I've just been chasing a mouse around my lounge

[poematic]

How do I get rid of this bloody thing. It's been running around my house for about a year.

Had pest control in three times but nothing changes. Traps - nothing. I've just spend 20 mins trying to kill it with a broom which is probably the closest I've been to a result.

Any ideas on what else to try?

To catch a mouse you have to think like a cat.

Even the smallest sudden movement (even a twitch of your finger) will startle them and they'll scarper, when they're in the move you have no chance of catching them.

Instead stand really, really still with a receptacle in your hand (I used a fruit bowl), wait until he comes near you, and still, ever-so slowly, lay the receptacle over him.

Have a heavy book nearby to weigh it down while you decided what to do next.

Get yourself a clear plastic cup and a piece of cardboard larger than diameter of cup. Wait til mousey is still/in a corner/by skirting board, just not moving. Quietly put cup over it - as it's clear it won't see it coming. Slide cardboard under cup and let it loose outside. That's worked for me ... about 100 ? times. We have 3 cats who love bringing in presents. We live rurally so sometimes we get 2 or 3 nightly. I try to save as many as I can. Good luck !

If you manage to cover it with a bowl, you then slip a large piece of cardboard underneath the bowl to trap it, then you can get rid of it outside. Preferably as far away from your house as possible. Are you sure it's the same mouse you keep seeing?

Before getting a cat I would probably have suggested getting one would be helpful but to be honest he's the reason I've spent a number of evenings chasing them round my lounge!

Have you tried the different types of traps?

Just tried the one trap which was crap. Any recommendations? I saw those sticky things but the looked a bit in humane although I'm reaching the point if not caring.

I'm not keen on catching it and setting it free, I rather it died and was done for good.

No idea if it's the same mouse. I bloody hope so just for my sanity's sake.

You need the trap called the big cheese. £3 in b and a, killed many with it.

I hate to say this but if you've had it for a year, the chances are there's more...

get a cat?

I found a dead one (courtesy of my cats) on my bathroom floor this morning.

To catch it right now, lay a tall boot like a welly on to the floor. It will run into it.

Humane traps are great. Amazon sell them and they work well. Bait them with nutella or chocolate.

Foolproof method here (as cat brings many mice in) is to use a cereal box.
When they are cornered, they like to run into dark, enclosed places and they are usually quite happy to scarper into a cereal box. Then they are deep enough that they can't really jump out of it.

Of course, if you are kneeling down with the cereal box, it's quite possible that they scamper under your legs and sit there.

And if you're really unlucky, they'll eye up the dark enclosed space that is your trouser leg and scamper up there instead.
And when you stand up and shake your trouser leg to try and get them out they will climb higher. And higher.
So high, in fact, that you then undo your zip, reach in and just grab them instead.

Then have a shower.

(True story)

Seriously though - the cereal box always works.

If it's in your house in summer it is not alone.You need a piece of drainpipe.Place it along the skirting board and put poison in the middle
It will take the poison back to its nest.
Otherwise it's traps.

Just looked up the Big cheese and that's the type we have. No joy and they've been loaded with peanut butter.

I was tempted to borrow a cat but all the mouse stories have put me off!

Telly and cereal box ideas help actually. I probably could have caught it in something like that. I hope it's just the one, it's totally doing my head in knowing something is running all over our stuff 🤢

After a year, it's probably not the same mouse. You need pest control.

We have a few big cheese traps and catch half a dozen mice, each winter. Usually in spurts of about 3 in a week.

I've had a local pest control company in three times. They payed traps, did a fluorescent gel to track where they are running around and blocked off what they said was everything, yet it's still the same!

Is there a special way to set traps? I'm happy to try again. I'll try anything. I'm so tired I kept waking up thinking I could hear that bloody mouse.

Poison. Traps. Sonic things.
We had a super mouse and eventually stopped seeing it after a few months of everything possible.
We have an old house and they move around the walls between us and next door so needed a team effort.

Not tried poison but do have sonic things - why the bloody hell is it still running around so unashamedly!

We ended up with a mouse hole in the skirting a la Tom&Jerry

We had mice for years, paid a fortune blocking up entry routes, various traps, poisons and pest controllers. The little sods started coming into our beds (including the baby’s cot ) and that was the last straw. We got a cat and I can’t recommend it enough! No sign of a mouse since, just his smells seems to keep them away. It turns out they’re coming from next door under the floor, so we had no hope of keeping them out ourselves (next door have been useless at sorting the problem despite being overrun). And the cat is a sweetheart!

A cat is your best bet. We're on a farm and have always struggled with the little buggers until we got cats.

We tried the humane traps- they were rubbish. But the electric ones worked brilliantly. I baited with raisins- one on each of the plates to tempt the wee buggers in far enough. No gore and a quick kill. You don't have to touch the mouse when emptying it either.

Poison is what you need. Put the little green pellets down in every room and the mice will not be seen again.

Humane trap - plastic tube.

Chocolate inside.

It's not the same mouse. We had a mouse in our living room a couple of weeks ago thanks to the cat who brought him in to play with torture. We tempted him out from behind furniture with bits of chocolate button. DP caught him and released him outside away from the cat. They love chocolate, bits of chocolate cake, etc.

It’s not the same one, the odds against that are billions to one, it will simoly be a different mouse that’s come in from outside.

I have them, little field mice come in during the winter, I can’t do anything to stop it as it’s an old house, I lay snappy traps as they are the most humane, baited with something like Nutella or peanut butter. We even caught two in one evening once. About half an hour apart.

Just lay some baited snappy traps hidden behind things where you can’t see them Ie sofa etc, but unless you plug up all tiny holes they will continue to come in from outside.