to serve Sunday lunch after discovering this?

[MrsLukeDanes]

Quick honest responses please! I have one of those double ovens with a drawer underneath where I keep baking trays etc. Just gone to get one out for the chicken and found a little mouse poo in the pizza tray. No other evidence anywhere in the kitchen, had a good look. Fairly certain the culprit is because DH insists on keeping his log pile stacked up leaning on the wall directly behind the oven and there is a flue thing. Nothing in the oven itself. Can I just thorougly clean all baking trays I'm actually using and carry on as normal and sort the problem out later? Guests arriving at 1pm!

Thoroughly clean everything and carry on.

What else are you going to do? quarantine the area?

I'd just give everything a good clean before I used it. Most people get a mouse or six two in their kitchens at some point.

I would do as you suggest.

Yeah you'll be fine but bear in mind that mice are, so I'm told, incontinent and leave a trail of wee wherever that go so a good reason to catch the little tike and liberate him into the countryside (or the town if you live in the countryside!)

Use boiling water to wash the stuff with. Give it a spray with antibacterial spray, dunk in boiling water. With kids you can't be too careful!

Ok, phew - I'm not going to poison guests if I just clean everything and carry on? Will get to the bottom of how the little critter got in tonight.

Actually if you have a dishwasher, put them through a cycle.

Ok, thanks Cockypants - got kettle boiling. :o)

No, no dishwasher, so kettle at the ready.

Yes - just clean everything.

But, be warned, it's probably not just one little critter. Every time I've had mice - field mice sauntering through an open window, bold as brass, high flowerbed, low window, it's never just one. They travel in family groups.

Do all of the above and definitely never mention any of this to any of the guests :)

bleurgh. Any tips on how to get rid and discourage?

Gamerwidow - thought it would be a good conversation starter over the roast potatoes! ;o)

what if the poor wee mite is in the oven when you use it?

You need a humane trap and some chocolate or peanut butter. Catch mouse. Take it somewhere else - apparently they can "home" so you need to go at least a mile. Repeat until you think you've got the whole family.

Or get a cat.

Just use snap traps! Not humane traps.....removing a mouse from its home territory will confuse it and it will die a miserable death.

fill all holes with wire wool/brillo, pay particular attention to places where pipes/drain enter/leave the house. A mouse can get through a space the same size as you can poke your little finger into.

Lay traps near to these points and around the edges of rooms, mice rarely cross open spaces if they can scoot around the edges.

Check also where pipes come up from floorboards if you live in a semi or terrace. They could be coming from next-door.

A neighbour used a humane trap and then went away on holiday and forgot about it. Not at all humane as it turned out.