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that is awful! i'm so sorry. do you have a cat? would you be open to getting one? i've heard that mice can smell when a cat lives somewhere and they tend to avoid those places.

@Mrsbells: Its one thing if its your home, there are things you can do to prevent and make your diggs less attractive to the mice but when you live in a communal setting such as adjoining homes or an apartment complex you can't be sure that your neighbors are doing the same and if the landlord isnt willing to step in whatever you do will only be a band aid on the situation until the underlying issue is resolved whether its finding and patching their entry point, and catching or terminating the mice family that by this point are obviously breeding.

Can you get a cat?

When I lived in an apartment with my parents there was a pretty serious mouse problem at one point. They ended up searching for any entry points, putting poison in whatever holes they found, and blocking the holes with something, I think it was chicken wire? So the mice would come to their usual entrance and find 'food,' eat it and go back to their nest in the walls and die safely out of our apartment. That seemed to work.

I would look behind the stove and under the kitchen sink, basically around any plumbing or gas lines to make sure that there aren't any openings for a mouse. Then block those openings with steel wool and duct tape. Set traps to get any mice that might still be in the apartment after the openings are blocked. I would also check your lease to see what exactly the complex agreed to do about pests. I've always had apartment maintenance come when there is a pest problem and spray or close off openings. I'm surprised they're not being more responsive. As a last resort I would threaten to leave bad reviews and report the complex if they don't help.

ETA: They say not to use poison traps because a mouse may crawl back into the wall and die and you're stuck with an awful smell while it decomposes.

We just set traps. We set them under the sink, and then one in a drawer that the buggers figured out how to get into. My husband killed maybe 6 in a week, and we haven't heard them (in the ceiling) since. We live in an older house that was converted into an apartment, and quite frankly, mice just kind of happen. But I grew up in an older house too, so maybe I think of it as normal because of that?

We had an unexpected mouse problem about a year ago, too Eventually they got smart and started ignoring the traps and we had to resort to using poison. We only had it out for a week and it totally worked - haven't seen one since. Apparently it makes them thirsty and they flee to a water source so they don't die in your house and usually go pretty far away. We were super paranoid and careful about it because we were worried our dog would find one and eat it, but we never saw one in our house or in our yard.

I would definitely check with your lease terms for pest control provisions and I would also give a call to the county health inspector to see what the county rules are. Its unsanitary and usually a code violation to not address pest issues.

Same practical advice from others RE: the traps. Generally, you wanna stay with snap traps (sticky or poison are terrible). Place the traps in "lanes" - along walls, in corners, darker places. Change up the bait if they don't come by. Peanut butter smeared into the trap worked the best in my experience, but you can can sprinkle some breadcrumbs or quinoa around the trap to make it more enticing. You can usually clear out a family pretty quickly that way. If you find holes, stuff them with steel wool.

You also want to completely clean out, wipe, and disinfect your kitchen ASAP. Keep as much as you can in the freezer and put all your food in solid storage containers. Wipe down any trace or crumb, or they will come back to the same spots over and over again.