The FIRST thing you should do is go around the outside of your house and
plug any hole that a mouse could possibly get through, and mice can get
through some pretty tiny holes. Otherwise they'll be back :-/


Ignoramus26157 wrote:

My question is how to get rid of them effectively. At this point there
is no mouse accessible food left in the basement.

I'd secure food throughout the house now. Put some traps in the kitchen.
More than one type of trap is required to catch the smarter ones.

I would prefer not to use poison for two reasons, one is that we have
a toddler, and another is that dead mice make big stink (don't ask me
how I know).

You may still get a stink if the babies lose their mother. Try not to
think about it when you go to bed at night ;-D

I would prefer to either drive them away, or catch them.

Those ultra sonic devices actually work. Although when first using it on
an area infested with roaches there can later be a surge after the eggs
hatch, which leads some people to think it doesn't work :-/ wont' stop
you from carrying pests into your house either. Won't drive the mice out
if they can't get out.

I remember this one mouse that was unstoppable. Trap after trap he
avoided, yet the signs were there. I knew him. I had seen him! I'd be
watching TV in the dark at 2 am and see him scurry across the living
room floor and disappear into the central heating vent. Freekin bold
little *******. So one night I waited up for him with the BB gun. He
knew something was up as he paused at the den entrance. He then stood on
his hind legs just as my mother approached behind him when she saw me
with the BB gun. I was unmoved and took the shot. I heard a squeak from
the mouse and my mother as the mouse vanished into the shadows, leaving
only a tiny trail of blood which led to his writhing corpse on the
kitchen closet floor, right next to the cornflakes and Aunt Jemima
pancake syrup. His reign of terror was over.