Why won't these bloody mice eat the peanut butter?!!

[badg3r]

Have posted about this before. BIG works going on directly outside our flat. The whole terrace is having a huge mouse problem. About two months ago we started finding droppings, about 40 in all. Then one of the buggers ran out from behind the sofa one evening. I have had traps down for two months now, never caught anything and didn't see any droppings so I thought we were safe.

Till about three days ago. There were two poos IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CARPET. One of them did a poo right in the middle of my (not ground level) baby's changing mat (kudos for knowing what it was for though little mouse). And now one of the buggers has just darted out from behind the sofa. I have looked for entry points and blocked them all. The carpet stinks of peppermint oil. I have six traps down. What am I doing wrong?!

Is it worth one of those noise-based mouse repellers? What else can I try? HELP!

[NewYearSameMe]

Try rotating the bait, so have chocolate for a few days, then peanut butter, then bacon scraps.

The plug in mouse repellers don't do anything, especially once the mice are already in, they just get used to it. I once saw a mouse run down my hallway and pause almost directly underneath the mouse repellers to wash his face.

They breed really quickly so it's important to try and get on top of the problem as fast as possible. I resorted to glue traps in the end They are very cruel as the mice get stuck and then die of thirst, so it's important to get the trap as soon as you hear squeaking and dispose of the mouse. (I had a bucket of water outside the back door to drown them in.)

[HopeClearwater]

Agree with pp about rotating the bait. Add jam to the list. I had good results with that.

[CointreauVersial]

I went for poison in the end - Sorexa D. They scoffed it, then I didn't hear any more from them.

[badg3r]

Good tip about the bait, I'll give them ssomething else tomorrow. Might have to resort to the glue then I guess. I had hoped for a quick end to them but now it's grossing me out so much I just want them dead. I had visions of me outside with a glue trap, plastic bag and hammer but the bucket of water sounds a bit less messy!

[badg3r]

I have a one year old so am a bit nervous about putting down poison. I saw a child friendly one online but I guess there's still a risk that they drop a bit of it somewhere and the baby finds it and pits it in his mouth?

[badg3r]

Do you clean the traps when rotating bait or just wipe them a bit and top it up?

[ilovetosleep]

We didn't even have any luck with glue traps - in fact we found poo on one. rat man was very perplexed! Only thing that worked was the poison that he put down.

[Greydog]

I've found that our mice are ignoring the peanut butter, but a nice slice of cucumber worked. But a glue trap - what an awful thing they are. I guess the mice know I'm a soft touch.

[NewYearSameMe]

I just wipe the excess bait off the trap, mice aren't obsessive about cleanliness.

[dodobookends]

No advice, just came on to say I love the thread title

[redannie118]

Tuna works really well too. Try and scatter a few cereal grains next to the traps to tempt them

[badg3r]

Ok, tuna and cucumber it is tonight! Sounds like im opening a tiny mouse deli. Sure ds can help scatter a few crumbs too...

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

Chocolate spread has been more successful for me than peanut butter

[scrivette]

I had someone come in from the Council website with poison and they have little traps that children and animals can not get into. The mice eat the poison and then go back to their nests to die.

It cost about £70 and they will come to your house to check/replace the traps and will put them down again for free if the mice return within three months. They will also advise where they think they are coming in from.

[badg3r]

Scrivette, good to know. I have already reported it to the landlord and council, since we're a rental property we can't actually book the council myself. But will follow up with that if there's no improvement.

Today I moved the sofa and there were no droppings underneath. I am hoping against hope that our furry friends are just popping in from somewhere for a quick hello in passing. No poo is a good thing, right?!

Tonight I have served leftover steamed fish in sesame oil and soy sauce. Tomorrow they're getting raspberry jam with pips. How can they refuse?!!

[badg3r]

No mice, sigh! Just one solitary poo.

[GospelOak]

We used Superproof because we fell for the clean, no traps, no poison salespitch. Our experience wasn't good. They charge a lot more than most companies, and really all they do is seal up any openings with some kind of special caulk, and put some nasty-looking plastic strips down at some floor edges -- this is only where they see a gap, so the strips start and end randomly all over the house, and it really looks bad. They also leave caulk all over everything, including carpets, and put a big ugly piece of industrial mesh in front of the whole fireplace, so it's not usable and looks like it's been condemned. Worst of all, we got another mouse/mice a few months later, but the company decided it had come in from outside when the door had been left open so there was nothing they could do (we don't leave the door open, as we have dogs and children!). So we are much poorer and back to using live traps (with which we have caught exactly one mouse in six months...). But putting all cereal and dog food in plastic boxes and keeping bread in fridge seems to have helped a lot more.

[ChishandFips33]

We had issues with rats and were told they can sense the death on the trap so we kept replacing them!

Mars bars worked after peanut butter lost its appeal