What can you do when the critters come crawling?

By Jomay Steen, Journal staff | Thursday, September 20, 2007

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Mother Nature is signaling the animal and insect world to take its party indoors. Spiders, snakes, mice and other critters already have started migrating into their underground havens -- or the next best thing.

Mice and other wildlife have sent homeowners to the nearest exterminator, trapper or hardware store for ways to keep the varmints out of their attics, basements, storage areas or garages.

Mice

Mousetraps are flying off the shelves and out of the stores, according to a few shopkeepers in the Black Hills. In the last month, clerks have noticed an increase in mousetrap sales. Yet wildlife officials say it’s a typical year for mice as well as other pests.

In Hill City, Krull’s Market cashier Chris Voyles says that as soon as the mousetraps arrive on the truck, they sell out.

“We can’t keep them on the shelves,” Voyles said.

At her register, one out of three customers bought mousetraps, d-Con or sticky-pad mousetraps. Asked how many traps or baits she has sold in the last week or so, she isn’t sure.

“I couldn’t even count. If we had 100 mousetraps, we could have probably sold 400,” Voyles said. “It’s just ridiculous.”

The Hill City woman has set up two traps in her rural home, where she caught four mice on the first day. “And I caught two today,” she said.

In Rapid City, Dee Howard, who works in lumber sales and the service desk at Knecht Home Center Ace Hardware on 320 West Blvd., says he doesn’t have a mouse problem at his home. “My cat won’t allow it,” he said.

Yet, Howard has noticed an increase in mousetrap sales, with 25 to 30 traps sold so far this month, where half a dozen might have been sold during the same time in previous years. “Over a five- or six-week period, the sale of mousetraps has jumped,” he said.

Manager Marty Hotovec said customers had indicated that there are a lot more mice getting into garages and homes this year. “It’s just crazy,” he said.

Currently, a new supply of the mousetraps has arrived, and the shelves have been restocked at Knecht. “This is fairly unusual if you look at sales history,” Howard said of high mousetrap sales.

Standard mousetraps, bait, glue traps and mice repellents that emit high-frequency sounds are available at the store, he said.

But not everyone is convinced of a mushrooming mouse population.

John Kanta, Rapid City Game, Fish & Park regional wildlife manager, hasn’t noticed any increase in calls about mice or other pests such as skunks, snakes, bats or raccoons invading people’s space.

Kanta had heard in the office that a colleague had her husband set out some traps after seeing a mouse in her garage. Four mice were caught within the last three days, where one or two might have been caught in the previous years.

The woman’s husband had said that it might signal a hard winter, but Kanta would only speculate that perhaps recent rains may have sent mice onto higher ground or drier environments.

“We don’t actively monitor the mouse population. I don’t know if it’s a climate change or because of excess flooding,” he said of reported increases.

Bill Keck, Pennington County Extension educator, said that as the days shorten, the temperatures cool and the tall field grasses begin to die, mice begin to move toward new food sources and shelter. “This is the time of year that mice are looking for an over-wintering site,” Keck said.

This could be a woodpile or flower beds, especially the ones with flower bulbs. Garden  sheds, below a deck, the stoop, garage or basement are also prime locations. Wherever large sacks of dog and cat food are stored is an appealing invitation for mice to take up residence, Keck said.

“If you see a mouse in your home or garage, get the traps out; get the d-Con out,” Keck said. “If the (mouse population) is increasing, I don’t know how anyone can tell. I don’t keep statistics on that.”

Bats and snakes

Suz Phillips, director of operations at Humane Society of the Black Hills Animal Control, is set to receive calls for removal of bats and dangerous snakes as soon as the area is hit by its first hard frost. “We receive more than 50 calls annually about bats,” she said.

As part of a statewide program to control rabies, Phillips warns everyone to keep away from bats and not to pick them up, as they may be diseased.

She said the amount of calls to remove snakes is similar to that of bats, although they sometimes fail to find the snakes. “The snake was usually seen outdoors,” she said.

Phillips said that animal control will remove only poisonous snakes, not garter snakes. Insects are beginning to migrate indoors as well.

Spiders

For Ken Vahle, owner of Warne Chemical & Equipment Company on 2680 Commerce Road, it is a busy time for pest control.

Spiders have grown to maturity over the summer months while living in woodsheds, gardens and the foundations of homes. Hundreds of different arachnoids, including black widow and wolf spiders, are moving indoors to over-winter.

“Right now, we find a lot of black widows. They’re common in Rapid City. Every fall as they grow and mature, people will find them in their foundation or basements and become pretty excited about finding them,” Vahle said.

Pretty spiders, Vahle said, they live quietly, eating other insects in the foundation of houses, barns or sheds. They won’t harm people unless disturbed. They are poisonous but not deadly. “You surely don’t want to get bit by them,” he said.

Most of the other spiders that his pesticide business sprays are harmless, with only a couple causing serious problems, Vahle said.

Strategies for pest removal

For poisonous snake and bat removal, call the Humane Society of the Black Hills Animal Control at 394-4132. To report mountain lions, raccoons, foxes, skunks and badgers, call the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department at 394-2391. Squirrel traps are available at home improvement and farm service stores.

Keep mice, other pests away

Eliminate food sources by storing pet food in a 30-gallon steel trash bin or heavy-duty rubber container with snap-on lid. Toss food scraps and crumbs into trash, seal and put in garbage bin.

Keep pantry or kitchen cupboard foods in containers with sturdy lids; mice can’t gnaw through tin, glass or heavy plastic.

If you see a mouse

Set mouse traps, and when activated, reset traps to catch any buddies that may have tagged along.

Allow five days or more for traps to be set to ensure that all mice have been caught.

Read all instructions when setting out mouse bait —most baits thin rodents’ blood rather than poison them.

Keep all bait and poisons out of reach of family pets and children. Be patient; mouse bait takes time to work.

Avoid creating mulch rings outdoors around tree bases, which creates an ideal environment for mice to set up housekeeping, eat the tree bark and kill your favorite tree.

Keep bats out of the house

Thoroughly examine attic and roof. Repair attic screens and fill cracks in eaves’ edges and louvers with steel wool. A hole the size of a quarter is large enough for a bat to wriggle through.