Mouse in the house

[Gwenhwyfar]

I hear noises in the kitchen, went to see and a mouse ran past. It went back to behind the boiler. I suppose that could be the entry point. If so, there's no way I'd be able to seal it as I can't get there.
What should I do? I'm quite scared at the prospect of mouse traps, but I find poison to be too inhumane. I rent, but I suppose I should try to fix the problem myself before calling the landlord?
Or should I call the landlord on the basis that it may be affecting other flats in the building with the same landlord.

[Chickenpie9]

No advice but I saw one in my kitchen last Sunday and can’t relax until it goes . We have put humane traps down but hoping the scream I gave when I saw it scared it off .

[Gwenhwyfar]

Well it ran when I put the light out, but I suspect it'll be back once it's dark again. I didn''t see it properly, but a brown furry thing scuttling away...

[Gwenhwyfar]

My worry is that seeing as I can't seal all the entrance points, if I put down a humane trap, it could just come back. I'm wondering if old fashioned traps would be better, not that I really want to have to deal with dead mice.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

hoping the scream I gave when I saw it scared it off . I wish this worked but it won’t.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Can you seal the entrance from the outside instead of the inside? Is it on an outside wall?
I feel your pain though. I have gaps behind the kitchen cupboards that I can’t seal unless I pull out the kitchen.

[Tigger001]

My friend saw one on her stairs, a baby field mouse, caught it and got rid of it and thought nothing of it, subsequently seen another bigger one so she called out the pest controller.

Field mice are common this time of year and he warned of the damage they can do to your wiring, he set traps and found another 7 as apparently when they mate, they have 7 - 15 babies!!!

She is still seeing them now and it's really stressing her out, so I can sympathise after hearing her distressed over the situation.


Call the landlord so he can organise something.

[Bluerussian]

Try a humane mouse trap. I caught a mouse in one on two occasions a few years ago, they are very good. Make sure you bait and put the trap down when you are about so you can put the mouse outside quickly, they are very distressed when trapped so you can't go off to bed or to work leaving it. Make sure the bait is well inside the trap, I've used chocolate buttons and bits of cheese, both worked.

[Papergirl1968]

Re screaming, I know someone who opened her wardrobe to see a mouse sitting on the shelf.
She screamed. It keeled over dead. Result!
No advice, sorry, op.
Could you borrow a cat?

[shiningstar2]

How big was it op? Are you sure it was a mouse?

[danadas]

We had a couple of mice a few months back. The instant lethal traps worked well for us. The electronic ones and the traditional type. They caught a couple in a couple of days and no sight or sound since. Fingers crossed.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

She screamed. It keeled over dead. Result!
That’s so encouraging! I’m going to scream louder next time!

[Elbowedout]

We live next door to a farm, so surrounded by open fields. As soon as the weather gets cold we get mice in the house. It is impossible to avoid as they can squeeze through really tiny gaps and they are also quite good at climbing - I've seen them in the ivy outside my bedroom window.
We have tried all kinds of methods of hetting rid of them and we have found the most effective thing is plain old fashioned mouse traps baited with chocolate. I don't like killing them - they are quite cute really and the poor little things are only trying to survive the winter - but they are so destructive and unhygienic that it has to be done. It isn't nice, but a decent mousetrap with a strong spring does at least kill them quickly. We put quite a few out around the house, particularly by possible entry/ exit routes and places where we have found evidence of things being chewed.
As I say, it isn't nice but I think it is better than poison, for them and us. When we tried poison we ended up having to take floorboards up and skirting boards off to find the bodies as the smell was horrific - never again.

[Bluelightdistrict]

Tell your landlord OP.
It's their duty to call in pest control and seal entry points etc.

[safariboot]

If you use live catch traps you need to take them a couple of miles away or they'll just come back home. And preferably don't release them near other houses!

If you've seen one, chances are you've got half a dozen or more in your house. I wouldn't bother my landlord about mice though, I'll set my own traps first. We get the little blighters moving in most winters.

[Pinkbonbon]

I have one in right now lol. They come from the boiler pipe holes. Are throughout the building (flats) so there's nothing to be done really. Wire wool in the holes ect helps but eventually the odd one makes it in anyway.

Tbh they don't bother me much. Apart from when you don't know one is in and it jumps out at you lol. Just as long as they can't get on your food surfaces!

We had baby ones come up once and the two of them thought knawing on my bookcase was a delicacy. They had to go. Just set snap traps at the door between my kitchen and living room and left the door open 2 inches (trap on living room side). They just run straight in and get snapped. Caught them within a night of each other.

[Bluerussian]

I don't think it is a landlord's job to employ pest control, it's the tenant's responsibility unless there are glaring gashes in the walls. Mice can get through the tiniest little gaps. It is possible to have just one or two, that happened in my house, I've never been overrun but had a couple some years ago. I have cats (well, one cat now), and they have brought mice in through the cat flap, let them go and then hunted them all over the place. Usually the mouse ends up dead but not always, some get away indefinitely.

It is worth trying a humane trap; if you have an infestation that's different but the op hasn't said she has.

[Redshoeblueshoe]

I got a cat. Sorted the mice out, but I was left with a bloody 🐈
So borrow a 🐈

[Tigger001]

I think the problem is you dont know if you have an infestation as all mice look the same, so if you see one , you dont know if it's the same as previously seen or another one.
Until you start catching them it's hard to tell.

Also the humane traps (where you catch them and let them go) you run the risk of them coming back unless obviously you are driving out to let it go.

[Saltnpepper5]

They'll be more than one. Also I bet others have them in your block of flats. I'd ask around. They will travel through the walls to get to each flat. I live in a block of flats myself and we was infested with them I paid to have mine treated but it was pointless, luckily everyone got treated and the problem seems to have gone away. Hopefully we don't get them again thry can get through the smallest of holes.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"Can you seal the entrance from the outside instead of the inside?"

I live in a first floor flat (I just wrote 'house' in the OP as it rhymed with mouse!)

[Gwenhwyfar]

"How big was it op? Are you sure it was a mouse?"

Are you saying it was a rat? It was brown and didn't seem as big as the rats I see outside, but I didn't see it properly.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"They just run straight in and get snapped. "

What do you do afterwards? Do you have to open the trap to take the dead mouse out and re-use the trap or do you chuck the whole thing? And where do you throw it? I only have an inside bin and general waste is only every two weeks? Am I going to have rodent bodies in my flat for two weeks?

[Gwenhwyfar]

"Also the humane traps (where you catch them and let them go) you run the risk of them coming back unless obviously you are driving out to let it go."

I don't drive and I can't imagine going on a bus with a mouse so I'd have to let it out close to home. I think it's going to have to be a snap trap really.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"I paid to have mine treated but it was pointless, luckily everyone got treated and the problem seems to have gone away. "

This is why I think I may have to get the landlord involved.

[FizzyPink]

We live in a very old holey London flat, all wooden beams and gaps in the wooden floors. Our landlords response to seeing a mouse inside the flat and a rat on the kitchen window cill outside was to bring round a big pot of poison which I’m reluctant to use.
Luckily our next door neighbours have the same issue and have requested access to our flat through the landlord to get pest control in so I’m hoping they will sort it for both of us.