I fought mice with traps for years on the farm -- especially in the feed room (for obvious reasons). Never got on top of them until I finally went to Dcon. Now, no more mice. Even if they get in, and they do, they don't last.
It's almost as if mice are attracted to mice....
They absolutely are! Never clean a mouse trap after a catch. The other mice will be attracted to the scent of the first mouse and the trap will become much more effective. Mouse piss is the best bait available for any trap. The second best is a piece of yarn or tuft of thread, as mice are always on the look out for nesting material. Food stuffs come in a distant third.
It sounds like the OP really needs a few "Tin Cats" which are capable of catching as many as twenty mice at a time.
I will repeat this post I made a week or so ago.
If you have mice around the exterior of your home, you will eventually get one inside. The professional answer is to keep them away from the outside. And then catch any which do make it inside.
I have professional training in prevention and control of rodent entry of food processing facilities. We prevent rodent entry into a food plant with well manicured grounds. The lawn is kept short. All vegetation is removed from the immediate perimeter. The exterior perimeter is all paved or concrete. And we place rodent bait stations every thirty feet around the exterior.
Still an occasional mouse will get inside. We place "Tin Cat" live traps inside the building on each side of every exterior door way and at intervals on every interior wall.
Some of these techniques translate well to the home owner. Keep the lawn mowed short. Do not allow any shrubs around the house which might give harborage to rodents. (anything which spreads and covers the ground)
Bait stations like this can be discretely placed around a home. They are designed to be pet proof and child resistant. The rodents eat at the bait, then leave and die some place else. This reduces population density around the house, and greatly reduces the number of mice which might gain entry.
http://www.qcsupply.com/farm-livest...otomco-tamper-resistant-rat-baiters.htmlThis is an effective bait for use in the station. It contains the anticoagulant diphacinone, which has been an industry standard for at least a couple decades.
http://www.qcsupply.com/motomco-tomcatr-rat-bait-9-lb-bucket-chunx.htmlI keep bait under the house where pets do not have access. In several years, I have never smelled a dead mouse from under the home. But the rodenticide blocks do get consumed, so something must be getting under there inside the foundation.
If that is a concern for you, you could use "Tin Cats" under the house. Then if you do detect the aroma of a carcass, you can go straight to the offending trap and empty it.
Once set, the traps need no maintenance. If they are in a clean and dry environment, they will stay operable and attractive to mice for eternity. They take no bait. They work because a mouse will explore any hole he finds in search of harborage.
http://www.qcsupply.com/farm-livest.../traps-bait-stations/230140-tin-cat.htmlPlace a pair of "Tin Cats" inside the foundation, one on each side of the entry to the crawl space. Then place one more in the center of each side wall inside the foundation.
Mice will almost always travel with the whiskers of one cheek touching a wall. They are agorophobic. Place the traps against the wall with the openings close to the wall.
The final bit of protection for a home owner fighting a mouse problem is traps inside the home. It is wise to keep an operable trap inside any pantry or cupboard containing food stuffs.
You have previously stated that you keep livestock. Traps and bait stations around barns, out buildings, and feed storage areas will reduce rodent populations in those areas and will also protect the home if it is in close proximity to out buildings.