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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Mouse!!!!

92 replies

Peaches77 · 16/02/2017 02:55

Just seen a mouse run from one side of kitchen to the other...by time h got in it was gone. After a while I convinced him to go get traps...no traps in Asda but he got some posoin...so
He has put the along sides and behind cupboard skirting boards. I had left the window open tonight so obv how it got in. I could cry have a genuine fear. What's the chances the posoin will work tonight and there's only been one

OP posts:

notgettingyounger · 16/02/2017 12:49

You need to borrow a cat. Even for one day. The smell makes mice scarper. We had mice for years (Georgian house, lots of small cracks plus our floorboards are joined to the houses either side so if anyone gets mice, we all get mice.) We tried everything - poison, traps etc to no avail. 2 days after buying a kitten (not yet capable of hunting) the mice vanished never to be seen again. BTW the dog was USELESS. He just watched the mice curiously when they ran across a room.

Then we had rats. Honestly, I would never worry about mice again when you have had rats. I told DH I thought we had rats as I heard thumping about behind the kitchen cupboards, and squeaking, and thought a cat had got stuck there and then realised I knew where the cats were and it was not behind the cupbaords. He said not to be ridiculous and it must be the mice back, so we put one of those transparent blocks with cubes of mouse poison into a cupboard. The next day, the WHOLE BLOCK had disappeared - it must have weighed over a kilogramme and they must have taken it off behind the cupboards!!!!!! In the end, we caught them in flip top bins. It took a year for the smell to go. So don't worry too much about mice! Rats OTOH are absolutely gross.

NotStoppedAllDay · 16/02/2017 12:51

Baby mouse ..., there's the rest of the family to worry about as well then

ElderDruid · 16/02/2017 13:01

NotGettingYounger - no no no no! I'm going to need therapy now. Getting out the Yellow Pages.

We had something in an outside shed as DH put my newspapers out of the way. When he came to sort out the sheds in spring they were chewed up. I get paranoid, because the sheds are raised, I'd guess it'd be a perfect hidey spot.

Hopefully OP's guest will be waiting in a trap when she gets home. Then lots of anti bac'ing.

Did someone say on another post a mouse jumped 6 foot over her head?

SistersOfPercy · 16/02/2017 13:06

I assume our single mouse was a field mouse as we back on to fields. We bought a noise emitter as well and it's still in there, whether it helped or not I don't know but it didn't come back.

I have a quite un terrier like Scottie dog, he'd run the opposite direction if he saw one I think, but he did know when we had the mouse. He'd go into the porch and snuffle like mad. I watch him like a hawk now if he goes in there to see if he has a good sniff

GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick · 16/02/2017 13:07

Younger - a friend of mine got back from a 3 week honeymoon to no lights downstairs and an awful smell.

Turned out to be a rat that had chewed through the wiring and electrocuted itself under. Urgh! The joys of living near a tube line...

DF once had rats in one of the bank branches he worked at. He said you never forget the smell (because it looks like a vomit face)

GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick · 16/02/2017 13:07

under the dining room floorboards

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 16/02/2017 13:14

Oh I love little mice. They're so sweet. If I found one. I'd end up keeping him as a bloody pet.
However I do understand I'm very much in the minority.
How true this is. I don't know, but. I heard that. Any space where something small as a pen top can fit through. A mouse can fit through, as. They have no bones. Again how true that is. I don't know, so make sure they're are no holes anywhere. No matter how small.

BubbleWrapQueen · 16/02/2017 13:14

I had mice here three years ago. I am honestly still traumatised. I am petrified of them, and what I thought was just one wasn't. Turned out they were in the terrace - two doors down had them in the loft chewing through all their baby stuff :-( we eventually stopped them with wire wool everywhere and the sticky boards. The cats we got two years ago are obsessed with the kitchen though, so think they still technically live in the walls - but if I don't see them or hear them I don't care. I am absolutely petrified and screamed and burst into tears the first one I saw.

Original poster

Peaches77 · 16/02/2017 13:23

We back on to lots of fields there are no droppings I've checked all the cupbOards pulled the kick boards out all clear 😥😥

OP posts:

ElderDruid · 16/02/2017 13:36

Now ive seen a magpie - was looking out the back garden which admittedly I do a few times a day as I'm so OCD about this.
A magpie was just sitting there not sure why. Wouldn't have minded if the magpie had a friend.
I've heard noises in the loft and DH said it was birds. So we paid to have them sorted and wire mesh put up so they couldn't get back in again.

I remember a friend tell me with glee they can climb into your toilet. Last week DS blocked the toilet and DH had gone away. So there was no choice for me to sort it, I didn't mind but I kept thinking what if it was something trying to climb up that caused the blockage.

I would go as far as to say it's a phobia. But exposure therapy is good, so I thought reading all your rodent issues my help me a bit.

Original poster

Peaches77 · 16/02/2017 13:38

I have a real phobia but H is useless so it's up to me to sort this and I just feel like crying

OP posts:

MumW · 16/02/2017 14:45

I found evidence of mice in our garage. I got one of these www.wilko.com/pest-control/big-cheese-multi-catch-mouse-trap/invt/0260566. So far, I've caught 1 slug!

Last time we caught them successfully using chocolate digestives! I'd put the entire trap into a bucket, drive 2 miles out into the countryside and then release it. No need to touch the mouse at all. Apparently, you need to go at least 2 miles else they find their way back.

GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick · 16/02/2017 14:58

peaches - given your description and the local fields, yours really does sound more like a curious/lost/cold field mouse to me than an infestation! so yes get the council or Rentokil out, but honestly, i don't think you need to worry :)

Silverthorn · 16/02/2017 17:25

I aaw the neighbours cat worrying under a wooden flower trough yesterday. Moved it and a rat ran off. It had hoarded some guinea pig food under. The gap was half an inch! I now need to rat proof the guinea pig run. (hopes it didnt get it from the house)!!

ElderDruid · 16/02/2017 18:42

They say rats are the same, their bodies squish up through tiny spaces. I believe in God, what was he thinking with these creatures?

Silverthorn · 16/02/2017 18:45

Shudder

ItsThatBeverleyMacca · 16/02/2017 18:52

Not sure if this has been mentioned as I've only skimmed the thread but we've managed to catch 3 mice in our house using a large Wellington boot - if you can herd them in there, they run in but can't get straight back out. Then quickly pick the welly up and release mouse elsewhere! When we first rescued our cat he brought a few in during his first weeks with us, then released the poor things alive in the living room

Clandestino · 16/02/2017 20:57

I know there a mice and rats around as my cats love to bring desserts home to enjoy. None of my cats has a problem killing a rat, if it moves, it's free season. I've heard stories of cats being afraid of bigger rats but if your cat is over 13.3 pounds of muscle and bones, they perhaps see things differently. If you live near fields, a good cat is worth its weight in gold.

Original poster

Peaches77 · 16/02/2017 22:41

Just gutted the kitchen again no droppings at all downstairs traps haven't went off yet 😥 People keep saying it's prob went out but I'd rather see it caught for peace of mind. Fuck fuck fuck I am on edge

OP posts:

GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick · 16/02/2017 23:23

Beverley - and that is why I hated putting on wellies as a child after they'd been sitting in the garage for months!! Again more for spiders than for mice though...

notgettingyounger · 17/02/2017 08:44

OP I think you can stop worrying. Your mouse sounds like it has gone. Honestly, mice are something you will get over.

Can everyone forgive me for telling my other rat story? A friend of mine had rats come up from her toilet bowl - I had always thought that was a myth but apparently not. She had to have some kind of metal grill fitted further down the pipe to stop them getting as far as the loo, and then the rats chewed through the plastic of the pipe (releasing rats and sewerage) so she had to have metal pipes. All in her house!!! Yuk, yuk, yuk!!!! The council were brilliant btw when we had rats. To start with they were a bit it's probably mice, but completely changed their minds when they saw the 2 rats I had by then caught myself in the flip top bins (they could get in but not out - rats are not as clever as we think they are). When the guy opened the bin he stood over it with a large spade ready to clobber them. He said they can play dead and then spring up at you. Again, yuk, yuk, yuk.

Needless to say, I live in Sarf London where there be dragons rats.

Moonbear10 · 17/02/2017 08:50

Sounds like a field or wood mouse, if I told you that, when they're tame they're the sweetest most interesting little critters to watch, would you like him a bit more?
Try humane traps before the snap ones, your dh can take it far away to a field somewhere if you catch it

GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick · 17/02/2017 08:51

Yep, rats totally come up the toilet. We used to have a house in Spain and when DM died we didn't go for a while. Eventually decided to sell it and so went over to look at clearing it out - rats. And that's the only way they could have got in. Agent said you're supposed to leave the toilet lids down with a brick on top!!!

They were clever little bastards though. We didn't leave food but the bodega was full of drinks. They had dragged all the cartons of orange juice up the stairs to the lounge and onto the sofas to drink!!!

They'd also clearly relocated onto the marble staircase where it was cooler during the summer months.

DF wouldn't believe me for ages that there was some sort of animal - kept telling me to shush whilst he went through the post etc. Then he went into the kitchen and came out again pretty fucking sharpish! He said they were the size of cats. Shudder.

greenworm · 17/02/2017 10:01

When we had nice the only way we eventually got rid was by crawling round the whole flat on our hands and knees, filling in all cracks in skirting boards with wire wool. Once we got all cracks filled, we stopped seeing them. It was far more effective than traps/poison.

TheNoodlesIncident · 17/02/2017 11:29

I think this is a field mouse. When our house's supply of resident mice (that we didn't know we had prior to the cats arriving) ran out, the cat resorted to finding some somewhere else and bringing them home. This one seems a bit larger than the ones our remaining cat finds (and it got away, I'm sure you'll be delighted to know)

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