I can't live like this...

M

Megan Turnidge

New member
So, we moved to a very small town, to a manufactured home (don't call me trailer trash...lol). There were like no options for renting out here and this was the best place we could find. We love how big it is and the fact that I now have a dishwasher and counter space and stuff (things I never had at my last apt.). Buuuuutttt, since we've moved in we've had TONS of spiders. I cannot stand them and they totally creep me out. I cleaned out at least 15 in our front room alone. Some of them are BIG too. Well, I'm starting to see fewer spiders, but they're still around.... and now we have MICE. MICE!!!!!!! More than one because the past 2 days DH and I have seen 2 different mice. I've been sweeping up mouse droppings. Now I have to throw away a ton of food just in case they got into our pantry. I so cannot afford to be throwing away food right now. And I can't afford to buy sealed containers for bagged foods...

Well, we haven't talked to the landlord yet about the mice because we just noticed the problem, but we did talk to them about the spiders. They said we could pay to get rid of them and then they'd take that cost out of our rent. But, ummmm... we won't have money to hire an exterminator for like a week. I'm not sure I can last another week like this. It's freaking me out and I'm really scared one of us will get sick.

Oh, and a mouse woke me up at 4 am... he was running around under my sink and it was loud. I couldn't sleep for at least another hour and now I'm way tired. We did set out several bait traps last night but none of them were even touched.

What do I do?!?!?
 
I'm like paranoid about bugs and what not (excessively so lol) so I keep eveeeeeeeerything in the fridge. cereal.. you name it. That way you won't be wasting $$ on food issues. Otherwise I don't know :p I still think they're cinderelly's friends though ^_^
Are they like.. icky mice, or just field mice? do you know?
 
lauren grier said:
I'm like paranoid about bugs and what not (excessively so lol) so I keep eveeeeeeeerything in the fridge. cereal.. you name it. That way you won't be wasting $$ on food issues. Otherwise I don't know :p I still think they're cinderelly's friends though ^_^
Are they like.. icky mice, or just field mice? do you know?
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I'm pretty sure they're field mice... since we live in a rural area in the middle of a bunch of fields. lol But, I can't be sure because I couldn't tell if it was all one color or if it had a white belly. It's brown though and small.
 
Sounds like field mice to me. I live smack dab in the middle of corn fields so we get those buggers too. Especially around harvest time. Have you tried setting any traps? You can pick up some mouse traps for not very much and get rid of them that way. I wouldn't recommend poison, because if they die somewhere within the house they smell something terrible.
 
BeccaBoo said:
Sounds like field mice to me. I live smack dab in the middle of corn fields so we get those buggers too. Especially around harvest time. Have you tried setting any traps? You can pick up some mouse traps for not very much and get rid of them that way. I wouldn't recommend poison, because if they die somewhere within the house they smell something terrible.
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Good point. Hubby wanted me to buy the poison, so I did. But we do also have a few snap traps.
 
I hate to say mice are normal...but it is very common to get them. I don't know many people who haven't dealt with them at one point or another. We live in the woods so we get field mice from time to time. Like La said, I keep any pertinent food in the refrigerator. Things like flour sugar etc even...

And just set traps, don't freak out, it will be ok. After David left I found out we had one downstairs in the basement where the kids and I have our apartment. It's a studio apt, all in one, so I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night when I heard the trap go off...so I slept upstairs at Tab's a few nights while Tim took care of the problem for me. I stayed up here 4 nights. He went and set traps (lots of them, like a dozen) every night. Night one, we caught a mouse. Night two, we caught another. Nights three and four, nothing, so I started sleeping back downstairs in my own apt again. And we've been fine ever since. Though it will happen again when it gets cold, I'm sure of it.

I'm pretty freaked out by them too (don't google things about mice, it will only make your fears worse I tell ya) but it's part of life. Rich people get mice, very clean people get mice...it's not because you're in a trailer or anything (though...check around your sinks's drains underneath and make sure there are no holes...that could be how they are getting in).
 
Yes the snap traps or glue traps would be best. I only use poison as last resort (which is almost never lol). I would set out the traps and try them. Also use peanut butter on them if you have it. They love it and it sticks to the traps better. Good luck!
 
I live in the country and we have mouse problems periodically because we basically live in the middle of a field. :p It usually happens with the changing of the seasons (right now!) because they know winter is coming and they're looking for warmth and food. Yuck. Most importantly, you need to figure out where they're coming in the house. Have dh (or your landlord!) go around the house with a fine-toothed comb and seal up every possible hole there is. If they can get their nose in it, they can get in. *puke* Use steel wool to plug the holes. Also, invest in some good traps. Skip the ones at Wal-Mart or wherever and go to a farm store and get the old-fashioned ones. Glue traps work well too if you'd rather do that. Put them wherever you've been seeing the mice and especially along baseboards and under furniture/in cabinets where they'd be hiding. It'll take a bit of work but since we made sure our house was all sealed up, we haven't had any problems at all.

As for the spiders, what about buying one of the bug bombs from the hardware store? I think you have to stay out of the house for a period of time after you set them off so I'm not sure how that would work, but I'm sure it would be cheaper than an exterminator. Or they make the aerosol spray cans of spider spray that you can spray around your baseboards that works pretty well too.
 
HeatherKS said:
I live in the country and we have mouse problems periodically because we basically live in the middle of a field. :p It usually happens with the changing of the seasons (right now!) because they know winter is coming and they're looking for warmth and food. Yuck. Most importantly, you need to figure out where they're coming in the house. Have dh (or your landlord!) go around the house with a fine-toothed comb and seal up every possible hole there is. If they can get their nose in it, they can get in. *puke* Use steel wool to plug the holes. Also, invest in some good traps. Skip the ones at Wal-Mart or wherever and go to a farm store and get the old-fashioned ones. Glue traps work well too if you'd rather do that. Put them wherever you've been seeing the mice and especially along baseboards and under furniture/in cabinets where they'd be hiding. It'll take a bit of work but since we made sure our house was all sealed up, we haven't had any problems at all.

As for the spiders, what about buying one of the bug bombs from the hardware store? I think you have to stay out of the house for a period of time after you set them off so I'm not sure how that would work, but I'm sure it would be cheaper than an exterminator. Or they make the aerosol spray cans of spider spray that you can spray around your baseboards that works pretty well too.
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We definitely need to get this place sealed up. There is like a 1/2" gap under our front door... and it needs weather stripping. We think they're actually coming from behind the stove though. Hubby set some bait there this morning and said that there is a TON of mouse droppings back there. We're going to have to pull the oven out and see if there's a hole back there.

The bug bombs... will I have to worry about the fog getting all over our stuff? Like on DD's clothes and stuff? I haven't bought them yet because I'm a little paranoid about that.
 
oh yes.. ditto everyone else. field mice.. happen. My parents had them growing up, and believe you me my mom is the definition of ocd LOL.

one note on glue traps.. My friend used them before and she said ti was horrifying.. cause the micey don't die.. but you have to kill them cause they can't get off you know. so yes.. I wouldn't be able to stomach that at all :p
 
I'm not sure what all you have to protect when you set one off. I know we made sure all food was off of the counters, etc., but we didn't rewash clothes or anything. We were leaving on vacation when dh did ours a few years ago and I really don't remember too well what all it entailed. You could try the baseboard spray first and see if that helps before resorting to the bug bomb. :)
 
And ditto to what La said about the glue traps. I'll spare you some of the gory details about glue traps but I'll just say that I prefer the snap traps. :p
 
We spray the perimeter of the OUTSIDE of the house to keep the spiders down INSIDE-every 4-6 weeks.

As for the mice, growing up, we would get them periodically. I am with everyone else, use the snap type things. They are inexpensive and you can throw the whole thing away when one is snapped in one. If you set traps, they will go away. What you don't want is for them to set up housekeeping in your house! Can you get a kitty?

Good luck. I hate the sound of mice in the middle of the night!
 
With the fogs, just don't keep dishes/food out on the counters, and wipe down that surface before you eat If you've got clothes out, just put them in a dresser. Otherwise, you're fine. We tend to use a smoke fogger more t han the liquid spray foggers because they don't leave so much residue). We get spider problems in the spring. Spiders are good - just not INSIDE! LOL

I'd suggest using some of the spray foam to seal up the house, as well. Not only is it going to seal the hole off from the mice, but it is also an insulator (whereas the steel wool is not so much). You can do it in your indoor spaces to help remove access from spiders, too - think under your kitchen sink/bathroom sink where the pipes come in, but weren't sealed, etc. We also did it around our outlets (as well as putting a thin foam sheet between the cover and wall).
 
Also with the spiders.. make sure you spray outside of the house, that will stop many from even coming in.

We get spiders pretty bad here too. We actually just had a problem with brown recluses (not a good thing). Usually we get a lot of wolf spiders and regular ol house spiders. Just last night we opened up our front door to let the cat in and found this across our entire entryway... with him right in the middle... (sorry the flash kind of lit him up). The web spanned across the whole doorway. We would've walked right into it....I would've died. I have never seen a web that huge.

spiderwithweb.jpg






Yes, I agree with La. I personally don't like glue traps. They are great at catching them, but I don't care for how they work. (more torture for the mouse)
 
we live right across from a big empty field and we always have them. this house has lots of ways for them to get in. i hate this house, lol. hopefully we will someday soon get our dream house. anyway,i set traps and kill them all the time. (gee, that sounds so nice, lol) they are brown field mice. they dont' bother me really. i'm not scared of them. i hate finding droppings, but i much rather hate spiders, lol! i am always on a spider hunt. last summer was horrible for spiders for some reason. they were everywhere, and some wierd looking ones i'd never seen. i was googling spiders, lol. very creepy! i dont see too many this year.

hope you get rid of your pests. i know its annoying to have them!
 
Bug bomb. It won't hurt the clothes. We do it with the season changing or when it is really rainy, that's when we tend to get spiders.

Becca. I would have straight up had a heart attack. I am terrified of spiders. OMG.
 
BeccaBoo said:
Also with the spiders.. make sure you spray outside of the house, that will stop many from even coming in.

We get spiders pretty bad here too. We actually just had a problem with brown recluses (not a good thing). Usually we get a lot of wolf spiders and regular ol house spiders. Just last night we opened up our front door to let the cat in and found this across our entire entryway... with him right in the middle... (sorry the flash kind of lit him up). The web spanned across the whole doorway. We would've walked right into it....I would've died. I have never seen a web that huge.

spiderwithweb.jpg
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AAAAAAAGHHH!! i have one that keeps building his web right next to our front door around our porch light. i keep knocking it down but he keeps building it again, lol. now i'm going to be paranoid when i walk out my door in fear that it will make it in the doorway. thanks for that pic, Becca :D
 
kscwgirl said:
Becca. I would have straight up had a heart attack. I am terrified of spiders. OMG.
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Yes I admire spiders for what they do from a far (I am glad they get rid of the other pests lol) LOL I don't like them getting up close and personal and I especially don't want them making a web as huge as my doorway LOL


And really around here, I would deal with the mice and spiders without a problem. What I hate is when the snakes start coming in my house... bleh...
 
Becca -

We had an Orb Spider do that on our backdoor a few years ago. As freaked as I am about spiders, it was the coolest thing. We let her stay all week on the door, watching her, studying, and learned lots. Yours was hungry - else there would've been little zig zags across a lot of the web to warn bugs. What considerate creatures they are! LOL

Once we got sick of having to walk around the house to get out to the trash, we moved her to another location (like I said, spiders are good outside, so we don't kill them if they're outside) and we never saw her or another one again. Too bad. Cause it was way cool (in a really creepy car wreck kind of way LOL)
 
junebug said:
AAAAAAAGHHH!! i have one that keeps building his web right next to our front door around our porch light. i keep knocking it down but he keeps building it again, lol. now i'm going to be paranoid when i walk out my door in fear that it will make it in the doorway. thanks for that pic, Becca :D
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LOL! Sorry Corey! I am so glad with the way the light is out front we seen it! I would've just died if I had walked into that. You can bet I will be inspecting the door from here on out before I step out. LOL
 
Darcy Baldwin said:
Becca -

We had an Orb Spider do that on our backdoor a few years ago. As freaked as I am about spiders, it was the coolest thing. We let her stay all week on the door, watching her, studying, and learned lots. Yours was hungry - else there would've been little zig zags across a lot of the web to warn bugs. What considerate creatures they are! LOL

Once we got sick of having to walk around the house to get out to the trash, we moved her to another location (like I said, spiders are good outside, so we don't kill them if they're outside) and we never saw her or another one again. Too bad. Cause it was way cool (in a really creepy car wreck kind of way LOL)
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Yes they really are cool, and I do like to admire them from a far! LOL! I don't like harming them either, esp when they are outside. We all play our roles in this world.
 
BeccaBoo said:
Yes I admire spiders for what they do from a far (I am glad they get rid of the other pests lol) LOL I don't like them getting up close and personal and I especially don't want them making a web as huge as my doorway LOL


And really around here, I would deal with the mice and spiders without a problem. What I hate is when the snakes start coming in my house... bleh...
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SNAKES?!?!?! Yeah, my heart would stop if I saw one IN my house. gah.
 
mturnidge said:
SNAKES?!?!?! Yeah, my heart would stop if I saw one IN my house. gah.
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Yes we get a lot of snakes too. Thankfully only the big black rat snakes have come in the house. Those are huge and the bite would hurt but they are harmless. I am just glad the rattle snakes and others haven't made their way in. I am sure we can thank the mice for the black snakes coming in. Again, cool from far away.. not in my house..

Speaking of things in the house... I kid you not, the other night hubby and I were watching True Blood and all the sudden something huge and black just flew across the living room and it only took a second to realize what it was... a bat!! A BAT!!! I was like how in the heck?!! It was crazy trying to get that thing out of the house, but we finally managed to get him to fly out the front door.... oh the joys of living in the country..
 
BeccaBoo said:
Also with the spiders.. make sure you spray outside of the house, that will stop many from even coming in.

We get spiders pretty bad here too. We actually just had a problem with brown recluses (not a good thing). Usually we get a lot of wolf spiders and regular ol house spiders. Just last night we opened up our front door to let the cat in and found this across our entire entryway... with him right in the middle... (sorry the flash kind of lit him up). The web spanned across the whole doorway. We would've walked right into it....I would've died. I have never seen a web that huge.

spiderwithweb.jpg






Yes, I agree with La. I personally don't like glue traps. They are great at catching them, but I don't care for how they work. (more torture for the mouse)
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I would have cried. I'm terrified of spiders. It's literally a paralyzing fear.
 
We have spiders ALL around our house...even the ones inside aren't sticking to the ceiling like they usually do...this year they are making webs from the wall to the couch!

Not spiders, but yesterday I had 2 bees humping on the screen on the back door. LOL They were there for like an hour!

bees.jpg
 
Jennilyn said:
We have spiders ALL around our house...even the ones inside aren't sticking to the ceiling like they usually do...this year they are making webs from the wall to the couch!

Not spiders, but yesterday I had 2 bees humping on the screen on the back door. LOL They were there for like an hour!

bees.jpg
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lol!!
 
OMG! So glad to life in an area where winter is 6 month long! :p

Mice we have only in autumn at the cottage.

Spiders are very rare at my house, maybe once every 6 months I spot a tiny one.

And I've never seen snakes coming in the house, thank goodness. Not even at the cottage.

But I do live in the middle of the city, too. We do however have lots of earwigs outside in the summer.

Hope you eliminate your problem! :)
 
Before I got married, I lived in an apartment complex that backed up to a great big open field of wheat grass. Well, one summer they started building a great big new church right out in that field so the wheat was all cut and concrete was poured etc. and you know where all the field mice fled to once their home was gone?? Our apartments..it was HORRIBLE..I'm talking like hundreds of mice and rats..I was dating DH at the time and he would come by after work to reset all my traps and literally before he could get one set and sit back down we'd here them go off again..I'm not even kidding you that we killed between 5-10 a day! Needless to say, we moved very quickly after that. I still have nightmares about all those mice.
 
omgosh you guys! Why did I even open this thread?!

I seriously am sitting here itching and not wanting to get up off my chair!

BLECH. Me and mice are not friends. When I was in grad school we lived in the middle of a corn field. We had mice every year when they harvested. we learned very quickly not to use poison or glue traps. The snappy traps are the best, by far.
 
We had a FAMILY (I'm not even kidding, a momma mouse was nursing FIVE babies in a box) of mice in our garage last month. I freaked out and called the exterminator. He just set snap traps baited with Peanut Butter! It worked like a charm!
 
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