To be getting emotionally attached to the mouse in our house

[professorsnape]

We've had a mouse in the house for last week or so.

We tired leaving cheese on the trap but he ate it.
We left chocolate buttons but he helped himself to those to and went back into his hole.

Every night me and DD, age 4, think of what food to leave out on the trap to catch him. Every morning when he get up, said food has been eaten.

He is becoming a house pet at this stage!

DH are getting pest control to come into and TBH am feeling a bit sorry for him.

AIBU/Do I need to get a life?

Dogs and cats can be trained not to pee/poo everywhere, and not to chew everything. They can also be neutered and their access in and out of the house can be monitored.

If you work out how to do that with mice, fine. Otherwise, they do need getting rid of.

I have killed mouse infestations twice. Then I got cats and have had no evidence of mice bar dead ones brought in from the garden.

Mice in the garden or even the garage - fine.
Mice in my house - not fine.

Living with the ultimate deterrent for mice (cats, Owls and Birds of Prey) if a mouse manages to enter my house and stays alive long enough for me to catch it then it deserves to live and I will put it out of harms way. If it doesn't make it, its death will not be in vane as it becomes one of the aboves lunch.

pet owl icon

Perhaps Molly could try to house train mice using a punishment reward system and then when she has perfected her system she could set up a buisiness (as a rival to Rentokill) for all the soft hearted people who don't want to have to kill the mouses!
As for pest control, I'm not sure I'd be happy having to wait three weeks for them to come, as would have been the case when the ginger rat invaded my mums flat!

I know that the mice have come into the space between my roof and the plasterboard again, they were there last year too and I had to wait until they got into the cupboards to put poison down to get rid of them. I know they come in out of the cold but my house is bloody freezing.

I've not seen one yet but I can hear them scampering about in the insulation above my head when I'm in bed and I always check the bed before I get in, just in case. Now I'm going to worried about having one nibbling my hair in my sleep.

However, mice I can cope with but I have a massive fear of rats, I've always entertained the idea that if you have mice you don't get rats and to be honest that's how I like it.

I don't like to think of the pet cockroaches, pet slugs and pet woodlice that Molly keeps catching and carrying outside.

Poor things have all the trouble of walking back again to meet their friends and families.

we had mice in a rented flat. we got snappy traps not realising how awful those things are. we were watching tv, heard a snap in the kitchen and found a v alive but mangled mouse with his face caught :(. It was horrific, flatmate had to stamp on him to kill him instantly cos the poor thing was bring tortured. Still feel really guilty about this 3 years on :(

VERY unusual though - the majority kill the them instantly - we have caught LOADS!

Extra 'the' in there for good measure!

Sticky traps. Awful, but effective.

Or Rentokil. We forked out for them at our last place and they were very effective. The man was a wrong un' but he knew his stuff.

I liked one of the tiny ones though. He was really really small and dark and used to watch telly while I fed DS1 to sleep on the sofa.

Mice, I mean. Not Rentokil employee.

Glad you clarified that!

PLEASE no one use glue boards, they're absolutely horrific. It's like they were designed to torture as much as possible. They catch anything, not just mice. Birds and cats have become trapped and either suffocate or starved to death. Also you might find 2 little legs rather than a whole mouse as they sometimes panic and chew off their limbs to get away.

HIDEOUS

We had mice in the garage and used humane traps. Setting them free was a family event and the girls were gutted when they moved on because the pet food had been sealed off.

MNHQ- Can we have a little mouse emoticon please?

PMSL at freeing the cockroaches outdoors - it would take you forever to clear them all out! they live in the walls, you know - and they get back in far too easily.

There is a place for animal sentimentality, but not for cockroaches.

just slugs then?