My mouse colony escaped through a vent I forgot to seal

Three years ago I set up a little mouse breeding rack in my rec room in Red Deer, because the pet store price for feeders got insane. Last week I noticed a weird scratching in the wall and found out 14 mice got through a 2-inch gap in the floor vent I left open over winter. It took me 5 days of live traps and a $60 pest guy to round them all up, and now I'm triple checking every vent in the house before I even think about a new project in the basement. Has anyone else had a critter escape that turned into a full home repair hunt?

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nathan2894d ago

Had a similar thing with rats a few years back when I kept a small colony for snake food. What finally worked for me was going around with a cheap tube of caulk and a roll of steel wool and stuffing every gap I could find, even the ones that looked too small to matter. Mice can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime, so if you can see daylight or feel a draft, they can get out. The live traps are good but you have to check them twice a day or the mice get stressed and start dying off on you. Also keep the food in a sealed bin they can't chew through, because a hungry mouse will chew a new hole faster than you can patch the old one. Sounds like you already learned the hard way, but patching before you restock is the way to go.

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