What would be your preferred method of dealing with a mouse problem?

[BlueBar]

A friend recommended baited (poisoned) traps as a straightforward way to get rid of the mouse (mice?) in my garage.

My dad says old fashioned spring traps are preferable because no matter how careful you are with the poisoned ones, they have to be disposed of and you don't know what might be affected by them afterwards I.e. what else might be affected by the poison.

I don't love the idea of squashed mice, but they do need to go and none of the solutions are particularly palatable

No word of a lie. In my old house.. a terrace.. with open loft access to next doors, backed into fields and a neighbour who used to throw all her food scalps outside we were overrun

we used spring traps that went across the head, mouse killed instantly

caught 17 yes 17 in 2 days. They were everywhere, under our bed, ds room, cupboards everywhere.

iver a month we’d caught 52.

never had them since then

Ah. Mine is too precious to use the cat flap, so we can always intercept.

Get a cat and/or a Jack Russell

I have a rescue cat who brings live mice into the house. The last time he did it the got into my pantry! I had to call an expert out in the end. I hope he stops doing it!

Cat. You want a young female tabby. They're the best mousers. Borrow one from a friend.

Here is my mouser. She fits the bill!
we call her Princess big paws 😁

snap traps
don't live anywhere remotely rural (even that doesn't help)
more snap traps
peanut butter as bait
and dozens and dozens of snap traps. For ever

My cat is a crap mouser. She's caught 2 when we got her (honestly one of the reasons we got her! Rescue cat we were considering anyway) easy targets as they were in our house.

She's never caught anything else in the 6 years we've had her other than a massive pheasant randomly🤷🏻‍♀️😂

In spite of that our mouse problem went away within a week 👍

Peppermint oil. They really don't like it. Get some capsules from Holland and Barrett, or elsewhere, and put drops of it everywhere you see signs of mice. Repeat every so often.

Also, block up any holes with wire wool. They can squeeze through the tiniest gaps, so you need to be thorough.

We have one of those with lock settings. I remember thinking at the time what kind of cruel owner puts the lock on so that their cat can't come in when it wants to. And after many evenings and mornings of playing catch the mouse, I realised why that lock setting existed.