*If you pay rent: Tell your landlord, this is their job to fix. Email them about it now so you have proof in case they try to blame you for an infestation...
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
72 points (98.6% liked)
Ask Lemmy
33475 readers
1286 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Why is there an assumption OP is renting? And why in the world is this the top voted comment? It has absolutely nothing to do with the question.
To my understanding US English use different words to differentiate whether you own or not your appartment/condo.
Which IMO is a bit weird, but languages have tons of weird stuff, so one less, one more
Also: Americans call a terraced house a condo too.
No, you're right. I assumed they were renting because of the use of "apartment" and "moving out" vs "selling". But as for relevance, they were showing valid concern for the possibility of a rodent infestation. What to do about it would be a logical next step, no?
I do agree with you. Once I learnt that apartment can mean 'renting', your reply made a lot more sense.
Thanks. I edited my comment to hopefully be a little clearer.
Apartments are by definition rented. If they're individually owned, they're condominiums.
Huh. That's the first time I've ever heard that definition. TIL. Googling it, it seems to be a cultural thing and very much depends which country you live in.
Yep, it's not the case where I live. Besides, is there a secret third name it must have for you to call it by when you don't know the resident's ownership status?
Shithole should work.
I would also accept "crack den".
I own and live in a condo, and sometimes call it an apartment., because condo sounds bougie to me. Especially because I happen to know the building was built as apartments and converted later. Lots of people rent condos as well, so they have a landlord, the owner of the unit. Anyway, you can usually say apartment to give the idea it's a multifamily dwelling.
In Germany: if you're an estate agent you'd call it an Eigentumswohnung but most people aren't show offs so they just call it a Wohnung.
It's a flat if it's one floor, owned or rented. 'Flat' is also easier to write, say, and spell too.
I guess it's solid advice that most people didn't think about. If OP happens to not be paying rent, this comment is just irrelevant. But if OP is like the majority of users reading this comment, a little lightbulb will turn on and they'll appreciate it
I admit the comment makes more sense after I learnt apartments are by definition rented in some countries.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Mice can often find ways you wouldn't believe, but they still have to adhere to the laws of physics, so you might simply not have suitable holes in your apartment for them to enter. But yeah, also quite possible that they can smell the cat and don't want to enter the lion's den.
but they still have to adhere to the laws of physics
[citation needed]
Cats get rid of mice just by existing. We had a mouse problem when we moved in. The cats never once killed a mouse. We no longer have mice (in the house). Mice are always outside so maybe your neighbor just doesn’t like that?
I have a friend with six cats, and a mice problem. I had actually never seen a mouse indoors until I was visiting them one day lol
Some cats do not pull their weight! Fuzzy lovely freeloaders! I love them even as I admonish them for not doing their jobs.
When we moved into our house, we had two cats and kept finding mouse droppings. (The house had been flipped after belonging to a hoarder.) Lived there for two months and the cats did nothing and we still had mice. Got a dog and suddenly no more mice…
You didn't HAVE a mouse problem... You may soon, the mice may travel now that their previous source is cut off.
The cat well help though.
*the cat will help if it is so inclined. -cat
When the dirty neighbor moves out you're about to have a "mouse issue".
IMO, get ready now and set some old-school wood-and-copper snap traps, I put mine in shoeboxes or disposable tupperware with little mouse holes in the side. This keeps the kitty off the traps. I bait with peanut butter, two traps per box and I bend the sear so it goes off on a hair trigger.
I am loath to use poison on rodents because I don't want to make pets, raptors, or owls sick. I settled on Cholecalciferol because it seems safer for other wildlife.
Good luck and don't forget, smacking them with a broom works too.
edit: I like to imagine the two people who downvoted this are soap-dodging militant vegans who are AGHAST I would kill vermin.
Poison also means they’ll hide and die somewhere unreachable and will stink up the place.
yeah, but sometimes they are smarter than traps. small mouse = small stink.
It'll dessicate eventually
And the other mice will clean it up too.
I occasionally deal with a mouse or two in my house, and I much prefer these kinds of traps. They're slightly more expensive, but you don't need many and they're reusable so that doesn't really matter much. The advantages are:
- Super easy to set, just pull the jaw open by the little handle and it clicks in place. No need to touch the dead mouse, it plops right out into a garbage can.
- I've never had mice successfully steal the bait, the cover forces them to put their heads in exactly the right place for the kill bar to come down on them.
- This also means that I've never seen a mouse fail to get instantly and painlessly killed.
The best places to put mousetraps are often dark and hard to see, and the bright red kill bar makes it easy to tell at a glance whether it's triggered.
Have you ever tried sticking your dick in it?
Trap goes off, I go off
Uh...
At your link I'm a little concerned about all the 1-star reviews on Victor's own site saying the kill bar didn't... y'know, kill and they had to deal with a live mouse stuck in the trap. Of course it depends on the type/size of the rodent, but I'm inclined to believe them since they aren't steering people to competitors, only Victor's traditional spring-bar traps...
That's very weird, frankly. 75 reviews and every single one of them with 1 star says the same thing? And all of them within the period of Dec 2024-Feb 2025? Not to mention I've been using these for years myself and have never seen a mouse survive, the kill arm smashes hard and the trigger is very sensitive. I get the suspicion that one person had a bad experience and spent a few months review-bombing.
Honestly, it sounds more like they don't show older ones, but they are still calculated into the score. But like I said, I'm not informed and haven't used a mouse trap in over a decade...
Or newer ones either, apparently. Every single review lies within that December to February timeframe.
I went over to an Amazon listing for this same kind of trap and the average of 786 reviews is 4.4 stars out of 5. There's much more variety in the 1-star reviews over there, too.
Thanks for the information. I guess it's time to get containers for all my food. I already keep bread in the freezer.
I already keep bread in the freezer.
Wouldn't you rather enjoy it?
If you toast it before use, it's pretty much identical to unfrozen toasted bread.
No. I must keep it in the freezer in case the bread factory goes silent.
I just toast it. It's just regular American grocery store bread. Anything nicer gets eaten pretty quickly but sometimes I want a piece of toast with my cocoa.
The wood and copper spring ones are total crap. The mice will steal food off them all day, I'm sure they've evolved to see them as traps by this point.
What you want is the red and grey plastic ones like these:
I've seen one of these things kill like 4 mice in a row. And it was all the same trap, on the same night!
load more comments
(2 replies)
Yes cat smell can fend off rodents. I only saw rats in my childhood house after my cat died.
Many apartments have a firewall between units, it's a safety measure. If fire can't get through, I doubt mice could.
Yea, I got a cat, my cat is stupid and doesn't know how to kill mice, only bite and play around with them. Mouse is all gone within 3 months. Haven't seen a mouse since, well except that one time like 2 years later when my cat caught and killed one mouse, that's it. No other mouse sightings.
Roaches tho... that's a problem my cat couldn't fix... 🤷♂️ now roaches are just funny tiny moving living toys for my cat to squish lol
You'd definitely find dry little black rice-grain-like droppings on all surfaces if you had mice, especially in rooms that have food, and more will appear if you clean them away. Also, little sticky splotches that are easy to mistake for drink spillages, because they pee everywhere too.
I managed to get rid of mine, but I occasionally still find evidence they were here in out of the way corners that I forgot about.
Brave mice - because I'm sure some will have that trait - and those infected with toxoplasmosis won't care about cats.
Good luck.
I have mice active in my house and haven't found poop yet, only realized last week when I found a piece of leftover food that was nibbled down on the edges. These ones are sneaky.
view more: next ›