To be so scared of one little mouse

[Pistone]

I wonder what it is about them that make so many of us turn into hysterical wrecks. I mean they can't physically hurt us, they're so tiny, so why am I now so upset and disturbed because I've just seen one scurry across the kitchen floor.

I'm afraid if you have one mouse there's a chance there's more.
Get good traps, they love peanut butter.
Any holes, even tiny ones fill with wire wool.
Have heard they don't like menthol and to put cotton wall balls infused with it down.
Seriously, borrow a cat!!

I would offer my cat, but she's more likely to cuddle it.

Useless

Me too. I live in an Edinburgh tenement so they are an intermittent fact of life. I actually get panic attacks thinking about them

My cats bring in mice, voles, birds and shrews... I can cope with all of these, dead or alive, but if they ever bring home a rat, I will FREAK OUT. I couldn't deal with a rat. I'd have to make my DP come home from work to dispose of it.

It won't hurt you, Pistone.

We often get them in our house (mainly because the cats bring them in and let them go) They often then take refuge in the back of one of the sofas.

You can get humane traps from any hardware store. They love Mars bars and Garibaldi biscuits. The trap is made from rigid plastic, you don't have to look at it, easy to operate. Then just take it out to the nearest field (or patch of grass, well away from your house, obv) open the flap and it'll run away.

Good luck

It's an irrational fear though isn't it. My dh can't understand why they upset me so much. The speed of them though, and those long tails......

Carmine if a rat came into my house I would have to leave immediately and return when dh assured me it was gone.

It's the tail for me too, Pistone. Horrible thick scaly tails, urgh! Can't bear the idea. Mice are so small that it doesn't bother me, and shrews and voles have tiny/non-existent tails. I think I might wait in the car for him to get home!

I had a dead bird on my bed when I got out of the shower this morning, a kind gift from one of my kitties. Feathers EVERYWHERE.

I'm the same with spiders (as you might guess!) The poor things are harmless and even trap flies and other nuisance insects. But I totally freak out when I see one over a certain size. They're very common phobias, mice or rats or spiders. YANBU!
I've used those humane traps for mice. They're a long plastic box, and the mouse can get in to munch on a peanut, but can't get out. You must examine it often (the poor little thing will soon die otherwise) Just put it outside with the trap open and it will run off.
I love mice, rats or snakes. (Had Hissing Sid, a grass snake, in our last garden) But spiders.......eeeeeek!

One once jumped out at me when I was cleaning a rabbit hutch.

I now poke all over with a broom handle before diving in there.

shudders

Yanbu. DP found a mouse poo in our kitchen the other day (it was actually a dead woodlouse) and I was hysterical. I hate the bloody things! Mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters or anything with tiny teeth and claws give me the creeps. I can deal with creepy crawlies any day but show me a mouse and im gone