Mice, screaming women, and slacker pets: Applying integrated pest management
By Phyllis DeGioia
June 16, 2009
One morning last summer I work up and found a scared mouse trembling in my kitchen sink. I’m pretty sure we both screamed, but I couldn’t hear him over my own voice. I gathered him up in a towel and ran him outside. He was probably back in the house before I was.
After recent near hysteria involving a decomposing mouse stuck to my bedroom floor, I realized that my kitchen drawers were full of mouse poop, which means they were also full of mouse pee. I don’t cook much and thus am not in the drawers often. I once again had a major mouse problem.
How can this happen with a varmint-obsessed dog and a cat in the house?
And now that the mice are back, how do I keep my pets and myself safe from diseases?
As a child, I had mice as pets. They’re sweet little guys, and cute as can be. I cannot kill them. So starting a couple of years ago, I live-trapped. I would pack up a frightened little soul, put the trap in a box, chauffeur the mouse to more than a mile away (you have to go at least a mile away or they might return to your house), and release him in a field to become someone else’s house guest.
There’s a real problem with having wild mice in the house, other than the extensive damage they can cause to property; my humane cousins wouldn’t call an exterminator until mice ate through the wiring in both of their Mercedes, costing several thousand dollars to repair. Mice can cause some pretty nasty health issues for humans. According to the CDC, “In the United States, rodents can spread diseases like hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, rat-bite fever, leptospirosis, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, a virus that poses a particular risk for pregnant women.” And if you poison them, they can cause some nasty health issues for your pets.
For a couple of years, I’ve been trying to handle my mouse problem by warding them off using the concept of integrated pest management rather than killing them. Above and beyond live trapping, all food stuffs are kept in plastic canisters like Tupperware or Buddeez (I like the ways Buddeez accommodates a kibble bag); steel wool is placed in holes they can fit through; fox urine granules in Shake-Away are sprinkled appropriately (hey, if you can fight fire with fire, you can fight mouse urine with urine of a predator that we cannot smell); no pet food is left in bowls, which isn’t a problem with my crew of inhalers; no food is left on the counter (if I did, Dodger would eat it); Bounce dryer sheets are strewn around the kitchen (I read somewhere it’s supposed to help); and the best natural pest control of all time, a varmint-obsessed dog and a cat. But at my house, the pets are total slackers in this regard. I once found Dickens half heartedly whapping a wee mousie around, and Dodger ran down the stairs and just watched him whap. Didn’t even blink.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends cleaning up right after you cook (and I do on the rare occasions I cook), keeping bird and squirrel feeders away from the house, and keeping the compost bin away from the house. I am going to have to drag the compost bin farther away.
Even with all this, over the past couple of years I have found kitchen drawers full of mouse poop about three times. I clean them out, disinfect, and start all over again. I am now fed up enough that I can’t handle more drawers full of poop. I can’t bring myself to use traps that kill, but I can put out a contract on them: I called an exterminator. A friend said her mother had a similar approach of “being nice” until you could see the mice bouncing around in the utility room. I’m ready too, so no more Ms. Nice Guy. The scope is now beyond me. Just in case, I tried a new live trap on Saturday, but no one has been wise enough to use it.
This morning the exterminator came out to set more traps in appropriate places. The exterminator was made keenly aware that I have pets and that no rodenticides or poisons are to be used. Not only will rodenticide kill rodents, but it can kill your pets if they get into the poison or eat a (dead or alive) animal that ingested it. Next week will be by far the most important step: sealing off places where mice can enter the house. The CDC says that “mice can squeeze through a hole the size of a nickel, and rats can squeeze through a hole the size of a half dollar!” By all means, I’m up for sealing. It’s best to have a professional wise in the ways of rodent pathways to search, but any holes you seal help.
The exterminator said the reason my pets aren’t getting the mice is the mice have contained themselves in order to avoid my pets – for the most part, the mice won’t leave the basement, attic, or the area behind the kitchen walls (aieee!). And now that the exterminator has prowled the house, I have a new concern: bat guano in the attic. I don’t even want to talk about it.
If you are going to use traps that kill – and I totally understand that most folks have the stomach for it – use the humane ones. The snap traps are quickest and the most humane, like a guillotine, but don’t touch the body while you’re cleaning up. I think the glue traps are unbelievably cruel – terrified animals are stuck to the trap and then wait a long time to die of dehydration or panic. I don’t think poison is a humane choice, although I understand why people choose to use it. If you choose to use poison, be sure to use an anticoagulant rodenticide because the veterinarian has an antidote to it if your dog or cat gets into it or eats a poisoned rodent.
There’s being kind to animals and there’s mouse poop in your house. Find your acceptable line, draw it in the sand, and don’t let the mice cross it.
Not cheap, but I found them very effective and inst-kill humane: Electronic mice zappers. Three or so years ago, I had mice in my garage and home office (which shares a wall). Three e-traps, and the problem was gone in two weeks … almost three dozen mice.
http://www.victorpest.com/stor.....trol/M252B
Now, I have Ilario, who will not tolerate mice and is a very skilled hunter. He has killed a couple in the garage, apparently trailblazers checking out the possibility of resettlement.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — June 16, 2009 @ 6:00 am
That makes me very happy that our two biggest pest problems are roaches and lizards. Though squirrels used to live in our attic and walls in Georgia.
My min pin even helped kill the last roach we saw, in our bedroom no less. I was so proud.
Comment by Sheyna — June 16, 2009 @ 6:10 am
Gina, I NEED those.
Sheyna, can I borrow your Min Pin? (or Ilario…) Your Min Pin has far more ambition than my slackers.
Comment by Phyllis DeGioia — June 16, 2009 @ 6:21 am
I’ve always been fortunate enough to have at least one cat who was a serious mouser in the house. My older cat is getting a little slow for the job, but the younger one is still quite able, and she Doesn’t Share, meaning I get to clean up a few small bloodstains every couple of years.
Comment by Lis — June 16, 2009 @ 6:21 am
sorry mousies, but some of you carry nasty diseases (http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehsphl/factsheet/hanta.htm)
I can’t have you in my house.
Not to be an a**h***, but I assume that no one who has outdoor cats objects to PEOPLE killing mice?
Comment by EmilyS — June 16, 2009 @ 7:09 am
The way *I* discovered I Had A Mouse was to walk into the kitchen and find all three (yes, ALL three) of my cats sitting and staring raptly up at the counter where Mr. Mouse was staring back at them in terrified fascination.
Of course, it was up to ME to actually take care of Mr. Mouse . . . . . . .
Comment by The OTHER Pat — June 16, 2009 @ 7:12 am
I’m fortunate to have two dedicated hunters in my household: the 13 year old cat, Lightning, who is in the barn during the summer and the house in the winter; and our female Husky, Sarah, whose motto seems to be “one pounce and it’s dead”. I occasionally have to trap a mouse in areas where these two aren’t allowed (the pantry, usually), but they are quite determined and professional in their attitude towards any rodent. I feel for any of you with slackers, as I once had a Siamese who was actually afraid of mice!
Comment by Maria Shanley — June 16, 2009 @ 8:11 am
Those zapper traps work well on rats, too. As we learned when a neighbor began leaving dog food outside and the rats decided they liked our crawlspace better.
We had a cat — old Lionel, who died a few years ago — who was allergic to mice. He wasn’t much of a hunter, either, though he did once catch a sparrow that had got trapped in the house. He then sat on it, and waited for me to come and do something about it.
Comment by Eucritta — June 16, 2009 @ 9:25 am
My cats will play with mice until the mice are exhausted, then the cats are nice enough to let the mice recuperate before beginning the games again. I guess they know somehow that will extend the games.
However, if the Australian Shepherds are around there are no games! All three are dedicated vermin hunters!
My parents’ garage was invaded by rats one year. Horrible! Those vermin got into everything - some stuff we didn’t find for months. One momma rat raised a little in the box of Christmas decoration! I feel no guilt for killing her with a snap trap! A big, heavy duty snap trap.
Comment by Liz Palika — June 16, 2009 @ 10:03 am
Yikes! Having an occasional spider in the house makes my wife scream.
Comment by Don Davidson — June 16, 2009 @ 10:33 am
Audie excels in his job as Chief of Vermin Control. We use traps in areas he doesn’t frequent (like the utility room and storage room in the basement).
I’m also hoping that letting the chickens run loose in our backyard will reduce the number of mice and other nasty critters that come in. I’ve got one Dominque who is already a determined hunter - and she’s just a month old!
Comment by Janeen — June 16, 2009 @ 11:51 am
Just rescued a lizard from the younger cat. Xander, the “old man” prefers rodentia almost exclusively. He does not apparently like the taste of insectivores, particularly moles. He’ll even watch them throwing dirt about and leave them alone
moving from the Bay Area to Mendocino County was an education.
Tarantulas, wind scorpions and chiggers oh my!
Comment by JenniferJ — June 16, 2009 @ 12:12 pm
No slackers in this house — Pepper will kill vermin in the house or garden and when Linsdey couldn’t get to the mice under the kitchen sink, he kicked a fuss until we opened the cabinent and found the evidence. We knew the snap traps had gotten them all when he wasn’t spending all night watching the sink.
Comment by Dorene — June 16, 2009 @ 1:05 pm