My son who lives in a house in N. Y. which is part of rowhouses, is
plagued by an excessive amount of mice. The problem was caused by one
owner, recently thrown out, who was eccessively sloppy with food
handling. An extereminator will not help since mice from the other
rowhouses will keep coming in. Does anybiody have some advice?

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 28 Feb 2005 22:27 PST

Besides a cat, traps, and moving, this procedure is your only option:

1) Bomb with a product that will temporarily remove the mice from your house.  
   The exterminator can sell you a commercial product that will work 
   temporarily.

2) Clean (sterilize) and box up ALL personal belongings.  Replace your box
   springs, couches and chairs (things with inner springs where they can hide)

3) Use caulk to seal up ALL HOLES.  This means inside ALL cabinets, around ALL 
   fixtures, ALL outlets, ALL windows, heat vents, doors, behind appliances, 
   etc.  SEAL THE HOUSE.  Keep in mind small mice can get through an opening
   LESS than 1/4 inch wide.

4) Do the same for the outside.  SEAL EVERYTHING.

5) Move back in and NEVER EVER leave even_one_single_crumb of food on a counter
   or floor.

The mice will still be in the building, just not as many in your house.

Moving is easier.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but it is the Answer.  When you
recover from reading this, and wish to compensate me, let me know and
I'll post in the Answer box.

~~Cynthia

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 28 Feb 2005 22:28 PST

Whoops.  After you are moved back in, go to the local animal shelter
and get a couple cats.  Remember, if you have pets, you can't use
poisons.

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 28 Feb 2005 22:30 PST

I also forgot that with STEP 2) you need to sterilize ALL INTERIOR
SURFACES with bleach/water.

~~Cynthia  (I think I'm done now, phew!)

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Clarification of Question by vaac-ga on 01 Mar 2005 13:33 PST

Thanks, cynthia-ga, for your comments. Since you posted them as a
comment and not as an answer how am I going to compensate you?

vaac,

I didn't know if you would accept my suggestion as your Answer, even
though I feel it is your only option, you might not have wanted to
compensate me.  Since you do, I corrected all my typos, added my
after-thoughts, and am posting it as the "Answer."  Thanks for
accepting my Answer!

Here it is:

Besides a cat, traps, and moving, this procedure is your only option:

1) Bomb with a product that will temporarily remove the mice from your house.  
   The exterminator can sell you a commercial product that will work 
   temporarily.

2) Clean (sterilize) and box up ALL personal belongings.  Replace your box
   springs, couches and chairs (things with inner springs where they can hide)
   Sterilize ALL INTERIOR SURFACES with bleach/water.

3) Use caulk to seal up ALL HOLES.  This means inside ALL cabinets, around ALL 
   fixtures, ALL outlets, ALL windows, heat vents, doors, behind appliances, 
   etc.  SEAL THE HOUSE.  Keep in mind small mice can get through an opening
   LESS than 1/4 inch wide.

4) Do the same for the outside.  SEAL EVERYTHING.

5) Move back in and NEVER EVER leave even_one_single_crumb of food on a counter
   or floor.  After you are moved back in, go to the local animal shelter
   and get a couple cats.  Remember, if you have pets, you can't use poisons.

The mice will still be in the building, just not as many in your house.

Moving is easier.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but it is the Answer.  I wish you luck.

I had a similar problem once with cockroaches.  A next door neighbor
died and it was 2 weeks till he was discovered.  It was horrid.  An
exterminator came... all the bugs left his place and scattered.  All
his neighbors were bombarded with cockroaches.  I did exactly what I
suggested to you.  It took a few days but it worked. I don't know
where they went, but they are not in MY place anymore!

~~Cynthia

As good as can be expected

Presumably he has already considered the obvious: cat, mousetrap, etc?

For more on mice and other pests, try this page:

http://www.unexco.com/mice.html

It's quite a thorough site run by United Exterminating Company. Among
other things, it tells you what scams to look out for when dealing
with professional exterminators.

In England the local council come in and remove them for free.

Also mice prefer chocolate to cheese so load any traps with that.

If you do use traditional traps, make sure you put them in an out of
the way place where the rodent will feel comfterbal in sitting down to
a meal. You also might try tieing down the chocolate or cheese to the
trigger plate as this should keep the mouse from just picking it up
and running off with it. Also try to put the bait as far back on the
plate as you can so the rodent will need to step on the plate to get
at it. Good luck.

We have a mouse (mice? perhaps) that seems it could have been a GA researcher... 
It has survived Mouse traps (kicking the food of the trap then eating
it, yes I actually did see the mouse judo chop a piece of chocolate!)
Poison, In fact it has managed to become resistant to the poison, now
actually prefering the poisoned grain to the chocolate.  It survived a
hearty whack on the head from the broom, and has somehow managed to
break the world record long distance jump, by jumping from the floor
over the cooker and over the shoulder of my wife.

What can you do? well ours has now got a name and lives in the cupboard.

BB

Feed them on a mixture of flour and plaster of Paris. They will eat
the flour and then they will set.

Good Luck

Norman