Mice in the Walls - HELP!

[Einan]

Okay, so I've got a mouse/rat/unknown critter stuck in my wall. I hear the darn thing scrabbling and trying to get out, but it seems stuck. I don't want it to die in there and stink up the house. What do I do?

Einan - Level 1 Newish homeowner

 

[Desdichado]

Here's what you don't do: go exploring the mysterious caverns you discover under your house.

Sorry, the similarity to the Lovecraft story with the (almost) same name was too good an opportunity to pass up. I don't know, honestly. You saying that the animal is in your house under the drywall/sheetrock, or what?

 

[Einan]

Here's what you don't do: go exploring the mysterious caverns you discover under your house.

Sorry, the similarity to the Lovecraft story with the (almost) same name was too good an opportunity to pass up. I don't know, honestly. You saying that the animal is in your house under the drywall/sheetrock, or what?

I failed my sanity check. If anyone finds these boards, BEWARE! The outer ones are eating my cheese!


Yep, the darn little vermin are in the space between the drywall. I got me some poison, but if the little crapper is stuck in there...

 

[Desdichado]

Any chance you can discover the point of ingress to your drywall? There must be a hole somewhere in either your drywall, or outside. If you can find it, maybe you can set a trap right next to the hole, and keep the li'l critter from dying somewhere where you can't get at it without knocking big holes in your drywall and having to replace it.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Well, if it's a rodent, if it got in it can probably get back out again. Which means that it can get back in again. The first thing to do is to figure out whether it can get out of the walls. If it can, it's easy enough to trap it. Look for droppings, hair, footprints, etc. Put out some bait and see if the bait disappears.

Otherwise, you could try to figure out how it got in. There are a million and one ways for a mouse to get into a house, and it's somewhat harder for a rat to get in. Of course, most entry points are at ground level. If you have a solid foundation to your home, that'll cut down on vectors, but if your house is hollow underneath, as I'm led to believe many American homes are, that could be a problem.

The good thing is that a rodent is unlikely to starve and die in a wall, since it can probably escape on its own. The other good thing is that if it does die, sheetrock absorbs moisture quickly so it will probably mummify the citter pretty quickly, preventing much of the stink. Not much moisture in a mouse anyway.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Einan, your avatar makes this thread awesome.

 

[Dingleberry]

I'll give you the same advice we got from our local animal control dept. the first time we had a bird stuck in our chimney:

"Turn up the radio so you don't hear the scratching. It'll stop within a day or two."

 

[Einan]

Einan, your avatar makes this thread awesome.

Yeah, that's our mighty hunter cat... We have four cats, you'd think one of them would kill and eat the darn critter! :\

Einan

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Yeah, that's our mighty hunter cat... We have four cats, you'd think one of them would kill and eat the darn critter! :\

Einan

My cat recently taught me that she does not, in fact, want to catch and EAT the mouse so much as she wants to catch and PLAY with the mouse. *shakes head* Mighty hunters, indeed!

 

[pogre]

Poison and glue traps in the attic. Mice in the walls is a fire hazard - believe me, I know unfortunately.