Surely they're not...

[chitofftheshovel]

I'm doing a belated spring clean. I've just found fresh mouse droppings in my bathroom, I've never seen any signs of mice in the house before, but I guess it's par for the course in living semi-rurally, in an old cottage combined with the weather starting to change.

So I thought there would bound to be signs of them in the kitchen too. Nothing. Bread/bag cupboard, very accessible to mice from the back (in fact I found a heap of slugs under some bags) - no signs at all, no droppings, no nibbles of bread, nothing.

Checked the rest of downstairs, all the usual nooks and crannies, nothing (apart from a mahoosive spider).

AIBU to suspect they've just come in to use the loo and they're back frolicking? WIBU to put out a mini litter tray where I found the droppings?

What are they eating in the bathroom?

Absolutely nothing. It's a teeny tiny room. With no food ever (eugh) consumed in there.

Have you checked your sanitary products? Shredded tampon is an excellent resource for mice in search of extra soft bedding. I don't know how they cope with mooncups though.

Forget bread/cereals - check your chocolate stash. First time we had mice, the nuggets ate through my not inconsiderable stockpile of bloody expensive chocolate.

The second time, they stole a whole punnet of nectarines (fuck knows how! Walking atop them, circus style?) only to return two the next morning (presumably not ripe enough, as they were ripen at home ones! Cheeky feckers )

Mice can eat soap. It's full of fat. Does your soap look nibbled on?

We had rats get in to our outhouse last year just before Christmas. They ate the lush bath bombs but didn't touch the hotel chocolat that we had stashed in there.

Could it be bats? Bat droppings can look rather like mice (I know this from a church where I've got family - gets properly cleaned up only for special occasions because it's such a hopeless task).

Mice come into my airing cupboard now and again and I've NEVER seen any evidence of them elsewhere in the house. There is no soap or anything else to eat in there, just towels and sheets. It's a great nuisance as I have to take everything out of the cupboard and wash it, then find somewhere else to keep it whilst the mice are slaughtered dealt with. I think they just like it in there because it's cosy.

They could be living in your walls/attic and have just been passing through the bathroom via gaps for pipes etc. Chocolate and bird seed are the two things they seem to go for in my house!

Well, I've deep cleaned the bathroom, soap intact, tampons intact.

pandas they returned the nectarines? How on earth? I smell a rat.

It's defo not bats python

And surely rat/rabbit loving JRT would be on them in a flash.... Very odd

And yes pumpkin I suppose they could just be passing through but the only pipe in the wall is really well sealed, then there are just the down pipes for toilet and shower, which I don't imagine a mouse would use. A rat maybe?

The whole thing was clearly a military-style operation.

They stole the nectarines in the half hour I left them on the kitchen floor post Ocado delivery (was child wrangling). Their hole into the house was at the side of a huge chimney breast - the following morning, two nectarines had been rolled back out of the hole and a little way across the floor, I kid you not. It did make me laugh when I discovered them as I went down to sort out breakfast for the dc

My bloody DH woke me the other night to say he had seen a mouse come from under the sofa and run towards the TV. Quick check that night at 1am found nothing, I spent the next few hours trying to get back to sleep. Next evening we pulled the full living room out nothing I'm sure what he saw has something to do with the couple of cans of larger he had consumed.

When the DC were toddlers out whole house was covered in discarded raisins, rice cakes, wee bits of chewed up apple, etc. We also had a troop of ants who only ever appeared in the bathroom, stood on the toothpaste tube, looked a bit confused and left again. 2mm outside the bathroom door was knee high, wall to wall ant food but we never found them anywhere else
I wonder if something is chasing the mice and your bathroom is a good place to bolt?

Pandas that wasn't mice, it was Borrowers!

We had a mouse in one of my student houses that we never saw any droppings or nibblings from (I don't think he was living with us, just visiting). He did get both of my housemates pet mice pregnant though...

Angie

Ds would be delighted if that were the case, but I got the culprit, so sadly I think we are borrower free

We've had mice on and off for years - we live in a very rural area in the middle of a field, in an old-ish cottage with plenty of access points. The biggest draw for them is the dog treats I stash under the sink, and my washing up sponges.

If I keep everything sealed in plastic boxes they stay away, but if I get complacent and shove things in there loose, eventually I'll open the cupboard door and be rewarded by a shower of shredded wrappers and sponge crumbs. We did bait traps with chocolate but never caught them - bloody little bastards took up residence in my husbands work van once. They are prolific around here.

Not as prolific as the cluster flies that live in our loft from year to year, but that's a whole other thread relating to cowpats.

Panda That is hilarious. I can just imagine the scene inside the little mouse hole -
"Honey, I'm home!"
"Did you get those chocolates I wanted?"
"Nah..that bloody woman was hanging about again, but I got us some lovely nectarines instead!
"Fuckin' hell, Bert...look at the size of them! We'll never finish those off...we need to keep space free for the soap and tampons, you dickhead!"
"What shall I do with them?"
"Bung a couple to the kids...the rest you can sling back out the door..."

iggy.

It did feel as though the rodents were rejecting my produce, and I felt momentarily miffed (until I realised I was caring what the mice thought of my fruit ) and handed myself a grip

But it signalled the start of proper warfare - no one messes with my nectarines and gets away with it!