To expect the mice to have fecked off now we've got 2 kittens!!!!

[MorocconOil]

We've had mice now for about 6 weeks. We've removed all food sources, had the pest man in 3 weeks ago and even got 2 kittens last week.

DH has just opened a cupboard in the kitchen to find a mouse scuttling away. I can hear them scratching in the cupboard at all times during the day.

Our kittens are 9 weeks and completely adorable. Does anyone know how long it will be before the mice become afraid of the kittens?

I hate mice so much, home just doesn't feel like home anymore.

Any other ideas about how to get rid of mice are very welcome.

[drosophila]

Well I have had mice for 3 years (actually have a contract with local pest controller). Mice are not afraid of cats - cats hunt mice which can have an effect on the population however if your cat is well fed by you it is unlikely that they will hunt the mice. You never know though some cats are great hunters even when spoit by the owner.

I grew up on a farm and we rarely fed the cats solid food so that they would catch rats and mice. We gave them milk to tame them though.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Yes the only time a cat will hunt is if you are not feeding it.
We recently had mice, the cat just used to sit there and watch!
Buy loads of traps from your pound shop. Lay them in places that the mice go in, we used to have to put them down after the kids have gone to bed, and ugh sitting watching tv you hear a snap clatter noise and dp would go and dispose of it. If you have one mouse in a cupboard you will have all its friends and relatives very close by. We saw the first mouse one night, traps down the next, they caught about 12 mice over 3 weeks (sometimes several a night) and we still put them down occasionally just in case.
Sorry to be so pessimistic about it all but you need to get traps down quick.
On the lighter side, ds2 (2.6 at the time) told my mil that daddy puts mice in the wheelie bin that we find under the cupboards!
A lot of mumsnetters have had mice, they will all be along in a min - the mnetters not the mice that is.

[MorocconOil]

Oh dear. I don't think there's any chance of the kittens being starved in order to make them hunt. Have you got a cat now? What has the pest controller tried to get rid of them ?

[MorocconOil]

We've tried traps too. We caught one mouse on one of those hideous glue traps, but they now avoid them, and we have no success with traditional traps. We used tuna and peanut butter as bait.

Until may this year we had a cat, and we thought her smell must have kept them away. I never saw any signs of her catching them. Oh this is so depressing.

[Bouncingturtle]

"Yes the only time a cat will hunt is if you are not feeding it."

Try telling that to my cat after he has wolfed down his tea and then left me a decapitated mouse as a present...

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Is there a mouse epidemic in the UK at the moment or is it just mumsnetters that get them?

[MorocconOil]

Phew Bouncingturtle. I was breaking out in a sweat at the thought of depriving the kittens of milky porridge and smoked salmon

I can't wait for them to start hunting though.

[MorocconOil]

Most people I bore with our mouse troubles seem to have, or recently had the problem. I have heard that the wet summer hasn't helped, but then that seems to get blamed for everything that goes wrong.

[BCLass]

We had mice too this year - the scratching was driving me crazy. We used humane traps - the first night we put them down we caught two - no scratching or sign of them since then.

Re cats - definitely not true that they have to be hungry to hunt!! They hunt as instinct not for food if domesticated. You just need a good mouser.

[Bouncingturtle]

My cat is a greedy little fecker...

[FromGirders]

We had a serious mouse problem in a previous house. The rentokil man suggested white chocolate was the best bait for your traps. I used chocolate eclairs as the toffee sticks well onto the wee prong bits and they can't run away with the bait so easily.
The thing that worked best though, was toast and marmite. We caught two mice, twice a day, for three weeks. After we stopped catching so many, I switched the bait back to chocolate, and that caught the ones which hated marmite.
No, honestly, I'm not making that up.

[mytwopenceworth]

Well, you either love it or loathe it....

[JackieNo]

Our mice are back too - in the loft. They were playing dominoes yesterday, or so it sounded. Will be getting a load more poison put up there (not really an option if they're in the actual rooms though).

[mytwopenceworth]

Has anyone tried playing Cliff Richards records at full volume?

It worked for that fairground - they got rid of their vermin.

[MorocconOil]

Thanks everyone. Will pass on all the bait tips to DH. He has to set and check the traps. I just couldn't bear to. It all freaks me out too much.

[startouchedtrinity]

Cats definitely hunt however well-fed - my cat used to eat shrews which I gather taste foul, yet she was huge, and lazy with it. I have known cats bring in wood pigeon, rabbits and my cousin's cat once pulled a gosling through the cat flap and none were starving.

However, cats do get bored and my cat would often bring in a live mouse for fun, let it go behind the book case and then forget about it when it didn't reappear. Then later we'd find it sitting on top of the video player.

And your cats are kittens, it will be a long while before they are efficient hunters and they might be no good at it (my cat couldn't climb trees.)

We've used humane traps for the odd mouse but you do have to take them quite a way from the house before you release them, which may not actually be all that humane as they will be a long way from their territory. However for the number it sounds like you have you really need a pest control person in. We had rats (ugh!) in a shed once and we got someone in - totally ghastly but they know what they are doing.

[startouchedtrinity]

Sorry, see you have a pest man. He needs to come weekly if not more.

I believe mice dislike chilli powder and othe rhot spices so you could try sprinkling these as a deterrent.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Nice juicy raisins worked best on our traps. Perfect for spearing on the prong and the mouse is a gonner while he tries to pull it off.
One time though I was running around screaming blue murder as we heard a trap go off in the kitchen followed by lots of rattling. The mouse hadn't died straight away and was thrashing round with half his head stuck in the trap...dp finished him off.
But I got over it as well they were vermin, in my house, and after a few weeks of them I really didn't care how the fekkers died, they just had to go.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Mind you my cat is 18. Perhaps she is retired from hunting?

[startouchedtrinity]

We once had mice in our shed. I gave my dad some boxes of stuff to take back to his house, and later on he found a mouse had taken up residence in his Volvo - it had been living on a bag of toffees!

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Did I read that right - with humane traps they get released, LIVE, to go and breed thousands more to come and infest other peoples houses?
No just get some proper traps and get rid of them once and for all.

[MorocconOil]

The pest control man came once, put down some boxes of poison, charged us £200 then left. I think I'll get the council in as they do weekly follow-ups. We only got the private pest control firm, as we wanted them to come the day we arrived back from holiday to find the mice had been partying(and multiplying) in our absence.

[MorocconOil]

I am sure the poison has worked on some, because there's a vile rotting smell coming from the area under the sink cupboards. EUGHHHH. It's all so repulsive.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Thats why dp said 'no poison' - because it kills them where they sleep/stagger off to and then rot away. mmmm nice.
snap their necks in a pound shop trap and then bung em in the bin thats what i say (and unfortunately am able to speak from experience!!)

[startouchedtrinity]

mimizan - the pest man should come and remove the bodies, ours did, for a month.

Flibberty - yes, with humane traps they are released live. Okay for us as we can let them go in the middle of nowhere, but not good if you let them go in your nearest park.

I must admit I tolerate mice in our garden, but not rats. Oh no, no, no, no. no...