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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Killing these mice?

48 replies

sappyer · 25/04/2019 12:56

I know il probably get flamed but here goes.
I live opposite the river and mice are a huge issue.
In the past 7 months I've had 12.
Now there are mice baby's.
In a week I've got 4.
I feel guilty killing them but I'm too scared to do anything when they are alive.
I caught one this morning and it was a baby.
I keep thinking of it being all excited finding food,thinking what it was going to do this evening then boom I've killed it.
Aibu here?
Would anyone else do the same?

OP posts:
LittleCandle · 25/04/2019 12:59

Kill them! They are vermin! Plus, mice can start breeding at 22 days old, so you could have hundreds within a remarkably short time. Mice urine carries vile diseases and they widdle constantly! Get rid!

SlightlySleepy · 25/04/2019 13:00

Borrow a cat

Halloumimuffin · 25/04/2019 13:00

Well obviously when you say it like that it sounds awful and sad! I don't think they have that level of hopes and dreams if that helps Smile

They are pests and they need to be controlled. I feel really sad about it and wouldn't kill one myself, but would set traps etc.

kalopali · 25/04/2019 13:01

Yep, vermin. Kill as many as you can.

FishCanFly · 25/04/2019 13:09

get a cat

MissBanner · 25/04/2019 13:09

I leave a bit of food out for mine at night, I sometimes see them scurrying away with it in their mouths in the evening while I’m watching tv. They’re sweet little things! All this stuff about germs - we all carry germs. Germs are everywhere! Too sterile an environment is bad for you anyway.

I certainly couldn’t kill them in any event.

Lifecraft · 25/04/2019 13:10

Now there are mice baby's

Mice baby's what?

BigRedLondonBus · 25/04/2019 13:12

cats don’t stop them. mine kills them but they still come Angry although I suppose it stops you having to kill them yourself, still have to clean them up though with their head missing

Waveysnail · 25/04/2019 13:14

God no guilt at all here. Snap traps all the way

S1naidSucks · 25/04/2019 13:15

I swear I actually heard the mouse entering my house through the ceiling of my kitchen extension. It was only in retrospect that I realised what the noise had been. Within three weeks I caught EIGHT mice. Seven were young ones. Having mice in your house is extremely dangerous for your health. You need to protect your family.

I had developed an early morning cough and when talking to someone, while picking up mouse traps they suggested it was a reaction to mouse droppings. 🤢 When I checked under the eaves (I sleep in the attic bedroom) there was poo everywhere. 😱 Got rid of the mice and cleaned up the poo. The cough went. I know it was the poo, because if I went near it I started coughing.

Mouse traps are the safest and kindest way to kill mice. It’s usually instant, you know where the bodies are, whereas poisoned mice will hide to die and you’ll end up with a hidden rotting corpse and fly infestation. Also, cats or wildlife can eat the corpse and end up poisoned. Don’t use cheese as mist mice don’t actually like it. Snickers bars wee the most successful in my experience. When cleaning up droppings, you should make up a spray bottle of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water, spray the area, leave for ten mins, clean up gently with kitchen roll.

If you go down the humane trap route, you will have to release the mice over 2 miles away, as they are like homing pidgins and will actually travel back to your house.

Drink lots and lots of wine afterwards to settle your nerves.

TeaForTheWin · 25/04/2019 13:16

I live in a flat and there are mice throughout the building, every time my mum visits she sets traps and every time she leaves I unset them xD Can go a couple of months and see none and then have one in every night for the next month, it depends.

It helps that they cannot get onto my kitchen surfaces anymore so I don't really feel they are a threat to my health ect… (new kitchen and it stopped them being abled to).

But, baby ones did come up one time and the two of them started chewing at my bookcase. Have never heard any adults chewing anything. I would set traps if any baby ones came up again or if they were still able to get onto my kitchen surfaces.

About a year back I had one that visited that was so tame I got it to take food from my hand infact. I dunno, I think if they aren't doing you any harm, leave them be. But here, there's never more than one shows up at a time...usually. As they all have their own territories. Dunno if your mice are maybe not house mice though as they are coming from the stream?

MorrisZapp · 25/04/2019 13:16

Kill them.

By the way, I read about a company in London who specialise in mouse proofing houses. They come to your house with lots of specialist materials and meticulously seal each and every possible entry point.

Even in victorian terraces, it works. They charge thousands of pounds but god I wish there was a similar service in Edinburgh.

I've often thought a bright young spark could make a fortune setting up this kind of business. Every sm feed I use has desperate people at their wits end with mice.

And get a cat are the three least helpful words in the English language.

motortroll · 25/04/2019 13:18

I second the idea of getting a cat. Nice we're the reason we got a cat instead of a rabbit. She's a rubbish mouser but she managed to catch one and they all cleared out!! And the bonus is my cat is awesome!

Moneys2Tight2Mention · 25/04/2019 13:18

Awww I could never kill them - my cat catches them and brings them in and then loses interest in them and I am left to mouse hunt them and return them to the garden.

I would never be able to kill them - how are you killing them exactly?

PlainSpeakingStraightTalking · 25/04/2019 13:25

I keep thinking of it being all excited finding food,thinking what it was going to do this evening then boom I've killed it.

boom ?? how the are you killing them? with dynamite?

S1naidSucks · 25/04/2019 13:25

Btw, check for any gaps or holes in walls, skirting boards, etc and fill with wore wool, as they can’t get through that. Place two traps back to back alongside walls, as mice like to travel close to walls, rather than open spaces, so you by having them back to back you’ve a better change of them getting caught. Change the bait every three days as the smell will weaken.

To those saying that mice are harmless, do you realise that they can easily spread salmonellosis and listeria through their urine, saliva droppings and nesting materials? Do they still sound cute?

One mouse can have up to 60 babies in three months. Those mice you see are just the tip of the big furry, disease ridden iceberg. 🤢

S1naidSucks · 25/04/2019 13:26

fill with wore wool wire wool

sappyer · 25/04/2019 13:26

Ive got traps down and put strawberry jam in.
It's quite worrying every time I put one out the next morning there's a mouse in.
I was watching tv the other day and a mouse jumped on the back of the sofa ..I screamed the place down.

OP posts:
sappyer · 25/04/2019 13:27

@PlainSpeakingStraightTalking Grinno the boom was the trap snapping on its neck Confused

OP posts:
OnlyFoolsnMothers · 25/04/2019 13:29

I think if they aren't doing you any harm, leave them be errr do not do this, sorry but they need to be killed- they breed every few weeks, you will be overrun....

sappyer · 25/04/2019 13:29

@S1naidSucks the last two weeks I've had a cough and felt a bit fuzzy headed.
Wonder if this is off the mice.

OP posts:
LaurieMarlow · 25/04/2019 13:29

Kill the little fuckers. Seriously.

but god I wish there was a similar service in Edinburgh.

I've always wondered are mice a bigger problem in Edinburgh than elsewhere? I lived in three different flats there and mice were an issue in every single one. On one occasion it was an infestation far beyond control and it was horrific. Friends in Edinburgh seemed to think it was run of the mill, didn't bat an eyelid.

I've lived in London and Dublin too and never had an issue.

MorrisZapp · 25/04/2019 13:34

Edinburgh tenements all have mice. It's endemic, it seems. No idea why we might be worse than London but even my friend who bought a fab new build yuppy flat had them! As for the New Town, it is HOOCHING.

MorrisZapp · 25/04/2019 13:35

Laurie were you a student in Marchmont perchance? Student hygiene and Edinburgh tenements are a perfect storm :)

LaurieMarlow · 25/04/2019 13:37

even my friend who bought a fab new build yuppy flat had them! As for the New Town, it is HOOCHING

That was certainly my experience. I've no idea why, outside of the old town, it would be worse than London, but anecdotally that seems to be the case.

And I too would be paying for those mouse proofing guys.

Business opportunity I suppose? Not that I'm volunteering myself, I'd rather claw my own eyes out.

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