How can I tell if I have mice or not?
July 25, 2024 12:29 PM Subscribe
One night last December, and last night, I thought I saw something scurry/run across my bedroom carpet. In both instances, it seemed to be grey but it moved way too fast, and honestly, it could have been an eye glitch or dirt in my eye, but the fact it happened twice is a bit concerning.
Another resident had reported seeing a rodent last year in our apartment community's message board, but when I asked for clarification (mouse/rat, where?), never got a response.
After the "sighting" in December, I checked for droppings and found a few, but they appeared to be cockroach droppings, which made sense, as I have had cockroaches here before. (Ugh, but better than mice/rats—I have a bad phobia of those!) However, at the time, I didn't seem to find any mouse droppings.
After last night, I checked for droppings, including under sinks, and didn't find anything at all. I found a few small black spots on the floor that looked like it could be some kind of dropping or dead bugs, but weren't shaped like mouse/rat droppings.
How can I know if I have mice or not, other than droppings? I can't hear, so can't hear them scurrying around, but I'd think if I don't see any droppings, I shouldn't have any. Is there a black light app I can use to see urine, if any?
Could that "flashing" I saw across my floor in December and last night just be my eyes, exhausted from screen time? Or a cockroach? Imagination, perhaps? It happened too fast for me to be sure. I haven't seen an actual mouse/rat, along with a tail, in my apartment, so far; nor in the community. There are rats outside, but that's par the course for a big city.
I don't want to get sick by mice (they carry diseases), especially as an immunocompromised person, and I have a really bad phobia of mice/rats, so I was hoping to get some light shed here.
Thanks!
Another resident had reported seeing a rodent last year in our apartment community's message board, but when I asked for clarification (mouse/rat, where?), never got a response.
After the "sighting" in December, I checked for droppings and found a few, but they appeared to be cockroach droppings, which made sense, as I have had cockroaches here before. (Ugh, but better than mice/rats—I have a bad phobia of those!) However, at the time, I didn't seem to find any mouse droppings.
After last night, I checked for droppings, including under sinks, and didn't find anything at all. I found a few small black spots on the floor that looked like it could be some kind of dropping or dead bugs, but weren't shaped like mouse/rat droppings.
How can I know if I have mice or not, other than droppings? I can't hear, so can't hear them scurrying around, but I'd think if I don't see any droppings, I shouldn't have any. Is there a black light app I can use to see urine, if any?
Could that "flashing" I saw across my floor in December and last night just be my eyes, exhausted from screen time? Or a cockroach? Imagination, perhaps? It happened too fast for me to be sure. I haven't seen an actual mouse/rat, along with a tail, in my apartment, so far; nor in the community. There are rats outside, but that's par the course for a big city.
I don't want to get sick by mice (they carry diseases), especially as an immunocompromised person, and I have a really bad phobia of mice/rats, so I was hoping to get some light shed here.
Thanks!
Put a thin layer of corn starch or flour on your kitchen floor next to a wall (assuming it's tiled and be cleaned easily). Corn starch is way easier to clean up than flour.
Put a small amount of peanut butter or nut butter in a ziploc bag, or small paper bag. Place that in the center of the sprinkled corn starch.
Leave it there for a few days: if you have mice, you'll see the wee footprints in the corn starch.
Here's hoping you see no footprints!
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:36 PM on July 25 [5 favorites]
Put a small amount of peanut butter or nut butter in a ziploc bag, or small paper bag. Place that in the center of the sprinkled corn starch.
Leave it there for a few days: if you have mice, you'll see the wee footprints in the corn starch.
Here's hoping you see no footprints!
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:36 PM on July 25 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Put a small amount of peanut butter or nut butter in a ziploc bag, or small paper bag. Place that in the center of the sprinkled corn starch.
A few followup questions if you don't mind.
I have ant issues here in my apartment, especially in my kitchen, and sometimes I see a few in my bedroom; so wouldn't putting that out there present an issue for ants? Or did you mean sealed?
And, would that attract mice/rats here, even if they weren't here yet?
posted by dubious_dude at 1:01 PM on July 25
A few followup questions if you don't mind.
I have ant issues here in my apartment, especially in my kitchen, and sometimes I see a few in my bedroom; so wouldn't putting that out there present an issue for ants? Or did you mean sealed?
And, would that attract mice/rats here, even if they weren't here yet?
posted by dubious_dude at 1:01 PM on July 25
You can definitely do the Mouse Detector process described by Silvery Fish but I will say that every time I've seen a fast gray SOMETHING out of the corner of my eye it's been either a spider or a house centipede!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:02 PM on July 25 [4 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:02 PM on July 25 [4 favorites]
If there's any chance it might have seemed like a flash of light in your eye, that would be really important to have an eye doctor look at. If you notice it again and it seems like it could be your vision that's the cause, please get it checked out.
posted by happy_cat at 1:11 PM on July 25
posted by happy_cat at 1:11 PM on July 25
"Floaters" in your eye could look like what you have have described, although typically if you had them they would appear on a more regular basis.
posted by beagle at 1:21 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]
posted by beagle at 1:21 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]
Mice? Get some snap traps, bait them with peanut butter, put them along a kitchen wall. Snap traps are cheap, effective and kill quickly with the least pain. I tried humane traps, the mice were terrified, ill and probably quickly became predator food when released.
Ants? Terro. Cinnamon will deter them a little. Terro or boric acid (in a dish of sugar water) will kill them.
posted by theora55 at 1:25 PM on July 25
Ants? Terro. Cinnamon will deter them a little. Terro or boric acid (in a dish of sugar water) will kill them.
posted by theora55 at 1:25 PM on July 25
If you had mice, you wouldn't see one in December and another in July. By February, you would have known you had mice without any doubt whatsoever. Mice just don't work like that. They don't flash by and vanish. I mean, they're fast, but you can tell what they are - and once they have found their way in, they don't just disappear for six months. They settle down, raise a family and invite their friends and family to move in too. There is no mouse. There is only mice.
They also pee more or less constantly so yeah, you could use a blacklight around all your corners and behind the stove and stuff . I don't know if that would light up other things too, though. As far as getting sick, it's vanishingly unlikely. Their droppings do carry hantavirus but only in concentrated amounts and only in certain states. As for rats? You do not have rats. If you have rats, trust me, you will know. They are not subtle, small or fast.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:25 PM on July 25 [16 favorites]
They also pee more or less constantly so yeah, you could use a blacklight around all your corners and behind the stove and stuff . I don't know if that would light up other things too, though. As far as getting sick, it's vanishingly unlikely. Their droppings do carry hantavirus but only in concentrated amounts and only in certain states. As for rats? You do not have rats. If you have rats, trust me, you will know. They are not subtle, small or fast.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:25 PM on July 25 [16 favorites]
December is seven months ago. Mice breed extremely prolifically - so if you had just one/or a few then, if nothing is actively killing them off, and there is still food for them to eat - you would expect to being seeing them increasingly often. Only for that reason I would go with "not mouse".
posted by rongorongo at 1:28 PM on July 25
posted by rongorongo at 1:28 PM on July 25
Response by poster: I will say that every time I've seen a fast gray SOMETHING out of the corner of my eye it's been either a spider or a house centipede
AHA! You most likely solved it for me. I've had house centipedes before—I've seen them creep across the floor or in the bathroom, so that probably was it.
If there's any chance it might have seemed like a flash of light in your eye, that would be really important to have an eye doctor look at. If you notice it again and it seems like it could be your vision that's the cause, please get it checked out.
Sorry I wasn't clear—it wasn't a flash of light, I didn't know the best word to describe it but it was like a "boom" with something gray running across the floor.
If you had mice, you wouldn't see one in December and another in July. By February, you would have known you had mice without any doubt whatsoever. Mice just don't work like that. They don't flash by and vanish. I mean, they're fast, but you can tell what they are - and once they have found their way in, they don't just disappear for six months. They settle down, raise a family and invite their friends and family to move in too. There is no mouse. There is only mice.
That's extremely reassuring. My apartment is pretty small too—only 700ish sq ft, and I'm in all the spaces everyday; the living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, so I'd think if I had a mouse problem, I'd be seeing mice every now and then.
So it seems like I don't have any mice, most likely—but I will try the cornstarch test just to be sure.
posted by dubious_dude at 1:34 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]
AHA! You most likely solved it for me. I've had house centipedes before—I've seen them creep across the floor or in the bathroom, so that probably was it.
If there's any chance it might have seemed like a flash of light in your eye, that would be really important to have an eye doctor look at. If you notice it again and it seems like it could be your vision that's the cause, please get it checked out.
Sorry I wasn't clear—it wasn't a flash of light, I didn't know the best word to describe it but it was like a "boom" with something gray running across the floor.
If you had mice, you wouldn't see one in December and another in July. By February, you would have known you had mice without any doubt whatsoever. Mice just don't work like that. They don't flash by and vanish. I mean, they're fast, but you can tell what they are - and once they have found their way in, they don't just disappear for six months. They settle down, raise a family and invite their friends and family to move in too. There is no mouse. There is only mice.
That's extremely reassuring. My apartment is pretty small too—only 700ish sq ft, and I'm in all the spaces everyday; the living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, so I'd think if I had a mouse problem, I'd be seeing mice every now and then.
So it seems like I don't have any mice, most likely—but I will try the cornstarch test just to be sure.
posted by dubious_dude at 1:34 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]
I have ant issues here in my apartment, especially in my kitchen
Can't help you with the ghost mice, but ants are easily dealt with. Drop a quarter of a teaspoon of borax into an eggcup, then half-fill it with sugar, then mostly fill it with boiling water and stir until all the solids have dissolved (might need the odd ten-second burst in the microwave to keep it hot enough).
Leave it sitting somewhere near a busy ant trail, preferably as close as possible to wherever they're finding their way in but just anywhere near the trail will do if it's not clear where that is. Spill a few drops over the side of the egg cup so they run down and make a very small mess.
The ants will find that mess and clean it up, then follow it back to the top of the egg cup, and in an hour or two they'll be clustering all the way around it. A lot of them will drown in there, but the ones that don't will tank up on borax-laden syrup and take it back to the nest with them.
It will take a decent-sized nest a few days to drain the eggcup mostly dry, by which time you'll be seeing a few dead ants lying around and the ones that are still moving won't be moving well. A few days after that, all you'll see is an eggcup full of dead and sticky ants and the occasional dead ant along where the trail used to bel. At that point you can wash out the eggcup, wipe up the dead'uns and you're done.
Any ants that visit you after that will be coming from a different nest and you can deal with that one the same way.
Borax in these quantities is non-injurious both to you and any non-insect pets.
posted by flabdablet at 1:37 PM on July 25 [8 favorites]
Can't help you with the ghost mice, but ants are easily dealt with. Drop a quarter of a teaspoon of borax into an eggcup, then half-fill it with sugar, then mostly fill it with boiling water and stir until all the solids have dissolved (might need the odd ten-second burst in the microwave to keep it hot enough).
Leave it sitting somewhere near a busy ant trail, preferably as close as possible to wherever they're finding their way in but just anywhere near the trail will do if it's not clear where that is. Spill a few drops over the side of the egg cup so they run down and make a very small mess.
The ants will find that mess and clean it up, then follow it back to the top of the egg cup, and in an hour or two they'll be clustering all the way around it. A lot of them will drown in there, but the ones that don't will tank up on borax-laden syrup and take it back to the nest with them.
It will take a decent-sized nest a few days to drain the eggcup mostly dry, by which time you'll be seeing a few dead ants lying around and the ones that are still moving won't be moving well. A few days after that, all you'll see is an eggcup full of dead and sticky ants and the occasional dead ant along where the trail used to bel. At that point you can wash out the eggcup, wipe up the dead'uns and you're done.
Any ants that visit you after that will be coming from a different nest and you can deal with that one the same way.
Borax in these quantities is non-injurious both to you and any non-insect pets.
posted by flabdablet at 1:37 PM on July 25 [8 favorites]
I have ant issues here in my apartment, especially in my kitchen, and sometimes I see a few in my bedroom; so wouldn't putting that out there present an issue for ants? Or did you mean sealed?
Yes, sealed. That will keep most insects out of it, but the smell will still get through.
posted by Silvery Fish at 1:42 PM on July 25
Yes, sealed. That will keep most insects out of it, but the smell will still get through.
posted by Silvery Fish at 1:42 PM on July 25
All this talk about holes in food storage, etc...if they're field mice, which, considering where you live, I bet they are, they come in to warm up or cool down and don't really care about food at all. Which I agree is totally weird and I only know bc I quizzed our pest guy.
posted by atomicstone at 2:49 PM on July 25
posted by atomicstone at 2:49 PM on July 25
If you'd rather just keep the ants away rather than kill them (they are helpful to the ecosystem), peppermint oil works well. Soak a few cotton balls with peppermint oil and leave it where the ants come in, and they'll go away, plus your kitchen will smell lovely and minty at the same time.
posted by essexjan at 4:11 PM on July 25
posted by essexjan at 4:11 PM on July 25
borrow a cat and see if it becomes INTENSELY INTERESTED in a specific spot
posted by Jacqueline at 1:29 AM on July 26
posted by Jacqueline at 1:29 AM on July 26
The one time we lived in a house of mice, the key thing was taking everything out of the cupboards/drawers/corners of the room and checking for both droppings and gnawed holes. I agree that if you had mice in December you would definitely know about it by now, but if you want to put your mind 100% at rest, double check in your cupboards. If they're there, you'll know. Mice aren't subtle.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 7:43 AM on July 26
posted by In Your Shell Like at 7:43 AM on July 26
Could be a juvenile rat. Juvenile rats are small, curious, and like to explore. They will run across open space even when people are around. This can happen where they have a nest outdoors or in a basement and not necessarily raiding your food, but just seeing what's there.
I would get a bait trap where you can see the bait block through a window and put it near the wall where you saw scurrying. See if there are gnaw marks on the bait block in the next week. If so, yes rats have found a route in and you should take steps to look for and block ingress from the outside.
posted by zippy at 9:32 PM on July 26
I would get a bait trap where you can see the bait block through a window and put it near the wall where you saw scurrying. See if there are gnaw marks on the bait block in the next week. If so, yes rats have found a route in and you should take steps to look for and block ingress from the outside.
posted by zippy at 9:32 PM on July 26
I'd seen mice infrequently at the previous apartment I lived in.
I would bait a Victor mouse trap by smearing butter on the end of a Q-tip, and cutting it short so I could stick the stem in the trap. This worked pretty well.
Mice look for nesting material, and are also attracted to fat and grease. They could not get either off the Q-tip without triggering the trap.
posted by rochrobbb at 3:57 AM on July 29
I would bait a Victor mouse trap by smearing butter on the end of a Q-tip, and cutting it short so I could stick the stem in the trap. This worked pretty well.
Mice look for nesting material, and are also attracted to fat and grease. They could not get either off the Q-tip without triggering the trap.
posted by rochrobbb at 3:57 AM on July 29
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posted by Ragged Richard at 12:32 PM on July 25 [13 favorites]