Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler What do mice eat ?

Or, more to the point, what *don't* they eat ?

I spent most of my life in solid brick houses (2 layers of brick) with no insulation. Now I live in a wonderful wood-framed house with lots of insulation, out in the woods, so of course in the winter all of God's creatures come in side and live with me.

I figured that they were coming in through the drainage gaps in the masonry facing, eating through the OSB sheathing (yum, glue !!), then burrowing down through the insulation between the OSB and the drywall and holding little mouse orgies in my basement. Drainage gaps are now plugged with steel wool, so presumably they are going to have to find some other way to get in and I can focus on getting the current occupants back out.

I have some live traps out (hint, the old metal "Tin Cat" traps work way better than the new plastic ones) and am running down their numbers (and my peanut butter)... but I find it disturbing that they seem to be eating the wood and insulation for nutrition and, presumably, getting something out of it if only mouse poop.

I understand that mice can get some nutrition out of the glues in OSB and plywood, but they can't digest lumber and fiberglass, can they ? If they can, my only way to limit their food supply would be to burn the house down.

I wonder if you could do some landscaping around the perimeter of your house. Instead of using decorative white rock, you could substitute with moth balls.

There's enough of a breeze that the smell would be tolerable... seriously, do mothballs help to keep rodents away ? I figured they would just eat the mothballs and have another little orgy.

They eat oil filters, for chrissakes.

Many people that have boats (tarp covered), campers, etc., and leave them outside in the winter in Iowa place moth balls inside them to keep mice out. I've heard people talk about this since I was a kid, never tried it, but have heard it works.

Steel Wool around plumbing pipes entering the house works well as well.

I too have used the Moth balls out at the lake in the sheds at my parents cabin. It seems to work(another Mythbuster suggestion?)

I love mythbusters. what a job eh?

Are you a closet Canadian, Eh?

Yup, that is my dream job, not to mention audio equipment reviewer or automotive journalist.

My suggestion is to build a little hut for them a few hundred feet from your house. Keep it warm and filled with food and they won't bother trying to get into your place.

I was seriously thinking about that. I'm probably going to be catching the little ^^^^^^^^darlings through the winter and it would be good to have a place where I can dump them safely.

I'm OK with subsidizing them but the mouse poop has to stop.

Kill them any way you can, I use rat posion I get from the farm service. I also use traps, yes the kind that smashes their darling little heads.