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spikemarie
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# Posted: 17 Jun 2012 08:56pm
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Hello!
I just signed up for the forum discussions. I'm so happy to find a forum for people who love cabins as much as my husband and I do. Here's the burning question that drove me to look for the forum in the first place: We have a cabin in Montana on a few acres. There is also a smaller cabin on our property. We're in the process of evicting the current residents (mice!) out of the smaller cabin and fixing it up so that guests will be able to stay there. So we just cleaned it up this weekend and patched all the holes, but we discovered after patching the holes on the inside that there were holes on the outside of the cabin through which the mice were accessing the inside of at least one cabin wall. We plugged those holes, too, but now I'm thinking, "Ewww! Now we have entombed God knows how many mice, along with their crap!" My question is: Should we rip the wall apart and clean up the all the dead mouse bodies and mouse crap? Or should we not worry about it and just let them dry up and turn to mouse dust with time? If we just leave it as is, will this be a health hazard of any kind? By the way, I don't think we entombed THAT many mice. It's not a huge infestation, I don't think. Thanks in advance!
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Resting Place
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# Posted: 17 Jun 2012 09:59pm
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Hi Spikemarie,
I cannot speak in regards to a cabin as we are just beginning the process but i do have some experience with mice. We use to live in a farm house and we had a mouse that died in a wall in the basement. It smelled horrid for about a month but after that it was fine. Personally i do not think there is a health issue just the bad smell. From what i understand mouse poo is only toxic to breath in once it is disturb and becomes air borne. Hope that information helps some.
And this is a great forum!! I am new here too and very glad that i came across this site 
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cabingal3
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# Posted: 17 Jun 2012 11:02pm
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Welcome to u both.its good to have u.
i know our cabin gets chippies inside my kitchen.when we first build the kitchen,i was so happy and still am of course.well,we left and came back many months later...chippy chips in my cast iron skillet and here and there.thats how i knew they were getting in.As we are making it more and more secure-i am seeing less and less chippy chips.there is chippy chip gravy and sometimes that chocolate chip muffin may not have a chocolate chip in it after all..i plugged alot of tiny openings with plastic bags...but as i say-we have been putting on insulation and soon weather stripping on the doors...i think this will do it for us.
they are cute but i sure dont like this aspect.good luck on your mouse evictions.
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spikemarie
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# Posted: 18 Jun 2012 09:04am
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Thanks to everyone who replied! Thanks to Resting Place for the reassurance. This past weekend, we breathed in plenty of the stuff (should've used dust masks, I know) while sweeping and cleaning, so if we don't fall ill, our guests will probably be just fine. And Cabingal3, that cracked me up about the questionable chocolate chips! I'll try the chapati trick, too, Albertpinto. Thanks for the tip!
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Montanagirl
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# Posted: 18 Jun 2012 12:09pm
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On the subject of mice--our neighbors at the lake recently purchased a new formica countertop - - -when I asked her why she settled on the plain almond color, (with so many other options available) she told me that as much as liked the look of granite, while at the cabin she would never feel the counters were clean . . . i.e., "is that part of the pattern or is that a mouse dropping?" LOL. . .
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spikemarie
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# Posted: 18 Jun 2012 12:17pm
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Ha, ha, ha!!! I can laugh about mice and their droppings now, but the first night we stayed in our cabin, we opened up the hide-a-bed couch the last owner had (thoughtfully?) left behind, and out sprang a live mouse! I was horrified and didn't sleep a wink that night. I'm a lot tougher now!
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Montanagirl
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# Posted: 19 Jun 2012 01:09pm
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eeeuuuu! I remember when I was little and we'd go up to the cabin for the first time in the spring, we'd all stand by the door, fling it open, let the dog go in first, then carefully peer in to see what calamity had taken place over the winter! On more than one occasion the dog cornered a kritter (sometimes packrats . My dad and grandpa finally got it sealed up and we have been rodent free for two decades, but boy those memories are still fresh!
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spikemarie
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# Posted: 19 Jun 2012 01:20pm
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My mouse memories are still fresh, too! Even though we sealed up the main cabin pretty good, I still wonder what we're going to find every time we open the place up after being away for a few weeks. Our friends suggested getting some free kittens from the newspaper and just letting them live up there, but I think they would be kind of hard on the wild bird population. Gotta take the bad (mice) with the good (birds) I guess!
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cabingal3
Member
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# Posted: 19 Jun 2012 02:12pm
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yes.everytime we go to our cabin.there is some kind of beasties about inside...the first time we opened up the place after a while of being away was tons of months.another yr.ants were everywhere.
the last time we were there...we put the lantern up on the rafter to hang and i was looking up at the ceiling and there appeared a huge huge bug.and then another and i said gar-yikes! look at those shadows.it looked like the godzilla of the bees and flys.we found them located on the lantern.once we found out how small they actually were .we were not so scared.gar says i should always take all the blankets off the bed and shake each blanket and sleeping bag.ther is about 20.notice he says i should do this project.hee hee.so we tuck and keep a feel out for any creepy crawlys.so far we have been fine.Each time i see less and less chipmunk chips.i wont miss chipmunk gravy in the least bit.
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beachman
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:03pm
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Well, as for cats - they seem to be selective in their mousing extermination. We have four cats - and we still have lots of mice. We did have a great hunter cat a few years ago that not only kept the mice out, but climbed up onto the roof and cleaned out the bats that were getting into the camp. Sorry to say that now as the bats are in danger because of the "white nose" disease. After that great cat got too old to hunt, we opened one spring and found little piles of psychedelic pellets all about. We found out the mice got into the kid's neon crayons.
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2012 09:16pm
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I think baiting mice INSIDE the cabin is wrong. You are attracting mice into your cabin by laying out food.
I have a plan to get rid of the mice once and for all this year.
First we will be sealing up any entry points with the new pest foam(from Home Depot).
Second Baiting the mice that are still inside the cabin.
Third setting up Oust A Mouse(google it) outside.
I'll let you know how it works later in the year.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2012 09:20pm
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Open the inside holes back up, set up a "toyota_mdt_tech" mousetrap and capture and kill all the mice inside.
This trap will draw them in and kill and keep on a kill'n. No reloading it. Use peanut butter on the can, spread thin and even. Strong odor mice cant resist.
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Gypsy
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2012 10:11pm - Edited by: Gypsy
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When we first moved into our cabin, there were dead mice inside, and mouse poop everywhere. We cleaned everything like crazy, and since we went back the second time, there was still some mouse poop around, but probably 1/10 of what there was the first time. We're going to the cabin tomorrow, and hopefully there won't be any, or at least much less.
I've been scouring the internet for suggestions, and I saw someone say to plug the holes with steel wool, so I am going to try that. Also, I read somewhere about spraying each corner of the room with diluted peppermint oil, apparently mice don't like that; it did say to do it when you're leaving because it can be an irritant to some people.
Also for now, I've been packing away all of my bedding in a plastic bag and in totes when we aren't there, just incase. I would hate to come back to mouse poops all over my pillows and blankets!!
Good luck with the de-mousing
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 17 Jul 2012 12:46am
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I use aluminum trash cans from Home Depot for all my bedding. Cover the mattress with bounce sheets(mice hate the smell) and cover the mattress with visquene. The mattress and box springs rest on top of a piece of plywood insted of a regular bed frame so the mice can't get underneath and build a nest. I cover my sofa the same way.
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