Mumsnet Talk

No I'm not being serious but I've got a mouse loose about my house and the bastard thing has eaten through my rivetas that I was saving for a saturday eve treat instead of chocolate and I've chewed through the kids cheerios and pasta and savoury rice and cake mix

Tempted to bypass the cosy mouse trap and get out my rolling pin!

*I've ?! = the mouse!

I'd never use a humane trap. Instead I have a plastic spring trap that I bait with peanut butter. I also use poison bait outside.

Rentokil squashed into mars bars works a treat. Yes it kills them but I'm sure you're not supposed to catch and release them (could be just rats). Don't ever use the sticky traps, cruelest thing I have ever come across.

Nothing works! We had mice - very cheeky ones at that, they were fearless, I would see them everywhere. We tried all kinds of traps, poisons etc. Nothing would make them go I would still see one upto 10 times a night sitting on the sofa, the rug, everywhere. In the end we got our cat back who'd been on an extended holiday at MIL's since we'd moved house a few times. Haven't seen one since.

We're in London though so maybe the mice are more fearless!

I bloody hate mice but I would never use poison - lots of stories of owls being killed after eating mice which have eaten poisoned bait. Never sure why humans think it's ok just to kill animals just because they are a nuisance.

We were infested for a couple of years. Tried the "humane" traps (catching them alive) but only caught babies. We tried the lethal spring traps plus poison which killed a few but not the majority. We tried professional pest controllers which were just as useless. In the end we got a cat and while she only caught a couple of them, the mice packed up and left within a few weeks.

If you use humane traps you need to release the mouse at least a mile away from your house. Otherwise the little fuckers mice come back

Get a cat.

Or put a mint plant down. They (mice) can't stand it.

We had a mouse one time, came in and out through a gap under our conservatory lean too into utility and plundered the dog biscuits. Got it the 3rd night in a humane trap. Ignored the peanut butter first 2 nights, but went straight in for the nutella. Was pretty cute. You have to take them and drip them off a good couple of miles away or they can find their way home apparently.

drop not drip FFS!

Ignored the peanut butter first 2 nights, but went straight in for the nutella. Was pretty cute.

Awwww. I'd have probably bought it a cage to live in and given it a name.

Never had them in the kitchen funnily enough but that's probably because I don't keep much food in the house!
We had one the other week, had made its way in from the cold - I used the rentokil plastic trap with some chocolate spread on it. Worked within a few hours and very quick death but still sad
It was a fat little fecker.
These traps are the best I've ever found - had them 10 years ago and they saw off a family of 5.
The Big cheese ones supposedly ready baited don't do a thing. I got some of each from wilkinsons btw.

Humane traps never worked for me either, our cat is hopeless too.

There was a study showing that even if you release mice two miles away from a humane trap, the same mice will return. Proper spring traps are cheap and effective. Peanut butter or chocolate as bait (not cheese, its a myth). I've found mint also effective.

Had humane traps in the loft but never caught one, had snappy traps down and got rid of 15 in 10 days ad still get an odd one, don't get them in the house, our cats a hunter.

Oh and don't use the poison if you can help it - it kills them by slow internal bleeding, they get ver confused and doddery for a few days, I watched one come out from under the piano one time, stumbling and smilimg at me (if mice can smile) and it ate its way through even more of the poisoned seeds. I cried
They turn up dead days or weeks later in the most awfully unexpected places..one died inside a jumper I then wore, and washed several times because it smelt so bad, before the mouse eventually fell out of it It was a baggy jumper..
I had slight ptsd from finding them in drawers, in bags under the stairs etc for months, I jumped at everything. Served me right really. Similarly I had to kill a rat who was dying of poison, it was covered in flies, really awful thing to seeand so I caught it a nd tried to drown it and that took bloody ages as well Oh God there is no good way to kill these poor creatures.

I was pretty tempted MrsRajeshKoothrappali my neighbour told me it was a wood mouse rather than a house mouse (which was why it was so cute) so I felt it might be wrong to keep him in if he preferred the trees!

Sweet Jesus- you wore a jumper with a dead mouse in it. Faints.... I'd have been hospitalised.

My best ever mouse story comes from a colleague. They had mice but also a pet hamster. A mouse had squeezed its way into the hamster cage and eaten tonnes of hamster food. It was so fat, and full, it couldn't get out so they had a sort of humane trap, but with a resident hamster inside.

We use poison. Put it in the attic, or along the floor by the walls in small lids of jars. It taste disgusting to humans but my children are old enough to steer clear. Keep topping up the poison until it is no longer taken. Then remove poison from everywhere except the attic and keep an eye on that.

We had mice upstairs recently, coming in from the loft.

Human traps were pretty useless; we only caught one, and the little blighters were just feasting on free peanut butter every night without springing the traps. They were waking us up rustling about in the bin in our bedroom at 4am.

So we bought some poison. Every night for a week it was taken, then one morning it wasn't, and we haven't heard anything since. I guess that means there are mouse bodies somewhere in the loft, but then it was pointed out that the mice would still be dying at some point.

I bought a "mummifying" poison, Sorexa, recommended on MN; apparently it dries the bodies out so they don't whiff as much.

Are u sure it wasn't the washing machine that killed the mouse? Maybe it had gone for a nap.

YANBU

I've had mice come in during the really cold spells and we only use the snap traps. Putting poison down means that they can go on to kill owls and other predatory birds, and the humane traps (sticky ones) are just barbaric.

The sticky traps aren't humane. The mice will actually chew there legs off to set themselves free. Evil things should be banned.

Well we are having some mousey housemates at the moment :-( Tried alsorts of traps (baited with bounty, mars and snickers on alternate days kids were so excited they asked if they could have some if mouse wasn't caught within a day ) put poison down and still nothing......

My husband ending up killing it by squeezing it to death with the end of a broom handle (I had to reassure him for the next three nights during his horrendous mouse nightmares) I went to B and Q to ask for sticky paper stuff and the guy gave me a look as if I'd killed his mother in front of him.

Never had such disruption in my life, we camped in the living room for a week (they were upstairs enjoying my super king sized bed) but thankfully no sign of anymore. Apparently putting down a tray of cat litter is enough to deter them from even entering a house.