I actually heard a mouse set off a trap in our kitchen the other night. It didn't kill him right away...I could hear it struggling under our cabinets. We decided to just let it die overnight and then retreive the dead mouse in the morning. Well, we went to do that and it turns out the damn thing had gnawed whatever part of its body was stuck in the trap off and escaped. The tenacity of mice is spectacular, if not a little gross.

Cats are a just a different infestation. Like children. But if you are a slave to the cat gods  check out these toons.  Very funny and safe for work  www.simonscat.com

Having lived in a 100-year-old farmhouse in the country, I second poison and traps.  (Not live traps, the plain old wood-and-metal ones that break the mouse's back.)  Our poisoned mice tended to wander out in public like the Big E's, which is handy for disposal but a little disconcerting to come upon.

Also, if you can't get to repairing or caulking the holes right away, just stuff them with coarse steel wool; that helps a lot.

Paul,  Well, the best part that you left out was how you became aware of all of this activity this morning.  I will leave it up to you to share. Steph told me the story and I am still laughing.  

I heard there is some type of sonic system that is sold at Menards that has a sound that hurts their little ears so they go away.  It does not affect your ears or your dog.  Also, peppermint oil on cotton balls.  And, of course, D-con.  
I am sharing your site with a friend of mine who recently went to put on her tennis shoe and it was filled with some type of seeds that a mouse has put in her shoe to store...for the winter. 

Two things here is to secure/tighten up the outside but that will not help with the mice you already have in the house.  Got to use D-con or live with them.  Based on how Steph looked this morning... I do not think the second options is going to work. 

I will bring steel wool tomorrow to Steph. I also have some mint plants that may also be helpful to put around outside or in the house.  Denise

We have a 5-gallon bucket full of salt in the garage, which we use on the icy driveway. One time we found about five preserved mice in there. Salted.
When we catch one in the house, we drive it down to a golf course to set it free. It's the closest spot that doesn't feel like we're giving the mouse to someone else. Except, of course, the time a mouse I was trying to catch jumped on my baby son. I turned into a Mama Bear, caught the mouse, took it outside, smashed it and then cried hysterically.

By the way (and in response to the post above my last one) steel wool is a good idea for sealing holes. The sonic system at Menards is a scam. Tried it, doesn't work. I urge you to stay away from poison. It will inadvertently kill or sicken other little critters you'd prefer stay alive, like children (who get into everything) and beloved family pets (who get into everything). Skip the D-Con and pick up a 2-liter of Coke.

Robert Burns, "To A Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest, with the Plough," 1785:

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, 
O, what a panic's in thy breastie! 
Thou need na start awa sae hasty 
Wi bickering brattle! 
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, 
Wi' murdering pattle. 

I'm truly sorry man's dominion 
Has broken Nature's social union, 
An' justifies that ill opinion 
Which makes thee startle 
At me, thy poor, earth born companion 
An' fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; 
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! 
A daimen icker in a thrave 
'S a sma' request; 
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave, 
An' never miss't.

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! 
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin! 
An' naething, now, to big a new ane, 
O' foggage green! 
An' bleak December's win's ensuin, 
Baith snell an' keen! 

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, 
An' weary winter comin fast, 
An' cozie here, beneath the blast, 
Thou thought to dwell, 
Till crash! the cruel coulter past 
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble, 
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble! 
Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble, 
But house or hald, 
To thole the winter's sleety dribble, 
An' cranreuch cauld.

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, 
In proving foresight may be vain: 
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men 
Gang aft agley, 
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, 
For promis'd joy!

Still thou are blest, compared wi' me! 
The present only toucheth thee: 
But och! I backward cast my e'e, 
On prospects drear! 
An' forward, tho' I canna see, 
I guess an' fear!

(Standard English "translation" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Mouse)

I agree with the poster who said that a cat infestation is as bad as mice.  

It is a known fact that cats spread a bacteria that causes rodent brains to short-circuit, confusing the pleasure and fear areas.  In short, they become sexually aroused by the scent of cat urine, they walk up to cats and get eaten, and the bacteria returns to the cat's intestines, which is the only place it can reproduce.  

This is why cats are so off-limits to pregnant women.  They've even linked the rise in cat domestication to the subsequent rise in schitzofrenia (I can never spell that one).  So, if you really, really, REALLY love your cat, you better go get tested.  

Oh, and if you ask me, it wasn't mice who made the hole in that picture.  You better get some skunk traps while you're at it!!

About two weeks ago (the thursday where it first got really cold), my house suddenly became completely inundated with hornets.

They were *EVERYWHERE*. And i'm terrified of hornets. TERRIFIED.

I did manage to find where they were getting in. I just waited around outside until I saw an area where they were parading into the siding. I used that spray insulation foam stuff to block their entrance, and then proceeded to go on a ravenous hornet-killing SPREE inside my house with a can of RAID. 

Hopefully there's not a nest in the wall that is dormant, waiting for someone to read the passages from the Vespanomicon...

Do rat stories count here?

I lived for a while in a semi-abandoned farm house in Missouri next to a beat up trailer my mom lived in--I could hear the mice and rats running around in the empty second floor, but was basically kind of ho-hum about it--my usual reaction when critters live in the same spaces as me.

One evening rounding the corner of the house to go from the house to the trailer I came upon a rat in the middle of the path--it was crumpled and snarling-faced, but didn't move much (guess it had been at the poison mom kept in the barn--sorry Gwanto). Something atavistic in me made me go nuclear on that rat, and I snatched up a piece of 2X4 and smashed it--not sure what came over me--perhaps something about the fact that it had a snarly face, or that it was right in the middle of the path I often walked barefoot at night or maybe I'm a secret rat hater? I buried the rat to keep a scavenger bird from eating it (though I suppose that shows favoritism to vertebrate creatures, as the worms and bacteria probably got sick from the poison in the rat's system, too.)

Another time, I found a dead rat floating in a half-filled water bucket in the barn.

I have let bats live in my belfry (except for the ones my cat was able to knock out of the air when we were gone--she ate everything but the tale and the claws). And I currently have squirrels in my attic. (That's be a good band name--"Squirrels in the Attic.")

Army worms (forest tent caterpillars) shouldn't be back until at least 2011.

The last invasion was in 2001/2002 and was the worst -- by far -- in recorded history.

Paul, I hope this isn't something I said before, but... fun Duluth trivia about the caterpillars (maybe survival advice for those that have yet to have the experience).

Right around that time period (01, 02) the little guys didn't come until the afternoon during a bike jaunt up the north shore.  Just a nice peaceful solo ride.  Then, they voraciously ambushed me on the ride home from Two Harbors.

That story isn't funny except for two things...

1. I witnessed a teenage girl rolling over them on inline skates without batting an eye.

2. They were dropping on me from overhead branches, and I would also run in to them as they so boldly hung at face level on their silk threads.

(Extra) 3. The smell of baking-in-the-sun dead forest tent guys in what seems like lemming behavior trying to cross old 61 to the lake -- where they'll just die anyway -- is enough to make anyone vomit.

I think I received a few gut spurts by a couple of passerby cars.  I might even have accidentally swallowed some of it.

I wish I had my camera.

Do you remember the smell of the dead moths after all the caterpillars morphed?  Eww.... I dry heave thinking about that odor on Superior Street outside the casino and to this day feel really bad for their custodial staff who had to shovel the dead moths off of the sidewalk.  Puke.

It seriously cracked me up to read about blasting mice to bits and then... peace.  
Too funny.  

I like animals, I don't like to kill things, but man do I not want those little f***ers in my house.  My many mouse related freak outs will probably keep my kids laughing for the next 50 years.  -In fact I just created more memories for them tonight when the dog pulled a rodent shaped leaf out from under the stove.