Getting rid of mice

[Peterplay]

My washing machine gave up twice in the past and when I opened the electrical compartment I saw that mice had cut a couple of wires. Both times I was able to repair it.
This morning the machine again refused to work and when I opened it ,it looked like the mice had come back with a vengeance, because now not one or two wires were bitten through, but all or most of them, I was quite surprised to say it politely.
I don’t want to spend much time repairing it so I’ll probably buy a new one today.

My question for a new machine is : does anyone of you have problems like these ? And if so, is there a remedy to keep the mouse out ? They enter through unimaginably small holes.

I am thinking of a cat, but we have three playful dogs already and I am not sure if they van live together. Can a certain smell keep the mouse out, eg campher ?

Your help and ideas would be appreciated…

By the way, they like the electrical wiring of our cars as well...

[Funman]

Peter, I submit your problems are not mice but rats. In 8 years here I have never seen mice only baby rats. I have had the same problem as you. When I lived in Roi Et province my tw used my mobile earphones and they disappeared from the living room. When I moved back to Udon I found then chewed into pieces under the couch. Here in Udon my DVD/CD player stopped playing DVD's but not CD's. As is was in an entertainment cabinet and the connectors ran behind the cabinet to the TV I just unplugged it took it into Amorn for repairs. Only when I rerouted the connectors I found just the video wire had been bitten in two behind the cabinet.
I suggest you buy your rats some blue rice (Bayer advanced). Seems to work quite well and they go away to die outdoors. I just have had some move in again and purchased said item (6 boxes) at Big C for 25B a box. It's also available at Tesco. They're is a Thai brand (Thai writing on the front, dead rats too) called ARS Rat killer (on the back) but they (the rats) don't seem to have much of a taste for it. They do like to chew the crap out of electrical wiring. If you're worried about small children getting into it just put it under the wash machine where the rats like to hang out. That should keep it out of reach and give them something terminal to chew on.

[Brian Davis]

A rat made its' home underneath my car battery. I think I first noticed a bit of a 'pong' and then electrics started to play up - automatic window and speaker. Bit concerned about using poison with a dog about, but put a couple of these small pellets in the engine. Next day pellets and rat gone - and a trip to Honda to sort out the wiring!

[nkstan]

PP,may I suggest you change your topic title?I thought you had pet mice!

[Peterplay]

@Funman : the funny thing is that the Thai language does not differentiate between rats and mice. I don't know where exactly a mouse becomes a rat, but I know that in our house the beasts are rather small, we catch em with glue disks.
Rats as I saw them in the cities are way bigger and I am glad I haven't seen them here. Yet.

Poison is out of the question with dogs here. I am now thinking of getting a very small cat that can grow up amongst the dogs which now are avid cat chasers...
I know from experience that is the best anti dose to mice/rats.

Until then I'll worry about the electrical wiring in my house which is not fitted in a closed type plastic tube system... And since the roof structure is from metal I one day me step on a beam that is charged with 220 Volt. Actually 240 volt most of the times, but sometimes only less than 200 volts.

As for the washing machine, I was planning to buy a new one, but then I realised how lazy I have become because of the fact that I am not very poor.
I remember how I grew up just after the war when mony was pretty scarce. Then I would do anything to get something, be it repairing something or work very hard for long periods. A litlle bit like youngsters here find all sort of ways to get money for an old motorbike or work hard do get it repaired.

And then I feel somewhat ashamed... Yet i'll probably the new machine anyway...

[Peterplay]

@ Nkstan : quite powerfull pet mice then...

[Shado]

Maybe the solution is to use mouse/rat poison that is disguised as electrical wire.

[nkstan]

I used the sticky paper mouse catcher that was very effective.But it was torturous to watch the little buggers trapped alive !

[trubrit]

Maybe the solution is to use mouse/rat poison that is disguised as electrical wire.

Good idea . I fear however it may confuse the electrician more than the mice .

[rickfarang]

Dogs and cats raised together can be best friends.

You might try sealing up all of those unimaginably small openings with a caulking gun.

Similar problems? A light switch ruined by ants, a gecko that fell across relay contacts in our washing machine -didn't hurt the machine, but it took some thinking to realize that it was a gecko!

[jimboLV]

Peter you might try a live trap, then dispatch the critters after they are caught. I'm sure they are available here in some form or another. I lived in a remote area of Colorado and we were bothered by field mice, who discovered that our house was much more hospitable than the "field". I went out an bought some mouse traps and poison, but my daughter, then 11 and going through her animal rights phase, accused me of being a murderer so I bought a live trap, called a Havahart. Baited it with peanut butter and Bingo, caught the mouse.

But then daughter called all her friends over to admire the mouse and comment on how cute it was, and whether it had a family waiting for it to bring food home, so we had to set it free. So we all proceeded out into the desert a few hundred yards and opened the cage. The mouse refused to leave as he hadn't yet consumed all the peanut butter. I finally upended the cage and he fell out and scampered into the bush. We went home, secure in the knowledge that we had done our small part in saving the planet, and Dad was a hero.

I think the mouse got back to the house before we did, as we trapped him again a couple more times. I swear it was the same one, who was now addicted to peanut butter. Finally I caught him when the kids weren't around and gave him a decent marine burial in the flush commode.

After that. we got a couple of cats and the problem was permanently solved.

[Stantheman]

..... You might try sealing up all of those unimaginably small openings with a caulking gun.

You might try caulk, but the little buggers might eat it also. I have found that a little 'steel wool' stuffed into the mice holes works good, just be careful not to let it touch the wires inside the washer

[Peterplay]

@ JimboLV : really funny story ! Buying a mousetrap might indeed be a good idea, but after you told me they are able to find the way home and eat all my peamut butter as well...

One of the problems is that we are not talking about 1 mouse, there are plenty of them and one of the reasons may be that we have a rice house on the premisse that according to the local habits is not sealed very well, in fact is rather open.
You may wonder why they eat a washing machine when there is so much rice closeby.

As for filling up holes in the machine : impossible unless you thouroughly dismantle the thing...

Anyway,thank you all for the good advice, I'll go for the trap and when not succeeding I'll get a cat. It's sort of nice to know you have similar problems.

[Frans]

Sound crazy, But buy a white rat. Other mousses and rats will stay away fore sure

[parrot]

We've had rats/mice in our attic and in our truck engine compartment. In our older Toyota truck, they'd work their way to the air conditioner fan unit (entering through the engine compartment). There's nothing like the smell of a decomposing rat when you turn on the ac!
Blue bait works, but birds will sometimes eat it, and when rats eat it, there's no telling where they'll die and rot. We've had them die under the house and that's no fun.
Glue traps work well but disposing of a still live rat in a sticky mess isn't the easiest thing to do.
The steel rectangular traps (60 baht or so) that are available at most gardening stores (the ones on Makkaeng Rd near the market have them) work best. We live outside the city, so in rainy/cold season, the field mice/rats want to take advantage of a warm/dry environment. We set the traps alongside the house, baited with the crispy dog snacks. They usually bite in the early morning hours. I put the trap, with mouse, inside our outdoor fish tank......the mouse dies, the fish seem to enjoy the action, and I toss the mouse back where it came from....the jungle. No mess, no smell.
I've been using large moth balls under the engine compartment of our truck....embedded in the gravel. That seems to be keeping the buggers out of the engine.

[old-timer]

Glue traps work well but disposing of a still live rat in a sticky mess isn't the easiest thing to do.

OT has had rats and mice coming into the house before and both times I used the glue traps and they always worked. I think 4 traps which is glue on plates cost around 60 baht from the big c. When captured I chuck the plate with the still alive rodent stuck to it in the outside rubbish bin. My wife poisoned a rat once and it died in the loft and the smell was worse than the fish sauce my mother-in-law brews in her outside toilet.

OT.......

[LoongLee]

Just chuck the glue trap with mouse/rat attached into a bucket of water, come back later and dispose in the trash bin.
case closed,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Prenders88]

Our Samsung washing machine came with a tray that you slide in the bottom of the washer thats keeps rodents out.

Get a cat.

[Funman]

Not to worry. Rats and mice are favored cuisine for venomous (Cobras) and constrictor type snakes. Eventually nature will take it's course.

[Alfronso]

There is a dried wood which comes in small bundles called ‘Mai Lai Nhoo’ (about 79 Baht a pack of 6) which act's as a deterrent for mice and rat’s. We had rat’s in the loft and the wife bought these and scattered about 10 bundles of them at various corners of the loft and it did the trick. We have had no bother with rodents for months now.

Alfronso.