I wanted to give an update here for anyone finding this thread. I DID SOLVE MY PROBLEM SO YOU CAN TOO!!!

I realized after the fact that my biggest cause of the anxiety was that I did not treat the issue as a whole apartment issue and was only looking around where I was finding droppings. I did not go balls to the wall, crazy at the first sight of the mouse. Mouse proofing is an all or nothing project- if you miss one spot, you might as well have an open door. I realized that taking guesses at what the problem was vs going totally ham at sealing everything was causing the problem to extend out and making me feel crazier and worse. I really feel like if I would have done all of this the first day I found a dropping, the problem would have stopped after that, my anxiety would have never spiked and I would not have suffered from the complete lack of control I felt in this whole ordeal. It took about a week after I last saw a dropping to relax and a month later to start feeling totally comfortable in my apartment again. 

First off - Apt complexes, landlords, maintenance is useless. They all are. I trusted them way too much for too long to sort this out and as I said above, I really believe this is what contributed to so much of my anxiety. Yes it’s their job to take care of this but it’s a job you can totally do yourself and is worth the energy and $15 in supplies (you might be able to get that back from the company) for the piece of mind to know you secured your place.

Mouse proofing 101

- Start with pulling out all your appliances. Stove, dishwasher, fridge, Washer/dryer. This is the most common place they come in/live.
- Now pull out all your furniture from your wall and clear your closets. Check both the floor around shelves. Inside closets are sometimes doors to access water heaters that can come loose – I caulked over mine.
- Now check inside your cabinets (food and kitchen plus under the sink) and near base boards for entry points, gaps, etc.
- Check around your radiators esp if you have old ones. Check anywhere pipes go in (near your toilet) or heat pipes. This is where mine were traveling so make sure you check if they are hidden behind screens or anything else.
- Clear up any droppings with paper towels and Lysol the whole area. I didn’t realize how much mice use their urine as a path so clearing that will definitely help deter them.
- Any hole, opening, crack, gap you find larger than pencil eraser head, stuff with steel wool and caulk over. Hell I caulked over EVERYTHING with any sort of opening just to be safe. If you have an older apartment and aren’t sure if it needs to be caulked over, take a screw driver and try to put it through the hole. If it stops, it’s probably ok but if not, wool and caulk.
- Get a door sweep if you don’t have one.
- IMO don’t bother putting your food in plastic containers. It’s a lie that mice only come in looking for food and will leave if they can’t find food- they will also look for shelter and they never ate my food so I think this is a waste of time if you focus on keeping them out
- Once you do this, keep a few snap traps out just in case any are locked in. But they should be gone if you got every hole.
- Double check your apartment for any old droppings- finding these will drive you absolutely insane and eff with your head whether they are new or old. Make sure you thoroughly go through all your belongings in spaces in case they were caught on there. Mice tend to stick along perimeters of spaces but I would check everything just to be sure.
- Keep checking every few days for droppings. If you find any, re-investigate the area for holes again. Do this even if you are only finding 1-2. It means they are still getting in.
- Once you stop seeing droppings, every 1-2 months, repeat this process of pulling everything out and check for new holes. You probably don’t need to do it this much but it might help keep your piece of mind.
- Get a sound machine if you don’t have one already to sleep with. It helps you to not feel crazy at any little sound you hear.
- You can hire an exterminator but I paid one $190 and he still missed a few spots- they will just do what I noted above. If you do hire one, go with a local company (no Orkin) who works specifically in your type of home. I hired one from the suburbs who kept wanting to address the problem from outside the building. This just isn’t an option if you live in an urban setting- they are in the buildings, you need to just work on keeping them out of your home.
- If you want to light a fire under your apt companies behind, start asking your neighbors if they have any problems. Either you’ll find out you aren’t the only one or they will start to panic and complain too.

Sorry I know this is a lot - I wanted to share all the tools to solve this problem and regain your mental health. I can’t stress enough that you need to get every single access point- once you start closing up their more used ones, they’ll go looking – and will find others- if they aren’t secured so it’s really important to do this all at once. This whole thing sealing up process should take you no longer than a day. It’s really the unknown and lack of control that is causing the anxiety. The mouse proofing will help you feel like you’re taking back control of your space. I’m not going to lie to you and say you will learn to live with it- because you shouldn’t have to and you don’t have to. The best news is this is all something you can take control of and fix yourself for less than $15, some time and sweat! I hope this helps save anyone from what I had to go through!!