"Eeeekkk!"
MICE!
"If there is something strange
Living under your sink
eating your soap... Mouse Busters!
If it chews up you stuff
leaving stink and fluff ...Mouse Busters!
If your pet cat
just shrugs... 'what was that?"
and it's time to ACT!!!...Mouse Busters!"
Okay, so we are bad a poetry...you get the idea. Mice are a pain in the tail!!
Not only do they ruin all sorts of stuff, they carry diseases and leave pee and poop all over the place.
Often either on the floor where your kids play, or in the cupboards where you keep YOUR food!
Compassion? Yes, we have live trapped mice and taken them 'out into nature' and released them. Then we learned that they can return up to 20 miles to come back to their home territory! So, we took a deep breath and resigned ourselves to the fact that they are on the bottom of a big food chain of wildlife for a reason. They breed like crazy and get eaten by all sorts of animals!
So, we still put 'em out and try to keep 'em out, but where needed, fast merciful traps are best. We hate sticky traps that make the creature suffer and panic. Snap and their on their way to 'mouse-heaven' is kinder. Cats are kind of natural, although they can take their time and sometimes, when that little mouse stands up and tells them off!!!!.... they listen and let the mice go!!! (no kidding, we have good 'mouser - cats' ourselves, but we saw this early one morning!) Poison is tricky, as another animal can then eat them and die too. It depends on your situation. We have even heard of pest removal companies that close up all the access except 1 and then install a one-way door so they can go out but not back in again! A bit of an investment, but a guilt-free solution to be sure. Many varieties of smaller dogs are originally bred to catch mice (and rats!)
Here's what we have learned... so far...
1. Mice cannot see well, they largely navigate by smell, hearing and touch. So if they cannot smell it, it is less interesting.
2. Mice can produce up to 80 droppings a DAY! That's a lot of toxic 'dirt' they are spreading around!
3. They pee often, creating trails that they continue to follow. Stinking of ammonia and sticky with dirt over time. Yuck!
4. The little critters, being low on the eco-food chain, produce up to 2000 kids per year! Hopefully not in YOUR heirloom quilts in the attic!
5. "How do they get in??!!" Anywhere there is a space of the thickness of a pencil, they can SQUEEEEEEKZZZEEE their little flexible skeletons through the space and Voila! you have rent-free boarders who will not leave willingly!
What we have learned and are seeing results with...
1: Mice, with their acute sense of smell do NOT like peppermint or artificial floral smell.
Our first strategy, preferring eco-friendly where we can... is that when we clean we add pure organic peppermint oil from the baking section of your store, to our spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide, as we clean floor edges and window sills, backs of cupboards and closets and under sinks. So far, it's lasting over 3 weeks! Still testing... looks to be a great year for testing de-mousing strategies!!
2. When you are not going to be around much.. we don't care for this one as much, because it can be so stinky with fake chemical-based floral scents that are often not great for breathing... however, we checked with several expert cleaners in the area, who also specialize in high- density mouse habitats, and they trust this strategy to keep mice out ALL WINTER!
Buy the cheapest floral scented dryer sheets you can find, Dollar Store stuff, LOTS of it and spread the sheets liberally everywhere...backs of closets, in shoes and boots, out in the open, especially along edges, and curtains that reach the floor (they seem to love to pee on the bottom of curtains that trail on the floor!!! before they climb them to the window sills looking for bugs to eat!) The smell will be extreme for the first few days and fade to a level YOU cannot smell but the mice still will.
3. Clean up the mess and remove their scent trails of pee! We love our Rainbow vacuum and cleaning system, because the water traps the mouse poop and does not blow any toxicity back out through any vacuum bag! We can them dump the mess outside in the shrubs or flush it down the toilet. We clean up with 3% hydrogen peroxide spay with peppermint oil added, to wipe out any bacterial mess they have left.
Caution: while 3% hydrogen peroxide is safe for cleaning mouth wounds, it still stings in cuts and nicks to the skin, we suggest gloves! Your callouses may turn white for awhile otherwise, but skin will return to normal within an hour or so of use.
Because of the oxygen present, it will oxidise metal, as in corrode and make a mess, if you leave it without rinsing after.
On wood, plastic and other surfaces, it simply dries and evaporates harmlessly.
If hydrogen peroxide encounters organic bacteria or molds, it will foam up and fizz as it does it job of killing that nasty stuff!
YEAH!!! You know it's working!
Keeping Mice OUT!
Challenging at best, sealing up holes from the outside, where wires and cables enter you house, covering vents with fine strong mesh will at least close the "Enter Here" signs for the wee beasties who simply want a warm home and reliable food source... YOURS!
Packing steel wool tightly into pipe and wiring spaces can help to close the mouse highways and byways that let them get into cupboards in ways you cannot easily see.
Decorative metal tins were INVENTED to keep mice out... our ancestors were smart that way...Laughing!
The heavier plastic containers, such as Rubbermaid and Tupperware are much harder to chew through.
We've even seen mice get into wooden trucks lately!!! How.. we have no idea, but they sure made a mess, chew marks on the wood!
CATS!!
If you like cats and can have a pet, what we have learned is that while a cat can seem 'wired' to hunt mice, they do a better job if an older 'Mouser Cat" is around to teach them! We have witnessed and heard stories of one cat teaching a younger one what to do about a mouse in the house!
"If there is something strange
Living under your sink
eating your soap... Mouse Busters!
If it chews up you stuff
leaving stink and fluff ...Mouse Busters!
If your pet cat
just shrugs... 'what was that?"
and it's time to ACT!!!...Mouse Busters!"
Okay, so we are bad a poetry...you get the idea. Mice are a pain in the tail!!
Not only do they ruin all sorts of stuff, they carry diseases and leave pee and poop all over the place.
Often either on the floor where your kids play, or in the cupboards where you keep YOUR food!
Compassion? Yes, we have live trapped mice and taken them 'out into nature' and released them. Then we learned that they can return up to 20 miles to come back to their home territory! So, we took a deep breath and resigned ourselves to the fact that they are on the bottom of a big food chain of wildlife for a reason. They breed like crazy and get eaten by all sorts of animals!
So, we still put 'em out and try to keep 'em out, but where needed, fast merciful traps are best. We hate sticky traps that make the creature suffer and panic. Snap and their on their way to 'mouse-heaven' is kinder. Cats are kind of natural, although they can take their time and sometimes, when that little mouse stands up and tells them off!!!!.... they listen and let the mice go!!! (no kidding, we have good 'mouser - cats' ourselves, but we saw this early one morning!) Poison is tricky, as another animal can then eat them and die too. It depends on your situation. We have even heard of pest removal companies that close up all the access except 1 and then install a one-way door so they can go out but not back in again! A bit of an investment, but a guilt-free solution to be sure. Many varieties of smaller dogs are originally bred to catch mice (and rats!)
Here's what we have learned... so far...
1. Mice cannot see well, they largely navigate by smell, hearing and touch. So if they cannot smell it, it is less interesting.
2. Mice can produce up to 80 droppings a DAY! That's a lot of toxic 'dirt' they are spreading around!
3. They pee often, creating trails that they continue to follow. Stinking of ammonia and sticky with dirt over time. Yuck!
4. The little critters, being low on the eco-food chain, produce up to 2000 kids per year! Hopefully not in YOUR heirloom quilts in the attic!
5. "How do they get in??!!" Anywhere there is a space of the thickness of a pencil, they can SQUEEEEEEKZZZEEE their little flexible skeletons through the space and Voila! you have rent-free boarders who will not leave willingly!
What we have learned and are seeing results with...
1: Mice, with their acute sense of smell do NOT like peppermint or artificial floral smell.
Our first strategy, preferring eco-friendly where we can... is that when we clean we add pure organic peppermint oil from the baking section of your store, to our spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide, as we clean floor edges and window sills, backs of cupboards and closets and under sinks. So far, it's lasting over 3 weeks! Still testing... looks to be a great year for testing de-mousing strategies!!
2. When you are not going to be around much.. we don't care for this one as much, because it can be so stinky with fake chemical-based floral scents that are often not great for breathing... however, we checked with several expert cleaners in the area, who also specialize in high- density mouse habitats, and they trust this strategy to keep mice out ALL WINTER!
Buy the cheapest floral scented dryer sheets you can find, Dollar Store stuff, LOTS of it and spread the sheets liberally everywhere...backs of closets, in shoes and boots, out in the open, especially along edges, and curtains that reach the floor (they seem to love to pee on the bottom of curtains that trail on the floor!!! before they climb them to the window sills looking for bugs to eat!) The smell will be extreme for the first few days and fade to a level YOU cannot smell but the mice still will.
3. Clean up the mess and remove their scent trails of pee! We love our Rainbow vacuum and cleaning system, because the water traps the mouse poop and does not blow any toxicity back out through any vacuum bag! We can them dump the mess outside in the shrubs or flush it down the toilet. We clean up with 3% hydrogen peroxide spay with peppermint oil added, to wipe out any bacterial mess they have left.
Caution: while 3% hydrogen peroxide is safe for cleaning mouth wounds, it still stings in cuts and nicks to the skin, we suggest gloves! Your callouses may turn white for awhile otherwise, but skin will return to normal within an hour or so of use.
Because of the oxygen present, it will oxidise metal, as in corrode and make a mess, if you leave it without rinsing after.
On wood, plastic and other surfaces, it simply dries and evaporates harmlessly.
If hydrogen peroxide encounters organic bacteria or molds, it will foam up and fizz as it does it job of killing that nasty stuff!
YEAH!!! You know it's working!
Keeping Mice OUT!
Challenging at best, sealing up holes from the outside, where wires and cables enter you house, covering vents with fine strong mesh will at least close the "Enter Here" signs for the wee beasties who simply want a warm home and reliable food source... YOURS!
Packing steel wool tightly into pipe and wiring spaces can help to close the mouse highways and byways that let them get into cupboards in ways you cannot easily see.
Decorative metal tins were INVENTED to keep mice out... our ancestors were smart that way...Laughing!
The heavier plastic containers, such as Rubbermaid and Tupperware are much harder to chew through.
We've even seen mice get into wooden trucks lately!!! How.. we have no idea, but they sure made a mess, chew marks on the wood!
CATS!!
If you like cats and can have a pet, what we have learned is that while a cat can seem 'wired' to hunt mice, they do a better job if an older 'Mouser Cat" is around to teach them! We have witnessed and heard stories of one cat teaching a younger one what to do about a mouse in the house!