Giuliani Livid Over Bringing 9/11 Trials to NYC
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
Oreo The Dog Is Dead, Blame Game Is Not
House Cat Terrorizes Family In Dramatic Hostage Situation
Pregnant Woman And Two Men Shot In Clinton Hill Drive-By
Check it out: The Health Department says that one in four New York City households has had mice or rats - and that 30% of households have roaches. Blech! The DoH's big point is that many residents are using various pesticides and repellants that may be illegal and may contaminate other surfaces - such as cooking areas - which may lead poisonings. Unsurprisingly, residents with lower incomes report higher rates of infestation, probably because their buildings are not well-maintained no matter what they try to do. Here's the DoH's recommended gameplan to avoid infestation:
- Fix leaks and dripping faucets quickly. Keep sinks dry overnight.Just another reason to get some home repair 101 lessons! Do you have any good pest control tips? Gothamist noticed some bizarre non-cockroach bugs in the kitchen and bath areas, so we got some roach motels and that pretty much ended the problem - and we also try to vaccuum or DustBust whenever we can, because those suckers love hair (it's all protein). A friend mentioned that he returned from a trip and found a mouse that essentially spontaneously combusted on his kitchen floor.
- Use caulk and plaster to seal holes and cracks in kitchens and bathroom walls, floors, ceilings and cabinets.
- Store food in sealed containers, and do not leave food, pet food or garbage out.
- Reduce clutter and piling of newspapers and cardboard.
- Remove garbage daily from apartments, and put garbage on the curb as close to pickup time as possible.
- Use only safer pest control products such as boric acid, gels and baits for cockroaches, and glue traps or bait in enclosed tamper-proof containers for rodents. Avoid foggers, bombs and sprays that spread chemicals throughout the home.
- If you have Tempo® , Tres Pasitos, Cockroach Chalk or any other pesticide that is improperly labeled, seal it in a plastic bag and discard it in a container away from children and pets.
And apparently even Anderson Cooper has mice in his apartment!
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I had mice. Then I got two cats. Any mouse dumb enough to show his face in my apartment deserves what happens to him! Kind of nice to know that in this day and age cats can still provide the same service they gave us thousands of years ago.
I had mice. Then I got two cats. Any mouse dumb enough to show his face in my apartment deserves what happens to him! Kind of nice to know that in this day and age cats can still provide the same service they gave us thousands of years ago.
My cat has been known to attack roaches (so deliciously crunchy!). So whenever he spazzes out, I think it's because there's a roach, but it's actually because he's a little crazy.
shit, fuck, shit, i love that pic.
The weird bug that's not a cockroach is likely a silverfish - if they aren't moving they look vaguely like a pale centipede (the long things at each end remind one of extra legs); if they are moving, they are just a blur. They like damp places and piles of newspapers in particular. I saw a huge one once - almost finger length. I'd never seen one bigger than 3/4 of an inch long before moving to NYC. Rather freaky. There's biological info here:
www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/silverfi.html
There's this powder you can buy that drives mice/rats away for a while. Used in conjunction with caulking/steel wooling cracks, wall openings, etc., it can buy you the time you need to complete the sealing job. By itself, it's not enough to keep them away.
I forget what it's called exactly, but it's powdered fox and bobcat urine essence with baking soda.
get a cat
The non-roach bug could also be a thousand-legger, or millipede. Disgusting. Apart from their silver dollar size, they're super quick due to the simultaneous movement of one thousand legs. Ick.
Cayenne pepper liberally spread at entry/exit points and under baseboards, etc. discourages many insects (it hurts them too!) and its non-toxic. Just make sure it's fresh so you get the full effect.
Cayenne pepper liberally spread at entry/exit points and under baseboards, etc. discourages many insects (it hurts them too!) and its non-toxic. Just make sure it's fresh so you get the full effect.
I had mice in my place, we used the normal kind of trap that snaps over. The best bait we found was chunky peanut butter - for some reason the mice didn't like the creamy kind. Plus that stuff is so full of preservatives, it doesn't get moldy or anything. We killed about 10 mice that way, and haven't seen one since.
Boric acid and my building provides a monthly exterminator service. Roaches live in all buildings. All it takes is one or two slobs in a building and you're bound to get them from time to time. All food should be sealed in containers or zip locs and never leave any dishes laying in the sink. Most people who get them just don't take precautions like the tips you mentioned.
I always assumed that 100% of ny-ers had mice and roaches. I don't really have anything to say, but that I'm happy to see the return of the loveable smoking rat icon.
just recently got rid of our furry buggers. glue traps don't work worth a damn, unless you literally cover the entire floorspace of your kitchen with it and maybe you'll catch one. so we left the glue traps out for 2 weeks but still were finding little pieces of mouseshit around. went online to find answers and came across a gardening msg board where they talked about using the ratzapper. i bought one at a hardware store here and the very next night - dead mouse. set it again the next night? dead mouse. this thing rocks - and it's not a messy clean up and you don't wind up with a squealing mouse stuck to a pad destined to starve to death (or be squished or drowned) if you do catch one. ultimately, we got the bldg mgr to rip apart the kitchen and patch all cracks and holes by plumbing and radiator pipes to stop entry points. the ratzapper has been in place for the last week but no mice caught and no signs of mice, so looks like patching holes keeps them out but the ratzapper will catch the ones that sneak through.
#14- Thank you... I'm going through the same thing right now. Every time I turn around there's a new nasty dropping in the kitchen. I'm going to try the ratzapper, because you're right about those stupid glue traps.
Silver fish the size of fingers?? You're joking, no? I've never seen a silver fish bigger than maybe 7 millimeters (no idea what that is in your crazy US system, think like one tenth of a baby finger). Why is everything supersized in this city?
Please, please, PLEASE don't use glue traps. They're inhumane and, worst of all, they don't even kill the mouse!
If you're going to take the life of a mouse, choose something that will either kill them instantaneously (by breaking their neck a la the traditional snap trap) or by "zapping" them, which is I guess what this Ratzapper thing does. Even the snap traps can be cruel as they occasionally catch only a tiny mouse limb, leaving the mouse to scream in pain. Trust me, after years of living in college residence halls in Brooklyn and being awoken by the almost-human screams of half-skinned mice stuck to glue traps, I am done with those sticky buggers. They are cruel.
There are no-kill traps that let you catch the mouse and release it into the wild, but, well, there's not much wild around this concrete jungle, now, is there?
I had one of the worst mouse infestations ever and after trying everything, literally everything, electronic or otherwise, I found the best trap. It's a D-Con black covered snaptrap. Something about it being black and having a hole on the end. They crawl into them like crazy and it's covered so emptying them is fairly easy. Trust me on this. I caught at least 50 mice this way. I have recommended them to friends and at work and they have all had success with it. This is what they look like:
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1279062
I've never had a mouse but my super advised me once that if I ever did I should "borrow" someone's cat to stay in my apartment for a few days. Apparently the cat's smell lingers for a long time and drives away potential visitors...
Like Eric, I have two cats, and mice don't last long in my apartment.
The downside is that the female one once tried to teach me how to catch them at 4 am. I heard the familiar pouncing sound, I turned on the light, and she carefully put the still-living mouse on the bedsheet. It was too hurt and terrified to move and just sat there, literally shivering with fear, while the cat nudged me to let me know that I was to try that catch-and-release thing.
So I got up and put on a pair of garden gloves and picked up the mouse with a plastic bag and took it out into the garden (I live on the ground floor) and ended its misery with a brick. It was sickening, but I didn't know what else to do.
On the other hand, this only happened once. Otherwise I get a present of a dead mouse about once a year.
The downside is that the female one once tried to teach me how to catch them at 4 am. I heard the familiar pouncing sound, I turned on the light, and she carefully put the still-living mouse on the bedsheet. It was too hurt and terrified to move and just sat there, literally shivering with fear, while the cat nudged me to let me know that I was to try that catch-and-release thing.-----
Diana,
Your cat was looking for approval from you with the gift of the dead mouse. Its a little odd to us, but it means your pet really digs you. Just pet them happily and than dispose of the corpse...
That story is simultaneously cute and horrifying. Gross...a dead mouse!
Oh lord yes, it's all about the cat.
We had a *terrible* mouse problem in our apartment; we plugged every hole we could find, set traps, used poison, etc. There was no food out in the kitchen; we kept it so clean you could do surgery in it. The mice kept coming.
Then we adopted a lovely, aggressive young male tabby cat from the animal shelter. (Tip: Most animal rescue places don't like it if you tell them you're looking for a mouser; we were up front about it, but also could demonstrate that we were loving and caring pet owners, having had two dogs for quite some time, and that we wouldn't abandon the cat if he turned out to be a bust in the mouse-killing deparment.)
Mister Gato had the situation completely under control in a few weeks. Any mouse that would show his face in our apartment now is clearly suicidal.
The cat is great company, too; even our dogs adore him now.
I just saw a mouse in my room!!! Noooooo! This really sucks. I'm gonna try that ratzapper or that d-Con covered snaptrap.
Hey Cap'n K (or anyone other savvy shopper), which NYC hardware stores carry the ratzapper? I went to 3 of them in my 'hood, and most of them only carried glue traps, or this round D-Con thing which looked good (you never have to see the dead mouse), but was non-reusable and pretty expensive (2 for $7).
diana's story reminds me of when i was younger and our household cat managed to kill my sister's hamster and deposit it in her bed while she slept. another priceless childhood memory. i can still hear her screams.
Awwww poor mousey tore itself in half trying to escape from my gluetrap... That's why as soon as I hear it's agonized squeeks, I put it in a plastic bag and squash it.
for those of you not interested in killing mice:
take a glass bowl (cereal size, clear glass), and prop it up on one side with some kind of bait. here's the trick, tho - only one side of the bait can be edible, and the edible part of the bait must be facing into the bowl - we used a hunk of peanut brittle (they seem to love peanuts) wedged inside a small plastic lid - the top of gatorade or other wide-mouthed bottle could work.
then the little buggers have to position themselves beneath the bowl to try to get the food - eventually they nudge the bait enough that the bowl falls on them and they are jailed.
don't forget to put something beneath it, we used a pizza box.
transfer the little dudes to a box, and release somewhere green.
maybe i'm a big hippie, but i think they deserve more than a belly full of poison or a snapped neck. they were here before us, and they'll be here long after this shit-pit self destructs.