# Mice, rats, kitchen cabinets, remodeling



## Jay2013 (Jun 15, 2013)

I suspect they are entering the house through a hole behind the kitchen cabinets. I want to remove some of the drywall and plywood that is under/behind he cabinets. What can I use to board the floor/walls under/behind the kitchen cabinets? I was thinking of using cement board (either Durock or Hardiebacker), but wanted to know what others would recommend.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

Steel plate :wink2:, the little Ba#####s can chew through, most other home materials, with persistence, and a few generations. 


ED


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

If you are blocking them after the get into the wall it's too late as said, they will just chew another path, chewing is a must for them.

Worked on a house trying to find and block the entrances the rats were using and found an old hole the previous owner had attempted to block. He had flattened a soup can and screwed it over the hole. like a buzz saw those critters chewed a half circle right through 2 layers of tin can and widened the wood side. The solution was lots of traps outside.

Find where they enter on the outside and start there. 

Bud


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## tstex (Nov 14, 2014)

You can do two things:


As suggested, set traps on the outside, but make sure nothing else can get to them.


The other thing you can do is dispense poison inside the wall [that nothing else can access] as long as the wall is sealed and you have a removable trap-door to the area you have poisoned. 


Once you are positive all has been removed [by no traps on the inside yielding any rats], then you can seal all the entry points. If you ever have a pathway hole, cram it w steel wool pad, real tight..they might chew through steel, but those sm steel fibers stops them instantly-make sure it's not the soap kind, just plain steel wool. It's like you biting foil and hearing a someone scratch on a chalk board at the same time. Good luck


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## Dklohn (Nov 6, 2018)

The only way to really get rid of mice and rats is Cats. Since you already have mice indoors I would highly suggest at least 1 indoor kitty. If you cannot have an indoor kitty then you would want to get 2-3 feral cats from your local shelter. Most shelters for some reason cannot tell the difference between a scared cat and a feral cat. I used to do feral cat testing for our local shelter. My favorite ferals are the ones who are scared up, scratched up, maybe has a ear missing because those cats have street cred as we say. They ruled the streets and the Tom's with the huge heads. Visit A scared cat will have huge dilated pupils whereas a feral will normally not have dilated pupils. You normally want one with darker colors with no white because they can camouflage themselves better from prey such as owls. You do have to keep clean food and water out for them and provide them shelter from the elements such as a barn or shed. You will hardly ever see them if they are true ferals. A well fed cat catches more prey than a hungry Cat. Actually cats repel rodents from coming on your property. When cats rub against things they release pheromones that tell rodents to keep away or be eaten. It's been proven that some mice and rats have a natural immunity to rat poison and if one dies from eating a particular food none of the others will ever trust that food again. Depending on your local shelter most do not charge for barn cats and are spayed or neutered and have all their vaccines as well. Since ferals are not adoptable pets they are normally put to sleep. So you are literally saving their life and you get the best Rodent Security team you could ever dream of and they work cheap. Good Luck with the mice and rats.


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