Mice exclusions

Anyone doing them? Have any best practices to share?

Dave, it's called a c-a-t.

No, on house. Yes, white footed.

We don't get house mouse infestations in residential work, typically one and done. Because this is almost always a case of a stowaway and not a home invader I will not warranty this species. White footed mice are a less virulent flying squirrel all that applies to fliers is the same.

Your kidding?! No house mice in GA?

Dave no way I would go broke.

Right now have a mice flipping me off in the middle of the night as they go about their business.

I have some of the best educated "neo phobic" mice on the planet. They have outlived every trap and glue board on the market.

I live in a wooden home. As long as they can chew wood they get back in. Its'endless.

A exclusion strategy for me is to not keep them out anymore but give them little reason to stick around because all food stuffs and edible storage would be put behind metal lined storage. Metal bread boxes.

We just don't get a lot of calls for them and when we do its one and done.

Why not do the caulking, screening...and rodenticide. If mice come back to flip you off....add more rodenticide and caulk.

Perhaps, the exclusion is worth $1500 with a 3 year warrenty. The warrenty has a $50 deductible for re inspections that cover your cost for rodenticide and caulk. Seems like a slam dunk to me...

Warrier - Do you advertise for mice? Perhaps, the national pest companies are getting the work...

Yes I am about to introduce chemical warfare on them.

It is the only way...they reproduce quicker than you can catch 'em.

I do a lot of mice exclusions. I sell them with the understanding that being that we are dealing with mice it is hard to stop the flow forever, but we can try! Most want to try, and with it I also sell weekly trapping programs. I price the lower third of the house different from the upper 2/3's. Pending where the activity is being found some may just go for one over the other. Believe it or not, I price these jobs similar to that of a bat job. But unlike a bat job, I seal everything and push the trapping program inside. I have been doing this for years with great success. Always going to have places you can’t get to like under decks close to the ground or additions that have limited access. So with all that said, I do not warranty the work. As long as I take the time explaining everything I am doing and why and why it may or may not work, I do tend to sell most of them! I use caulk, screening, copper stuff it, and bend aluminum to fix trim work. A lot of what we do in this line of work is for peace of mind, so take your time on them, seal the heck out of the place and go make some customers happy!

Nice!

I do mouse exclusions all the time .. but had 3 real nightmeres this year ... I do alot of work in a ski village will all sorts chalets ..

In the 70's and 80's they built shacks...nothing more then hunting cabins ... then money came to town and built on 1/2 million dollar additions without ripping the old crap down... so you can imagine what a disaster it is..

dont get me wrong I am made money on them but there is easier ways of doing it... one of the ways I did it was not an offer a warranty on them ..

Heck I did one where the mice were coming in on an interior wall...there was a pipe cut off that lead to the outside ... down the hill and went under a tree stump ...took me a while to find it (months)

So thats why I charge 80 a man hour plus materials ... because you never know what you will find ..or what you dont find

I kind of like it because its a challenge ... I like it but during the busy season it sucks because it is time consuming

I like the way you think! I may have a ski village to take care of soon and its the same thing as your describing.

We do alot of mouse work and have to utilize many forms of exclusion, repair and maintenance to stay in control. Some jobs can be done deals other situations are on going maintenance by us and the consumer in some cases.

If the consumer participates in learning to modify some of their behaviors and do some simple control measures of their own the problem can certainly be stopped or significantly curtailed. Problem is, most consumers become lazy in their efforts over time if not stopping all their efforts all together.

Here are a few devices I developed back in the early 80's for exclusion work of mice and voles that were using ground level vent screens to make entry under porches and crawl spaces then eventually into the living space. They can also be used on brick, block and stone foundations that have mortar voids also.

Good seal work reduces many to most possible entries. Combine with exclusion and interior trapping with bait stations for population reduction will provide as good of control as is humanely possible.

How cool is that?!

X2! Very Nice Bob!

Good thread guys!

Justin

#1 reason to NOT use Rodenticide is dead animal smell! You can't find a dead mouse in a cinder block basement wall. I do mouse exclusions on every one of my monthly pest control customers. Most houses are sealed in a half hour or less. Then it's traps only inside. If they are catching mice after one week, I'll go back, no charge, and figure out where they are getting in. For a one time Mouse exclusion I charge $75 to inspect then add on for how much work is needed. I give a six month warranty on those.

Did you know that mice only live aproximately 1 year? If you do not apply rodenticide, they still die. What do you do with the odor for those that die naturally? How many millions of homes have mice dieing naturally today...and people have no idea of the existing population?

Questions to get you thinking...

I'd agree with you DaveK - the clients though that had the "pest" guy there on friday and on sunday or monday they smell dead mouse I think are the
reason for thinking twice about rodenticide without warning the client at least.

I don't do this type of work, but I've been called a few times to look for the dead smell and it was right on the heels or an attic chemical warfare campaign.

I don't have strong opinions about it, but do think the combo of exclusion, trapping and proper bait use in an IPM style approach is best, with client behavior change if possible for issues of harborage and food stuff.

Good thread though, learning and sharing always good!

Justin

I use contrac all weather blox ... I just never have any complaints of a dead mouse smell ...maybe I am just lucky ... but I think its the bait and chemical that is used .. Warfine I think causes an odor .. bromolindine will not ... so my experience suggests

That is my experience too. But, if they can cause an odor in certain spots....like a fat mouse in basements. The odor lasts a week or so. I have probably had 2 complaints over thousands of treatments.

Lundy, do you use Contrac Blox? The last two posts are pretty much what we've experienced. In our northern climates we can poison the heck out of an attic in the wintertime with no odor. And even though we poison basements all year long, like Dave said, few complaints. And, of course, because we've brought the subject up, a customer asked me just today, "What happens to the rodents? I see that the poison is gone but no bodies." I usually tell them that they are in a forensic lab on NCIS, CSI, or some other TV program.