We don't have mice

[KatnissMellark]

Do we?

Keep finding the dead fuckers everywhere. Cat is a great mouser and loves to bring them home to us. No evidence of droppings anywhere, no scuttling in the night, never seen a live one.

But since autumn we've found one dead somewhere on an almost weekly basis. This is out first year in this house and DCat did bring us presents in the old one but not so frequently

It's is an extremely old house, double cellar and chimneys in every room, they wouldn't be in the chimney would they? Surely we'd have heard them if so?

Cats can roam quite far, there could be a mouse infested shed or garage nearby where kitty is finding them. Put a couple of live traps around the house to check it isn't your place.

I'd there such a thing a toddler safe traps @SnowdropFox?

There might be a nest somewhere and kitty is bringing you 'gifts'.

Ours finds a nest from time to time. We'll get a mouse (dead/alive/decapitated) a day for a week, and then nothing.

One a week would be great..... we get a present every day, sometimes two. Often a live gift which we chase around the kitchen, occasionally lose, and have to put traps down to catch. Sometimes a whole dead offering, usually just a bum or a stomach, sometimes just a smear. We do live next to a field though, so Arthur has a lovely time in there, and is very proud of his offerings, and very sad if we catch them and let them go.

You can get humane traps I'm not sure how toddler safe they would be obviously don't get the snap traps!

Don't know about toddler safe but I'd be putting them places the toddler wouldn't be going anyway, the loft, the garage, cellar etc.

We movwd into an old farm. Got 18 the first 24 hours. 18!! And when you go barefoot to the bathroom at night... yrrrdk !!! Still get 4- 6 presents a day..

We didn't realise we had mice until there were a lot of them the cheeky fuckers were relatively silent at first and then they were everywhere, it took us a few weeks to snappy trap them all away. No visible droppings until we emptied cupboards and then we started to see how much evidence there was of them.

We’ve had them twice - and we did know immediately. Heard them, then saw them, very brave little critters. Only way to get rid was blocking the way they get in which was not easy.

We have a nest at the side of the house. Neighbour's cat sometimes brings one to the back door and eats the poor little thing, or part of it. If I leave the door open he will bring them in and eat them.

Our mouse problem was due to him, he caught one which I rescued from him, it ran and hid, while trying to check where it had gone it must have got into the house before the patio doors were shut. Of course he wasn't interested once it was indoors so I had to block all the holes in skirtings, floorboards, vents etc. Poor little soul died under the floor as I thought he had gone out for the day when blocking it.

You either have mice which are being kept under control, or you are receiving gifts.

Ours were not house mice, they are a different type and tend to stay in their own home unless dragged out by kitty.

Block all holes with wire wool/Brillo pads, every single tiny hole and see if you still get them, get a black light urine detector and check floors and surfaces, set up a camera and see what happens before you buy traps which you may not need.

For the live ones the cat brings in, this worked for us: shut cat somewhere away from room with mouse; place lots of wellies round room that has mouse in, on their sides; scare mouse into running round room, until it runs into the dark safety of a welly; grab welly and release mouse outside.

We had a lot of wellies stashed in a cupboard, as I kept oldest DC's outgrown ones for younger DC to grow into.

When our neighbours house came empty we started to hear a scratching then it stopped. Thought no more till I found a chewed bag of snickers. We got snap traps and have caught a good 10 in it the cat is useless still a kitten. I’ve blocked up where I think they are coming from.

I’d put a few traps around just in case.