How to Catch a Mouse in the House

Where's that Tom when you need him? Your house is plagued by a mouse three times smarter than Jerry and that little rodent is driving you up a wall. The cereal box has a hole gnawed in the bottom. The candle has been turned into a pile of wax shavings. Forget the freshly installed drywall. You've got genuine cartoon shaped mouse holes along the bottom.

Does it help to know you aren't alone? I, too, have had a problem with super destructive mice. I had a rowhome in the city about 12 years ago. The mice had set up quite a home for themselves next door and were coming through the shared wall and making themselves at home. I literally tore the wall down to the studs, repointed every brick and reinstalled fresh drywall. Then, I spent two weeks catching the mice that had been bricked up on my side of the wall. It was not a fun time.

First, take a few moments to pull yourself together. Realizing that a little rodent has invaded your home can make you pretty upset. You may be blaming yourself and feeling like you don't keep a clean house. This rarely is true. When it gets cold, all those field mice that have been hanging out in the garden or nearby fields head for shelter and your nice, warm house is the best spot around. Some of the most obsessive compulsive housekeepers on earth have mice.

Start de-mousing your home by thoroughly cleaning any areas the mouse has invaded. Throw out items it has destroyed. Re-pack salvaged items in mouse proof containers. (Throw all food that wasn't in mouse proof containers out if there is even a chance a mouse was messing in it. I had a mouse with a weird addiction to Hershey's kisses who was really hard to catch. He ate about 10 of them and, even though they were foil wrapped, I tossed the rest.)

Get rid of as much clutter as possible. Mice love to hide in a corner behind jars, picture frames, television sets, book shelves...you name it. My little mouser once hunted down a rodent that was in a space behind a piece of baseboard trim that wasn't nailed down.

Use your flashlight to check for holes around the baseboards, in floors and in the seam of walls behind furniture. Caulk any small holes. My great grandmother used tin can lids and nails to block up a troublesome hole in her floor. If you have a big hole in your floor where a pipe used to be, you may want to do the same.

Bait and set traps. Forget cheese. The best bait is peanut butter. Think like a mouse as you work. They like to hang out behind the television? Place a trap right behind it. Consider using a variety of traps to outsmart mice who've figured out how to avoid a specific trap.

Plug an electronic pest chaser into an outlet near or on your counter top to keep mice away from food. I would think twice about using one in a room where you have little pets like hamsters or parakeets, though. I have a friend who uses one of these gadgets in her kitchen and it really seems to work. However, if anyone puts anything on the counter, the item will block the sound from the pest chaser and mice can happily hunker down behind the box, bowl, or jar. (Update - use these with caution. I recently heard of an outlet with an electronic pest chaser in it melting and catching fire. It was an older home with outdating wiring, so the pest chaser may not have been the cause, but you may want to look for a battery operated model to be on the safe side.)

Get a cat and encourage it to hunt mice. My cat was really into the whole mouse catching thing, but she got bored when she caught them all and she started importing her own pests to catch. An indoor only mouser will save you from the shock of finding a snake or a bunny hanging out in your living room.

1. Keep your pet food supply in mouse proof containers and feed your pets on a regular schedule. Remove all uneaten food after they finish chowing down. Mice just love cat and dog food.
2. Some dogs are better mousers than cats. However, they tend to dig their way to the rodent and may cause some damage to your house if they aren't supervised.
3. Sometimes, hiring an expert is the best solution. He or she will probably want to use poison, so be sure to request child and pet proof boxes to hold that deadly stuff if it is going to be in your house and yard.
4. Hamsters, gerbils and pet mice can be rodent magnets. Make sure you keep your pets' area really clean and consider using lidded aquariums instead of cages for your pets to keep everything very mouse proof.