Mouse Wars

[oldmammy]

A year ago we had mice. My son thought the house was haunted as things kept moving. Then one night we saw a dog chew getting dragged down a hole at the side of the fire and decided it wasn't paranormal activity after all. We used plug ins and then when we still had them a snap trap. We caught one about two minutes after setting it, but it didn't kill the poor thing and my husband had to drown it in a bucket of water. I was absolutely traumatised by it. A week ago we thought we saw a mouse in the kitchen. Everything went into plastic bins and up high. The plug ins came out the cupboard again. My son said he saw a mouse. I sat up late at night absolutely still and saw a mouse. Then another. I stopped counting at five and could hear more in the kitchen. I am so stressed I feel as if I'll have a heart attack. Last night i looked down and one was sitting on MY FOOT. Can't use poison and cant face using snap traps after last time. I don't want to kill anything i just want them to leave. I bought more plug ins and have 2 in the kitchen, 2 in the dining room, one thats supposed to make all the wiring vibrate and upset them. Feel like putting a for sale sign up except we can't afford to move. Mums - please help !

[nocake]

Unfortunately you have to kill them. If you can't bear to use spring traps can you work out where they're coming into the house and put bait boxes outside? We've had success with both methods.

[YoullScreamAboutItOneDay]

Those plug ins don't work I am afraid. They get used to them. Have a google - no proven effectiveness long term.

You need to kill them really. Humane traps at a push, but unless you have proper countryside you can take them to, you are really just passing the problem to neighbours, and they can travel quite long distances to get back.

Snap traps, poison, but most importantly work out where they are getting in and block up any holes.

I sympathise. We had issues in our old house.

[Piffpaffpoff]

We've had mice in the attic and the garage. I got a trap that is totally self contained, so it goes in, there's some kind of back breaking thing in the trap, and a wee door that shuts so you know if the door is shut there's a dead mouse in it. You never need to see the dead mouse. Then once they were all gone, I used left a sonic repeller thing switched on in both locations and - touch wood - none since.

[YoullScreamAboutItOneDay]

I think the repellers can discourage one from venturing in Piffpaff, but totally agree that you need harsher means to erradicate any already there.

[Piffpaffpoff]

Definitely. The repellers will not get rid of an existing problem but hopefully will make the little shits scurry on past my garage!

[lalalonglegs]

Get a cat.

[PseudoBadger]

Personally I'd get the council to come and sort it. They should offer pest control. Or if you're keen to do it yourself:

Find out where they are getting in (can get through a hole the size of a pen). Don't block the holes yet.

Then lay poison (along their route but out of sight).

Wait until there are no more mice (replenishing poison as needed).

Then block holes. Job done.

[AWomanCalledHorse]

We have mice atm.
We tried the plastic humane traps & they were crap.
These snap traps are brilliant as they're one touch set & one touch dispose.
If you're around the house alot and don't want to kill them, apparently it's easy to get them off glue traps with baby/olive oil (I use glue traps, but we hit them with a shoe once caught).

A female mouse gestation period is 20ish days, they can have upto 14 mice a litter & produce offspring between 5-10 times a year (according to wiki) so if you're not going to kill the mice, you're setting yourself up for trouble.

Just think of all the horrible stuff they carry in their poo; salmonella, lyme disease etc.

[SoupDragon]

Why can't you use poison?

I had bait out down under the kitchen cupboards and in a couple of other inaccessible places and finally got rid of the bastard things. Then I got a cat and they've not come back.

[digerd]

My daughter has a few cats but no mice in her house. It upsets her though when they bring the mice and birds to her as gifts from outside. I have had them, but like you couldn't kill them, until they got into the kitchen , oven and gnawed through my fridgefreezer cable. Then I had enough. With a heavy heart I got the exterminators in who put poisonous food down in the loft, and try not to think of their dead rotting corpses in my cavity walls. I do have an electric super sonic mouse/wasp plug in and since then I have had no more - touching wood.

[digerd]

ps the plug in is in the loft

[GrendelsMum]

I think a cat is a good measure, if you want pets / like cats. The previous owners of our house had terrible mouse problems, but we've always had a cat, and even with Dopey, the world's most stupid cat, we are almost entirely mouse-free.

Really, that's what cats were domesticated for, and very useful they are too!

[Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme]

We had our wall cavities filled when we insulated the house and together with the prison that seemed to work. Could that work for you? You get grants for it now, it costs practically nothing.

[Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme]

Poison obviously, although they might have become imprisoned I guess.

[Childrenofthestones]

Another vote for poison.
Tried the traps and had some success but didn't get them all and as someone said earlier they have a very short gestation period and one pregnant mouse can result in an infestation in a few months.
Mice tend to have great PR as they look cute and are small unlike rats, I dreaded checking the traps every day as I didn't want them to suffer, but after reading up the stuff they carry on them and how they piddle on every surface they walk on I would happily dispatch them individually with a mallet like a game of wackamole.

[Mamf74]

we had a problem with mice when we moved in here; the filthy slobby bloke who lived here left food etc around and the wee beasties were living it up.

We found that they were coming in through an airway under the front door (Victorian iron one that had corroded and had big holes in) and through the airbricks in the kitchen. We put a new, small metal airvent under the front door and got this great stuff called Mouse Mesh for the airbricks. The Mouse Mesh is fab as it still has holes in but they are tiny, so the mice can't squeeze through. Since we've done this we've only had 2 mice who came in, we think, when the garden was being done & we needed to keep the back door open for power leads etc.

That said, we also have slugs coming into another room and I am much more grossed out by them than the mice (shudders!).

[womblingalong]

We have just moved to a new area, and have a very large wild garden, after living in a very built up area, and have mice coming into our car!! They keep setting off the alarm and eating crumbs, fruit bars, those re-usable bags etc, and ran over my DD's lap on Saturday.

My DH got snap traps and caught 2 the first night, none since, but it is creeping me out. Didn't really want to kill them, but since we can't prevent them coming into the car, we had no choice, as they will just return. We have emptied the car, and need to get rid of all the crumbs.

[happyclapper]

I feel your pain. Last year despite having 2 cats we had a mouse problem. Infact on several occasions we caught the cats bringing mice IN and then walking off leaving them to run around the house.
Found 1 in the Rice Krispies box ( plastic containers ever since) and 1 popped his head out of our toaster which got duely binned.
Tried everything to no avail so had to call Council in who laid poison boxs outside which seemed to work untill we discovered even worse......
After spring cleaning the house from top to bottom, including getting the sofa steam cleaned we came home on 23rd Dec to find a RAT.
Was completley hysterical and called Rent-a- Kill as council couldn't come till after xmas.
They found ratty had made a nest in the bottom of our sofa that had actually been cleaned that day ready for xmas. Had been there for a while.
They killed it and I the spent xmas eve cleaning the house AGAIN not knowing where the horrible little thing had been running.
Can't tell you how horrible!!!!!
All clear since, touch wood.
Seems slightly amusing now with hindsight so don't sell the house just yet.
Gives my friends something to tease me about as I am generally known as Mrs Bucket after Hyacynthe Bouquet for being houseproud.
What can I say?

[JohnnyDeppsfuturewife]

We had mice and I didn't want to use a snap trap because they don't always Kill them quickly and I didn't want to use poison because that's also a slow death and they would rot and smell. I tried a humane trap (plastic one with one way door) and it didn't attract any of the little blighters.

Finally I found an electronic (battery controlled) rat trap on amazon. Smeared peanut butter inside on the end (while wearing gloves so they're not put off by the smell of people) and found a dead mouse the next day. It killed about 3 in about 2 weeks. It's expensive but I couldn't bear to be in the same house as mice. Well worth it in my opinion.


The link is here

www.amazon.co.uk/Procter-Bros-Ltd-PSERK-Electronic/dp/B000FII3YW/ref=sr_1_1?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1353017346&sr=1-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[Sleepyoto]

A few years ago I used a home made humane trap I found online Humane trap to solve our problem. Over the course of a couple of weeks I removed 11 live mice one by one, no dead bodies to worry about, the only damage sustained was the largest had a small part of its tail chopped off. We have had no problems since.


I also found out that they were a species of mouse specific to our area, very small and sweet with large ears - not house mice which seems to be the automatic assumption.

[oldmammy]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I know its only a few days but there has been no improvement with the plug ins. Just found they've been runnng round on top of my freezer which is so tall even i have to use a step to clean on top of it. Think these mice are a cross between Spiderman and Satan. My chihuahua is a nervous wreck as he's almost blind and found one sitting in his dog bowl. Am steeling myself to take extreme measures as I am becoming absolutely paranoid. Being an old bag now I have loads of floaters in my eyes so am having trouble telling the difference between a furtive mouse dashing behind the sofa and my eye condition. Its only when I reason that a mouse can't possibly be levitating off the floor ( shades of the Exorcist I think ) that I can rule it out. Thanks again mums, you're all saints !

[YoullScreamAboutItOneDay]

Oh god, it's horrible that 'corner of the eye' stuff you get when you have mice isn't it. Good luck.

[oldmammy]

Mice still taking the mick I'm afraid. We blocked up all the holes we could find, took the carpets up to seal between the floor boards and bankrupted ourselves in B & Q buying fillers and sealants. We also watched in fascination and horror as the cat that lives over the road caught THREE of the little blighters right outside our patio door. Tried to entice said moggie into the house but got spat at and scratched when I tried to catnap it hoping it would roam round the kitchen for fifteen minutes and its scent would deter our unwanted visitors. No deal. Humane traps no good either. Saw two mice sitting by my kettle last night right underneath the sonic plug in. Far from looking alarmed they looked very mellow so I presume its the mouse equivalent of listening to Classic FM. Have taken JohnnyDeppsfuturewife's advice and ordered the electronic rat killer. Told the mice they're being returned to the Light if they're still around next week and hope I don't spend too long in purgatory if lethal measures have to be taken! Still a nervous wreck but now have hideous gargoyle like structures bursting out of every nook and cranny in the house where my overenthusiastic husband went mad with the expanding filler foam.

[YoullScreamAboutItOneDay]

You have to kill them. It is the only way. Blocking up holes will only work if they aren't already in the house (e.g. living under the floorboards, shudder).

A little vile, but someone I know sprinkled their doorways, floors etc in talcum powder so that the trails showed up where they had come in. Must have been a hell of a cleaning up job though. Some of the professional companies I think use UV lamps, which I think show it up without the mess!