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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Now what?

38 replies

RatInMeKitchen · 04/04/2011 23:14

Know that this is not the right board to post this on, but as it always is the most active....
Was just about to go to bed when I heard a scratching and gnawing noise in the kitchen. Thought it was outside at first, until I walked into the kitchen. Sound seemed to come from behind the bin. Poked it with a broomstick, and then decided to move the bin. Saw something jumping and running away. Looked like a big mouse. Please tell me it's a mouse. Not a rat.
Feel disgusted and am not sure what to do now. Dh is away this week.
Usually there's not just the one, is there...
Really don't understand how it got in. But am more concerned how to get it out.
HELP!

OP posts:
Plumm · 04/04/2011 23:19

Get down to B&Q - they've got loads of mouse/rat catcher things - get one of each if youdon;t know what it is. Or call Rentokill.

Mousesmummy · 04/04/2011 23:19

Get a cat in!
I saw one once - freaked me out a bit as it was late at night and like you my dh was away. There was nothing I could do that night as was late so just had to go to bed worried. Next day searched the house and found a half eaten apple under dd's BED! Bleached the house from top to bottom that day but it never came back . . . at least. . . I never saw it again Smile

chasingrainbows · 04/04/2011 23:24

we had mice frequently till we got cats. quite cute actually but they belong outside. i dont think rats come into houses. best and cheapest bet is to phone council pest control in the morning. mice can get in the tiniest of holes - through vents etc.

backwardpossom · 04/04/2011 23:25

Don't ignore it, even if it is 'just' a mouse, they can cause all sorts of damage. I'd probably phone the council, or Rentokil.

Original poster
RatInMeKitchen · 04/04/2011 23:27

that's why i posted on here! thanks all!
doesn't help that we are actually trying to sell our house at the moment.
great!

OP posts:
TheSecondComing · 04/04/2011 23:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
RatInMeKitchen · 04/04/2011 23:30

should just go and borrow one of neighbours cats, who seem to think that they live here anyway Grin
if they manage to catch the beast, i will change my opinion about cats in an instant (am more of a dog person).

OP posts:
Original poster
RatInMeKitchen · 04/04/2011 23:31

pregnant. aaaaargh.
you must be joking.
please tell me you are.
it sort of jumped up and scuttled away.
if it was a mouse, it was a BIG one.

OP posts:
Original poster
RatInMeKitchen · 04/04/2011 23:32

i was also terrified.
you should have seen me standing there trembling with the broom in my hands.

OP posts:
TheSecondComing · 04/04/2011 23:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
RatInMeKitchen · 04/04/2011 23:59

so it's probably a mouse then i think.
i just saw it jumping and this startled me.
will call the council pest control tomorrow morning.
for now, i have taken all the fruit from the fruitbowl and stuck it into the fridge (don't think they can get into there), and will stress the importance of washing all the fruit very carefully to ds1 and ds2. any open cereal boxes i have thrown just in case. would hate for any of us to get sick.

OP posts:
worraliberty · 05/04/2011 00:09

I'd have a look at Google images if I were you. Even big mice really aren't that big. Either way, pest control will probably be able to tell from the droppings...so if you happen to see any, sweep them up but keep them.

raffle · 05/04/2011 00:09

One of the staff called me 2 attend an 'incident', when I got there she said she had shut a mouse in the kitchen (WTF, that not what the on-call is for!).

Well, no sign of a mouse on my arrival, a council enviro health man said it was prob a rat, as they have a special skeleton which lets them flatten out tiny enough to skuttle under closed doors etc. Totally gross and unconnected to the OP, if only to reassure her that it was prob a mouse as a big old rat would prob have turned on her face on if provocted by a broom!

headzookeeper · 05/04/2011 00:10

chasingrainbows Mon 04-Apr-11 23:24:22
we had mice frequently till we got cats. quite cute actually but they belong outside. i dont think rats come into houses.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but they do. We had a family of rats under our stairs, and not as pets. We ended up having to get poison to get rid of them as the buggers were literally eating through boxes of cereal and whole loaves of bread overnight. We thought it was the dog at first as the packets were shredded so we assumed it was him managing to get into the cupboards and tearing the crisps, cereal , biscuits packs apart and scoffing them. We found out it wasn't after seeing one and looking closely at the remains of a bread packet and seeing tiny teeth marks. :( We have cats now and nothing small and furry has ever come back into the house. :o

oldsilver · 05/04/2011 00:21

Call the council in the morning!

I would not second getting a cat. We have some wasteland and a railway like where there are some rats living (council and environmental health are working on it). The only people who have had rats actually in their houses are cat owners. The cats are bringing them in or they are attracted by the smell of catfood and come in through the flaps...

SarahStrattonHasNiceBears · 05/04/2011 00:34

Did you see it's tail? Rats have quite thick, muscly tails compared to mice. Go to the hardware shop and get a trap and bait it with peanut butter or chocolate spread. Yuk, poor you.

thumbwitch · 05/04/2011 00:39

Could easily be a rat - I have also had ratsinmekitchenwhatamagonnado and it had me up on my tippytoes in a most girly and unlike-me manner!

Call the council - tell them it's rats - they might come out for rats where they mostly won't come out for mice. But it depends on the council, lots of them will redirect you to a local exterminator now anyway.

Check all your airbricks, make sure there are no cracks, splits or bits missing.

Don't bother with humane traps - the buggers are way too cunning for them; poison is the best way to go, they take it back to their nests as well. Most current poisons, especially the industrial grade ones that they use for rats, contain a desiccant to stop the bodies rotting, they just dry out.

Good luck - it's a helluva shock but they can be got rid of.

mybrainsthinkingfuckyou · 05/04/2011 00:47

Okay ratinmekitchenwhatrugonnado

You have two choices - you can either get a friendly trap - put peanut butter or nutella in it and wait for it to click then - and this is important - take the box several miles away to release the mouse or it will find its way back

Or get the proper spring instant traps - put newspaper down there will be some blood.

Available B+Q.

I don't personally like the poison as i have kids and don't want dying corpses rotting in walls and think dehydration is more cruel than an instant steel trap - NOT glue or a weak trap as the poor little buggers will panic/not die instantly/bite their legs to escape.

I have done both - the friendly ones worked and i felt great but then when i still had six in the loft pre moving i had to get tough. Similarly last year we had 4 mice (2 on two separate occasions) and i had to use steel traps as i was pregnant and scared of congenital LCMV.

I am saying 'i' but i mean 'he'...my DH has had to buy, bait and dispose of mice dead or alive as I am a big baby Oh don't kill it OMG get rid of it plus shrieking.
Big bag of hypocrisy that's me.

My DH was away too last time and i refused to enter kitchen til he got back...we lived on take out for a week til he returned. If it happened now with a 4 month old then i'm off to a cheap hotel for a few nights.

It's the tails.

BUT and this should cheer you up at least you are not dealing with sewer rats coming up via your loo. I shit you not. You tube toilet rat and that is far far worse than any kitchen mouse!

thumbwitch · 05/04/2011 03:57

mybrain - just to put you straight on one thing - the poison kills the rats quickly, the dehydration is after they die, it doesn't cause death. The desiccant stops the corpses rotting - they just dry out.

onceamai · 05/04/2011 06:43

It's not the end of the world. We have had a rat (twice) - in 17 years one gnawed through a wooden ventilation board under the back step (replaced immediately with terracotta (or something similar) and another (it was huge) got in through a tiny hole at the back of the house (now stuffed with wire wool which according to Rentokil no mammal can penetrate). We blame it on being near the river - as do Rentokil but they also say there are tons and tons of them around here - absolutely nothing to do with hygiene or lack of it.

Call Rentokil - they have "safe" traps that children can't access and they arrive very very fast. Worth every penny in my opinion - I think it was 270 last time! They also come back to see if the treatment has worked and they check for entry points and droppings and identify and provide brilliant advice (discount next time Rentokil). We have had a cat for three years now (after the last episode) and haven't had any signs of mice since - yes we used to get a few of those too - big old house - pretty clean though.

ChairOfTheBored · 05/04/2011 06:57

Call Rentokill, or the council. Where there'e one, there could be more, and you really don't want the little sods chewing through any wiring.

We had a rat in the garden, really frickin' brazen it was. You couldn't even chase it off, it would just sit there, and look at you. The rat lady from the council came out 5 times, for free. I was v impressed.

lambethlil · 05/04/2011 08:00

I need Rentokill or a cat. OP- you do not want to know how many I'd trapped this morning.

JuicyOlive · 05/04/2011 08:03

YABU. I've now got that bloody annoying Ub40 song in my head thanks to your user name.

TheyKnowEsperanto · 05/04/2011 08:57

Rentokil were going to charge me £350 for visiting once a week for 4 weeks just to step traps/check mouse poo for evdence and get rid of any bodies (the bit I didn't want to do for definite - the rest i could do myself). Instead I bought two electric shock rat traps from Amazon (£27.50 each) and it was sorted within a week (put some nutella in there) - they are electrocuted so it is as humane as possible with no mess/gore and you know there is a dead mouse or rat in there from the red flashing light on the top of the trap so you can dispose of the body without even having to see it.

www.amazon.co.uk/Procter-Bros-Ltd-PSERK-Electronic/dp/B000FII3YW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301987794&sr=8-1-spell

dreamingbohemian · 05/04/2011 09:47

Just to reassure you, it's indeed possible that it's just the one mouse, and getting rid of it will solve your problem (this has happened to me in several places I've lived)

Have also found the most effective way to get rid of them is the nastiest -- those glue strips. If you place them well they'll get stuck in them very quickly. Unfortunately then they scream their little hearts out and you have to, er, dispatch them. Maybe not the kind of show you want to put on for the DC...

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