Well, I am up to 7 hostile combatants. Two again last night. Using plastic traps that squeeze to set. No finicky setting like the old style wood and wire ones, but mechanics of how they work are pretty much the same. I have two traps designed for multiple resets. One of which I have used with success in years past, but for some reason they have been empty.
I have noticed these mice are the brown and white ones, not the gray we used to get so maybe different kinds of mice have different patterns that do not favor the reset kind of trap? Either way I am incrementally reducing their numbers. Typically in the past we would have some mice and after trapping a few that would be the end of it. I have not tried the more elaborate of not more entertaining bucket styles because of that. Maybe will have to revisit that one.
No cats, not a fan. I am perfectly happy if someone else's cat made regular visits, but do not want to deal with a live animal I have to take care of. My BIL has a farm that over the years usually has had feral cats hiding away somewhere. He occasionally feeds them and throws out fish guts for them. They keep the mice away.
Year ago a weasel somehow got into our house. Weasels really like to eat mice. Problem is weasels do the same thing as mice, but leave an even larger package, if you will, so that is not a long term fix. We caught it shortly thereafter and brought it down the road to release it. Cannot harm animals that have been named by young daughters. We had no problems with mice for a long time after that.