Gotta get rid of critters! WWYD?

[MamaMolly]

Hi, I'm sooooo grossed out.

We moved into this house in August, DD came a month early in Sept. and I am really starting to hate this house. Thank God it is a rental!!! And it isn't like we are slobs. I clean all the time. How can I get rid of the bugs etc.?

First it was wierd giant crickets (hundreds, in the basement), then mice (2, again in the basement), now I've seen (and squished) roaches. Those little tiny nasty German cockroaches! In my bathroom, one in DDs room, and in the kitchen.

EEEWWWWWW! How do I get rid of these safely? DD is 7 weeks old, and I'm scared to use Raid.

DH bought one of those sonic plug in thingies to try and get rid of the crickets (can't tell much difference), glue traps for the mice (so far he's caught, you guessed it, crickets!) and the roaches were just over the last 2 days, so I haven't bought anything for that yet.

Suggestions? I can't live like this! Help, help help!

Thanks for your suggestions,
Molly

[Radosti]

I would get those sonic things for every floor in your house for roaches and crickets. I hate to say this as I am into animal rescue, but snap traps smeared with peanut butter for mice. I've killed off 15 of them in my garage in the last two seasons. If you don't kill them, they eat through your walls and get into the house that way. I can't use poisons because we have a kiddo, 3 cats and 3 dogs. That's all I need is for a mouse to eat a poison, then get into the rest of the house and have a cat kill it. I don't need my cats poisoned.

[blueeyedb]

We use Terminix and my understanding is that they use poison that kills rodents so quickly that it doesn't have time to get into their system. So if a pet ate a mouse after the mouse had ingested the poison, it shouldn't harm the pet. We specifically researched and decided to go with them after my dog ate Decon (sp?) at my MIL's house(there were small children and pets around and she left out several boxes of the stuff! Umm, I wonder why we say no when she offers to babysit)! They still place the traps where animals/children can't get to them, but they are supposed to be a safer alternative. We live right across from a large open space so the first fall we were here, the mice were horrible. This has really taken care of the problem.

[Momof3Labs]

If it is a rental, shouldn't your landlord be taking care of this for you? And if not, isn't that grounds for terminating a lease (it certainly is around here)?

[AddiesMom]

I agree with PP, this shouldn't be your issue to deal with. If you end up paying for any products or services, save every stinkin' receipt and deduct them off the rent! Good luck!

[Fairy]

Just get an exterminator. I am in the camp that is not worried about interaction with DS or pets for several reasons, including because the places they spray (and just make sure that they do it this way) are not places your baby will come into contact with, like room corners and basements and floorboards. Also, I never have the exterminator spray in DS's room or near the cat's food. The other rooms should do the trick on this, and I keep the cat area very clean. Your landlord should provide this, and if he won't, then a) just bit the bullet and pay for this yourself, and b) move, cuz that's a crappy landlord.

[buddyleebaby]

I would call an exterminator. There are methods of pest control that require no more than a few strategically placed pinpoints of gel, are just as effective (if not more so) than bombs or sprays, and are safe to use in a house with children.
And I would absolutely be contacting your LL about this.

Hugs, sorry you have to deal with this.

[MamaMolly]

Thanks for the suggestions, and especially for the hugs! Maybe it was new mama parinoia about the bug spray.

As for getting the landlord to take care of it, we tried. I called the property management people when I saw the first mouse and they basically told me to call an exterminator, that pest control wasn't part of the lease agreement. WTH?!?!?!

They came for a sink that needed to be plunged (I can do that!) but for house destroying evil vermin I'm on my own. SIGH!

For this and soooo many more reasons I HATE this house. I wish we could break the lease, but we just don't have the cash.

Hopefully the homeowner will need it back early, like they said they might, and we can get the heck outta here.

I'm off to buy more sonic thingies and call Mr. Terminex. You guys are the best.

MM

[nov04]

I would scour your lease for this exclusion and call someone locally who helps tenants with landlord problems. I think they're wrong and they're hoping you don't figure it out. I honestly can't believe that pests would be excluded from a lease.

GL

[dules]

I agree. But in the meantime, try Combat traps for the roaches. When we rented in NYC (years ago) this is what everyone used to keep them down between treatments in the apartment buildings. When we moved in, there were roaches, but they were gone in a week.

Good luck, and I'm so sorry this is happening to you. Yuck. I hope your landlord takes care of it all soon.

Mary

P.S. If the LL hires an exterminator (we did, when we owned properties), the exterminator will provide tenants with a handout describing the chemicals used, where they'll be used, etc. Insist on getting one of these - we always asked our exterminator to post them on tenants' doors, especially the ones with kids.

[mariza]

You said you called the property management people about the critters, what about the homeowners? Have you tried to call them? Ask if they've had the problem and how they dealt with it. They might have had a contract with an extermination company before they moved out that you could call (and have billed to the owners directly!)
Good Luck, I hate hate hate bugs!

Mariza
Mommy to my "Thing 1" DD 1/05
and "Thing 2" DS 9/06

[dules]

If the problem was there when you moved in, then you should be able to force LL to remedy it - even if that means deducting the cost from your rent payment.

If you had been there 6 months before you saw the first mouse, then it's possible the LL could think it's because of a situation you have caused.

When I owned property, I just paid for the exterminating without pointing fingers at tenants, to protect my investment.

Look into your local landlord tenant laws, but IME it is VERY hard to evict a tenant (we did it once, it took over a year, multiple court appearances and thousands of dollars in fees, to evict someone who didn't pay rent or, seemingly, take out her garbage, for six months) and your landlord might send you some scary letters but they are unlikely to move forward with action against you for a $150 exterminator bill. I'm not a lawyer, though, just a BTDT landlord, so do check with a local attorney.

Good luck.

Mary

[EllasMum]

Hi - I just went through almost this exact situation. I just moved into a townhouse I bought - and less than 2 weeks later I found the first mouse. I immediately contacted the condo board to find out if pest control was my responsibility or the board's - and there was an exterminator on my doorstep the very next day. It was all paid for by the condo board. I ended up seeing about half a dozen mice (all at different times) but my dad came over the first night and used steel wool to pack into every possible crack in the foundation or gap in between outlets etc etc. The exterminator put more steel wool (mice can't chew through it) and also put bait stations. They are locked boxes with a tunnel wide enough for the mouse to enter. Inside the boxes is poison that is scented with an attractant - the mice eat it and then about 20 minutes later the poison takes effect. I have a cat so was concerned about it but (like a PP mentioned) the exterminator said that so little of the poison is consumed by the mouse that it wouldn't hurt the cat at all. She also said the stations are safe for DC because you cannot get the poison out unless you have the key to the lock boxes. She hid the boxes in areas where the mice frequented (they left 'surprises') so DD has not even really seen one. Ever since the initial application of the steel wool, I have not seen a mouse since! Worked like a charm! If you don't want to do the poison/bait stations you should at least try the steel wool in any little gaps you can find. Good luck!

HTH,
Susan

[snowflake20]

The sonic plugs do not work with the roaches or mice. Take it from me, I lived in a 300 sq foot hole of an apt in NYC with a roomate and bought a sonic thing for mice and roaches. One day, I saw a roach crawl behind the sonic thing and I sprayed raid on it and 20 roaches fell out! They made a nest behind the sonic plug in thing! UGH!!! I am getting grossed out thinking about it and it's been over 5 years. We also had a mouse problem too, which did not abate with the plug.

To get rid of mice (and I've had mice in about 3 of my NYC apartments and were able to get rid of them successfully this way)...find out where exactly they are coming in from and plug the hole up wth steel wool and then seal it with spackle. Roaches are tough, but you must get an exterminator to get rid of them. If you can afford to stay in a hotel for the weekend, then do it.

You should look at your lease to make sure that extermination is not part of the lease. I have never heard that a landlord is not reponsible for pests. Contact any friend of yours who is a lawyer to draft something up for you. I had problems with my landlord when they tried to hold my deposit for bogus reasons. My friend who was a tenant lawyer wrote up a little letter for me on his letterhead, and needless to say, I got my deposit back very quickly.