Mouse In The House

I've read that the mice will usually start in the attic, move to the basement and then end up on the living space level(s). I don't have a basement, but I did hear the noises first in the attic. I heard scurrying around up there, usually in the evening. I wasn't sure what it was. I had raccoons in my chimney a couple years ago and thought maybe they'd gotten into the attic this time.

Then I heard noises in the kitchen wall. That space would be awfully small for raccoons. Next, I found the droppings. Eww! Definitely mice!

I heard the scampering and scratching in the wall intermittently. Then, for a few days, it seemed to have completely stopped. Maybe they split, I thought. No chance. Next thing I knew they were back with a vengeance. A couple days after Thanksgiving I had some turkey left-overs for dinner. There was a single, fairly large, bone on the plate that I'd left on the kitchen counter to clean up in the morning.

In the early morning hours I heard some loud noises. When I went out to look I noticed the bone was gone. It was so creepy. I thought mice were vegetarians. So, I started to wonder if it was really mice. I did some reading and learned they are omnivores. 

The next morning I finally found the bone behind the washing machine. The bone was wedged into a space right near where the mice have been getting in. I could feel a cold draft coming in right there as well. As gross and horror movie like as the whole scene was, at least I now knew exactly where they were getting into the kitchen.

As soon as the hardware store opened, I went and got some mouse traps. There are a lot more options these days than I remember as a kid, but I went with the old style wooden ones. They're super cheap and they work. I baited them with peanut butter and got my first catch in less than an hour!

I put him out in the compost bin and set up another trap. So far no more mice been caught, but mice are nocturnal. Tonight should be interesting.

UPDATE: Living in an older house, built in the 1950's, surrounded by woods and all kinds of critters, mice returning has become an annual event. I've searched for where they might be coming in and I just don't know. I've managed to keep them to the attic, most of the time. They always come into the attic first. Once I start hearing them up there on a regular basis, I head up with Decon bait traps. I don't love using poison as my solution, but it's the only reliable thing I've found.

If the attic was easily accessible, I would set the same traps I set inside the house and just check them everyday and change as needed. However, my attic is a crawl space that's difficult to get to and challenging to navigate (think crawling on hands and knees, trying to avoid bumping into nails or falling off the narrow board that runs the length of the crawl space, wearing a mask, goggles and a headlamp). 

I do this once a year, typically in the late fall, and 9 times out of 10 it takes care of the problem until it starts again the following year.