Homesteading and Wee Creatures

Soooo, we have a mouse problem.  We have 2 active mousers but they are having a difficult time keeping ahead of the problem.  

Asking those who are active homesteaders,  are mice just something you have to manage and give up the idea of eradicating them?

Also, our mousers, Twoey and Bubba, sometimes bring in the half alive mice and hide them.  This is amusing until you step on one.  

I'm looking for solutions that maybe encourage the mice to just not hang around? Certain plants maybe? Fake owls? I don't want to use chemicals....

Thanks!!

You will always have mice, but you should be able to get them down enough that you never see them, only when the cats bring in that delightfull present.

First thing is is this a problem you have all year round or just now, mice are often more noticeable in the autumn as they start looking for nice places to live for the winter. If it's just an autumn thing then I would ignore it. You can discourage them by making sure there is no food they can access but there will still be some mice as they do like shelter as well.
If you don't want to use chemicals then traps work, there's many many types and how squeamish you are and where your mice are will dictate which type will be best for you.
Encouraging snakes, owls etc etc also works.

We have been using traps. Actually, Bubba was carrying around a dead mouse still in the trap. He presented it to me but I told him he was cheating.

We've noticed these year 'round this season.  I'm wondering if having someone scour the house for mouse holes to plug....

I encourge the snakes... we did have a Cooper's Hawk hanging around....

My son is the worst, he leaves dirty plates around and is generally  mess....