[Rebmik]

I need real, country style solutions! This is an old house and it is totally impossible to "seal out" mice.
I do NOT want safe, humane suggestions! I want them dead and gone and never to want to return!!!!
I'd love a mongoose or a couple of mouse killing cats, however 16yo inside dog prevents either currently!
THANK YOU in advance for effective, deadly remedies and solutions!!!! they are outsmarting glue traps, spring mouse traps...can hear them in the walls and other various chewing locations day and night....going CRAZY!!!!!!

[Simkie]

If they're that bad, I could call an exterminator. Bring in the big guns.

[SAcres]

Yup, sounds like an exterminator is your best option.

[poltroon]

Call the professionals. But, excluding them is eventually going to be necessary.

If you find holes, steel wool stuffed in the hole can be an effective stopgap.

[Belg]

Ratzapper. A few of them.

[Crackerdog]

Another vote for the exterminator.

I know its hard to seal an older house but you have got to get as many of the gaps plugged as you can find. Also you will need to do a thorough sweep for the things mice like to eat and get rid of it or seal it up in mice proof containers.

You can get a semi-feral cat from a shelter that can live outside to catch the buggers when they go out for food at night. But really, the biggest thing, find their food source. If you can make them hungry they will get caught in your traps.

Good luck! I hate mice and rats.

[FLeventer]

Exterminator to get the first infestation and to point out where they are coming in and then block the entrances and place traps/poison there for them.

[Carol Ames]

exterminators/ feral cats, or cats from a good mousing line

[IronwoodFarm]

We have used mouse poison with great success. As much as I love my barn cats, I wouldn't call their killing method particularly "humane." Cats like to play with their prey before they kill.

[Rebmik]

Landlord had "professional exterminator" come out. "Exterminator" told me all he could do was set out bait, he could not actually investigate as to where the pests were residing, actually he was a real idiot, to be nice!
Even though husband hates bait, b/c then the mice die and you get to smell that for months...I've put out bait that they gobble up, and new ones come back for more.
The house is on old plantation that there are several uninhabited structures that I've seen several feral cats...have TONS of hawks, and see about 3 bald eagles/week...even snakes, which I am petrified of, hence trying to get rid of mice so snakes aren't drawn to house for a nice meal!!!
House sat in a ruined state for close to 60year as does the main plantation home, guess the mice figure they have "squatters rights" by now ehe? UGH

[sarafina]

Ok, I would agree with the exterminator for the major problem. However (zips up flame suit) we use one method on the farm that has worked like a charm - caveat - we do not have any pets or kids that could get into the following traps, and they are poisonous and uncontained, so please be cognizant of this. This method is not exactly for the faint of heart, but it really works...

We use a 5 gallon bucket filled about 1/4 with RV antifreeze. We smear peanut butter on the handle, and put a small board leading up to the rim of the bucket, like a ramp so the mice walk up the ramp, attempt to use the wire to get to the peanut butter and -plop- into the antifreeze where they die quickly and are preserved until we can scoop them out (we're only there 2 weekends a month at present) We then dispose of them in our burn barrel, because I don't want any woodland creature dying because they eat an antifreeze soaked dead mouse.

It works, and we don't have the smell of decomposing mouse from a live trap. Our mice got out of snap traps, and I can't stand glue traps. They ate their way out of all but the metal live traps. Consider placing metal live traps outside of your home as well. Fall is a big "move" times for mice with the weather changes. I agree with the steel wool in the holes, but also removed things like paper bags stashed in corners of the kitchen, boxes stored for future use, anything that a mouse could use for a home.

Good luck!!!!

eta: Ok, just read your post about the exterminator. Ugh, how frustrating.
Just to be safe, read up on the Hanta virus and be sure to ventilate the area well before sweeping out any mouse poop or similar. It's very rare, but there have been some deaths from campers in mouse infested cabins that are poorly ventilated. Just, y'know, so you know...

[Pasde2]

As the owner of a very old house with lots of "entry points" for mice, I sympathize! My cats mean well but can't keep up with the volume, and there are just too many places that are easily accessible to mice and inaccessible to cats...

What's worked best for me is a dozen plastic (re-usable) snap traps. Glue traps are too cruel IMO, and I have both house and barn cats so I don't dare use poison - a cat that catches and consumes a not-dead-yet mouse can die too. Many "rodent baits" work by causing massive internal bleeding.

At this time of year, many mice are coming in from the recently-harvested fields, looking for a nice place to stay for the winter. If you can stand to set multiple traps in high-traffic areas every night, and empty them and begin again, you'll be able to get rid of quite a lot of mice by the time winter sets in.

Oh, and the best bait we've found so far, for those traps, is a single chocolate chip rolled in peanut butter. The PB attracts the mice, and although they can manage to eat it without springing the trap, as soon as they touch the chocolate the trap will snap. So far, so good... but be aware that after almost thirteen years we are still getting that annual post-harvest influx of mice, so the Month of Trap-Setting is a regular autumn event around here.

[Pasde2]

As the owner of a very old house with lots of "entry points" for mice, I sympathize! My cats mean well but can't keep up with the volume, and there are just too many places that are easily accessible to mice and inaccessible to cats...

What's worked best for me is a dozen plastic (re-usable) snap traps. Glue traps are too cruel IMO, and I have both house and barn cats so I don't dare use poison - a cat that catches and consumes a not-dead-yet mouse can die too. Many "rodent baits" work by causing massive internal bleeding.

At this time of year, many mice are coming in from the recently-harvested fields, looking for a nice place to stay for the winter. If you can stand to set multiple traps in high-traffic areas every night, and empty them and begin again, you'll be able to get rid of quite a lot of mice by the time winter sets in.

Oh, and the best bait we've found so far, for those traps, is a single chocolate chip rolled in peanut butter. The PB attracts the mice, and although they can manage to eat it without springing the trap, as soon as they touch the chocolate the trap will snap. So far, so good... but be aware that after almost thirteen years we are still getting that annual post-harvest influx of mice, so the Month of Trap-Setting is a regular autumn event around here.

[Rebmik]

Actually attempting "bucket method" found online w/o antifreeze, just water, but no success yet....my design might not be correct!
Prior to moving here we lived in an old, old log cabin barn and either they weren't this bad or didn't have actual walls or heating ducts for them to live in...so couldn't hear them chewing and scratching in walls at night! so used to "farm life" just not to this degree of infestation and take over!

really frustrating!
and yes, we house in middle of huge soybean fields that have just been harvested!

[Crackerdog]

Landlord had "professional exterminator" come out. "Exterminator" told me all he could do was set out bait, he could not actually investigate as to where the pests were residing, actually he was a real idiot, to be nice!
Even though husband hates bait, b/c then the mice die and you get to smell that for months...I've put out bait that they gobble up, and new ones come back for more.
The house is on old plantation that there are several uninhabited structures that I've seen several feral cats...have TONS of hawks, and see about 3 bald eagles/week...even snakes, which I am petrified of, hence trying to get rid of mice so snakes aren't drawn to house for a nice meal!!!
House sat in a ruined state for close to 60year as does the main plantation home, guess the mice figure they have "squatters rights" by now ehe? UGH

What a sucky exterminator. Mine will crawl under the house and set traps if I need them to and come regularly to check them. So far we have been able to keep things under control on our own but it's nice to know I have the option to have someone else deal with it if I need to. I hope you can get things sorted out.

[Donkaloosa]

Years ago when I lived on an old farm, we used something called "Stern's Electric Paste" --- a rather wicked poison that isn't available anymore. It was phosphorus --- you'd open the tube and it would smoke. We'd spread it on things like corn cobs and nail the cobs down to rafters where we could tell the mice/rats had been running. They'd get the paste on their feet, and then would groom it off and eat the poison. I had a rat problem outside my house when sewer work was being done nearby --- they got out of spring traps and glue traps, so I went to poison bait and did kill quite a few. I was glad when the sewer work was finished and they all moved back home.

[Bluey]

Here we have Hanta virus, that kills several people a year.
Mice are carriers, so you don't want to have mice anywhere where people will be doing things.

Plain D-con where it is safe for kids and pets works fine, better than cats or traps.
You may try a bit of everything out there and yes, do find where they are coming thru and steel wool and caulking over it will stop them.

Fall is the worst time of the year for mice and rats.

[suz]

ferrets may solve the problem for you. i've had pet ferrets who did a good job in my barn, and i know stables of long ago kept them as mouse predators back in the day.
i'll tell you how to use them if you want to add them to your family. they make great pets overall.

[ahf]

...We use a 5 gallon bucket filled about 1/4 with RV antifreeze. We smear peanut butter on the handle, and put a small board leading up to the rim of the bucket, like a ramp so the mice walk up the ramp, attempt to use the wire to get to the peanut butter and -plop- into the antifreeze where they die quickly and are preserved until we can scoop them out (we're only there 2 weekends a month at present) We then dispose of them in our burn barrel, because I don't want any woodland creature dying because they eat an antifreeze soaked dead mouse....

We have a bad infestation of mice in the attic this year. Not a single mouse, or evidence of them on the main floor, but over our heads... they have been having some kind of party. I won't use poison because if they go outside to die and the dog gets them.... bad news.

It's really not easy to get into the attic in this house, but yesterday we bit the bullet and my husband set traps up there. He went up there again today and....slipped off the stringer and put a foot through the ceiling. Poor guy.

We are going to try this tomorrow Sarafina, and if it works...we will be extremely in your debt! Thank you!!!!!!

[Crockpot]

ferrets may solve the problem for you. i've had pet ferrets who did a good job in my barn, and i know stables of long ago kept them as mouse predators back in the day.
i'll tell you how to use them if you want to add them to your family. they make great pets overall.

How do you use them? What happens when ferret meets cat? rat?

There was a weasel hanging around the barn which I thought was great but something killed it (barn cat?)