Controlling Mice

We recently visited a home in the Huntingdon Valley part of Pennsylvania who was having a reoccurring issue with mice. The customer was treating the mouse problem himself with snap traps. I asked him to explain to me what he was doing exactly and to tell me a little but about where he was seeing the mouse activity and how often.

He proceeded to tell me that he was treating the mice with old fashioned snap traps. He said he would glob a piece of peanut butter on trigger and wait, but nothing. While we stood there, he must have sanitized his hands 3 times with a gel sanitizer and it got me wondering, maybe the mice were not attracted to the snap traps because of the heavy odor from the hand sanitizer. He then proceeded to show me where he was seeing them and from there, I devised a plan.

Our plan of action usually starts under where folks are seeing the mice. In this case it was the kitchen which was over a heater room in the basement. I went down there and on the wall ledges placed a bunch of snap traps with just a small smear of peanut butter and all the while I wore gloves. The gloves were to keep the smell from my hands transferring to the bait and the small smear was to make the mouse work at getting his meal. If you put a huge glob on the trigger the mouse will be able to feed off that for a long time, sometimes not even ever triggering the trap.

We also set up several bait stations in safe areas along the wall ledges and sealed some pipes and holes on the exterior.

On my return I was pleased to see we caught 5 mice under the kitchen and the customer reported no activity for several days. He was happy and so was I. The moral of the story is to use gloves when handling your mouse control supplies and make the mice work at getting their grub,