound soft-hearted, but I can’t stand the sight of even a pest struggling and in pain.

Sticky traps are about as inhumane as they get. The mouse runs onto it, sticks, and is terrified while its struggles to escape. It will either die slowly of dehydration or starvation. The traps can rip off fur and skin while they struggle, and rodents have attempted to chew through their own limbs to get free.
 
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1. Peppermint Essential Oil
Mice, while nowhere near as impressive as say, dogs, still have a fairly acute sense of smell that beats our own. So while we find the smell of peppermint refreshing, tangy, and pleasant, mice find it overwhelming and offensive. This isn’t the best remedy to deter mice, but it makes a nice compliment to a solid IPM program.
You will need…
-cotton balls
-peppermint essential oil
Directions
Add 20-30 drops of peppermint essential oil to each cotton ball and lay strategically around your home. Refresh every week or so, or whenever you notice the smell is fading. Feel free to experiment with other essential oils/oil blends in addition to peppermint.

3. Mouse Deterrent Spray
This is a special little concoction that that doesn’t involve manufactured chemicals or toxins-although I would recommend wearing goggles and gloves when you apply it! This is a spray made entirely from hot peppers. While we might like a little heat to our food, think about when you get hit with something too spicy. Your eyes start to burn, you’re in pain, and if the scoville units get high enough (the unit used to measure the heat of hot peppers) you can even kick the bucket.

Now imagine you’re a mouse, just a few inches off the floor, snuffling around and minding your own business (kind of) when you stumble across a patch of burning hot “pepper spray.” With your eyes and nose so close to the ground, you’ll be extremely uncomfortable and irritated and not exactly excited to continue on with your journey. You’ll probably turn back to find another, less spicy, place to invade.
This spray uses habanero peppers, which have a scoville rating of 100,000-350,000 units, and cayenne peppers, which rate at 30,000-50,000 units. Compare this to the 1,000-4,000 units of a jalapeno, and it’s easy to see why this is so repugnant to rodents.

You will need…
-1/2 cup chopped habaneros
-2 tablespoons hot pepper flakes
-16 cups (1 gallon) of fresh water
-Two 2 gallon buckets
-A gallon jug and a spray bottle
-Cheesecloth
-Gloves/goggles
-A large pot

Directions
Wear gloves and goggles when making and applying this powerful mixture. A surgical mask isn’t a bad idea either, as it can cause some respiratory irritation in some individuals.
In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Put peppers and flakes in a food processor and blend until they are a little more roughly chopped up. You can do this by hand, but I find it less irritating to the eyes to use the food processor. Put the pepper blend into a 2 gallon bucket, and then pour the boiling water over them. Cover the mixture and allow it to sit for 24 hours. Using cheesecloth, strain out the pepper bits by pouring the mixture into another 2 gallon bucket. Fill your spray bottle and spritz around entrances and affected areas. A little goes a long way! Don’t use this on carpets as it may discolor the surface. I like to apply around the outside perimeter of my house, but if you want to apply it indoors, after a day or two wipe the old spray up with some water and reapply. Always test a small area first to make sure it doesn’t affect the color.
The mixture, covered, keeps for months out of direct sunlight, so simply refill your bottle when needed.

4. Dryer Sheets
While I point blank refuse to use dryer sheets in the dryer, I do find myself turning to them at times to help with mice. It’s the lesser of two evils when it comes to poison. I actually learned of this little trick at the barn where I keep my horses. Since my barn cat happens to be incredibly lazy, I learned from another horsey friend that mice hate the smell of dryer sheets. Sure enough, after placing 1-2 in my tack locker, I was no longer finding mouse droppings or (on really bad days) mice that had decided to crawl into my stuff to die.
You will need…
-Regular old dryer sheets

Directions
Lay out around problem areas. Refresh when the scent is extremely faded/gone (usually once a month or so.) It’s a good idea to weight down the corners of the sheets. On the offhand chance you forget to replace them, they can be used as nesting material for the mice once the odor wears off. They can also be moved quite easily. I personally like to use them to help plug up any entrances I find that the mice are breaking into.

5. Bring Out the Copper
Exclusion is a huge part of solving a mouse problem. High quality steel wool is a popular item used to block entrances that mice use to get in and out of your house, and it can work quite well. However, you usually need to use a caulking compound to ensure the mice don’t pull the steel wool out of the hole, and the steel will degrade and rust over time. Copper wool, or copper wire mesh, on the other hand, won’t rust or degrade, and is woven finely to make it that much harder to chew through or pull out. If you have a deep crack, you can tightly stuff several layers of the copper into it which is usually sufficient to hold it in. If you have a shallower space you need to fill, or particularly stubborn mice that find a way to yank it out, you may want to look at a chemical/toxin free caulk or sealant. I won’t go into detail on those products right now since that has enough information to be a post unto itself!
You will need…
-1 roll of copper wire mesh/copper steel

Directions
Roll up the copper into thin wads and stuff firmly into cracks/holes/any entrances being used by the mice. Use a stick to really jam it in there, and use as many layers as you can without making it loose or sloppy. After installing, you can also spray with a little bit of hot pepper spray for extra deterrent.

7. Cloves
Cloves elicit memories of warm holidays and cozy nights by the fire for us, but for some mice, they find the smell distasteful and overwhelming. It seems slightly counterintuitive that a smell that reminds us of holiday baking would be so unappealing to a mouse, but the strong essential oil in cloves encourages is irritating to them. You can use whole cloves, or clove essential oil on cotton balls. I prefer the essential oil as it is more powerful than the latter.
You will need…
-Clove essential oil OR whole cloves
-Cotton balls

Directions
Apply in the same way as the peppermint oil. Put 20-30 drops onto a cotton ball and place strategically around the house. Be sure you don’t have any pets wandering around that would gulp it down. If you’re using whole cloves, wrap them in an old piece of cotton t shirt and use in place of the cotton balls.

8. Aluminum Foil
My family laughed when my Dad laid out aluminum foil one particularly mouse infested year up at the cabin. He covered the entire countertop with the stuff-cereal boxes, granola bars, everything. It looked, quite frankly, ridiculous. But lo and behold, the next morning, not a thing had been touched. No mouse had crept over the foil. It was probably a combination of the smell, and the slippery and noisy surface (the phrase “quiet as a mouse” didn’t come from nowhere!)
If you know where the mice are breaking in, wad up some foil and firmly jam it in the hole. Have you ever bitten a piece of aluminum foil? It gives me goose bumps just thinking about the sensation. I don’t know if mice don’t like the taste or feel, or if it just strikes them as too unnatural to penetrate, but I’ve had great success with this simple way to keep the mice at bay. This is a good first step to try before moving up to the copper wire solution above.
You will need…
-Aluminum foil

Directions
Cover the surface where you’re finding mouse droppings with the foil. Of course you can’t cover your whole house, but if you’re finding them on the countertops, for example, cover those with the foil. Lay the foil at night right before bedtime, and fold up in the morning. You can re-use it, but I recommend against it, on the off-hand chance that a mouse did track its little mitts all over it!
 
https://www.peta.org/issues/wildlife/living-harmony-wildlife/house-mice/

House Mice and Rats

Mice and rats are complex, unique beings with the capacity to experience a wide range of emotions. As highly intelligent as our canine friends, they’re natural students who excel at learning and understanding concepts.

Much like us, mice and rats are very social creatures. They become attached to one another, love their families, and enjoy playing, wrestling, and sleeping curled up together.

Mice and rats are fastidiously clean animals who groom themselves several times a day and are less likely than dogs or cats to transmit parasites and viruses.

Did You Know?

  • Rats love to be tickled, and they make chirping noises that sound like laughter.
  • Mice and rats are so smart that they can recognize their names and respond when called.
  • Rats naturally have a pleasant perfume-like scent.
  • Rats have excellent memories, and once rats learn a navigation route, they never forget it.
Humanely Keep Rodents Out of Your Home

Glue traps and poisons are futile, dangerous to humans, and extremely cruel, as animals often spend days suffering before eventually dying in agony. Poisons are highly toxic to humans and pose risks to companion animals and nontarget wildlife who come into contact with them or with the bodies of poisoned rodents. Glue traps also pose risks to all small animals as well as posing disease risks to humans (Health Canada and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both caution against their use). Furthermore, lethal methods never work to keep rodents away in the long run and will actually backfire. This is because when animals are killed or otherwise removed, the resultant spike in the food supply causes accelerated breeding among survivors and newcomers—and this means increased populations!

Effective rodent-control programs are integrative and adaptive and focus on repellents, deterrents, and exclusion. Rodents are attracted to areas with adequate food sources and shelter, both indoors and outdoors. Eliminate access to food by keeping counter surfaces, floors, and cabinets free of crumbs and storing dry food and pet food in chew-proof containers. Seal trash (use bungee cords on lids), pick up your animal companions’ food at night and never feed them outdoors, pick up fallen fruit and vegetables in orchards and gardens if possible, and never feed wildlife. Reduce hiding places by keeping grass and vegetation trimmed back and by storing outdoor furniture, grills and barbecues, and wood piles away from buildings.
 
Continued

Next, determine where the animals are entering and frequenting by using a flashlight to locate entry points such as holes and cracks, gaps around pipes and doors, etc. (Rats can slip into buildings through quarter-size holes, and mice can squeeze into dime-size holes.) Feces and signs of chewing or food-storing can also help determine the places that rodents frequent. Repel rodents by using ammonia-soaked rags or cotton balls (animals won’t like the smell and will leave), an indoor/outdoor radio (set to rock music or talk radio), or a strobe light. Once animals have been repelled, seal entry points temporarily using steel wool or insulation. Once you’re sure animals are gone, cover the area with foam sealant, hardware cloth, or metal flashing.

Live-Trapping Mice and Rats

After rodent-proofing the building, any animals who remain can be live-trapped during mild weather and released nearby.

Live cage or box traps are humane so long as they are checked hourly. Mice and rats can die from stress-induced disorders, exposure, or dehydration in just a few short hours. Traps should be scrubbed with a mild bleach solution (to eliminate food smells), disabled, and securely stored when not in use—especially during cold weather and times when they cannot be checked hourly!

Many hardware stores and humane societies—as well as PETA—sell live mousetraps. Havahart Chipmunk Traps #0745 can be used to live-trap rats. Bait traps with peanut butter or Trapper’s Choice Loganberry paste, which can be ordered from U-Spray at 1-800-877-7290. Place a dab of peanut butter underneath the trigger mechanism at the back of the trap (if there is no trigger, place the bait on a small wooden block set at the back of the trap and place a dab of the loganberry paste, if you have it, on top of the peanut butter). The bait must be at the very back of the trap so that the rodent’s tail won’t get caught in the trap door, which can break it. Set the traps against walls in areas frequented by the rodents (i.e., places where you’ve seen droppings). Again, the traps must be checked hourly and disabled when this isn’t possible!

In a pinch, you can also make a humane rodent trap by placing dry oatmeal and peanut butter in a small plastic wastebasket. Stack bricks or books along one side so that the rodent can climb up and jump into the basket—once inside, the animal won’t be able to climb back out.

Captured mice and rats can be kept calm by placing a towel over the trap. Release them within 100 yards of where they were trapped. (Rodents can also be humanely euthanized by a veterinarian or at a local animal shelter.) Releasing a mouse or rat into a strange area will almost surely result in the animal’s death because relocated animals don’t know where to find adequate food, water, or shelter and often become weak and succumb to predation or foreign parasites or disease against which they lack a natural immunity.

If you continue to find rodents inside the building after several days of live trapping, make sure that all entry points are sealed. Then reset the traps and continue to keep them baited. If the baited traps are set for two weeks without being touched and there are no more signs of rodents (i.e., droppings), that’s a pretty good indication that the area has been rodent-proofed and animals have been removed successfully.

Mice and rats deserve our compassion and respect, so it’s essential that we use humane methods to solve perceived problems with them.
 
http://veg.ca/2011/11/01/dealing-with-mice-and-rats-a-humane-approach/

As winter approaches, mice and rats start looking for warm places for shelter. And what better spot than a nice warm home with lots of crumbs in the kitchen? Once they move in, they will generally increase their population to take advantage of the available food supply.

If you are not into sharing your home with rodents, there are ways to encourage them to leave with a minimum amount of suffering for everyone.

If you currently have unwelcome guests, follow steps 1 to 4. If you don’t yet have visitors, skip to step 4.
For a print version open Mice-and-rats.pdf (162 Kb)

a-mouse.jpg
1. Stop feeding them

Mice are drawn to your home because you offer food, water, and shelter. Completely eliminate these, and your problems will be over.

Begin by removing food sources. Grains, legumes, sugar, candies, pastas, nuts, and other dry foods should be stored in upper cabinets, where mice don’t have access. Or place foodstuffs in glass or metal containers, not in plastic. Rodents can chew through hard plastic. An alternate solution is to store dry food in a metal trash can with a tight fitting lid.

Mice and rats are nocturnal, and prefer to do their feeding at night while you are asleep.

2. Seal cracks and holes in the kitchen
A mouse can squeeze through holes that are no bigger than the diameter of its head – around the width of a dime, and young mice can fit through pencil-sized cracks of a 1/4 inch. Rats can fit through quarter-sized holes. Rodents will chew through wood and caulking, so seal openings with course steel wool, plaster, cement, sheet metal, or metal screen.

The first priority is to keep them off the counters, and away from the sink where they can find water to drink. Inspect your counters and upper cupboards for holes and cracks. Stoves, especially older ones, can provide mice with easy access to the counter. You may need to place pot lids over each burner at night to block them. You can also place a roll of metal screen in any gaps between the stove and the counter. Another option is to try using an ultrasound device on the counter. See below for more about these.

After the counters are secure, focus on the rest of the kitchen. The cupboard under your kitchen sink is often a point of access. Check for openings around pipes, etc.

Mouse-proofing your kitchen will probably solve most of your rodent problems. If they can’t find anything good to eat, they will have to seek out a better place to live.

3. Make your home uninviting
Once you have eliminated the free food, and sealed the kitchen, one of these techniques may work to give them a final hint to leave.

Essential oil of peppermint — Mice (and ants) do not like this odour. Put a few drops of peppermint oil on cotton balls, and place them at strategic points around your house.

a-mice-ultrasound.jpg
Ultrasound devices
— A small box that makes ‘noisy’ ultrasonic waves beyond the hearing range of humans, cats, and dogs, but well within the hearing range of rodents. If the original attractant, such as food, is present, the rodents may learn to tolerate the noise. A device is only good for one room, and the waves don’t turn corners. This creates sound shadows, and the rodents may simply shift their activity to these low noise shadows. Ultrasound is considered nontoxic and safe for children, dogs, and cats, but it should never be used near rodent pets. Available at hardware stores.

Cats — Borrowing a friend’s cat for a few days may deter mice from staying around. Just a cat’s smell may be enough. But be aware that many cats are very effective predators. They will not generally attack adult rats, but if let outside, they may attempt to kill small birds, wild rodents, and baby rabbits. They also tend to play with (read: torture) their prey, making for a slow, drawn out death.

4. Secure your outside walls
Once you are confident that the rodents have left, work on making the exterior walls of your house into a fortress. If you live in an apartment or in an attached house, you may have to work with your neighbour(s).

Rats and mice can run along or climb wires, ropes, cables, vines, shrubs, and trees. Make sure there are no openings high up on your walls or trim the vegetation around your home, leaving about a two foot gap. Check for gaps around any wires or cables that enter your home. Mice can climb almost any rough, vertical surface such as wood and brick.

They can even enter right through the front door! Check for gaps in the weather-stripping around doors. Gaps can be fixed with new weather-stripping that fits better. To deter rats, put metal grates over floor drains in the basement.
 
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What Not To Use: Traps and poison

Trapping and poisoning rodents can cause a lot of suffering, and there is always the possibility of trapping a nursing mother, leaving her young to starve in the nest. These methods can also endanger companion animals and children. And the suffering is often for naught because unless you mouse-proof your house, you will have a continual problem. The female house mouse averages 7-10 litters of 4-16 young per litter annually. The Norway rat averages 5-12 litters of 7-11 young annually.


Glue traps — A 1983 test that evaluated the effectiveness of glue traps found that trapped mice struggling to free themselves would pull out their own hair, exposing bare, raw areas of skin. The mice broke or even bit off their own legs, and the glue caused their eyes to become badly irritated and scarred. After three to five hours in the glue traps, the mice defecated and urinated heavily because of their severe stress and fear, and quickly became covered with their own excrement.* Animals whose faces become stuck in the glue slowly suffocate, and all trapped animals are subject to starvation and dehydration.


Poison — This can lead to a slow death preceded by great suffering for the targeted animals, and some may end up dying inside a wall where their bodies will decompose, giving off odour and attracting other pests. One woman I know ended up tearing apart a large section of her living room to try and find a mouse carcass that was causing a terrible stench that had persisted for months in her home. Most poison takes 4 or 5 days to kill a rodent, and most kill via anti-coagulation. This means that the rodent dies from internal bleeding. The use of poisons can also result in the painful deaths of cats, dogs, and other animals who either ingest the poison by mistake or eat the bodies of poisoned rodents.


Quick-kill snap traps — These traps aim to snap shut, breaking the rodent’s neck. The Guelph Humane Society recommends these as the most effective and humane option for killing rodents. “A humane death occurs when the animal dies instantly, without pain or panic.” To avoid mice being maimed instead of killed, they suggest: 1. Placing the traps baited but not set  until the bait has been taken for a few consecutive days. 2. Tieing the bait down so that the mouse has to really grab it. 3. Not over-using a trap. 4. Placing several at once. Their article is no longer available, but ehow has a post on snap traps.



Rat and Mouse Zapper — According to the company that makes them (www.ratmousezapper.com), the Rat Zapper works much like a stun gun. When the mouse or rat steps into the trap. it triggers a high voltage charge. The rodent is instantly rendered unconscious, and then killed quickly by muscle constriction (the heart and lungs stop functioning). They also point out: “Other traps, like snap traps and glue boards, create “trap shyness” in rodents. There is visible, audible, and scent trauma associated with a death in a snap trap or glue board. Snap traps can be bloody and always cause rodent disconfiguration. Glue boards may take hours or days to kill a rodent.”
They cost $42 and require batteries.



Live capture traps — It is very important to check these traps every few hours, as frightened rodents, with their high rate of metabolism, quickly become thirsty and hungry. Once animals are captured alive, they must be released somewhere. According to the Guelph Humane Society, “it is questionable whether a house mouse would survive if released outside, even if the temperature was mild.” Live capture traps are available in hardware stores. See PETA links below for more information.


A very effective Ketch-All trap is available for $20. At the house where I live, we gave it a shot, and its a magnet for mice! Caught 8 altogether over a period of about 3 days with no bait. But later we discovered that it sometimes kills mice. Fortunately, I discovered a solution. See my report at deliciousearth.com titled: Eight mice that no longer live here.



The company has a more humane (and apparently equally effective) trap called the Pro-Ketch. It has no spring-loaded parts that need winding. Instead mice squeeze through a one-way door.



a-mouse-trap-bad.jpg
They also have the Tip-Trap that I have heard is quite effective and very safe to use.


Victor has a very similar trap to the Pro-Ketch called the Tin Cat Mouse Trap. But avoid their main Victor Live trap (pictured to the right) that is commonly sold in hardware stores. I (and others I know) have tried it and it is not very effective.



Homemade live capture traps — See How to catch a mouse without a mousetrap for a humane method that looks effective.

 
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