We keep our dog food in a hard plastic bucket with a secure lid, in the basement. She eats in the house, so we keep another snap-lid container with her food in the pantry.
All the lots on our street are 1 acre, with half-acre woods. The lot next to us is empty and can't be built on. I've got a 32x40 shop behind the house, up along the tree line. I frequently keep the garage and shop doors open during the day, and sometimes I forget and one stays open at night, too.
We had one mouse in the garage a few years ago, living in the big box we put all our aluminum cans and tinfoil in to recycle. At the time, we had an indoor cat that was completely declawed (and fixed). Well, the indoor cat decided he wouldn't use the liter box anymore, and since the vet said the only sure cure was a lethal injection, we threw him outsite to take his chances. He was 5 or 6 years old at the time, we'd had him since he was a puff ball kitten. (he's 9 now, I guess) About the same time, a stray kitten that fit in the palm of your hand showed up. Right before she was big enough to get spayed, she got knocked up. We kept one of her kittens, and now have 3 outdoor cats (all fixed).
Between the three of them, we have no mice, rats, chipmunks, squirrels, moles, snakes and precious few little lizards. None in the shop, none in the garage, none in the piles of parts and stuff around the shop, and they do a pretty good job of keeping the empty lot a dead zone too.
According to Boy Wonder, most of the neighbors around us have at the very least, lots of moles in their yard. He sees them regularly when he's over at their houses.
Cats: The best solution for mice there is. We feed ours daily, and they still hunt anything that moves in the yard, including the one with no claws (and he's VERY successful).
Get a cat, and get rid of the poison. A dog or a cat that eats a poisoned mouse will die, too.
-Brad
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