According to the Chinese calendar, last year was the year of the mouse. Actually, I made that up but in our house it was. We had at least three visitors in the fall/winter season and one was even brave enough to crawl around on and in our kitchen counters, my Kitchen Aid Mixer and our toaster! And that little fella was smart! We had at least five different types of traps and he could even eat the food off the trap without it snapping on him. I will never forget the night we came home from bowling league and Joe and I saw the mouse pop its little head out of our toaster that I had recently used by the way! We quickly put a garbage bag over the top of the toaster and dragged the mouse and toaster straight out to the garbage. Yuck!
This fall I am all about mouse prevention and taking a proactive approach to stopping these little critters from entering our home in the first place. Along our driveway where the foundation meets the dirt, we're having a bit of crumbling action going on. Don't worry our house is not falling apart and the house inspector said our foundation was solid...its just seen better days in its 50+ years of life. When we had a bit of snow on the ground last year we could see little footprints leading up to the side of the house and then disappearing. We noticed that you could reach up into the foundation quite a bit and those little buggers can squeeze through a hole as small as 1/4 of an inch so we figured this was their entering point. We plan to eventually do brick landscaping along the side of the house but until we save up some dough and actually have the time to do it right, we have to come up with cheaper and less time consuming alternatives.
Plan A: A mix of steel wool which they don't like biting through and pre-mixed cement to really seal the deal. While Joe and I were off picking up our bed, Sue helped us out with this little project since we were running of out time. Before we left, her and I ran to Menards to get a few supplies - rubber gloves, a wire brush, steel wool and pre-mixed cement. Total cost of the project was around $60 which in my eyes is well worth it if it keeps the mice out.
This is what we're working with. Definitely an eye sore which will one day be beautified - just add it too my "To Do" list! All along the side of the driveway you can see where the dirt has been washing away leaving small pockets for mice to climb up into.
Sue stuffing and sealing the holes. There may have been some odd nursing references during this time but I will not repeat what my mother-in-law shared. Joe especially didn't appreciate the visual storytelling haha.
First, we stretched out the steel wool so it was easier to push up into any pockets we found. Just when you thought you couldn't push farther up into the house you'd find another pocket. There were many spots where probably more than one steel wool pad was used.
After, we took the cement and using our fingers coated the steel wool and side of the foundation. We tried to fill any opening we could with the steel wool/cement mixture. It's not pretty but I sure hope it works.
This is the pre-mixed cement we picked up from Menards. We went through two full tubs and about a third of another one.
I guess time will only tell if Plan A truly worked. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I like my toaster and don't like sharing my home with outside critters.
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