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Do you live in a house or an apartment? We had mice in our older home, and we had a company come in to see where they were coming through. They filled any vulnerable spots. They also set out poison traps (other types of traps grossed me out and the last thing i wanted was my kid accidentally stepping onto a glue trap), which i know isn't ideal with toddlers but at that time my daughter was good about not putting things into her mouth. I would make sure you don't have anything on the floors of the pantry to get a better sense of whether mice revisted. This sounds silly, but also keep your grass short so mice can't hide in the tall grass.

Hope you get rid of the mice soon!

I second the advice about making sure your lawn is mowed. The only time I had mice in my old house was when my neighbors totally neglected their yard. They got into my house around the holes where the gas came into my house. If you can find areas like those, steel wool or aluminum foil works to keep them out.

Also, I got these traps. Supposedly they don't need bait, but I usually put peanut butter on them to make them more attractive. https://hw.menardc.com/main/items/media/SCOTT019/ProductLarge/33505.jpg

I was living alone, and liked that once it snapped shut, you didn't have to actually touch the mouse to get it out. You just pushed the clip back open and it would fall out.

Glue traps are so much more inhumane than a standard trap.

We dealt with rats in our old house. Our landlords insisted on poison tucked away in the basement. We eventually had luck with standard traps, and sealing holes with foam.

Per the cat recommendation: we have a cat and two dogs, and all 3 were absolutely worthless when it came to dealing with mice/rats.

I have a cat who is a sadist and likes to play with the mice we get before killing them. But I've also had luck with snap traps. Glue traps are pretty inhumane, they basically starve to death.

The last mouse we had (this week), I found it behind the door chewing on itself. It wasn't in a trap. It didn't even care that the cats were there. It was just ready to die. So I caught it in a mason jar and took it outside where at least something would eat it. I consider it a mercy kill at that point.

Put some cheese on a snap trap. That usually does the trick.

We had mice in our townhouse (rental) and I flipped out. We set out traps but also called a recommended service. They could provide and garuntee if it was a single family home but not for a place with shared walls. They ended up identifying two sources of entry (no where near our kitchen!) and sealing them up. They set out kills traps in strategic locations I never would have thought to put them. We caught zero mice before. We caught About 8 all in one location where they set traps. After that we (knock on wood) haven't had any issues since. I'd call another company to find one that will walk your property, find the source of entry, seal it and provide a garuntee of their work in addition to setting traps. Experts know what they are doing, especially if they stand behind their work.

@matador84: We have mice every new season. I actually thought a mouse in our attic was something bigger and had a post about it. It was just a tiny field mouse. Oops!

We set the traps that @MaryM: recommended. The trick is to put the peanut butter on the bottom of the bait pad. They have to work more to get it, and it triggers the trap. If you put it on the top, they can eat it right off without the trap being triggered. We caught a family of 5 in our basement, so be prepared that there's more than 1.

A company is just going to come out and set traps as well, so I'd save your money there. They likely won't come back once you've caught something...that will be your husband's job to dispose of!

A mouse? There are sticky pads that get placed at a convenient position to trap a mouse/rat. Best to place it en route to a food source in your kitchen as the little fella will most def head there for a nibble some time.
Soon as he steps on it he's stuck until you hear his cry for help and free him. Won't hurt him but will have him at a place you can catch and throw him out!

@matador84: it totally sucks, I had 2 toddlers and a newborn when we were dealing with the worst of it. Put your traps behind furniture along walls where the kids can't get them. Hope you get this cleared up quickly! It didn't take long for us to get them all once we realized it wasn't just 1 or 2