Tell me how to get rid of mice! Desperate!

[FlatsInDagenham]

We've had mice in our Victorian terrace for too long. Many months. We've used a humane trap and we did catch 2 mice ages ago using that, but this latest batch don't go near it.

Every morning I come downstairs to find mouse poo behind my sofas and all over my DD's highchair . They are also slowly killing my piano from the inside by leaving poo / wee / dog biscuits inside it.

Last week we put poison down, but so far there is absolutely no change and the bait trays don't look as if they've been disturbed.

What should I try next? An old fashioned spring trap?

By the way, I don't really want to kill them but the poo on the highchair really gives me The Rage and the humane trap isn't working.

Well, not one scurrying about at any rate...

The thing about the plugin buzzers is that they will (usually) stop mice coming in to live in the house; they will go and find a quieter place, but they don't drive out mice that are already nesting, because it's not bad enough to make them desert their young. So you need to use other methods to get rid of them first and then use the plug-ins to try to stop new ones coming back. And if you use humane traps make sure you release the mice a good long way away - they can find their way back from surprisingly long distances.

Proper killing traps. Poison didn't work - the mice dragged the poison tray all the way around the back of the cooker and then ran off, leaving little blue-dyed footprints. Dog doesn't work - too slow. (He's a whippet cross Staffie, so he tries, but they shoot behind the kitchen cabinets too quickly). I can't have a cat because the dog is definitely not cat-friendly.

I now have 6 killing traps. One night I caught 10 mice - 4 before I even went to bed and 6 overnight! I bait them with peanut butter.

Block up all holes where possible. I live in a rented cottage in the middle of farmland and we get mice all sodding winter. The landlord sent someone round to block up visible holes using wire and cement - the mice were coming in through the bathrooms where the pipes were leaving gaps in the walls. They've recently done some holes behind the cooker (over the summer so I don't know yet if it will work). Sadly there is a hole behind the boiler which is impossible to reach, but if the latest attempt in the kitchen stops them coming in there then we will just ring the boiler with traps and keep the cupboard door closed.

I am crap at remembering to clean up all crumbs/dirty dishes etc before bed, but I'm sure if I got better at that the mice wouldn't come in so much. Although they also like the heat, so it might not help.

I once killed a mouse with the frying pan. I was 7 months pregnant, hormonal and so pissed off with the little fuckers. I saw something move in the stack of dirty dishes out of the corner of my eye, lifted the heavy-bottomed frying pan and there was a mouse crouching behind it. Didn't think at all, just went SMACK down with the pan. Flattened the little bastard. I was too appalled by what I had done to lift the frying pan and DH had to check that the mouse was actually dead. It was.

If you don't want to get a cat permanently then borrow one for 48 hours. The mice disappear immediately even if the cat is not a mouser - they sense the cat is there. Hopefully the aroma of cat should stick around for a while too.

If you live in a Victorian terrace then you may well find that the mice can get from one house to another under the floorboards or at attic level so ask your neighbours if they are suffering too, and act together.

Used the plug in thing and it seemed to work.

Also tried peppermint oil but dh hated the smell (why) so don't know if it would have worked.

Get someone in. Not just for traps and poison, but advice. Self-help didn't do for us either, we're on a contract with someone now and it is working. Also all of the following:

Ruthlessly efficient food clear-ups, as others have said;

Plug-in sonar/buzzers;

Check they are not in your cupboards eating stuff and if they are, have everything in sealed containers;

Seek out every hole and cranny you can find, and stuff it with wire wool. If you've got old ventilation bricks in the walls, put wire mesh over them. Check outlet pipes etc do not have gaps by them, and if they do, buy that squirty foam-hardens-like-concrete stuff (technical, me) to fill them;

Wear disposable gloves to handle traps and bait to avoid getting your scent on them, as the mice then avoid them;

If all else fails, get a ferret or two in, and let them loose. Better than cats, apparently.

We used the killing traps after the cat bought in live mice then list them. Peanut butter works well.

The things that plug in and make a little clicking noise worked for us.

Pest control people cost loads and doing it yourself is a better option, you can top up the poison bait more regularly than any pest control people [and you will need to]

Buy some Neosorexa gold poison bait, you can get it on Ebay or amazon.

That poison bait got rid of a pretty heavy infestation we had within days.

You can get a 1KG tub for about £11-12 and I only needed less than half of that to get rid of them.

Get a bucket. Fill with water. Tie some string tightly across the top. Tie some string around a cork. Smear the cork with a lot of peanut butter. Tie the stringed cork to the string that you've placed across the bucket. They'll drown in the bucket.

I know this sounds awful but I did this when I couldn't stand them raiding my cupboards again. It works.

You need stronger poison, sadly, or nippy traps. We had rats in the loft a few years ago, and they were resistant to the poison available from farm shops - in effect, we were just feeding them

The pest control people have poisons that work differently, and will actually kill the fuckers! (I say this as a vegetarian of over 20 years. I'm the only one who decides who lives in my house, thank you very much!)

I should add that I've used poison in the past but the problem is they crawl off and die and then you have to deal with the flies

Have just brought an array on Big Cheese products so will let you know if they are any good. Now have 6 traps in a bedsit. May actually get some sleep tonight.

Just buy a couple of dozen traps (proper nipper types) bait with fruit gums (easy to stick on and hard for mice to remove) and put them down everywhere that you find evidence of mice. Put extra ones out overnight on the highchair etc. Then find where they come in and leave baited traps there permanently. Don't poison in the house - dangerous for small children, and stinky dead little bodies not attractive!

Do not call Rentokill or any of the big name companies. They charge for the name and do nothing more than the council will.

Phone your council and ask for advice and for a visit. Some will do it for free, others will charge a reduced rate.

The poison I mentioned has something in it that calcifies their bodies so no fly/smell issues.

Big guns. No humane stuff....

I had rentokill visit my old flat every six weeks. It was the only way. And that was every six weeks for the rest of time. In an old building you are basically constantly dealing with this.

I now live in what is basically a new build - its actually 200 years old but was derelict and had to be stripped back to bare walls and rebuilt. I took the opportunity to get the bottom two floors (basement and gf) hermetically sealed. No mice here but that's what it took . I feel for you OP. I hated it so much.

Actually, thinking back to being little and living in a house with lots of holes next to a field (= many, many mice), we always just used nippy traps. Gross but effective.

Council not interested here.

Humane traps just mean you release the same mice over and over again. I tested this, using a nontoxic permanent marker. I colored purple the chest of a mouse before release. Two days later, I caught the same mouse. Block entrances, keep open food in chew proof plastic or metal containers, and get a cat.

We used to get them quite often and I didn't want to use poison or traps at first, my cat was as much fecking use as a chocolate teapot as he would actually bring the twatting things in the house alive

so I tried something I found on youtube .....

Half filled an old mop bucket, got a finished toilet roll holder, dipped it in jam/honey then rolled it in porridge ( you can use what you want really), cut a piece of string to go through the loo roll holder and tie well on each side of the bucket - the tempting dipped loo roll holder should sit nicely in the middle of the string now.
Place bucket where you know the mice are and provide the little twats with some sort of ladder at one end of the bucket NOT near where the string is tied though - you want mousey to climb when he smells the food then jump onto the loo roll holder, which starts turning when it's landed on enabling him to take an eternal swim :)
I caught lots doing this but after a few years we had what felt like bloody millions of them one winter and I'd had enough and used the traps and poison.
Good luck

Also meant to add, as others have said fill ALL holes/tiny gaps inside and outside your home. I had quite a big gap where a water pipe entered the house and some large gaps around the door.

Old fashioned spring traps baited with chocolate or peanut butter, and go round with a bowl of Polyfilla and a bowl of quick drying cement and fill every single tiny crack or crevice that you can find.

My cat is a useless fucking ginger twat. He brings them IN from outside nevermind getting the inside ones. Anyway, eventually we got a Jack Russell and she's fabulous.