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rats or mice (not sure which one is correct in english) - my father sealed the pipe they were coming from. not that serious (there weren't many rats) but it was pretty scary.
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termites - replaced the old wooden door with another door. my house isn't made of wood so it wasn't very serious, but it was annoying.
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wasps - thousands of them all bunched up in one spot in the garage, dealt with using smoke and fire. they hadn't made a nest yet as they'd appeared suddenly.
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Currently dealing with mice. They can't actually get into the home, but they're in the walls and attic. I've got traps up a few places but they rarely catch anything. I and caught one under my kitchen sink last night while trying to make a midnight snack. Caught me completely by surprice, but I scrambled for the biggest closest knife I could find, and chopped the motherfucker.
So I'm currently apparently dealing with it both passively with traps, and actively through brute force.
That's nuts.
The mice here are very small and very fast. There's just no way I could get one with a knife and I'm pretty spry.
I've learned a few things about dealing with mice in my time...
If you've seen one you probably have dozens.
If they die in a wall cavity there's nothing you can do. They will stink, you've just got to wait it out. Used ground coffee in a dish or whatever tends to absorb the smell.
There's lots of different types of traps. You probably need to experiment with different types. For example the spring loaded ones don't work for very small mice. Also I dislike the no-kill ones because then you have to deal with a live mouse. One of the most impressive I've seen is like a lid on a bucket with a trapdoor - it's what farmers use in a plague.
Poison is another good option but be aware it usually has an attractant. If you can hear mice in your ceiling you don't want to put the poison in your ceiling because you'll get more mice in your ceiling. Put the poison outside to draw the mice out.
This is all good advice. I just wanted to point out that most of the traps on Amazon are knockoffs of the Flip & Slide from Rinne Corp. Shawn Woods covers it here on Mousetrap Mondays: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pHwvVPT202Y
His channel is great, and I believe he mentions in a later video that besides stealing Rinne's design, many of the knockoffs don't work as well due to sloppier manufacturing tolerances. I've ordered from them (both this design and Shawn Wood's Dizzy Dunker) and I felt better than if I had bought a counterfeit through Amazon.
I was pretty surprises I got it too. It scrambled to get under my trash bucket for a bit which gave me the chance to chop. While there's definately a fair few mice, it's not like it's an infestation. I grew up on a farm so I'm pretty used to them.
Thanks for the advice though :)
Cats are also a good option.
My cat got rid of the mice issue, but then there's a roach issue. Cats unfortunately cannot get rid of roaches. 🤷♂️
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Have had good luck with electronic traps. Caught mice and a couple of rats that were hanging around our driveway and chewing up car cables.
I got one with wifi that sends a message when it caught something. Good for out of the way spots. Trap with peanut butter. For deterrence, ended up spraying the area with capsicum pepper spray.
https://www.victorpest.com/store/mouse-control/electronic-traps
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Had a mouse issue. Found the hole where they were getting in. Couple of kill traps and blocking the hole with rodent repellent spray froam and they haven't been in the house since.
The only thing I ever had were food moths, after leaving an open container of flour out and putting it away after a day. It was pretty disgusting having their larvae crawling around, but luckily there are parasitic wasps you can order that kill their eggs (they look like tiny specks of dust, not normal wasps).
Thankfully, only ants have been the worst we’ve had so far. Liquid ant baits take care of them in the house, while mound killer granules take care of the ones outside. There’s the occasional tiny scorpion in the house every few weeks in the summer, while the bigger scorpions and spiders sometimes show up in the garage. They’re usually easy to kill because my garage is relatively empty, so it’s easy to chase them around.
Mice isnan ongoing issue. We have tube traps they get stuck in, they get drowned in a bucket of water and then thrown out for the birds to eat. Tube traps are very effective if poison isn't an option.
I have ants. Teeny tiny little ones. I’ve tried sprays, repellents, traps. The sprays only work if I spray the ants directly. The repellants don’t work at all. They ignore the traps. They just won’t go away.
Have you tried boric acid? I originally used it for cockroaches but I've also had success with ants (regular ones, not teeny tiny little ones :) ).
Have you identified the ants? That should help.
I was finally able to stop a seasonal invasion by leaving out gel/bait. They formed columns to it and were talking it back under the house for like a week.
This year so far no sign of them and all of the ant hills around the yard also seem dead. I think it was a single huge colony.
That’s not very encouraging: I’m battling those now. Ive been constrained by kids and a dog so I haven’t want to use sprays….. yesterday, I sprayed the exterior with ant spray, and the interior where they’ve been with clove oil,so we’ll see. This morning there are fewer fwiw
Have you considered getting an anteater as a pet?
Pharao ants?
My son is terrified of bugs. He buys a peppermint spray that actually works on most things and doesn't bother his kitties. He also uses diatomaceous earth. https://a.co/d/gJByZA5
Divorce.