Critters in the attic
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I had squirrels in the attic regularly in Massachusetts. They’d chew through the walls.
I don’t like glue traps because it makes them suffer, so I’d use the neck-breaking super mouse traps (the ones with rows of teeth).
I was fine with squirrels outside. But, inside my house, that was where I drew the line. (Plus, it’s dangerous to risk them chewing the electrical wires.).
Phil, on the other hand, is massively triggered by squirrels. And there are a lot of squirrels here. He sees several every walk. He practically tears my arm off to get to them.
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@Quirt-Evans said in Critters in the attic:
I had squirrels in the attic regularly in Massachusetts. They’d chew through the walls.
Sounds like a nightmare!
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We are out in the country, so there are mice. We use the snap traps baited with peanut butter. But there are always more mice. A friend recently had to have her car detailed to get rid of the odor from mice burrowing into the car's innards. It took three tries by the detailer to get it done. This has me reconsidering parking my new car in the garage, where we have a lot of mice.
Out in the barn we had huge Norway rats when we moved in. the barn has oak plank floors and I think they were living under the floor. Add water for the horses and hay, which it's impossible to keep them out of, and you get a rat explosion. I considered all the warnings about the unintended consequences of poison. then I considered the consequences to my horse of a rat infestation--contaminated hay, chewed wires causing a fire, chewed hooves, rotting rat bodies drowned in the stock tank (it happened!) causing botulism. I bought the rat poison. It worked.
Unfortunately some wildlife--bunnies--also died. But better them than my horse.
We do not use poison outside of the barn. I do not want my dogs getting secondary poisoning. We have bucket traps in the garage and garden shed as well as the snap traps.
You might try a bucket trap. If you get the setup right, you can kill dozens in a single night.
fear is the thief of dreams
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@pique yeah, Mr SK and I were talking about this, and he was pulling out all the aspirational things you find online about keeping mice away (various scents and those supersonic sound producing things). All of them, I just said, nope, they won't work. Traps and poison, and efforts to plug up entry points are the only options. We'll see how it goes.
@pique said in Critters in the attic:
This has me reconsidering parking my new car in the garage, where we have a lot of mice.
Ugh, that's a hard question. There are pros and cons for either option.
We don't have the concerns you do, so I'm not going to use poison (at least not at this point, maybe if the situation got significantly worse, I'll reconsider but there are too many secondary problems caused by poison).
Thanks for the reminder of the bucket trap. I remember seeing a video of one years ago, I'll see if I can look into it again.
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We had mice in our attic (and walls) in Maine. I didn’t worry about the insulation. I found the hole between the foundation and the siding outside that they were likely getting into, and put snap traps up in the attic and caught 5 or 6 over a period of a week. No more noise. None of those “deterrents” work. You have to physically kill them.
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@Jodi said in Critters in the attic:
I didn’t worry about the insulation.
You mean, you didn't worry about just leaving it there? The upsell is "the insulation is contaminated by the mice. Replace it with the new, super expensive insulation that functions as both insulation and pest control."
Umm, no, not after I saw the price tag. We don't go up in the attic, we don't store anything there. That "contaminated" insulation can just stay there.None of those “deterrents” work. You have to physically kill them.
Yep, unfortunately.
