In May 2019 I started de-mousing our foundation. I got as far as doing the right side of the stoop and part of the front wall of the house while Darwin helped:
In December 2019 I did the left side of the stoop:
But I got too cold to start the front, even though something had dug a hole. As a temporary solution I stapled a piece of hardware cloth over the hole and laid a brick against it:
In March I noticed something had dug a hole UNDER the brick [and presumably under the piece of hardware cloth]:
I don’t think it’s mice, I think it’s something bigger. The ground was still too cold to dig up the front of the stoop to install the rest of the hardware cloth, so I let it go.
I ended up putting off this project until this month because I didn’t like how the hardware cloth looked. Drab. Uneven. I knew I’d be tearing up what I’d already done and spray painting the wire before being able to continue.
On June 10th I finally got started. I pulled the staples from the wire on the right side of the stoop, spray painted it off-white, and let it dry overnight:
On June 11th I trimmed it so it would all the be the same height [another thing I didn’t like about my original job], reattached it with my staple gun and filled the dirt back in:
So much nicer! You don’t even notice it anymore:
Then I pulled the wire from the left side:
The foundation wood is a little rotted, but it won’t matter for right now. It’ll still take a staple:
I spray painted the wire and let it dry overnight:
On June 12th I stapled it back to the left side of the stoop:
The front corner was tricky because of rocks under the dirt that were too big to dig up. I had to cut the hardware cloth to match the incline:
Then filled in that side with dirt. Much better:
By this point a new hole had appeared in front of the stoop beside the hardware cloth patch I’d installed last December:
I removed the patch, then dug out the front of the stoop so I could install hardware cloth along the whole length:
I measured and cut the pieces, then spray painted them:
On June 13th I stapled them to the front of the stoop, then filled it in with dirt:
At this point I decided to dig another hole along the left side of the stoop so we could finally bury our rats Killy & Winston. We also spread General Bonker’s ashes in the same hole. We covered them over and put granite blocks down with flowers on top:
Rest in peace Killy [who we lost last Septemer], Winston [who we lost April 3rd]:
And General Bonkers who we lost December 1st, 2017, and still miss every day:
The de-mousing the foundation project is now DONE! I’m glad I painted the wire white, and cut it so it was all even. It blends it very well to the front stoop and house:
Hopefully this will keep things from digging into the basement!
That’s quite a project, and realistically it’s probably going to be never ending. I think perhaps you should check the perimeters on the first of every months, so you can do an emergency patch when needed.
Question – do you ever see signs of any animal or rodent, any size, in the cellar? Certainly, something’s intent on getting inside.
Meanwhile, you’re doing a great job, and the spray painting really helps camouflage the hardware cloth.
we have mice in the basement (2 of which i have in a cage still) and something larger tried to dig it’s way into the foundation over the winter, but i don’t know what. i tried to catch it in a small (rat sized) have a heart and it busted the whole thing apart and escaped. something was nesting on jim’s car engine for the past month, and something lived inside my motorcycle all winter – both left rodent poo much larger than a mouse, but smaller than a rat. i have no idea…
Nice job! It’s amazing how much work there is in stopping a few critters coming into the house. Here it’s critters coming into our cars. Again I read your blog and it wore me out so I took a nap. ❤️
😀 ♥