It's true about the cats. Where I live there is a feral colony in the neighborhood and none of us has mice, rats or any other small crawling critter.

Also it's best to use humane traps. Call around to your local TNR groups or other animal rescue groups to find out where to get them. Some places lend them to you for free. You have to relocate the mice at least 5 miles from where they were trapped to avoid them coming back to your area. It's better karma than killing them and definitely don't poison them because then the birds eat them and it kills the birds. It's a long karmic trail ( BAD karma) when you poison down low on the food chain.

You can also bait them with food mixed with diatomaceous earth which will kill them, a long and painful death, but if you don't care about the karma, then this is the safest way to do it and it won't affet the birds and other prey that eat them while they are dying.