You’re not imagining it the traps worked for a few days, then the activity came back. Maybe you tried peppermint oil, steel wool, or the glue boards from the hardware store. None of it stuck, and now you’re back where you started, except more frustrated.
Here’s the thing: those products treat the symptom, not the source. In New York City’s interconnected buildings, mice travel through shared wall cavities, basement spaces, and pipe chases between units. Catching a few doesn’t stop the ones coming in behind them. Until the entry points are found and sealed, you’re running a revolving door.
A clean apartment doesn’t protect you either. Mice enter through structural gaps not because of how you keep your home. In older buildings across Flatbush, Crown Heights, Bushwick, and Harlem, those gaps are just part of the architecture. That’s not your fault. But it does mean the fix has to go deeper than a snap trap.