# Mice in the Oven?



## nappy

Does anyone have problems with mice visiting your oven and then getting the awful smell as it is heating? Any suggestions other than poisons since we have indoor cats and a dog? We occasionally catch one in a trap in the bottom drawer of the stove...mostly they clean off the peanut butter without tripping the trap!


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## flowergurl

Maybe they are running around under the burners on the top of the stove at night? Then this area heats up when the oven is turned on. Is this a gas or electric stove?


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## beaglebiz

try a sticky trap


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## Pink_Carnation

There are traps that can catch more than one mouse at a time. They are metal boxes with 2 ways in and small holes so you can then drown them after you catch them.


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## GrannyG

I feel for you...a couple years ago, I cooked a snake in mine ! I was so upset at seeing it in there and i had just turned on the oven, ran to get the snake catcher, but toooooo late, cooked his goose...I bet the mice are peeing around the burners or in the insulation...I have had mice chew the insulation in mine...I just hate all these itsy bitsy critters that ruin my life !~~~~~~~


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## Gottabenutz

I have one of those flat top stoves, but for some reason late at night I can find a mouse scurrying off the top. I don't understand what they go there for since there is no food there. And yes, it smells when I turn on the oven part. Would love to find something that would catch them. I've tried the spring loaded traps, sticky traps, and those metal live catch traps. Maybe my mice are too smart for those traps.


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## Alice In TX/MO

They use the insulation for nesting material.


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## nappy

This is a gas stove, and the mice are in the oven because that's where the smell is. The stove top has sealed burners but I have never lifted up the top under them...will do that next. This year seems to be especially bad for mice coming inside. Last week they decided to store dry dog food under the bottom of the oven...ever smell burning dog food? Yuck! Dh had to remove the bottom of the oven to vac up the food. The dog's bowl was too convenient for them...near the stove...so moved it farther away. But they are persistent little buggers...that probably won't work very long. Thanks for the mouse trap suggestions.


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## nappy

GrannyG said:


> I feel for you...a couple years ago, I cooked a snake in mine ! I was so upset at seeing it in there and i had just turned on the oven, ran to get the snake catcher, but toooooo late, cooked his goose...I bet the mice are peeing around the burners or in the insulation...I have had mice chew the insulation in mine...I just hate all these itsy bitsy critters that ruin my life !~~~~~~~


:happy0035:

You just made my day...hubby said that the snake was probably going after the mice....LOL! Chuckle chuckle. But it's not really funny when that happens though.


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## free-2-b-me

Take a piece of twine and thread it through the little hole where you put the bait . Tie it in a couple knots . Cut the twine and fan it so it is nice and bristly . Smear on a little peanut butter . I have caught a bunch this way . They tug on the twine and SMACK ! One actually had a grip on the twine when I tried to remove it from the trap .


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## Alice In TX/MO

We use thin wire and attach 1/2 a pecan to the trap. VERY successful.


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## CarolT

I got a smooth top stove and then had my DH cover every little hole into the stove with sheet metal. This is the first stove I've had that isn't reeking when I heat it up!!! Happy me! I have major mouse problems, too, so I feel for you.


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## nappy

Better mousetrap? Love those twine and wire ideas!


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## LearningLife

I have the same problem with the smell when I use my oven. My stove, however, is an electric one, and if I lift up the top, I can see the "evidence" of mouse visitors even if there is no trace on top or in the burner pans. The oven heats this up, and the smell is terrible. I've gotten to the point that the area under the stovetop gets bleached each time before I preheat the oven. I also had one little daredevil decide to run into the oven while it was preheating. It went under the heating element, between the red-hot element and the bottom of the oven. I heard a few terrified squeaks and opened my oven to find the stupid critter fried and wedged in the bottom of my oven. We had sandwiches that night for dinner. I couldn't stand the thought of cooking in there until I could get it scrubbed.

We have had luck lately with using standard, old-fashioned mousetraps. Instead of just putting the bait on them, though, we put a drop of hot wax on the pressure plate, stick a sunflower seed to it, then set the trap. The mouse will try to tug the seed away.

Mice, rats, and other rodents are my least favorite part of country living, but I won't let the filthy creatures chase me away.


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## sheepish

Use a raisin in your mousetrap. The mice have to pull to get them.


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## motdaugrnds

Goodness, you all must be over run with mice! We have had our share of those aggravating little creatures; however, we put out those poison mice pellets (inside cabinets, under stoves, in store rooms, under sinks, etc. where our cat cannot get to them); and this kills those pests quickly! (The barn is a different story in that we don't want poison out there; so we leave those for the huge black snakes we have living there .. under the floor of our milking area, under the large freezer chest and in the loft amongs the bales of hay.)


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## ErinP

Yippee! I'm the first one to say it: peppermint oil (_mentha piperita_). 

You can get it at GNC or online. Just sprinkle a few drops at each corner of your oven once a month or so. 

Mice don't like the smell of it. Too strong I suppose. 
I drove them out of a uninhabited trailer house with nothing more than strategically placed cotton balls, soaked in peppermint oil.


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## marytx

Gottabenutz said:


> Maybe my mice are too smart for those traps.


We put the big sticky traps in the barn once along where the rats would run. Those critters actually stuck dirt clods on top of the pads to make themselves paths across it. Never did get one that way.


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## JJ Grandits

When I read the title to this thread the first thing that shot into my mind was, What kind of dressing? Should probably change meds.


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## wolffeathers

Growing up I remember we had mice in our oven and stove as well. We usually bait our traps with little balls of bread and just make sure to smush them onto the trigger very well. We placed the traps under the burners and caught the first mouse within 10minutes. Thought it was a false alarm but sure enough there was a mouse in it. I think we caught about 6 using the same trap in the same place under the burner. They were all adolescent mice, so we assumed they had a nest somewhere.


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## lilmizlayla

the contraption that sends out a noise? you plug it up? I know a guy who SWEARS by it.....said he hasnt seen a mouse in 4 years because of it. and he lives in mouse heaven....so it must be true what he says.


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## mothernature

Had one years ago get into the gas grill (the old kind with lava rocks) and heard all kinds of thumping as it was heating up (thought it was getting low on gas), only to find we cooked the poor critter! Also had one die in the A/C vent of an old car we didn't drive much. Had to drive it while we were working on mine and PEW, thought I would die for a few days!!


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## julieq

JJ Grandits said:


> When I read the title to this thread the first thing that shot into my mind was, What kind of dressing? Should probably change meds.


Exactly! I prefer my mice grilled on the BBQ! :clap:


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## northgirl

I ended up using a orange based cleaner and got good results, the smell I had was coming from the area under the elements. 
Love the peppermint oil idea!!!!Makes sense! BTW I had those sonic plug ins and woke up one morning to a mouse licking it..AARRGG!


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## Jackie

Thank heavens I have a killer cat! We recently moved into a mobile home and its so unsecure you can see outside in a few places. Mice could just walk in, but our cat patrols the whole thing and she can use a flap on the back of the bathtub to get under the house. We were down there fixing plumbing and found a three piles of dead mice. About 5-6 in each pile...and unfortunately one bird, but at least it was just one bird. I am very grateful the cat doesn't feel the urge to show me what she catches! 


Although....

I use my stove very often, but recently put it on broil (I think that makes the top burner come on when normally it isn't). I don't think I have had my oven on broil since we got it with this house. My house stunk up so bad I had no idea what happened! It *could* have been a cleaner that never got burned off the top element. But it really smelled like burning cat pee. I looked up inside, pulled out elements, snooped around...nothing. Hopefully it was a fluke. Didn't do it again.


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## davel745

Turn the oven on. Get a few toothpicks and you will have mouse on a stick. My puppies love just plane mouse without the stick.

Dave


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## hippygirl

We got infested with mice during the last year we lived in town before we bought this place. No matter what we tried, we could not get rid of them (and DH is an exterminator of all things!). They got into the insulation of my stove and we ended up junking it because of the smell.

Nasty, vile little creatures!


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## marinemomtatt

We had the mice in the oven insulation problem, found that they were entering where the plug comes up through the floor, fixed that with tin. We changed out all the insulation to get rid of the stink. You wouldn't believe all the dog food we found, I bet the previous resident couldn't figure out why his feed bill was so high.


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## Horseyrider

This whole thread has me laughing. Not that I'm enjoying your discomfort. One friend just replaced her stove because the mouse smell was so disgusting to her. She tried changing the insulation but the top got so hot she decided it wasn't worth it, so she replaced it. But the best one was another friend who was also a country resident. She said something seemed odd when they were broiling their steaks, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. After dinner was done and she was cleaning up, she found out.

The mouse was in the broiler pan, and she broiled it along with her steaks.


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## nappy

Horseyrider said:


> She said something seemed odd when they were broiling their steaks, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. After dinner was done and she was cleaning up, she found out.
> 
> The mouse was in the broiler pan, and she broiled it along with her steaks.



Is that what marinating the flavors means? :hysterical: Sorry, couldn't help it!


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