What have mice cost you?

S

slipnfall

Member
This thought just came to mind, and I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts/experiances.

Our neighborhood gets a nice influx of mice in the late fall season. It seems they like to agrevate towards warm spaces... who knew. Anyways my father has had his ceiling speakers (cones included) wiring and telephone wiring destroyed by mice in the past. This is starting to worry me as I begin a my whole-house security/HA retrofit.

As silly as it may seem, are there any things I can do while still in planning stage to prevent this sort of thing? I was just going to use J-hooks in the attic to keep all cables neat and tidy(running perpendicular to the roof trusses). Do you think this would lend itself to a rodent highway? Would I be better to keep them high, low, doesn't matter?

I suspect there's nothing I can really do but pepper the raceways with traps, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

What headaches have rodents caused your security/HA system in the past? Should I batten down and take on the offensive?

Cheers,
Jamie
 
Electron is thge resident mouse expert and has built all kinds of fancy traps. I could not resist the timing of this post. The picture that follows is what I saw and had to clean up this weekend after wife backed car out of garage. WARNING: This picture is gross and disgusting and should not be viewed by anyone while eating or with sensitive stomachs. Picture Just imagine how I felt having to deal with it....
 
I found lots of evidence of mice in our last house, but I found no damage from them. One even built his home in the "service loop" of Cat5e cable in the attic, but he didn't bite the cable. I used plenum rated cable, so maybe it is less tasty than your father's phone wire.
 
Photon said:
I found lots of evidence of mice in our last house, but I found no damage from them. One even built his home in the "service loop" of Cat5e cable in the attic, but he didn't bite the cable. I used plenum rated cable, so maybe it is less tasty than your father's phone wire.
Click to expand...

That's a good point... I can understand the paper cones: they were probably gathering bedding. But PVC jacket? That just seemed to be the evil in them.

Wow that was quite the grizzly picture: even the tail didn't survive... do you drive a steamroller??
 
I am afraid I can't offer any prevention advice, but I can share the most diabolical countermeasure that I have ever heard.

- Get a bunch of small paper plates
- put the plates near known pest entry points
- mix one part flour with one part dry concrete mix and but a small pile on each plate.

I can't say how effective this is, but if you are looking for cruel and unusual punishment, this is it. The only problem that might arise is where the varmints go to die.
 
aehusted said:
...snip...
I can't say how effective this is, but if you are looking for cruel and unusual punishment, this is it. The only problem that might arise is where the varmints go to die.
Click to expand...

I can hear myself now, "Why the h*$% isn't my wire feeding through this conduit?" :lol:
 
Damn! That's nasty! I thought I was ready for anything but that made me wince.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the first traces of unwelcome guests in my suburban home. Frankly, I couldn't care less if they were simply "chilly field mice", the little bastards were not welcome. They're toilet habits leave a lot to be desired and they don't pay their share of the heating bill.

It took a long time to figure out how they entered the building (via the attached garage's attic and then along a vent stack). I sealed all gaps around pipes and wires that enter the home by way of the garage. I still leave traps out and, I'm happy to add, there have been no visits nor evidence of visits this year.

Fortunately, they never chewed any wiring. A whisk broom and some bleach took care of their "little black calling cards". BTW, field mice (a.k.a. deer mice) are known vectors for hantavirus so "handle with care".
 
Man that was just disgusting, I would have made my son clean it up. :lol:

1 particular winter about 3 years ago, I suddenly seemed to have had a colony of mice move in.
The house/attic, the shed, the cars ( they ate the dang air cleaner ), deck furniture and anything else that contained some type of soft material.

It was so bad, one warm day I was outside playing golf with a shovel as they came to and from the shed. I called an exterminator who put a lot of traps around, but they didn't catch any and they seem to have found someplace else to live.

Maybe the golfing convinced them to go away.

As far as I know, they did not chew any wires in the house, and I have a large bundles of HV/LV wires going across the attic.

Thank Goodness.

The worst part is all the droppings in the insulation in the attic, no easy way to clean it up, I had all of it removed and replaced just for my own sanity.

StevenE
 
I would worry a bit if the feces started to accumulate in a great fashion, especially around air ducts. I don't know how prevalent the Haunta Virus is in your area, but it is something to consider if you have a large infestation.
 
We've had them every fall for years. Wife is paranoid about them (as was her mother).

I have an older home (1950) with lots of entry points that I can't find.

About 3 years ago I caught 14 of them.

I use a combo of snap traps, live traps, the pail and tomato can trap (in the garage) and mouse bait in the attic.

We have to be careful with the snap traps and poison as we have a small dog.

This year we only caught one.

I think the sealing of entry points would be the biggest deterrent ( they say a mouse can get thru a dime sized hole ).
 
Steve said:
Electron is thge resident mouse expert and has built all kinds of fancy traps. I could not resist the timing of this post. The picture that follows is what I saw and had to clean up this weekend after wife backed car out of garage. WARNING: This picture is gross and disgusting and should not be viewed by anyone while eating or with sensitive stomachs. Picture Just imagine how I felt having to deal with it....
Click to expand...

Nice floor Steve...did you put that in yourself? Our last house, we did the entire 3 car garage floor with that nice sealer/sprinkles thing, and loved the look of it. Dunno if we're going to do it again, though...it's a lot of work.
 
I've seen advertisements for electronic devices that are supposed to repel rodents from your home. I don't know how effective they are, but the idea sounded interesting.
 
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