Mice in Attic, Same Space as Covered Porch

[duwem]

We are doing some rennovating and pulled down the ceiling drywall in a room and the insulation above it was all chewed up and filled with mice poop.

House is 16 years old.

The attic is shared with the wrap around porch that goes around 2 sides of my house and is also connected to the attic in the garage.

The area above the room is the only area that has heat under it so I'm sure that's why they migrate there.

There is soffit vents on the overhangs but no vents on the roof so not sure where heat is supposed to exit. Maybe it pumps into the garage and goes out the vents in that roof.

I had thought maybe putting up some plywood to divide that attic space from the porch area could potentially slow down mice, but with how small of a hole they can squeeze through might be a lost cause. Especially in the overhang area since it's got a lot of different surfaces and it's hard to reach. If I did this divider I would put a few louvered vents in it so the air from the room attic could communicate with the rest of it. Might make sense to put some vents in the roof when the shingles need replacing, but it isn't a big area so maybe it's not really needed?

The garage does have a drywall ceiling but the rest is not finished so I would guess there are holes.

Thoughts??

 

[575cat]

Mice , big big problem now days and hell do deal with .

 

[TractorJeff]

I always ask myself, "How do they get up there?", then eliminate that area of entry.

 

[HalfMoon]

I always ask myself, "How do they get up there?", then eliminate that area of entry.

This is the answer.

Late last year we discovered we had roof rats in our attic. Our house is about the same age, 15 years old and it was freaking my wife out.

I couldn't find any entry points myself, but decided to re-insulate the house as a lot of the insulation was contaminated and hired my pest control people to investigate and find the point of entry.

They narrowed it down to two locations, a roof return and a corner where there was a 1/4" gap. They sealed these areas up with very fine wire mesh and cleaned everything up.

They setup traps and in the next two days caught two "juvenile" rats and reset traps. Five days later the traps were clear and there was no sign of activity so the insulation guys came in and did their job.

It's been a year now and we have had no new activity. The traps are still baited and set and no droppings anywhere.

Your best option is to figure out where they are getting in, and look for any other points of possible entry and seal them up. These bastards can get in a tiny gap, so don't think "that's too small, they can't get in there".

Good luck.

 

[bczygan]

Hey........It's cold outside! And they've got to live SOMEWHERE!

 

[Empty Pockets]

I have 2 dogs, the 2 1/2 year old catches small ground mammals, plays with them until he's bored then kills them. I think he's part cat, the way he catches mice

 

[davidhansen]

I'd also recommend finding the entry and sealing it. It may be a good idea to call a professional though to help get rid of the ones you have already.

 

[duwem]

I have a cat and have never seen a mouse in the house. Could have been from past owners. I did set up a box style trap in the garage. Cotton picking too cold out to look for holes in the house.

 

[sselander]

In our old house, the PO used hardware cloth to deal with this kind of issue.
It was a small addition he built himself, and the space was tight.
If I needed access, it was no big deal to pull a few staples out.
I only accessed it when we purchased the house to inspect, and never again after that.

 

[ronr80]

we had mice in the attic , Half moon is right we had an exterminator come in and found 1 entry point , sealed it and set traps. in the attic check them once a week , worked great and have been mice free for a few years ,Ron

 

[Kaizen]

in my area with 100 year old house and rubble foundation its a yearly maintenance chore. this year is really bad. started getting voles and mice in august. if I see poop I set a trap. easy peasy. have 4 waiting to be used on hand.
get this for aggravating. they come in the basement and work their way up to my 9 inch crown molding in my bedroom. 2 am sounds like grand central as they use it for an expressway to get to other areas. find the approximate possible entrances and put down some traps. I used to be a proponent of poison but man I had one die in insulation in the basement ceiling and it stunk up the whole first floor. had to rip out a lot of insulation.