Big mouse or small rat? Photo included

[Hfjshdhs]

Urgh urgh urgh. Found this in the middle of the living room this morning. Obviously exterminators are going to be called as soon as is reasonable. Is it a rat or a mouse? Child’s Farm Detangler shown for size reference.

We had rats under our house, we never saw them but heard them, we also had mice when we lived in London, I dint know many people in London who don't have mice.
My advice is don't use poison unless you want your house to be full of disgusting blow flies for weeks afterwards! Plus it's a really cruel way to kill them

My first thought was rat...but actually on closer inspection I think it's a mouse right enough. It's not a regular house mouse though.

I have mice pretty much yearly...and a rat once too and that was horrific...little bastard shat in my kitchen drawers. Mice are saints in comparison. Apart from when they jump out at you when you get up to go to the bathroom in the early hours.

That looks like a mouse. You can tell by the tail. Mice have fuzzy tails, rats are hairless and have concentric rings around them. I also have cats. This happens a lot.

Thanks so much for all the people who have reassured me that it’s a mouse.

Would love to get a cat but nervous we would end up with more mice than less.

We’ve got exterminators coming today. I know poison is cruel (I’m vegan and adore animals) but with small crawling kids I need to make sure that the mice are gone.

Could it be that a neighbour has put down poison and it has wandered in to die? Bit random to find it in the middle of the floor like that otherwise.

The old fashioned traps baited with nutella are best. Or a cat.

In my experience cats do very much lead to more rodents in your house rather than less!

People who think mice are all small are wrong, we thought we had rats due to the size but were actually mice. We get them in our loft nearly every year and constantly put down poison because (although I don't like to poison them) the one time we didn't they got from the loft to any room that had any food in it, chewed through ceilings and caused a huge mess pooing everywhere. We had to get the council out who were cheaper than anyone else and brilliant.

@LST

Can you get a cat? Brilliant excuse to get a cat!

If you want to avoid dealing with rodents, birds and other wildlife, don't get a cat.

They bring them in alive and let them go and they breed in your house.

They bring them in half dead, which is upsetting to see.

They bring them in dead and leave them lying there whole for you to find/stand on if you're not paying attention.

They bring them in dead, eat most of them, but always leave a load of feathers or one of the organs for you to pick up.

They bring them in dead, hide them, and you don't know they're there until you notice the smell or your house is full of flies.

Last reason in the world to get a cat.

@Hfjshdhs

Ok thank you so so much to those saying it’s a mouse. I can cope with that. I’m not sure if I am particularly not resilient but I’m so upset about this.

I'm pretty resilient but fall apart at a rodent problem too, you're not alone! We called the council and they were amazing and sorted it problem right out. Much better than a private company.

What's the difference practically between having rats and mice?

They're both an unhygienic rodent infestation with the potential to get out of hand if not dealt with. To me it's the same thing, but mice have better PR.

@BarbaraofSeville

What's the difference practically between having rats and mice?

They're both an unhygienic rodent infestation with the potential to get out of hand if not dealt with. To me it's the same thing, but mice have better PR.

Mice will generally try and avoid you, rats aren’t scared of you. I’d much rather have mice - our cats bring in both live.

It depends. Is that a travel size bottle of Child’s Farm or a full size bottle?

@Yazoop

Could it be that a neighbour has put down poison and it has wandered in to die? Bit random to find it in the middle of the floor like that otherwise.

Yes that was my thought too.

We’ve had both mice and rats. The first approach was to try traps which didn’t work. Then it was to stop them getting in the house in the first place - had more success with that when we had mice because of where they were coming in.

We also had rats which I think came to visit then moved on once they’d had their babies (apparently they will move in, have babies, leave again 😢😨)

We live in an rural old house and get field mice, in fact a couple of times one has sauntered across the living room floor as we sat watching tv. Constant traps out now. That is one hundred percent a mouse.

And where you get mice op you tend not to get rats.

i was in denial the other week over this creature in my garden that was shreaking at my cats, hoped it was a vole but it was a rat. Thankfully it died within a couple of days. I think it was displaced when a neighbour was doing some building work , but suspect someone had already put poison down.

And yours is not a mouse. Its exactly like the rat i described up above including the tail.

Can you get a cat? Brilliant excuse to get a cat!
One of my cats catch mice, but this rat thing attacked my cat when she approached it!

Op, don’t use poison, snappy traps are best, bait with peanut butter or Nutella. Just buy a load from Amazon

Poison is awful because they can eat it and go outside to die and then another animal will eat them and it will be poisoned, from local wild life to your neighbours cat.

You need the traditional mousetraps - think they're called Little Nippers? They look horrible but they're quick and more humane than dying slowly from poison.

Poison is also not advised if you have young children in the house.

Cats are only effective for rodent control if they're youngish and experienced. Mainly they 're not (we have both mice and cats and live rurally in an ancient stone house!) We have those expensive plug ins which do work (esp. the up to date ones). I hate the idea of poison too, i'm an organic gardener and wouldn't use it on principal.

The other effective control I use is mint and or cedar ess. oil spray, I mix it with water in an old spray bottle. I spray it in all the cracks in our ceilings and holes everywhere, it works for 2 weeks approx before it needs to be used again.

Oh btw I had been away and in my bedroom drawers ,clean! I had put new unwrapped soaps to give them a nice smell, but there had been mice who had eaten the bleedin' soap!!!!!

Definitely an adult mouse. Ex EHO here.
IME it's likely to be a forager sent out to look for nesting materials/food source.
Best way is baiting a couple of mouse traps with a bit of bacon rind as they need to 'tug' to release the trap.

Definitely a mouse. This is a rat, brought in by DCat (not envy)

Oh ref. traps, we have humane traps with pnut butter and chocolate in them. The mice recognise and go round them!!! They're clever!

Rat 🐀