Posted by Laura Turnbull on October 14, 2005

Q: Since my cat died a year ago I have had 4 'mouse invasions'. I live in an older home with a useable crawlspace that opens to the family room on the ground floor. Until the most recent invasion (now in progress) the mice seemed to be limited to ground floor rooms, garage and crawlspace. In the past few days we have found 1 dead adult (in a crawlspace trap), one very small mouse upstairs in the bathtub (almost dead) and another small dead one in a sticky trap (the trap was intended for spiders). My son advocates poison but I'm afraid the dead mice will stink. Also, we have 3 dogs and the last thing I want is a sick dog from eating poison or poisoned mouse. I've been doing research on the problem on the internet and have a yard mowing and cleaning day set for tomorrow to eliminate habitat close to the house. After that we will be doing major sanitation and cleaning inside. The question still remains - how do I rid my house of these rodents. They really gross me out!

Thanks for any advice.

Laura in Kansas City

State: Kansas

A: You aren't alone - many people have mouse invasions in the fall. There are poisons that are "rodent specific" and won't hurt your pets but I much prefer avoiding the poison route. I'd suggest using live traps (these involve a bit more work) or snap traps. Snap traps are quite humane since they kill the mouse quickly and can be quite effective. Cleaning up the area around your home may cut down on the number of potential mice however mice do move around and if there are places for easy access to your house, you'll get more. Try to be sure and seal up any cracks and crevices around the foundation and check out the garage too - they may enter your garage and then the house from there.

Good luck to you. I know no one wants mice in their house but they're much more of a nuisance than danger.

John Wiessinger ( October 16, 2005)