Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with vermin

Keeping the mice away!

Draccy — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:28:13 -0800

Say hello to my little friend: How can I encourage a mouse that seems to live in my glovebox not to visit anymore? I live in a relatively rural area on the Massachusetts border of Connecticut. My car is parked outside by necessity, near a wooded area. I have recently found that napkins kept in my glovebox have been shredded by an animal. To compound matters, feces has been left behind as well. I'd like to use a non-lethal way to discourage the animal or animals in question to stay away from my car, and still be able to keep tissues or napkins in my glovebox for emergencies.

I'd really appreciate any recommendations that you have!

A plague o' my house?

mrhaydel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:17:19 -0800

What might be causing the things seen here in this photo and this photo? The stuff in the first photo kind of looks like an amalgamation of insect...stuff, for lack of a better term.

The second photo looks like droppings to me.

Both photos were taken no more than a foot away from each other, and the wall seen above the baseboard in photo 1 is an external wall in the house. We haven't ever come across either of these things anywhere else in the house.

Has anyone every seen the likes of what's in the photos?

How do I prevent whatever it is from accumulating any more?

What is NYC doing about pests?

Drohan — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:43:08 -0800

[NYCFilter] What steps has NYC taken to deal with vermin? And what isn't it doing that it could? What city initiatives exist to deal with pests in NYC apartments? Like the NYC Rodent Academy? Are there similar initiatives for bedbugs, cockroaches, assorted other vermin? And what are some things the city could/should do that it hasn't to address bug & rodent problems? I heard about some legislation introduced last year to forbid the sale of reconditioned mattresses as a means of preventing bedbugs spreading but I don't know if it ever got passed.

To eat or not to eat...

Andrhia — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:20:43 -0800

Will squirrel spit kill me? The good news: My beloved grandma sent me a package of the special cookies she only makes at Christmastime once every couple of years. I love these cookies.

The bad news: While the package was sitting on my stoop, the squirrels ripped into the package and chewed open the plastic bag the cookies were in. I am unsure whether the squirrels ate any of the cookies or not, as some of them are in pieces, but I don't know if that's an effect of squirrel-tampering or of shipping.

Misc. information: It is freezing cold here. The cookies, liebkuchen, are both very hard and very spicy. I doubt the squirrels cared for them. There was also an orange in the package to keep the cookies fresh, but the squirrels don't appear to have touched it.

The question: So... if I eat the cookies, will I regret it? Only the whole ones? Am I likely to die of rabies, ebola, black plague...? For bonus points, I'm a nursing mom, does this change the risk profile any?

Are vermin eating my underwear?

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:41:28 -0800

Mysterious holes are appearing in my dirty underwear where there are, ahem, juices. This is probably not lunch-safe. I have noticed holes appearing in my dirty underwear exactly where my girl-juices dry (I'm a fairly juicy girl). These holes are very specific--if the stains dry on the inner layer around the crotch (women's underwear typically has two layers of cloth in the crotch region), the holes will only be in the inner layer where the protein stains used to be, not the outer layer.

What could be causing this? Am I so acidic that I'm eating holes in my underwear? Or (and this is seriously gross) are bugs/mice supplementing their protein intake? I consider the latter because we do have cockroach/bug/mice problems, and there appears to be direct correlation between the appearance of holes and whether the underwear is on the floor and how long it's been sitting there.

Mice in the dishwasher

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:33:22 -0800

How do we keep mice out of the dishwasher and what might be the health effects of having them in there? (effects on us, that is -- not on the mice :-)

Mice get into our dishwasher (even when the door is latched). That means that there are mouse droppings in our dishwasher. This happens even when the dishes in there are clean (e.g. If we run the dishwasher when we go to bed at night, there already are droppings in there when we get up in the morning).

They seem to be getting in and out at the bottom of the door somehow, but I can't tell exactly where. When we open the dishwasher, they flee towards the door (i.e. the hinge) and disappear, but if the one who opened the door responds to this by slamming the door then the mouse is often crushed under the bottom of the door. The dishwasher does not leak. Are mice likely to be able to get in and out of any dishwasher or is there some damage here that is allowing access? Put another way: the dishwasher is ancient and I don't mind getting a new one but I want to make sure that this actually addresses the issue (and that I know how to keep them out).

The dishwasher presumably heats the water to a sufficient degree (for a sufficient amount of time) that bacteria are killed, but we have recently had an episode of pinworm in our household. Might the mouse droppings be the source of this infection? After all, if the worms can survive in the gut, hot water might not be so tough. Any other creepy-crawlies we should be worried about?

We are in a townhouse and an adjacent unit is, um, not likely to be free of mice in the foreseeable future. So completely eradicating them from our home is next to impossible, though the dishwasher is the only place it's really a problem, thanks to kitty-power.

Taking the mickey (mouse)

iamcrispy — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:37:15 -0800

Rats/mice. I seem to have a new friend living in my flat. It's small, brown and furry and I'd like to dispose of it (them?) quickly and effectively. I have absolutely no intention of giving it the humane treatment as I simply don't have any way of removing a living creature from my flat in london to somewhere else (no car etc.). How can I kill it? Kill it up good. I'd like to avoid getting an exterminator in as I don't have a great deal of time on my hands at the moment, should it come to that, I presume my landlord is liable for the monies?

Why are pigeons disdained?

calico — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:24:02 -0800

I'm going to buy a bird-feeder for my back garden, but I roll my eyes at the old lady down the road that throws bread crusts on to the pavement for pigeons? Am I a hypocrite? What's the qualitative difference between feeding pigeons and blackbirds? I've always thought that encouraging pigeons is unhygienic, and have learnt that they can cause "ornithosis, encephalitis, Newcastle disease, histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, pseudo-tuberculosis, pigeon coccidiosis and salmonella food poisoning." Blimey. But how common is catching this sort of thing from pigeons? Are there wider reasons why they're so unpopular apart from their orange-eyed ugliness? And why am I not worried about catching anything from wrens?

DIE DIE DIE YOU TINY BASTARDS!

Jon-o — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 17:57:52 -0800

How do I get rid of all of these fruit flies?? AHHH! There are SO MANY of them. I don't know how we wind up with these periodic infestations. About twice a year, fruit flies invade my kitchen sink. I keep my kitchen clean enough that I can't imagine what they live off of or how they survive long enough to breed as prodidgiously as they do. I don't leave dirty dishes in the sink over night very often and I run my in-sink-er-ator/garbage disposal unit, flushing out all of the organic material in my sink.
So, I've got a two part question:
1) Where do these bastards come from?
2) How do I kill them all? All of them. No survivors. But without poisoning myself or my welcome pets?

Drywood termites: fume or spot treat?

ldenneau — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:01:22 -0800

Drywood termites: fumigation or liquid injection? We have an adobe home in Tucson, AZ with "minor" drywood termite infestation. One established firm says fumigate, another says they can treat effetively by injecting the wood near infested areas. Research and discussion lead me to believe fumigation is the most effective way to go, but we've got some large plants around the outside of the house that we'd hate to see torched by the fumigation. But I'm suspicious of liquid injection, that it simply can't cope with all the hidden places that can be infested. We've spot-treated in the past and they're baaaaack. Anybody been down this road?

Killing Roaches

muckster — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 05:47:50 -0800

What's the most effective, least toxic way to kill the hordes of cockroaches that have infested my kitchen? I don't trust that the usual Raid stuff won't hasten my own death, especially if I have to keep spraying it near my food every night. It never seems to have any lasting effect beyond killing the single roach it's aimed at, anyway. What's the best poison (or method) to keep the bugs at bay and my kitchen healthy?

If I see one mice or cockroach, how many DON'T I see?

finn — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 21:17:16 -0800

What is a good ratio for vermin sighting to vermin population? If I see one mouse running around in my apartment one evening, how many mice total should I assume I'm deailing with? How about cockroaches? Is there an authoritative source or agreed upon shorthand for this?

Any advice on repelling hungry bunnies?

gimonca — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 17:49:13 -0800

Any advice on repelling hungry bunnies? Given the immense neighborhood population, I'm starting with the assumption that neither live trapping nor hunting/killing would be effective. "Squirrel Scoot" and other hot pepper/nicotine based products haven't worked well, although if a particular brand or application strategy has worked for you, I'm all ears. So to speak.

Need a Mole Patrol!

archimago — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:52:44 -0800

My yard is being taken over by moles, and I have tried practically everything short of calling an exterminator (which I don't want to resort to) but the moles are destroying my yard. I've tried the vibrating sticks that you pound into the ground, I've tried castor-based repellents, which sometimes work and sometimes don't. Someone suggested that the key to moles is getting rid of their food, the grubs, so this year I am putting down Grub-Ex. I've even gotten the suggestion of burying ammonia-soaked rags in the ground in their tunnels. Does anyone have any tried and true mole solutions? I live in the country up against a nature preserve. I'm beginning to think it's hopeless. My backyard is becoming a giant sinkhole.