Frustrated Mice in my house: Are they attracted by guinea pigs?

[Beahbeah]

I am freaking out right now: It is 3 AM and there is a mouse running around the floor of my bedroom. My piggies' cage is in my bedroom (I share a house with 3 other roommates and spend most of my time in my room anyways), and I am extremely worried because 1) I don't want my wonderful pigs to catch any diseases from the mouse (or mice) and 2) I'm worried that the smell of their hay, pellets, and poop may actually be attracting mice into the house.

This is the second house that I have lived in where there have been problems with mice that have developed after I moved in, and I feel like it is a matter of time before the piggies (or I) catch a disease. No matter how many traps I have set or what types of deterrents I have tried, I can't seem to get on top of this problem. I really don't see a way to end the mouse problems I have if the piggies' supplies/smell is what is attracting them into the house. I can't keep their hay in the garage either, plus I would worry that then the garage would be full of mice!

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I really need a permanent solution!

 

[crisma1974a]

Look around the outside of your house and patch up any holes you see. Make sure you always close the outside doors. Make sure all your food is off the floor or bottom cabinets. If you have to, store your pellets in a closed container. If you can store your hay up in a shelf.

In early spring and fall, mice seem to be very numerous. Our town sets traps during this time and we haven't seen mice in years.

 

[Beahbeah]

I bought some of those big Rubbermaid plastic totes, and I've put all the piggies' hay, food, and treats in there for storage. I hope that works to at least not attract more mice into the house.

 

[MaryGoodnight]

Just be careful what you tell the landlord if you rent. I knew someone on a forum who was a rat owner and had a wild rat in her walls...so her landlord thought the natural solution would be to set out rat poison (her pet rats were okay but she had quite the scare when she found the pellets on the floor after free range time).

 

[Cocoacavy]

You should hire an exterminator to exterminate MOST parts of the house, and maybe the garage. You should have it sprayed in every corner of the house, just not to close to the piggies cage. I hope I helped. It really works, too.

 

[guineapig67]

make sure you find this mouse (or mice) fast. Mice multiply fast and I mean fast. One day we had one mouse in our garage, next week we had about 20. I got rid of them by humane mouse traps, set them free at the dump (I was told mice like that place best).

 

[GizzyandMe]

My house is as in Nature as can be and again this morning I woke up to about 7 spiders in my bedroom alone. With all these spiders and other creepy crawlies I also had a huge problem with mice. Beside the damage they did to my pantry contents they severely upset Sniper. I think he has issues with sharing his food!

I moved everything to the top cabinets and siliconed every single hole I could find. Poison or exterminators are not an option for me.

A day after I moved all the food items and closed the holes I saw one more mouse and sweeped it out the door with the broom. It has been more than a month and I have not seen a mice or evidence that one has been. So it seemed to have worked for me anyways.

However if you have a room mate that leaves food where the mice can find it you will always have them coming back I suppose.

 

[Beahbeah]

Thanks for your advice, everyone. The good news is I caught the mouse last night, and it seems to have been the only one (I set a second trap just in case and it is still empty). I also sprayed peppermint essential oil all over the basement (where my room is), which apparently repels mice. I'm crossing my fingers that this was just an isolated incident.

I really didn't want to get the landlord involved for extermination, etc. because my last landlord blamed every problem she could on the guinea pigs. We had mice in the main floor, and even though the guinea pigs and I were in the basement she said they must have attracted the mice in; also the main floor smelled because a former tenant had kept an incontinent dog there, but she still blamed it on the guinea pigs.

Right now I am just glad that I got rid of that mouse, and crossing my fingers that I've taken enough steps to keep more from coming in.

 

[Cocoacavy]

well, if it does happen again, DEFINATLY make sure ALL the trash is thrown away at night, and put all the food in hard-to-reach-places/areas. It's good to do that so then they won't be able to eat the food, and they won't scare you," wink wink"