To be terrified of the mouse

I feel your pain, we had rats in our rental house a few years ago. Opened the pantry one day to see a big fat rat just sat on the floor looking at me! Called out a pest control guy from the council and he informed me that he'd been called out by local residents for years and he believed there was a broken grate (I think?) in the sewer that was letting them through. All little holes and cracks were blocked up, it was an old house, and poison put down, plus a few traps and other than the odd scratching under the floorboards, it was sorted.
I understand that icky feeling though, I never feared rodents before but now I can't stand them!

Our cats apparently operate a catch (outside) and release (inside) policy for small rodents.
I always rescue them where possible - the worst thing that happened is that one mouse bit me which was surprisingly painful.
I think they are very cute.

Whilst a cat might be a deterrent, you may end up with a little shit like mind who actually causes the ‘mouse problem’.

She brings them in, plays with them for a bit then gets bored and announces it a human problem from that point on.

Currently have one upstairs somewhere, I’m waiting for it to die so I can find it and dispose of it.

Bastard cat 😂

Hi @MyNewNewlife ,

How did you get rid of the mice in the end? We're struggling, having tried humane and contained snappy traps that just aren't working!

Considering getting professionals in but concerned about using poison as we have pets!

If it helps, no guarantee on this but, I found I rarely saw them before 2ish in the afternoon. They seemed to be most active from about 4ish onwards and into the evening.

They hate wire wool. Get some of that and poke it in any holes round pipes etc where they could be getting in.

How you getting on OP?

Unfortunately I've had similar in the past couple of weeks. We got the professionals in. They have said that if you humanely trap a mouse and release it outside it wouldn't survive, as house mice don't know how to look after themselves in the big wide world.

Even if you find the holes it will have come up and fill it with expanding foam or similar, the mouse / mice will know that's their way in and ear through what is blocking the hole. Unfortunately you either live with mice coming in, or you bump off the ones who know how to get in and then block up the holes.

To everyone saying you are 'terrified' of them and working yourselves into a froth about them, what exactly is so terrifying about them?
They are tiny, unable to kill or even hurt you and are usually easy to remove from property.
I could understand if we had venomous snakes hiding in our homes but a tiny defenceless mammal causing people to be so terrified they won't go downstairs (ps mice can move freely around your home, if you see them in one room they have been in every room!) is quite simply ridiculous.

This happened to an elderly friend.Started with a few scratching sounds, about a fortnight later he was overrun by mice.The pest control bloke at £180 was amazing and it was sorted within about ten days.
Like yourself, I was terrified of them and simply couldn't have sat in the house.Best of luck, set a few traps and give it a couple of days to see how things develop.

I saw a mouse run around my Kitchen one morning put traps down and caught 3 they give me the Willie's and I have a cat!!!

I see you can't have a cat, but mine is always more active in winter because the buggers move in from the cold. At the moment she's in the kitchen looking at the washing machine, so I'm assuming there's at least one in the gap between that and the units under the sink. Little fuckers. DCat guards to prevent them coming out.

We used to use sticky traps (cruel things), snap traps and thise white noise things you plug in the wall but they always used to come back.

My advice is to thoroughly clean all cupboards, seal all food in containes (especially food in cardboard packaging), block up any gaps and if all that doesn't work ask your LL to call a pest controller.

They can run quick but they're not observant so you can get close. Tiny bits of dark chocolate will lure them out. Just wait and be patient and then pop a Tupperware box over their head slide a kids book underneath and chuck it out into the garden. Or if you don't like them out poison down but that's not great when you have to deal with the carcasses

This happened to me about 8 months ago. Like you I was petrified. I contacted 8 or so pest control companies in the early hours (I saw the mouse around 2am also) and went with the first ones who could come out to me around 8am.
I paid around £170 for pest control but was completely worth it and then my partner (we don't live together) came and put traps down with peanut butter and caught about 4 within 24 hours 😢.
It was traumatising. A week after the first visit pest control revisited and blocked up entry points and gave my partner some advice as to blocking other holes through the house. Haven't seen any since but I've lived in a state of semi-fear since.

We’ve always been able to get rid really quickly with a humane mouse trap and some bacon/pancetta/chocolate, whatever we had in the house. For a while our cat thought bringing in mice alive was a sign of her undying love…

I had a moose loose in ma hoose a few weeks back (my bedroom, to be specific). Happens every winter. I’m not scared but the wee fucker was keeping me awake with all its chewing and burrowing.

I can’t do murder so I ordered those plug in repellent devices that emit high frequency noises inaudible to the human air but supposedly torturous to the mousey ear and it appears to have worked a charm. 🤞

It is not going to go away unless you do something about it so either call a pest person or sort it out your self

Tried chocolate spread. And peanut butter. They weren't interested.

I had the same, we went on holiday and the cat went into the cattery, when the cats away…

My cat is a hunter but the night we got back home a mouse literally ran over his foot, I’m petrified of them and wanted to move house. I got some traps from Amazon but since the cat made his presence felt again I haven’t seen one since.

You need a cat! Just the scent of it should be a deterrent. If not I’ve read that the traps I got from Amazon work, they are boxes with bait inside that trap the mouse in. You might need someone to check them for you though, I’ve lived in fear of finding a mouse in the trap, I’ve left them out just in case the cat ever goes on strike.

Do you live with anyone @MyNewNewlife?

Square of chocolate in it

Yeah I had to sometimes too. Purely because they were too smart for the humane traps...or I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to trick them into them.