HELP! A mouse electrocuted me

[OctogenarianDecathlete]

Well, technically the dishwasher electrocuted me but only because a mouse has chewed through the cable.

I need all tips on how to get rid of it.

Not just any mouse, we have an Ultra Mouse.

We have a young cat. He went through a phase of bringing live mice in.

We bought humane traps and caught and released several.

Except one.

This 🤬 mouse will not be caught or killed. We've tried all kinds of traps, bait and poison.

We're in a 14 year old shoddily built house with holes in the walls that allow the mouse to move between kitchen, bathroom and garage. It's been getting into the kitchen cupboards from behind. It abseils down onto the worktop (we sprinkle bicarbonate and have footprints in the mornings).

We were trying to use humane traps initially but the 🤬 has had enough chances and needs to just go.

Please give me all your tips on traps, bait and poisons.

I'm this close to burning the house down (or at least, the mouse might manage it itself).

I don't think it's a rat, the poos are too small (we used to have pet rats so are fairly sure about poo size).

We have tried the snappy traps, it doesn't go near them.

The black plastic Pest stop traps from Screwfix are very good, definitely mind your fingers ! Mushrooms or peanut butter works for us.

Peanut butter didn't work (or snickers, or almond butter).

I'll try mushrooms in the traps tonight though, thank you.

(I have also contacted a professional pest control company now too. But at this point I'll do anything to get rid of it before they can attend).

Big cheese traps from Amazon work really well. Bait with peanut butter and load the trap and put it inside an empty cereal box and place lengthways along a wall.

Studiously and conscientiously close up all the holes.
do that and you won’t need to use poison.
or at least you will only need to use it to kill those trapped in the house.
i am not underestimating the time required for this. But this is what you need to do .

We went round the house and filled every single space, no matter how tiny, with ready made filler in a tube or steel wool and also taped over some of it.

This thread made me smile. Reminded me of the time I suspected mice and got humane traps. Only to find it had been our cheeky fluffy Hamster Dougal who had been abseiling down the stairs each night to eat my Kale seedlings. 🐹

Speaking of electrocution, is there anything online you can leave out discreetly to erm....zap him? ⚡️

Failing that, the absolute last resort for me, would be sticky traps. However you'd have to be prepared to either kill it once you found it or set it free outside. You couldn't throw it away with it stuck to the trap alive. That would be cruel.

But how do you geat behind kitchen cupboard and dishwashers and stuff to fill all the holes eg around waste water pipes? Pull out entire kitchen?

@GonnaBeYoniThisChristmas
Big chunks of steel wool tucked everywhere !

It can't get out because it was brought in by the cat. Which is reassuring in a way, but frustrating now.

I've just tried to deploy another spring trap with mushroom (thanks PP) but it just snapped on my hand 🤬. I've left DH to it!

We've tried shop bought mouse and rat attractant (in a tube), flour, bread, peanut butter, almond butter, snickers, cheese. And these have caught other mice, just not this Ultra Mouse.

It is getting into the kitchen and finding all kinds of things to eat. Not just food, but candles, bin bags, the oven gloves, parcel tape. All the food has now been put in glass jars and plastic boxes. The bread lives in the fridge.

But yes, we can hear it chewing the walls at night, and this is the second time it's chewed through the dishwasher cable.

We haven't tried a glue trap yet. But I'll try anything at this point.

We had a field mouse (rural area) that kept coming in, we,kept trapping it and taking it out again, over and over. Then we got a plug-in deterrent that somehow makes it uncomfortable for them to hang around, i think with high frequency sound waves, and it worked! Mouse stopped coming back in.

We've got some of these: amzn.eu/d/d7rxhEo

But I haven't tried putting them inside a box. I'll try that, thanks.

Peanut butter hasn't worked.

We have tried, but there are holes behind kitchen cupboards that we can't get to without ripping out the kitchen cupboards. Because we bought a cheap house.

We just can't get to the holes.

The house has been so poorly built.

There's a hole somewhere between the bathroom and the garage and I can't even find the hole.

Yeah, sticky traps will be a last resort (just call me Mrs Twit).

We tried the little nipper traps, which did work for mice. The little Jack Russell dog I had at the time (RIP) was also highly efficient in attending to them.

But when a rat and his mates came along we had no option but to call in a local pest control chap. I think he charged about £40 per call-out, which included setting the (humane) traps and coming back to check them. We needed to call him in twice but, after his second visit, we have (touch wood) not been bothered again. He was great and claims (reputable guy so no reason to disbelieve) not to use a rodenticide that causes secondary poisoning (I work with animals in the countryside and have seen owls and raptors killed by eating poisoned prey. Similar in the vets with cats who've needed emergency treatment after doing the same).

Good luck with it. And steer clear of this, if it's ever on the telly: Mousehunt (1997) - IMDb

Snake? I mean then you'll have snakes in the walls but they are quiet, don't smell and don't chew.

We've got in far enough to hoover out the poo, slide another trap in and spray liberally with a repellent spray.

But yeah, otherwise we have to rip out the kitchen cupboards.

I don't want to have to pay for a new kitchen!

Yep.

He was very pleased with himself. He'd recently graduated from catching leaves.

He now wears multiple bells and is confined to the living room (& outside) overnight.

sticky paper mouse traps alongside traps with peanut butter or a little chocolate as bait. if its a very light mouse or a shrew it won't set the traps off but the sticky glue traps will catch it.

It will die on the sticky paper quite quickly you definitely won't be peeling it off!!

My friend has said that she has had mice invade and they've eaten most of a bag of coffee beans followed by 10 packs of meal supplements.

Maybe try changing your bait?!