House Rodents

[kathleenmariekg]

I think I smell rodent urine in the kitchen. I keep all the food in the fridge, except cans, but I have an uncovered trash can that often has something in it overnight. It is not safe to go into the alley to use the dumpster, late at night. Rodents can be worse than roaches, and I need to step up pest control. First, I need to get some type of rodent-proof bucket to store trash in until the next morning.

I have never been responsible for setting traps or laying out poison. Anyone have any tips?

This place appears to be thick walls of solid cement that resemble the walls of a basement. I think the ceramic tile floors are affixed directly to a layer of cement poured directly on the ground. If I have rodents, they are most likely in the plywood kitchen drawers and cabinets that have been painted shut.

This is 1960's construction that was meant to be temporary housing for workers. Part of the neighborhood has been leveled, but the rest remains inhabited, mostly as it was originally constructed. If someone has a housing voucher that requires an inspection, everything gets another coat of pain without scraping off any old paint. Even the toilet has about 20 lumpy layers of paint on it. It has a fresh new seat, though, even though that meant carrying it over two miles through the desert on my head and installing it myself. At least the seat is not painted. LOL.

No one that speaks English will admit to any pest problems and look at me in shock and dismay when I admit that I have a problem. It is a taboo subject at least among the English-language speakers. My Spanish is not good enough to discuss it with the larger population. Maybe that is a good thing. LOL. Maybe they would be even more appalled.

Any tips?

If I am horrifying anyone, sorry. I just don't understand the need to lie about critters of any kind. The richest and cleanest people have them if they live in certain places, and I was born into rich people that had them and admitted that they had them. Anyone that said they didn't was lying, and everyone knew that. I am not rich and I am not living among rich people now, but I don't see why I am supposed to start lying now. I think I smell rodent urine, and I want to make it go away.

 

[Quantrill]

I think I smell rodent urine in the kitchen. I keep all the food in the fridge, except cans, but I have an uncovered trash can that often has something in it overnight. It is not safe to go into the alley to use the dumpster, late at night. Rodents can be worse than roaches, and I need to step up pest control. First, I need to get some type of rodent-proof bucket to store trash in until the next morning.

I have never been responsible for setting traps or laying out poison. Anyone have any tips?

This place appears to be thick walls of solid cement that resemble the walls of a basement. I think the ceramic tile floors are affixed directly to a layer of cement poured directly on the ground. If I have rodents, they are most likely in the plywood kitchen drawers and cabinets that have been painted shut.

This is 1960's construction that was meant to be temporary housing for workers. Part of the neighborhood has been leveled, but the rest remains inhabited, mostly as it was originally constructed. If someone has a housing voucher that requires an inspection, everything gets another coat of pain without scraping off any old paint. Even the toilet has about 20 lumpy layers of paint on it. It has a fresh new seat, though, even though that meant carrying it over two miles through the desert on my head and installing it myself. At least the seat is not painted. LOL.

No one that speaks English will admit to any pest problems and look at me in shock and dismay when I admit that I have a problem. It is a taboo subject at least among the English-language speakers. My Spanish is not good enough to discuss it with the larger population. Maybe that is a good thing. LOL. Maybe they would be even more appalled.

Any tips?

If I am horrifying anyone, sorry. I just don't understand the need to lie about critters of any kind. The richest and cleanest people have them if they live in certain places, and I was born into rich people that had them and admitted that they had them. Anyone that said they didn't was lying, and everyone knew that. I am not rich and I am not living among rich people now, but I don't see why I am supposed to start lying now. I think I smell rodent urine, and I want to make it go away.

My tip is I think you should move.

I know you are at peace with God where you are, but you have placed yourself in a dangerous and unhealthy environment. Why, I don't know.

You smell rat urine because the place is crawling with rats. It doesn't take much to know you need to kill them. But good luck with that as your whole neighborhood is covered with rats, as you describe.

Quantrill

 

[Deacon]

The critters are coming inside for the winter.
I caught a few in the garage recently and found a dead one in a summer clothes storage bin in the basement.... the wretched, pervasive smell of death made us toss out everything in the storage container.

Check for droppings in the suspected areas.
If you have evidence of one, there’s certainly more of them around.

A cat might help.
But I like snap traps: they are simple, cheap, effective and quick (and you don’t have to feed them).
Poisons act slowly and can leave a dead critter between walls or in other remote areas.

Rob

 

[SGO]

Here are some youtube videos which may give you some ideas if you can take the time to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rodents+in+my+house

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I don't have an option to leave that is worth it to ME. I am not going to explain the reasons on a public forum. I was given several options all bad, and I chose this bad option over worse options.

There would be no slums, if people truly had options. It is convenient for outsiders to believe that slums are full of bad people with other options. I guess that is why they continue to speed through this area killing the pedestrians, like that poor mom last night. People who "choose" this place deserve what they get.

Dead critters is what I want to avoid: that is why I am asking.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Here are some youtube videos which may give you some ideas if you can take the time to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rodents+in+my+house

Thank you. I will watch these and get a good general education about rodents, the way I have learned about water.

But any tips on how not to have dead things in the painted shut cabinets would be awesome. I described the construction in such detail in case that changed anyone's advice.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Hmm, there are wild cats all over the place, and neighbors throw dry food on the ground for them at night. I bet that might be to help control the rodents! I was trying to figure out what was with that.

 

[SGO]

Might also attract rats. They can share.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Might also attract rats. They can share.

Hmm, yeah. Just yuck! LOL

 

[Benjamin]

I know this situation pretty well. When I was 20 years old, I moved into the top part of a 100+ year old house, which was made into a large studio apartment. The rent was really reasonable and I knew it was in a poor part of town but I actually did not realize that I was l the only white guy to live there for like 3 blocks around. It didn’t bother me though and I made some good friends and I liked the big spacious with all the old windows and a sitting area on top of the garage with a short wall around it where I kept a weight set.

After a few nights I noticed that after I turned out the lights, I started hearing this weird sound and I would get up and turn on the lights but didn’t see anything. So, after a couple nights of waiting to hear this sound as I tried to fall asleep I put the lamp next to the bed with my hand on the switch and when I heard the sound, I turned it on quickly a saw mice running across the floor!

A couple ran through a hole leading to an attic area and it was then that I started noticing mouse droppings and stains everywhere which must have been cleaned up when I first rented the place. I didn’t want to live like that! So, on the way home form work the next day I bought some mouse traps and when I got home I went into the attic and found two litters of mice, I felt a little bad about but I didn’t want to live this way so I drown them. Next, I set out traps before I went to bed and about 5 minutes after I turned out the lights, I heard a trap go off and a bunch of flopping around. I removed the bloody mouse and reset the trap turned off the lights and 2 more traps went off within minutes. In the next couple days I caught like 20 mice and after that I would catch one every once in while until it became rare that I got one. I cleaned up all the droppings and the problem was pretty much solved.

BUT, then there was another problem, crickets in the attic and they were getting loud and annoying! With that, I had noticed where I worked these large wolf tarantula spiders that were always munching on crickets. I caught two of them and put them in the attic and with a few days there was nothing but silence coming from the attic.

 

[Van]

I had an outside cat, and did not have much of a rodent problem for many years. A year or two after my cat passed, I had rats in the attic. Several thousand dollars latter, they were gone. Rat traps are pretty heavy duty, and mishandling one will be worse than a sting, as with a mouse trap.

As far as the odor, the urine soaks into the exposed wood and reeks forever. I have scrubbed and scrubbed to no avail. And cabinet replacement is very expensive. Maybe some chemical treatment would work, but I am no help.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I need to get brave enough to lay traps or I need to get a cat. I have issues with animals from eating meat to not thinking I have right to force my will onto a living creature, to just ... mess wrapped up in trying to figure out what is "right" after having lived my life exposed to the things I have been exposed to.

I decided awhile ago, even before I got my faith back, that I have the right to live. The rodents cannot live here with me. Period. They have to go.

I have not felt like I had the right to bring a pet into my messed up life, especially because I never get to stay anywhere very long, but ... I have the right to a cat that can guard me from the scorpions as well as the rodents.

I have to keep realizing this place is different than the one I came from previously. I have to keep realizing that this pandemic has changed some things. Things that were not permissible are now permissible, and vice versa.

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories!

Crickets and frogs can be really loud! LOL. In the worst of the summer, there are no birds here. The heat will kill them if they stay. When they came back in the fall, it felt like spring, a weird dystopian type of spring. It was so odd. Still no rain, and I hear the birds less and less now. I don't know if it is the cold desert nights or the drought. The lack of background nature noise is eerie.

 

[Tsalagi]

I need to get brave enough to lay traps or I need to get a cat. I have issues with animals from eating meat to not thinking I have right to force my will onto a living creature, to just ... mess wrapped up in trying to figure out what is "right" after having lived my life exposed to the things I have been exposed to.

I decided awhile ago, even before I got my faith back, that I have the right to live. The rodents cannot live here with me. Period. They have to go.

I have not felt like I had the right to bring a pet into my messed up life, especially because I never get to stay anywhere very long, but ... I have the right to a cat that can guard me from the scorpions as well as the rodents.

I have to keep realizing this place is different than the one I came from previously. I have to keep realizing that this pandemic has changed some things. Things that were not permissible are now permissible, and vice versa.

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories!

Crickets and frogs can be really loud! LOL. In the worst of the summer, there are no birds here. The heat will kill them if they stay. When they came back in the fall, it felt like spring, a weird dystopian type of spring. It was so odd. Still no rain, and I hear the birds less and less now. I don't know if it is the cold desert nights or the drought. The lack of background nature noise is eerie.

You can use essential oils in spray form at points of entry to repel rats, mice, and other creepy crawlers, especially when they aren't finding anything to eat in your area and therefore aren't highly motivated; peppermint, lemon, eucalyptus, and citronella are known to work for non-offensive repellent purposes. Scentless RAID also works to keeps the tasty insects away. If you can find the urine stains there are enzyme pet stain/odor removers that organically break down the urea and eliminate the smell. Find a way to eliminate the trash smell escaping from your can, such as tie the bag shut at night and when you're away, or spring for a can with a tight lid. I lived in a barn for a few years.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

You can use essential oil
tie the bag shut at night
spring for a can with a tight lid.
I lived in a barn for a few years.

Thanks everyone!

I am going to pray hard that a cat is dumped in my lap. I think natural and barrier methods and a cat are my best options.

Our father knows what I need. He has been doing nothing but teaching me to rely on the manna, and I have no reason to expect otherwise. I am just going to pray.