you almost certainly won't be able to seal up a house well enough to keep
them out.

Here's whats probably going on:

in the fall, when it starts getting cold, a species of field mouse decides
that it wants to stay warm, and starts looking for warm places to move
(there is another species of field mouse that toughs out the winter). during
the transition time, the mice will explore a wide area (up to 3 mile radius
in some studies) looking for their winter home. During this time, if you are
setting traps, you should get a fairly constant capture rate (this is
assuming kill traps. If you're using "humane" catch and release traps,
you're wasting time). typically one or two a day in a suburban area.

you have a couple of options:
1) keep emptying and rebaiting the traps. in about 2-3 weeks, the rate
should taper off.

2) just wait until it gets cold (first snow is usually about right), then
set out the traps, and clean out the tennants. Its unlikely more will move
in, and they've already found homes... When you first set the traps, you
should get a fairly high catch rate, but it should drop off fairly quickly.
The advantage to #2 is that you don't run the risk (or at least there is a
lower risk) of having a mouse that doesn't like your bait move in....

Bait: peanut butter is the bait of choice. cheese is a myth, and only smells
bad and attracts other vermin.

some people advocate mixing somce mortar into the peanut butter, on the
theory that if the mouse doesn't trip the trap, the mortar will kill it. It
*will* kill it, but do you want a little dead mouse rotting inside your
walls somewhere? smells bad, at the least...

Traps: the plain old snap traps are best. Set them on the floor in corners
where a mouse would have a sheltered wplace to move around. Under baseboard
heaters is good. Alos, if you get on the floor and look around, you will be
able to find mouse "roads" by looking for droppings.... these are also good
places to put traps....

good luck
-JD

wrote in message
...
I've got 2 already. They sure like peanut butter. :-)

I've been all around the perimeter of the house and can't for the life
of me figure out where they are getting in. No gaps around pipes, no
holes in siding (that I can find). Grrr.