Is there ever just one mouse??

[paulhollywoodshairgel]

Just had the shock of my life! A mouse just ran across my living room and disappeared down a tiny hole in the floorboard where the radiator pipe goes down. Is there ever just one??? I'm off work at the moment and I'm in this room all day every day so surely I would have notice if we were infested?? We have a cat so I'm praying he brought it in. No droppings anywhere and nothing chewed. What do we think??

Yes, there can be only one mouse!!

Happened when I was a kid and again when I was an adult.

You'd be better off taking action though and not risking it!

We had a few. They were coming up through a tiny hole where the pipe of the sink was. I blocked it with a wire scourer and it seemed to fix the problem.

That is very unlucky!

There can be just one. We had a single mouse twenty years ago in our first house when we started storing Costco sized boxes of cornflakes in the garage. Then we found a tiny renegade bombing about the couch several years ago when we first moved in here and tore a fireplace out. We got a cat because we thought 'there is never just one' but until last year we never saw another until the cat shot in from the garden carrying a wee pal who he immediately 'lost' under a wardrobe.

Got him!!!!

Sadly not. We've lived in our house for 26 years and we're mouse free until 2 years ago. We got 2 cats in 2018. The cats caught 3 each, DD caught one, but DH beat them all. He's caught 5.
DH blocked off all the holes he could find and we keep all food in sealed containers now. However we saw one run across the kitchen floor last week.
So many of our neighbours have mouse problems too.

That is DEFINITELY a field mouse and not house mouse. White belly.
Your cat prob brought it in.
Snap traps are best.
Take it outside and release it - it will prob beat you back and be watching X factor before you make it home.

Just googled him. I agree defo a field mouse. Cat probably brought him in days ago and I've only just noticed!! I baited the trap with our hamsters meal worms.. worked a treat as he scoffed the lot! I've put the trap back in case he had mates 😂😂

Definitely put the trap back - if only for the next one...

Sometimes there is just the one that got away. My older cat is terrible for it. Fortunately the younger one resolves the situation. Catch and relocate the mouse and leave the traps out just in case.

I have definitely seen a cat run through a cat flat with a mouse and lose interest after five minutes. Finding it was fun. Not.

I've just despatched of mouse number 3. Starting to freak out a bit. Pest man coming tomorrow 😱

It takes time to clear them all out.

Six or seven is usual.
Are you sure it's not the same one returning, if it's not a snap trap? It might like your house!

I put a green marker on the last one and he hasn't returned! I've had 4 so far.

Well done OP. You're doing a sterling job. I know it can really rattle you.
Think my count was 8 caught after I saw the first baby one run across my bedroom floor.
I had pest control out immediately.
Once they were gone I had pest control seal up the gaps. I've kept traps around the house just in case.
Hope it's not too long before they're all out.

Thank you. Mouse 5 has just been evicted!

Once, we had one mouse. Just once. No other issues seen or heard in 10 years. As in nothing. Totally random.

Hoarding Neighbour got her kitchen done out last winter. I saw many mice. It was clear we were ridden.
They'd been disturbed and came to our house. Pest people in, all sorted.
Now we have a cat.

Did pest control visit? Have they found where they are getting in from?

Throw poison down the hole and block the hole. Block every hole you can find. It might be one that just happened to find its way in but where there is one there are more! Wire wool and expanding foam will be your best friends.

Nope, I have experienced just one solitary mouse. This was in a top floor tenement flat in lockdown so I certainly would have noticed others. I also know other people who have experienced the same. Unusual but it can happen!

OP has trapped four more since her first post.

I grew up in an old house in the country and over the years we had regular onslaughts of mice, one particular occasion my Mother had spotted one and called out the vermin control agent, she was watching him putting down the little boxes and said "Is there any need for all those, it's only one mouse ?". I remember his response "The mouse, Mrs X is not a solo creature". Mice grow and reach sexual maturity very quickly so one pregnant mouse can quickly become an entire community.

We had a mouse free night last night!

The next step is to put bait outside a trap and see if it gets eaten in the night. Have you been washing the traps between use?
Mice are clever and will learn to avoid traps, especially if they can smell distressed mouse off it from prior occupants.