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?

Oh and don’t use poison, because the mice don’t die instantly, they will crawl outside and an animal could eat it Ie a local cat or a fox and then it also is poisoned. Also the mice can crawl some where you can’t get to to die and the smell is friggen horrific.

Agree poison is awful, they slowly bleed to death over a week or more, they get eaten by owls/birds of pray etc and then as it builds up they die the same painful death. Even if you don't care about animals they often die inside the walls, in the skirting boards and stink.

Humane traps are not humane either as you need to relocate it far enough away that it doesn't know where it is, this results in them starving to death/being attacked by local mouse gang/dying slowly.

I don't know why I keep on reading all the rodent death threads in full 🤔

If you are using a trap to kill, load it with a slice of Mars bar. Their teeth get stuck in the caramel and the trap will snap as soon as they try to pull away. Gruesome but works very well!

being attacked by local mouse gang

I didn't know this was a thing?

Borrow a Jack russell.

You DO NOT want a mouse dying and decomposing somewhere in your house. The stench is straight from the depths of stinky hell and the memory of it will be burned into your nose-memory forevermore.

Get a cat. But don’t get a cat flap. Inspect the cat's mouth before it’s allowed in. Then when dh is chasing a mouse around the living room at 3am you can blame him for a) not coming to bed at a decent hour and b) not bothering to frisk the cat for rodents before he allowed it to enter.

Glue traps are very cruel please don’t use them.

They must be coming in somewhere if you’ve laid traps with no resolution.

Are you terraced?.

For a quick catch when you can see it get an empty kitchen roll tube put a black sock over it so you have the whole tube covered with a floppy bit at the end, lay this near to the mouse and herd it in to the tube, as pp says they like a dark hole to hide in when cornered and usually run in quickly then you can pick it up, keeping your hand over the hole at the top as they are feckin good at climbing and release it wherever. We keep a sock tube in a cupboard at all times as dcat is a demon mouser and likes to share them with us

I'm not too keen on handling it tbh. I would much rather just kill it so I'll invest in traps and really like the mars bar idea. Also like the idea of the electric trap and think I'll go mad and put them everywhere to increase the chances of getting it.

I dont think i could do a sticky trap but who knows if I get desperate enough. I've seen dropping in my bedroom now I've looked, so I'm worried they are running all over the bed when I'm in it which really pisses me off.

I would borrow a cat rather than get one as I'm not a huge animal fan and two DC's are enough responsibility for me but the kids would love it.

Yeah they'll even run over you in bed. We went on holiday to Cork one year and we found a mouse sitting on MIL's chest. She was fast asleep but she'd totally have died of fright if she ever knew. 🤣 I kind of wanted to tell her but got over ruled and we just made her change rooms

If youve seen droppings, you have a major problem.

I doubt very much there is just one.

Be very very careful with posion and your children, you will need bait boxes

If you do use poison, you then 100% wont be able to borrow a cat as the cat can die if it eats the mouse or the poison

Touch wood we have managed to get rid of them using traps and maltesers. It's not pleasant dealing with the bodies but it's better than the putrid smell that we had when one died in the wall cavity by the front door.

I'm assuming we had a infestation in the hedge at the front of our house.

Poison is out for many reasons I think but I am going to pull all the kitchen apart as pretty sure that's where they are coming from. Pest control bods blocked what they could but obv not enough which is a waste of £600 as it made no difference at all.

I'm give it a go myself at the weekend then get a different company in I think. The thought they are running all over us when asleep is too much.

Our cat is constantly catching wee mice down the bottom of the garden, but we don’t have a cat flap so he can’t bring them in.
I can tell when he has one in his mouth as he makes a horrible growl sound quite different to his usual “ open the bloody door” meow so know not to let him in!

Our cat is always bringing in mice usually alive. sometimes they run under the washing machine and we can't rescue them as its too heavy to move, usually find the remains after the cat has eaten them the next day We find the best way is to cover them with a large plastic tub and then push a place mat underneath and then release them back into the garden. They can take a while to catch though. sometimes they run up the curtains, the other day one got between the curtain and the lining, when we managed to get him out he shot under the closed door, into the kitchen and then under the washing machine, so that was the end of that one. twice I've managed to pick one up but they do bite which is really painful. Another time there was one on the settee under a cushion. I can always tell when we have one by the cat's behaviour. I couldn't kill one though.

sometimes they run up the curtains

I had no idea they could do that

If I was ever tempted to get a cat this thread has seriously put me off! It's also really opened my eyes to how many mice there are running around. This is the first mice problem I've had, which I'm now feeling quite lucky about

One of our cats caught a bloody great rat from under our neighbours decking 2 days ago! The recent winds had loosened his fence panels giving our cats a new playground under the decking! Our cat didn't know what to do with it and so sheepishly dropped it. We then had a Winnie The Pooh moment as the rat dived under the fence panel but only its head would fit - so all the body and tail was still on our side...
Then our cat decided to toss it about - it didn't move after that.
RIP rat.

Haven't been brave enough to tell our neighbours yet.

If youve seen droppings, you have a major problem.

Possibly in this case. However 3 of us have just spent 20 mins catching a mouse the cat brought in (we've repatriated it to the woods behind our house, so I hope it doesn't get ambushed by a gang). We moved the piece of furniture under which it had taken refuge and had to clean up a few droppings, so not always indicative of long-term or multiple occupation!

If you're not into cats, don't even think of getting one. Our two cats were fascinated by our mouse infestation. Fascinated from the sofa, fascinated from their beds. They had no interest in chasing mice. (Whereas the neighbours cat helpfully took down a massive rat at the end of our garden...)

Miele cat and dog vacuum, it's powerful enough to suck up mice. We've used this a few times but you do have to remove the bag straight away to dispose of the mouse quickly and humanely.

I've put three mice outside in the last week. I use humane mouse traps. A couple of nights ago I saw another one but it hasn't reappeared and two baited traps are waiting to accommodate it.

We had one in our living room, spent hours trying to catch/kill it.

In the end a bit of jam on a piece of paper coaxed it out from under the sofa, and we walked it with a cricket bat.

Traps and poison under the sink to get the rest of the family. The poison blocks that have a chocolate scent attracted them. They were all dead within a week (3 in total).

The guy in Toolstation told me to stuff cotton wool soaked in peppermint essence into any gaps to stop them coming back... Haven't had any new visitors since last summer.

Steel wool to block any gaps inside the house, set the traps with shortbread - they can't resist it.

You can buy bait boxes, they eat in the box and leave again (poison still in the box) and they go and die somewhere.

Other option is to get sealed packets of poison and post them in places like back of wardrobe, etc

If you've found droppings it sounds like an infestation.

We have a humane trap but have never caught a mouse in it have tried all sorts of food cheese peanut butter seeds etc will have to try shortbread, only problem being if I buy that it will be too tempting I can't resist it, there won't be any left for the mouse