A mice infestation is seeing 7 mice in 24 hours in your kitchen according to this woman and her daughter. I think that is a pretty fair assessment. So, let’s decide that if you see 7 or more mice in your home in one 24-hour cycle you have a genuine mice infestation which means calling in the pest controllers or does it? There’s a combo solution which I discuss below.
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Domestic cats? Mousers.
You could get a cat or two. A big decision by the way. Now, I don’t know if this lady has a cat but it would seem not as she has a mice infestation! Mice are super procreators. If there’s one and you have a cat and your cat caught and ate a mouse it does not mean that you have fixed your mice infestation as there’ll be others; probably lots of others.
This makes them hard to get rid of. But here is the big deal point to make and I know this from past reading and it’s been confirmed by a pest control expert from the National Pest Management Association which, I believe, is based in America. They say that having a cat doesn’t actually fix the mouse infestation problem. It simply pushes the problem somewhere else which is actually not bad because it means you, with the mouse infestation problem don’t really have the problem anymore but your neighbour does. 🙂
The presence of a cat makes mice migrate to other places. The mice become active where the cat isn’t active.
The problem is that it is not as simple as that. That’s because mice can be very elusive. They are very quick movers and they are hard to catch (I’ve had lots of experience). And they can find hiding spots where cats can’t reach them. They can creep through incredibly small holes. So, keeping a cat is not a guarantee of preventing a mice infestation.
Also, we have to address the abilities of the cat. Although a cat or cats will act as a deterrent to mice, some cats are disinterested in hunting or they lack good motivation to hunt mice. It is not a foolproof solution.
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Combo fix
The only solution probably is to combine having a cat with other preventative measures which would include:
Firstly, sealing all possible entry points into your apartment or home on the ground floor. It can be quite surprising to find possible entry points into let’s say a ground floor apartment. For example, if the apartment has shiplap cladding, which is attached to breeze blocks with wooden batons. A space is created between the breeze blocks and the wooden cladding which can be a nice little home for mice. From there they might be able to get into the apartment through defects in the mortar. So you could to track down those weaknesses and plug them up.
Secondly, you’ve got to keep your home totally clean and free of food particles. Food can be kept in airtight containers and the place regularly cleaned to remove crumbs, spills and small particles of food. That’s because mice are attracted to food and will come back to take it.
Thirdly, you should de-clutter your home as clutter provides hiding places for mice.
Fourthly, you can set mousetraps in areas where mice are likely to travel. They tend to travel along walls, that is along skirting boards because it’s safer for them there. And they will be travelling through the entry points into the apartment which you’ve isolated. The trap should be humane. That’s a personal choice but I don’t think we have the right to kill mice as they are sentient beings. I believe that we have to respect this and not cause them pain unless we genuinely have to.
Fifthly, you can use repellents/deterrents such as peppermint oil or mothballs as some mice find these sorts of odours unpleasant. Word of warning: mothballs are highly toxic to domestic cats so you cannot use mothballs to deter mice if you have a cat companion. That’s an absolute demand upon a cat owner. You simply can’t risk it because they genuinely are very dangerous to cats. Some nasty people put then down to kill cats.
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Well thank you Rena Lee for the idea about bird feeders being a source of the rodents. That’s a good one. Shame you can’t feed the birds though! 🙂
Fifteen years ago I had an infestation of mice, even though I had three indoor cats at the time. The mice were brazen enough to leave droppings under the cat food dishes (among many other places). My cats truly lacked the killer instinct when it came to rodents. Bonkers, one of the cats, had cornered one of the mice, but looked at me like, “What do I do now?” The mouse was transported to a field and released.
The infestation was so bad that I had no choice but to hire a pest management service. I believe the mice were attracted to birdseed that fell from a bird feeder in my backyard. I never had a problem with mice after I removed all of the bird feeders.
Thanks for the additional suggestions — an infestation of mice is an ordeal I never care to go through again!
Thanks JDP for sharing your thoughts. Nice of you.
Cats are definitely a deterrent for mice and rats. I live right next to a bayou, there’s plenty of mice and rats around, and when there are many outdoor, stray and feral cats in the area you can certainly notice the decline in the rodent population, due to both the cats killing many of them as well as the mice and rats preferring to move on to other places with less cats.