Keep Flies Out of a Trash Can
Stopping flies and maggots from breeding in an outdoor trash can — drying out the moisture they need, or masking the scent that draws them in.
Track Mice to Their Entry Point With UV Powder and Peanut Butter
Bait a spot with crunchy peanut butter next to UV tracking powder, wait a couple of days, then follow the glowing footprints with a blacklight — the trail leads along their runs and straight to the entry point, so you seal where they actually get in.
how are mice getting into my house, find the mouse hole, mice keep coming back, mouse droppings, rats in the walls
The Problem
Knowing you have mice is easy; knowing where they get in is the hard part — and sealing gaps at random means the one you missed stays in business. Trapping without exclusion is a subscription. What you need is the commute, mapped.
The Technique
- Pick a spot with rodent sign and set out bait: a good smear of crunchy peanut butter directly beside a patch of UV tracking powder (sold for rodent control — a fluorescent powder they walk through).
- Leave it two or three days. When the peanut butter's gone, they've been through the powder.
- Come back after dark with a UV flashlight and follow the glow: powdered footprints run along their travel routes — typically hugging walls — pausing where they pause.
- Follow the trail to its end. In the video it climbs a wall and disappears into a dryer vent whose flap hangs open behind a lint beard — the entry point, found, not guessed.
- Seal what you found: exclusion mesh in gaps, a sealing cover on the vent. (Both fixes are their own tips on this site — the excluder-mesh gap fill and the magnetic dryer duct.)
Pro tip: Run the blacklight over the kitchen while you're at it — the same powder maps where they've been foraging, which tells you what to deep-clean and where traps earn their keep until the entry's sealed.
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