Any mouse catching suggestions

[darlingsweetpea]

3 weeks ago I found a mouse in a trap under my kitchen cupboards. I was still getting droppings so knew there was one more, it then came and visited me and my children during the night, 5 days after finding the dead one.

The following day I had pest control out as I'm so scared of them and all the germs. So I've got poison in multiple places, 8 traps and still not caught it. I've pinpointed it to my kitchen and possibly my son's bedroom next door. What I'm not sure is if the mouse has been sneaking in there when the door has been open.

Every night I block up the bottom of the doors, and watch it come into my kitchen on the camera pretty much as soon as I go upstairs to bed.

There are 6 traps in the kitchen, with peanut butter and chocolate, there are 3 bags of poison and the mouse is still there.

I opened my kitchen patio door all day the other day, in case it's trapped in my house. To the human eye there is not a single hole outside and I'm doing my absolute best with filling holes in my house. Me neighbour had lots of holes, so it could have come via her house.

My neighbour also has a mice as I saw droppings, so she too has pest control out so we're doing this together. For obvious reasons I don't know if it's the same mouse.

Does anyone have any suggestions what I can do next?

Get a cat. 🐱

If there is no food (not a crumb) they'll go away.

Keep going with the traps, put them in different places each night and try different baits.

I find they go for peanut butter, maybe the strong smell attracts them

Short term traps and clean thoroughly and long term block entrances and speak to neighbour to see what you can both do so mice don’t move in. They’ve moved in more in recent years due to cold and access to food.

I’ve had 4 cats total in my lifetime and though they do catch mice they often bring them in from outside. So a cat isn’t always the answer.

What worked for me were galaxy rose gold enchanted mini eggs which I’d bought a load of off eBay and had gone out of date. Mice loved them. They were wood mice though poor things felt sorry for them as they lived outside and stupid cat brought them in at least originally.

Snap traps baited with maltesers worked for us.

Have you removed your kitchen kick boards? And looked for holes under there? Or holes near any plumbing/pipe work. Any air vents are you using wire wool and expanding foam together? Are you filling tiny holes as well . If a pen can get through a mouse can.

I had one and it was coming through the kick boards. Pest control put poison there he was never seen again
You could see his dusty footprints under the units

Honestly.
Borrow a cat. I have never had mice,apart from those brought in. Dead.
Lots of in the mouth, at the back door situations. They don't have a cat flap so I avoid half alive mice in my kitchen.
The scent of cats puts them off I am sure.
Good luck!

Carry on with traps. You may need different ones or different bait. I’d rather that then poison (which kids, etc can get into) and a lost decaying mouse somewhere. But you need to lay the traps along their route of travel.

Thanks everyone, I'm doing everything you have all said. I have so many traps under my kickboards buy the mouse is avoiding them.

I think tonight I'll remove the kickboards and rearrange my traps and see if I can catch it. I was wondering about the yellow sticky boards, which I know is horrific for them but as noone has suggested them, I won't use them. I was unsure anyway.

To PP I have asked my parents if their cat fancies a sleepover!!

I had a mouse living under my kitchen units. The night I realised, I removed the kick boards, filled several containers with neat bleach and slid them under the cupboards. Apparently, mice hate strong smells such as bleach.

My house smelled like a swimming pool but mousey packed it's bags (and possibly family!) and never returned.

The only mice I’ve ever had in my house have been brought in alive by the damn cat, so would not recommend this!! We usually manage to catch them with a single trap with peanut butter in it though.

They also hate the smell of peppermint oil, you can soak cotton wool balls in it and leave them near where you think they might be entering. I'm sure you'd rather catch it though... what brand of trap are you using? The Better Mouse Trap is a good one.

Don’t leave traps everywhere , pest control advice we had was to leave the traps to where they’re coming in from so they are contained. Get someone who will come out repeatedly until they’re gone, this was included in the price. We used tried it ourselves but ultimately paying for the service got rid of them

I know you said you aren’t going to but please don’t use glue traps they’re horrifically cruel. Good luck catching the little critter

Glue traps have been banned - effective from April this year - they're awful.
We had a mouse last year - tried traps, even cornered it one night in the kitchen but it got away. We put Nutella in the traps & it didn't even bother!
Then we found it in the bath one morning (alive!).
Could you try a bucket? Put a ramp or something up the outside, something really tempting at the bottom?
Our mouse liked ice cream cones

I don't wish to sound awful but do you put water in the bucket to drown it?

My mouse climbs the airer, having a great time so it'd just jump out of the bucket!

Don't worry, I won't use the yellow sticky things.

No idea not put water in it. Just that it might not be able to climb out again - the mouse couldn't climb out the bath as the sides were smooth & too high.

dont

Get a Rat Zapper Ultra - it's brilliant. It electrocutes them painlessly and you just tip it into a bag/bin and don't need to touch it. This link is just to show the brand I mean with a photo as it says it's out of stock - but you can get it other places.

https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/506825584-rat-zapper-indoor-electric-rodent-killer-effective-humane-mouse-trap-killer-for-rats-mice-safe-clean

amazon have them in stock

Yep cats have brought most of my mice in too! The odd ones have been house mice but lost count of ones cat helpfully lost in the house.

I have a cat and plenty of mice. Currently using humane mouse traps with sunflower seeds - averaging one a night for a week now!