Mice and dishwashers

[veroroger]

I recently installed a new dishwasher and am already on my second drain hose. Mice have been able to get in between the cabinet and dishwasher and chew through the hose. Short of burning down the house to get rid of them, does anyone have strategies to eliminate the problem? I've tried poison, glue traps, spring traps but can only put those in the cabinets. Why doesn't someone make a metal drain hose like the fill hoses for washers?

 

[launderess]

You've got to get rid of the mice, pure and simple.

If you don't and they move into dishwasher (all that insulation makes wonderful nesting material), you'll have even larger problems.

Once dw becomes fouled by mice droppings and urine you'll never get that smell out. Each time your DW heats up that wonderful aroma will waft through your kitchen area.

Behind cabinets and installed appliances are worst for dealing with mice. You cannot see all the holes to plug up, so unless are willing to pull everything out/down, you're going to have to work with extermination.

Keep in mind even if you do plug holes in one area, once mice are in your home they will simply find other ways to get in and out of walls. They only need a hole/gap size of a dime or a bit smaller.

 

[DADoES]

 
Oven insulation is also a lure, if there's a range or such in the area, and it'll reek probably worse than a dishwasher.  And refrigerators.  And wiring on them all.

 

[ea56]

When I was a teenager about 14 yrs old we had a portable swamp cooler that we filled with water and the water was pumped through a filter filled with something like excelsior (straw) and the drum fan blew air through the water saturated excelsior filter.  It actually cooled very well, especially if you filled the reservoir with ice water.

 

Well long story short, one early summer day when it was really hot I brought the cooler up from the garage where it was stored, filled the reservoir with ice water, laid down on my bed with the cooler blowing on me and promptly fell asleep.  I awoke shortly after to a vile odor coming from the cooler and looked up to see legions of mice escaping thru the plastic egg crate grill of the cooler.  There were also lots of tiny baby mice that were drowned in the reservoir. The stench was from the mouse urine in the excelsior where the mice had set up home during the winter.  Needless to say the cooler was ruined forever.  

 

Mice are very destructive and once they pee on something that can’t be thoroughly washed its ruined for any future use.  I agree with Launderess, you need an exterminator, and even if you get rid of the mice, if they pissed in the insulation and you can’t completely remove it and replace it you may have to trash that DW, because odds are you’ll never be able to get rid of that stench.

 

Eddie

 

[wiskybill]

feel your pain...

I have the mouse problem in my garage and storage barn in the fall and winter months. Not so much in the house with two cats.

I generally use the traditional mouse traps baited with peanut butter and that works pretty well along with bait stations in the garage.

Last fall I found this at Menards and decided to try it in the barn. It's a repellant in a sachet. It seems to have worked fairly well as I haven't caught a mouse out there in a trap all winter. Your mileage may vary...

https://www.menards.com/main/outdoors/insect-pest-control/animal-traps-repellents/fresh-cab-reg-rodent-repellent-4-pack/98703/p-1444427751360-c-10120.htm?tid=8751795075203481719&ipos=49

 

[bradfordwhite]

What's worse than a mouse infestation? A cat infestation.
Don't get me started.....

As for the mice, yeah, you have to get rid of them!

Who wants that trash in their home? or roaches, flies, bed bugs, cats, spiders, or any other pest that's growing out of control.

My elderly parents let a mouse problem get out of control in 2015 to my shock and horror. They had been everywhere in the house.

I put out a mouse bait block in the drop ceiling in the basement at 6pm. Came back at 10PM it was gone.

Then I realized you can hear them running around on the top of the ceiling tiles. And it was just a constant traffic flow.

You have to be vigilant. I put out spring traps glued traps and poison. I removed at least 50 mice in less than a month but
All that poison and they went thru a bucket of it, was eaten and they crawled in to a wall and died. So there was a couple of weeks where it smelled bad.

But, the pitter-patter of feet soon stopped and the smell went away, and there were few dead ones to remove.

If they are so desperate they are willing to eat through a thick plastic hose for water, you have a big problem.

You need to be vigilant and get the poison out there
AND
find where they are coming in and block those holes. There might be one, there might be a few, or there might be hundreds.

It's only going to get worse if you do nothing and soon they will be crawling in your bed, living in your couch, and breaking into your food.
Then hopefully the health inspector will condemn the place and he'd be correct to do it.



If they have a water source, they will quickly populate. GROSS !

 

[mrboilwash]

What the the hack is a cat infestation?
Cats don`t go into other people`s homes unless you invite them with food.

 

[combo52]

We See This All The Time

When A kitchen is remolded [ or built ] there should be NO Gaps left behind appliances, cabinets, sinks etc large enough for even an ant to get through.

 

When I did my kitchens I seal every gap and crevice with caulk and just good construction.

 

I know you are not going to rebuild your kitchen at this point, But I would pull out that new DW and completely seal ALL gaps and openings behind it.

 

John L.

 

[bradfordwhite]

cat infestation is just like any other pest animal infestation.

mice, rats, squirrels, raccoons, dogs, whatever...



When a creature populates to dangerous levels endangering others as well as themselves. Do they not have these problems in Germany?

Some would argue that humans with a world population of almost 8 Billion have become a cancerous infestation. lol.

As for the cats, even if they are outside and being fed they will try and break into buildings and nest. That's when they're doing property damage and making things unsanitary. I suppose dogs, squirrels, raccoons, etc. would do the same if you were feeding them. Even if you aren't feeding them they try and break in.

In the video above, and other hoard situations, imo they'd be better off just sealing the house and gassing it rather than risk human lives. Nothing living in that building is useful. Not the cats, not the fleas, bedbugs, roaches, etc. Just gas it with something that will kill everything, let it sit for a week, come back and air it out, then clean up all the junk. It's disgusting.

------

When I grew up we had one dog that we got as a puppy and she died when she was 17. It was a sad day when she passed in her sleep.

 

[veroroger]

Exterminator

I had an exterminator out. Couldn't find any source where mice got in anywhere near the kitchen. I asked him to check the entire house but he said he knew what he was doing! Yeah, sure. I miss our cat. We never had a problem when she was living. I'd like to get another but don't know how well cat would get along with dog.

 

[vacerator]

Florida has many

household pest's. One I just learned of are those tiny white rats. Youy have to set traps arouhd your house to catch them, else they nest in the attic, eves, etc.
I also saw on National Geographic channel a new venemous viper there from Africa.
It's the Kubine? or soemthing. They didn't tell the size, but it has 2 inch fangs and the venom can kill 10 adults. There is no anti venom yet. The only hope for survival is cutting an X and sucking it out. A teen boy has survived. They didn't say how prevolent they are yet, Those smugglers seem to bring the worst in.
Hilton keeps calliong us from Orlando (reward points). They offered a deal for 3 days 4 nights at a premier resort but those are non refundable if you cancel. Hubby said no way he's going to Florida again. His opinion; it's a S-hole state now.

 

[sarahperdue]

Mice, rats and other rodents.

I am all about the warfarin based poison, bait. If you don't have open water sources in the house (close those toilet lids, etc.) most will go outside to die. The warfarin destroys their blood clotting ability, they become dehydrated and extremely thirsty. Either use a bait station or nail the bait down. I do both. If you don't secure the bait, rats will carry whole blocks of it back to their nest and figure out that it's poison.

Bill, thanks for the tip on the repellent, I'm definitely going to try it. I'm currently battling rodents in the downstairs living space and attic. For whatever reason, the second floor seems fine. I'm going to toss some of the repellent into the attic and see if that works before I put poison up there.

As many others have said, the results of infestation are horrible. When I was tearing out the old sheetrock in the country house, one ceiling panel came down with about 30 pounds of excrement accumulated over eighty-five years. I'm pretty sure that I would have died if I hadn't been wearing a particle & vapor respirator.

@keith, what's worse than a cat infestation? A crazy cat lady infestation. Our neighborhood is infested with them. The call themselves "outdoor cat caretakers" and leave food out for them. We have dozens of multiplying, vicious feral cats. My neighbor was trying to tame two kittens. I told her they were a problem--spraying in our garage and using our young sons' play area. She didn't take the hint. I trapped them and took them to the metro shelter where they were barely able to safely get the vicious little beasts out of the trap to euthanize them. Neighbor didn't speak to me for years.

Roger, I am sorry about your critter infestation but appreciate the nudge to refill the bait in my feeding stations. I'm going to vacuum before replacing it on the screws. Something I did discover over the winter is that the food in the rat bait attracted roaches. I put diatomaceous earth around the traps, and that took care of the roach problem.

Sarah

 

[DADoES]

 
I don't recommend poison.  RJ had a mouse in his car some years ago.  Or maybe it was a small rat.  He set out poison.  The critter died in the A/C system.  Can't say if from the poison or if it just died in there.  Either way, the stench never completely cleared from that car.

 

[ea56]

Ditto That Glenn

on using poison.

 

I used De Con back in ‘73 in a cottage I lived in because I had mice.  Well one day after work I was cooking dinner and opened the utensil drawer to get out my cheese grater and there was a dead mouse on the cheese grater.  That was my last time using that stuff.  Thats when I got my cat Nookie, best preventative for mice there is.

 

Eddie

 

[bradfordwhite]

ewwwww

It's all inhumane and perhaps beyond a person until it isn't any more.

Just one reason I put my bed inside a sealed tent in my bedroom about 5 years ago.

Mice woke me by running through my hair – I have never been the same since | Brigid Delaney

The thought of killing, particularly poisoning, an animal seems incredibly cruel. But it’s different for rodents

www.theguardian.com

 

[bradfordwhite]

Sarah, the crazed cat lady who's projecting human qualities on cats is indeed a problem.

The last thing one wants to do is KNOWINGLY trap their cats, surrender them to human society that might try and return them, or give them back to her. The best thing is just to destroy the pest. There are so many of these wasted cats now that the humane society must be quietly euthanizing in mass.

There's no way one should consider getting a cat to control mice because not all cats chase. If the cat didn't grow up learning from young how to do it it's unlikely they will chase them to kill. They will probably chase to play.

If there are so many mice the cat will likely lose interest. Poison or traps has to be used. Controlling mice is easier than controlling nuisance cats, raccoons, squirrels, etc.

For the people who are like, ewwww I can't do this. Good luck to you.
It's like my parents who thought their house was perfect. They couldn't acknowledge that there was a serious problem.

Though it was built in the mid 80s, their house was essentially swiss cheese on the outside. It had cedar trim that shrunk and opened up gaps ....EVERYWHERE. There were holes in the overhang where the house stuck out over the foundation 6" where one couldn't see any holes but if you took a hand mirror and held it facing the sky under the over hang I showed my Dad all these holes. Well worn holes showing lots of traffic. lol He just didn't want to believe it.

In the basement against one wall I lifted the ceiling tile and tons and tons of mouse feces fell out the seams. I just put the tile back down. I wasn't going to deal with the inevitable mess. lol.

When baby mice present themselves to you, standing on a rug, shivering, and they allow you to slowly approach them and slowly put your shoe on them to squish them..... yeah, you know it's bad. I almost felt bad the cute little fella but...... no, you gotta go.

 

[bradfordwhite]

If you have cinder block wall foundation......

and you have mice that you just can't figure out where they are coming from.

check the TOPS of the foundation wall. If the top is open and not Flat as has been required by code for quite a while now, there's a good chance they are living in or entering your home via these awesome caverns.

I had a 1980 build bi-level house in Eden Prairie, MN a while back and it had open top cinder block walls half way up the base level. I could clearly look down into the wall blocks because the wood walls are only 4" thick whereas the block is 8 or 10" thick.

And guess who had a family of mice living in his newly acquired home? I put a small box on top of where I suspected they were entering the wall and went upstairs and took a break. I came back an hour later and the box had been chewed on AND they pushed it off the wall onto the floor. lol.

I set up a bunch of glue traps on top of the wall and some snap traps. lol. Then waited.
soon I heard the first snap trap. I ran down stairs to see about 15 mice. Some running for cover after trying to figure out what happened. Several mice stuck in glue or in snap traps. lol.

I learned how to grab a live and feisty mouse off a glue trap with a pliers, pull it off the glue trap so it can be used again, then hold the mouse under water in the toilet, shake it until it quickly dies, and then flush. After a couple more nights of a few catches it was done. There was only about 18-20 mice. But it took determination.

Those cinder block walls need to be filled because it's a perfect hollow cavern in there and all they need is one small hole or crack somewhere, EVEN IF ITS UNDER GROUND to enter from the outside. If the block tops are open, your home is open for business for them.

Some people are fortunate to have a poured solid wall basement. Unless there is a crack in it, they don't need to worry about this.

 

[sarahperdue]

Same wavelength

Keith,

I think you and I are kindred spirits on the pest thing.

The metro shelter I took the feral kittens to removed them from the trap directly to euthanasia. The kittens were so wild, they almost tore up the shelter workers who got them out of the trap. Yeah, they were cute, white and fluffy but demon possessed.

As for getting cats to control mice, you are 100% dead on. The best cat I ever had was acquired as the result of a failed cat mouse control effort by my gentle-hearted vegan, animal rights activist neighbor in college. She had mice and couldn't stand the idea of traps or poison, so she went to the shelter and got a couple of cats. Somehow she missed the memo on cats enjoying playing with their food before eating. She was heart-broken. I got the cat and her house which was an upgrade from mine.

I am grateful I have yet to crush a baby mouse with my foot. I hope that day never comes.

When I was about twelve, my mother and I lived in a late nineteenth century bungalow in disrepair...nice way of saying, a dump. We had a black lab named Willie with bed privileges and a little white mouse living under my mother's bed. Willie would get settled down in bed, then the mouse would rush out into the middle of the room and squeak! Willie would leap off of the bed and after the mouse. The mouse repeated this often enough for it to seem like the mouse lived under the bed the entire time we lived in the house. I suspect my mother dispatched the mouse more quickly than that.

Down here in the country, I'm sure we will always have our battles with rodents. That's one of the reasons I'm installing the Geneva steel kitchen cabinets. The original cabinets were chewed through all over by mice and rats--they made freeways connecting the base cabinets and chewed holes in the back of every drawer. Ugh.

Goodnight,
Sarah

 

[veroroger]

more unnecessary info

My home is a 1990 double wide on piers. It was moved here from another site years ago and not connected properly. In fact, it was only a few months ago that the gaps between the halves were finally sealed! Now, it looks like the little buggers have moved into the master bath also. The dog has to jump in the tub several times a day and just looks at the walls around there. I've order the repellent from Menard's so I'll put it in the space behind the kitchen sink and next to the dishwasher and also put one in the master bath. I also suspect, on my next payday, I'll be going to the Humane Society to see what they have in a mature cat.