How do you get rid of mice if you have cats?!

[AintOverUntilTheCatLadySings]

Yes. I know.

Despite having three cats, we have mice under the floorboards of the front room.

I can hear them squeaking now and then.

We have seen one mouse but actually think that was one brought in and released by the cats. So a coincidence.

We've blocked up all holes but one (old terrace house) and have put down snap traps and humane traps and tried shutting cats in the room (all at once and separately) but haven't caught so much as a whisker.

Planning to put peppermint oil, cat hair and wire wool in all gaps today.

There's no food sources for them - I'm strict about everything being sealed because our cats sometimes bring in additional mice. Bins emptied, toddler crumbs cleaned up etc. We also have robot hoovers that eat food debris.

I can't use poison because of the risk of cats eating a poisoned mouse.

We've bought a sonic scarer.

But is there anything else we can do?

Ps. The cats are actually really good hunters normally.

Lift up the floorboards and shut the cats in the room until they come up trumps?

Oh sorry I skim read your post and see you have already tried the cats. How about trying again first thing in the morning without breakfast so they are hungry? And definitely lift up some floorboards so they have easy access.

Wire wool in every tiny gap worked for us.

I shut my cat in the pantry with a mouse. Went back half an hour later and they were having a fine old time together. Probably made themselves a couple of sandwiches and opened a bottle.

Maybe the solution isn't me getting rid of the mice, it's just stopping them getting in any further?!

I think they're coming from next door - but if I ask them about it they're going to be deeply affronted. Awkward.

Got to love terrace houses - we had bed bugs come through from the other side a few years ago

@AmandaHoldensLips

I shut my cat in the pantry with a mouse. Went back half an hour later and they were having a fine old time together. Probably made themselves a couple of sandwiches and opened a bottle.

This is amazing.

We had similar last summer - cat brought in live mouse as a gift and was so deeply insulted that we didn't want it that she set it free in the kitchen. It ran into a little gap in the floorboards next to her food bowl where it became trapped.

It used to pop out to eat and drink and got very fat. So fat that it couldn't get back in to his hole one day and she caught him again.

We named him Gus. He was like a little round ball in the end.

@Kittytheteapot

Lift up the floorboards and shut the cats in the room until they come up trumps?

I'm worried if we lift the floorboards that we'll lose the cats under the network of houses on this street. One, at least, is an idiot and we won't see her again

I had some workmen in once for some reason and one of them asked me if I had a loose pet shrew. I said 'yes, the three cats love their shrew' Obviously one that they had brought in and released when they'd got bored.

Stop feeding the cats, they'll soon get hungry and eat the mice for you.

Yy to hungry cats will hunt.
I think it's just the nature of terraced houses. As long as you keep food crumbs cleared they will transit through rather than camp out at yours.

I used to get mice coming in - they made a nests under the washing machine and ate the cat's food. I blocked up all the gaps I could find with wire wool, put a fine mesh over air bricks, moved the cat's food to a counter top, and that seems to have solved the problem.

My cat occasionally brings live mice into the house but once they are inside, they're nothing to do with him as far as he is concerned!

Humane traps with peanut butter work well when necessary.

We use snap traps with peanut butter. Works every time. We have 2 cats. One of them kills and eats the mice but the other just plays with them. If the rubbish cat gets to the mouse first he has dibs on it and the killer cat wont touch it. Weird as fuck.

We occasionally get this problem and my cat who is the main hunter in the street occasionally decides not to sort it out... we've found that 'over praising' him when he catches something encourages him to catch other stuff for us. I'd definitely second peanut butter traps

Snap traps with shortbread worked for me.

Mice will eat anything. We had them and they ate bin bags, dishwasher tablets, washing powder, soap.

Almost embarrassed to say… we HAVE been using peanut butter in the traps. But not caught anything.

Maybe they're not coming up? They're probably like…

"Yeah, I get that you've left peanut butter out for me and everything, and that's very kind of you, but there's also three great big fucking cats up there. And I KNOW they say that they're not going to eat me - but that little one is licking her lips. And that fat boy didn't get to that size just eating Whiskas. And the ginger one - he definitely has his paws crossed…"

@catnoir1

Snap traps with shortbread worked for me.

Mice will eat anything. We had them and they ate bin bags, dishwasher tablets, washing powder, soap.

We had some in our attic once who got in to an overnight bag that had accidentally been put up there. They ignored a bag of Percy Pigs, but ate an entire lush bath bomb

I wouldn't use snap traps if you have free roaming animals. That could cost a bit in vets bills.