Feeders: Put the feeders out of reach of mice. Cats are better jumpers. You may have squirrel issues, but it will take the squirrels a while to find the food dishes. Anything a cat can get to, so can a squirrel. But the cats will eat squirrels too. Water: This is tougher in winter. We use a heated water bowl for our 3 dogs in winter, and it takes them about a week to empty it, but two of my dogs prefer crunching on icicles to drinking water when ice is available. For cats it would last at least a month. Get a neighbor to refill it. Available at Peavey Mart for about 50 bucks. Shelter: If you have an outbuilding, build a cat shelter with 6 or 8 straw bales. 3 in a U, two on top, one in front but with enough space. You may need to make it coyote resistant. A sheet of styrofoam underneath will insulate them from ground chill. Cat alternatives: 1. Bait stations. Best way to make these are T's of sink drain pipe. Fasten upside down. Drop the bait down the center of the t. Warfarin/coumadin based baits can hurt cats and dogs that eat the dead mice. Most of these baits have added sugar to make them more attractive to mice. Makes them more attractive to cats and dogs too. Mice will haul food back to their nest, then die. Dogs will discover the next and eat remaining bait. Best answer to this is to use liquid baits in the appropriate bait station. Another answer is to use zinc phosphide baits. These won't harm critters that eat the poisoned mice, but you still have the problem of the wrong animal getting the bait. Trapping. Lots of bucket trap plans on the Internet. A thorough trapping program in the fall will cut the mouse population. Resume in spring.

After months of listening to mice crawling around in my attic every night, and months of listening to DH telling me there were no mice in the attic (he's a heavy sleeper), I took matters into my own hands. I had my DS build a mouse-catching contraption that I read about on the internet. DS filled a small plastic trash can with water so that it was half full. Then he smeared peanut butter on a cardboard toilet paper tube (no toilet paper on it) and strung a piece of twine through the opening in the tube. He attached the twine ends to opposing sides of the top of the trash can (I'm not sure how - he probably drilled holes before he put the water in) creating what looked like a tightrope (going through a a toilet paper tube). He put this thing in the attic with a piece of wood leaning against it. The theory was that the mice would smell the peanut butter and walk up the "plank", falling into the water as they tried to get to the peanut butter on the tube. I was skeptical but this thing worked like a charm. After two days there were no sounds coming from the attic at night. DH went into the attic after five days and found three dead mice floating in the water. They looked bloated and kind of gross but at least they were in the trash can and not dead somewhere in the attic or walls. I would highly recommend giving this a try!

Oh my gosh, Pal, how unbelievable that they would chew through that concrete! It makes me shudder just thinking about it. And those being rats, not mice. Thank goodness you knew what to do. Busy: Yellowjackets are scary, as they can be so aggressive. Oakley, I would have done the exact same thing! Mdln: that can is what we used. I bought it at Home Depot for $8.95, which is expensive. I was glad to get something engineered to work for rodents, though, so I wasn't' arguing the price that day (LOL). But, this stuff is injected into holes via a long, plastic tube. It hardens fairly quickly, which is good for the hole, but makes the tube unusable soon after. So, have a game plan before you start and fill everything quickly. Wet paper towels, a sturdy paper plate and a metal spatula to smooth out the foam worked best for us. I had to use Goof Off to get it off of the spatula, though. Tibbie: I'm kind of concerned, as I pick up our new furkid on Wednesday afternoon, which is just 2 days from now. I need to make sure nothing harmful such as mousetraps, etc. (we don't use poisons) are around for him to get into. P.S. I'll try to post pics of my new boy on Thursday.

Thanks for all your comments; very helpful information about the screens. I am also overly rodent sensitive as we just finished ridding ourselves of those that we found were living in our recently bought house. Before that ordeal, I wasn't thinking about the bi-folds much, but now I am definitely very cautious about it! Although I haven't seen them in the yard yet, it is apparently common in the neighborhood so its just a matter of time. Plus we haven't moved in yet (awaiting this renovation to complete). Having gone through the options with screens, I am leaning towards concurring with Patricia that it takes away from the wall's openness. Which means, with my rodent sensitivity at this point, maybe a fully open-able wall is not right for us. Having fixed glass panels would still provide the visual openness we are looking for, most likely. Thanks again for your time, all!