[Greenbuilding] Pest Management, mice in particular

[Sacie Lambertson]

Hey RT, you're just full of neat suggestions for unwanted critters.  All of
them ingenious.  Unfortunately the powder to detect foot prints won't work
in our case.  Our mice enter through some minute hole in our standing seam
metal roof, entry point unknown.  They end up  inside however, on the top
of a large beam that supports the gable roof of my office.  The area
between the edges of the beam and the triangle formed by the gable is large
and wide for a mouse, or in our case a number, including newly birthed ones
occasionally.  It is my opinion, since mice are territorial, we may
sometimes have two groups up there along the 14 ft beam.  Certainly at
night I can hear them moving around at each end.

At one end of the beam, probably near where they enter, there is barely
sufficient space to allow us to slip a piece of paper loaded with warfarin
onto the top of the beam.  Sort of a mouse banquet.  Ingesting Warfarin
causes critters to seek water, so out they go after they've eaten enough of
the bad stuff.  For a while I no longer hear mice scurrying along the
beam.  Eventually one returns and we go through the process again.  I hate
using poison, but it is effective.  Unfortunately mice will sometimes die
up there on the beam; I must then put up with that smell for a few days.

My problem with the whole scenario is the holes they make in the foam
ceiling insulation in order to get inside the house.  Holes that I
obviously don't want in our envelope.  Once a mouse discovers such a soft
easy to-move-through entry point, they can make a very large hole.

Cheers,  Sacie
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