Dealing with Mice, Bats, and Other Pests

How to get rid of uninvited guests who've decided to make themselves at home.

Uninvited Guest: Mouse

Habitat: Thrives just about everywhere.

Annoying habits: Gnaws through drywall, nibbles on wiring, and pops out of mouse holes, alarming fauna of the Homo sapiens kind.

What you need to know: Can climb, jump, swim, squeeze through dime-size openings, and live on crumbs. Mainly nocturnal. Scoots around the edges of a room, using its whiskers to steer. Sexually matures at 6 to 10 weeks, bearing a litter about 20 days after mating. You do the math.

What you need to do: Sprinkle baby powder on the floor to track your prey. Plug any hole bigger than a quarter of an inch with steel wool or hardware cloth (available at hardware stores). Make sure there's no space under doors. Buy a cat.

If that doesn't work: Set snap traps with a smear of peanut butter or Nutella. Terminix, the pest-control company, recommends traps with extra-wide triggers (available at hardware stores). Place traps two at a time―pairs work better than singles―perpendicular to a wall, with the trigger edge closest to the wall. (Glue boards will do, but who wants to come home to a squeaking Mickey?)