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.

The good news is that if you have mice, you don’t have rats

That's the definition of a true optimist right there RomCom

They are just trying to live their lives and don’t carry disease or want to harm you

Tell that to the millions that died of Plague. Yes, I know it was the fleas but it was the rats that spread the fleas across continents. Bit like the old fashioned version of Corona really …..

Clearly a well fed mouse

I’m thinking poison as they swell. It would also explain it just lying dead in the middle of the floor in a house with no cat.

The good news is that if you have mice, you don’t have rats - the rats outcompete the mice

Personally, I am comforted by that. While rodents are abhorrent, I can stomach a mouse. Rat, nope. Had a rat outside at one point, it used to outstare me, vile creature. Tried everything, not ashamed to say I ended up poisoning it and no, didn’t poison everything else. Found it a few months later under the house in its nest completely mummified (we are in a hot climate). Was definitely the same one as I was quite intimate with it at that point. I was not sad but did make a DS dispose of everything.

I dunno about that saying about no rats if you have mice. I've only ever had mice (semi regular basis) but a few months ago, this git showed up!

Tbf though I havent seen any mice since...

@Hfjshdhs

We don’t have a cat

Have you thought of getting one? The smell of a cat can deter rodents from making their home in your house.

heartened to hear that this is a big mouse.
One of my cats often brings in something similar, and I'd assumed young rats. Luckily they're not on our property as we see her carrying them back over the fences. Unlike the teeny mice she keeps finding down near our side gate...

The thing with cats though is they use their litter tray and then jump all over your surfaces...so when you think about it they're really just as unhygienic.

Maybe worth getting if it was rats...but then do you really want a half eaten rat present on your pillow one morning? xD

There's a moose loose aboot your hoose🐭

Mouse, albeit an enormous one

The thing with cats though is they use their litter tray and then jump all over your surfaces...so when you think about it they're really just as unhygienic.

You can train them not to jump on your surfaces. In any case, you don't normally put foodstuffs directly onto a surface with no packaging/plate/chopping board underneath.

Its a mouse poor thing!

Mouse. But its a fatty, its been at your biscuits.

Who had the idea you cant have rats and mice?! We have them both and squirrels too. Maybe you meant you cant have cats and mice, thats more realistic.

My first thought was rat, looking at the size, and the tail.

Poison is inhumane, basically gives them a protracted agonising death as it dissolves their insides. Rodenticide is also one of the biggest killers of barn owls and other wildlife like hedgehogs.

Vegans using poison on wildlife? SMH.

There's nothing to be upset about. It got in, it's dead, you aren't dead, it's not going to give you the plague, put some traps down and block up some holes and move on.

It looks identical to the mouse my cat left outside this morning. I lobbed it into the hedge but I might be able to find it for comparison purposes.

The cat doesn’t jump on to the kitchen counters, by the way. Or use a litter tray.

Oh dear. I too am in central London. Third floor flat. No history of mice rats. Came home one day to a large dead rat on my kitchen floor. Best I could work out was it was froid floor flat dealing with problem and one had come up to die. No more since.good luck op.

I absolutely despise rodents but would never consider getting a cat to deter them as I don’t like cats either!

Agree with all others big fat mouse

We've had mice but we are on the edge of a town so semi rural, I did traps for a few weeks and they haven't been back.

We have a cat so doesn't really prevent them, unless you want the cat to kill them, I'd rather remove them myself than deal with heads etc left from cat

It is a Long Tailed Fieldmouse - harmless, engaging and nice to have around. There is one which lives in my main reception room and comes out for bits of biscuit every evening. And a shrew which lives in the kitchen, behind one of the units.

But, my house is a safe haven for all living things - it is their home too!

@Hedgesfullofbirds

It is a Long Tailed Fieldmouse - harmless, engaging and nice to have around. There is one which lives in my main reception room and comes out for bits of biscuit every evening. And a shrew which lives in the kitchen, behind one of the units.

But, my house is a safe haven for all living things - it is their home too!

Can I live in your house please? It sounds magical!

I disagree about the no point in getting a cat unless you want to kill them. We had a bad mouse problem but they disappeared after getting the cat. He didn’t kill any more when he arrived than we were trapping but the traps just didn’t deter them. After a couple of weeks with the cat, they haven’t come back.

Dead mouse for comparison.

In our old house we had a rat problem and nothing deterred them.

The best tip the exterminator gave me was that they hate the brush things you get at the bottom of doors or in letterboxes and will not go under/through them.

He though they were accessing our house under the garage door, even though there wasn't a visible gap.

Once we fitted these brush bars we had no further issues in the 10 years we lived there, whereas it had almost been a constant problem before.

Might be worth a try to fit them on the bottom of all outside doors. 🙂

@Arbadacarba

The thing with cats though is they use their litter tray and then jump all over your surfaces...so when you think about it they're really just as unhygienic.

You can train them not to jump on your surfaces. In any case, you don't normally put foodstuffs directly onto a surface with no packaging/plate/chopping board underneath.

My cats would laugh at that training statement they know they aren't allowed on there because they do it in secret and when caught they jump down and run away. More worrying would be if people don't disinfect the surfaces before preparing food. Of course we clean our kitchen and use clean chopping boards straight out of the cupboards! Just because people have cats doesn't mean they live with poor hygiene