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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be at the end of my rope with this problem

79 replies

TallTilly · 22/08/2018 00:27

Two pre school kids. Stressful job. House is not great following an extremely busy period at work (I can work at nights or I can do housework but I can’t do both) but I’m slowly but surely getting back on top of it.

We have mice. We caught some in traps but there are more of them. This issue is really really giving me a lot of stress. It gives me the creeps I feel like everything is filthy. Worried about the kids catching something. Constantly hoovering poo. The traps aren’t working fast enough. They do eventually catch the mice but it seems to take ages.

I know I need to get the council out with their poison. It is £50 to do this which we don’t really have but will need to just find it or credit card it or something.

Can anyone put my mind at rest re the use of poison when I have toddlers in the house? This is why we haven’t put poison down so far but I feel that there is no other option now.

Pleas help 😞

OP posts:
TallTilly · 22/08/2018 08:29

Oh just to clarify it’s snap traps we are using. I hate killing them but I can’t prioritise their well being right now

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 22/08/2018 08:30

I think I had poison under the kick boards in the kitchen, behind the tumble drier and under the floorboards in my bedroom (there was an access hatch). Possibly in the loft too. None went in the playroom or the living room or anywhere the children went but the whole mouse infestation was dealt with.

TallTilly · 22/08/2018 08:32

So far we have seen no evidence of them being upstairs but it puts me off being downstairs at night. It is ridiculous.

OP posts:
grumiosmum · 22/08/2018 08:35

Poison works. Get it done professionally and your child will be perfectly safe. We've had it down with a dog who has never accidentally found it.

It's worth the money. Sell something on ebay to pay for it if you have to.

SoupDragon · 22/08/2018 08:36

I could hear them upstairs. It was horrendous! I know how you feel.

TallTilly · 22/08/2018 08:37

Rotting bodies and bluebottles though 😷

OP posts:
THEsonofaBITCH · 22/08/2018 08:40

Not wanting rotting bodies is why I liked the poison. Its thirst inducing so they generally try to get out and find water, or they end up in the loo and getting flushed away. I don't like the killing but I don't want them in my house more.

TallTilly · 22/08/2018 08:41

In the loo..?!

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tempester28 · 22/08/2018 08:42

As someone has said find the holes and put metal scourers (washing up type) in the holes. It really does work. You might need to cut them to size which is tricky. I lived in a very old house where mice used to come in through the tiniest holes. I know it feels horrible. One thing you could do with poison is put it out at night after kids are in bed and put it away in the morning. It is at night that they eat it anyway and you can tell if any has gone whether they are still getting in.

MrsMotherHen · 22/08/2018 08:42

we put posion down it worked although one was dead under the bath it stunk for about a week.

Tragicroundabout · 22/08/2018 08:43

We had a problem with mice after we had a load of building work done. There were signs of them everywhere but the last straw for me was when I found droppings in my younger son's cot!

We had tried the snap traps baited with peanut butter, but although we caught plenty it didn't get on top of the problem. I called pest control out and they put down poison in closed boxes that mice would be able to get into. They also advised that any gap big enough to fit a pencil through is large enough for a mouse. It is useful to try to work out existing access points and block these. Mice can gnaw through cement / concrete if they 'know' there is a gap there that is part of their usual run so you need to add something like wire wool to the mix as others have suggested as this causes them problems. If there are gaps they are not aware of these can blocked with expanding foam or even just covered by tape as they feel with their whiskers and don't try to gnaw new holes if they can't feel there is already a gap there ( if that makes sense).

We also bought the really fast acting mouse killer and found this to be the most effective way for us. They're not kidding when they say fast acting - we used to find the bodies either with their heads stuck in the bait box where they'd been feeding or just next to it. We were never aware of any bad smell due to mice dying under the floors etc. We also had a wood burner and sometimes incinerated the bodies in there - apparently the smell of burning mouse deters others. Sorry if that's a bit gruesome and I have no idea if it's true but thought I'd pass it on.

Hope you get it sorted it's really horrible when it's happening.

IrisAtwood · 22/08/2018 08:48

The only thing my cat ever caught is fleas when her treatment was late.

snoopydogg · 22/08/2018 08:49

Getting a cat might not solve it, my cat likes to play with the mice but not kill them. So actually he is more likely to bring them into the house rather than get rid of them.

Also a cat costs much more than £50 over its lifetime.

KnotsInMay · 22/08/2018 08:50

You cannot prioritise mouse welfare.
Get every kind of trap including the sticky ones and get your DH to deal with them if he will.

I would put down poison in totally inaccessible places, too. The after effects are short lived.

Personally I can’t see that a cat in the home is less hygienic than miice, in terms of where they sit and toddlers putting hands in mouths etc.

slithytove · 22/08/2018 09:00

I had this and felt much as you did.

I bought the sonic things, put one downstairs in kitchen and one in loft. Left some traps in obvious places and not a single mouse since.

It’s worth it honestly.

MissCharleyP · 22/08/2018 09:00

Not RTFT but they hate the smell of peppermint. I had them in a flat once, due to the revolting ‘food caddy’ recycling that my area had and the fact that the cupboards in my ‘fitted kitchen’ had no backs and so had a huge gap between the wall where mice easily got in. I brewed a few mint tea bags and placed them near walls and entry points, seemed to work.

TallTilly · 22/08/2018 09:03

That’s DHs view on a cat “we are just replacing one animal with another” (DH is not an animal fan...)

On balance I think we are going to just have to bite the bullet and call in the council before it gets any worse. And I’ll get some sonic things too

OP posts:
Bluetrews25 · 22/08/2018 09:04

You can use foil instead of wire wool if easier. They don't like to chew through that, reportedly.
Sonic repellers in multipack from B&Q or screwfix direct type place. Put enclosed traps at edges of rooms where they run along. Do not feel bad about killing them, they are not endangered species, they will come back if released elsewhere, and if unchecked more and more of us will be overrun! They aren't cute, tame pet mice, they are horrors that will happily chew through your electric cables so you need a complete rewire. It's frightening to see how many litters they can have in a year, and how many babies each time.
Keep all foods (that come in chewable packets) in high level cupboards, and put crockery in the floor based ones with food in glass jars or cans.

CitrusFruit9 · 22/08/2018 09:07

Might be worth seeing if any pest controllers locally are cheaper than your council - they sometimes are.

Having lived in a couple of old houses, one terrace house in a city and one surrounded by fields, both of which were incredibly attractive to mice, I count myself a bit of a mice expert.

I think you need both a short term and a long term plan and the advice you have had from PP is good. You must block up as many entry points as possible with wire wool. If you don't do this then you are largely wasting your time. The classic access points are broken air vents in brick work and the small gaps around where pipes come into the house, especially the water main. Also loft spaces. Do it now because when the weather turns colder in the Autumn, more mice will be looking for a warm spot to over-winter.

I'd try a combination of traps and poison. Have these out 365 days a year in inaccessible places like the loft and under kitchen cupboards even after you have stopped seeing mice. Check them regularly and you will soon see which areas are being used. Some mice are wary of new things so have them out all the time and in the same locations. Remember to push them against a wall, mice tend to run next to walls. I have never known mice move poison though they do tend to leave small stones (why I have no idea).

You don't need fancy bait for traps, I found mice would always take dry bread anchored with a dab of peanut butter (if you don't stick it down they get very good at pinching the bait whilst leaving the trap unsprung). Classic snap traps are the way to go. They are dirt cheap and mice are less suspicious of them than the fancy ones which require a mouse to go into a box. Wear gloves to set them, mice are wary of the smell of human hands.

If you can identify particular runs then I do think sticky traps are useful. I have caught mice which refuse to take bait this way. I used to put them down in the evening once the children and dogs were in bed and take them up in the morning. Any mice which were caught got a swift biff on the head - kinder than drowning.

My ultimate solution though was, I'm afraid, a cat, or two actually. Try and get one brought up on a farm or whose mum is a known mouser, apparently they learn from their mums. Our black and white moggie who was a kitten from a feral stray mother moved in and the mice moved out. I still have bait and traps down but never any sign of activity now. The only mice she catches now are in the garden and thankfully she never brings them in.

Maryann1975 · 22/08/2018 09:08

If you are struggling to pay £50 for the council pest control, please don’t get a cat, they cost far more than £50 when you take into account food, microchipping, jabs, neutering, vets bills etc. I’ve just had to pay £75 as mine had a sore on her paw and has needed a couple of lots of antibiotics and it’s take a while to sort it out. My cat also brings mice back to the house which You do not need!

Ihatethosemeecestopieces · 22/08/2018 09:10

I agree with a PP who said get the council out if you can afford to. They see this every day and know what they are dealing with.
A family member had an absolutely horrendous problem with both mice and rats which we were left to sort out.

The problem had been ongoing for years and this family member had been 'sorting it out' themselves and was adamant they didn't need help from family or external sources.
It all came to a head when this person had to go into hospital for an extended period and we were left to look after the house. Only then did we realise the true extent of the infestation.
We got the council pest control guy out who immediately put us at our ease and explained to us what needed to be done. It took several visits by him but he did eradicate the little bastards in the end.
We had no toddlers running around mind you so that wasn't a consideration for us.
It's left it's mark though, I'm now completely paranoid about mice and rats. Any little black bits I see on the floor are immediately, in my mind, either mouse or rat poo (they aren't actually but you know what I mean). Any strange noises I hear when it's quiet in the house are mice and/or rats scurrying around (again, not really).
An infestation can get very serious very quickly. IME you need to come down on it like a ton of bricks before it gets really out of hand.
Once you are rid of them, and you WILL be rid of them, clean, clean, clean like there's no tomorrow. That was the only way I could ever feel comfortable in that house again.
We now have one of those sonic scarers in situ permanently and have had no further problems since.
I understand completely how you feel but please don't beat yourself up about this. It's a lot more common than you might think.
Get tough op, wage war on the fuckers!
Flowers Brew Cake

CuppaSarah · 22/08/2018 09:30

You want to use marshmallows or.peanut butter in traps, they can't resist them. And steel wool in every possible tiny entry point. They can get into holes the size of a 5p.

FASH84 · 22/08/2018 11:12

Having a cat works for us, he killed a mouse last week, didn't even know we had one until he presented is with it, I tried to take it off him but he ate it (which was pretty gross but made him happy). DHs cousin had the poison put down, a rat ate it and then died and rotted under her floor boards!!! Cue lots of expensive work to remove it..

Momo27 · 22/08/2018 11:45

Remove the kick boards along the bottom of your kitchen units, put in traps or poison and replace the boards.

ThatLibraryMiss · 22/08/2018 11:45

Try baiting your Little Nippers with a bit of Snickers bar or the top layer of a Mars bar, both with chocolate attached.