To be really really happy at what I finally just caught...

[Maddiemademe]

No not and STD that I am aware of!

We have been living in our large renovation project since last July. Since then I suspected we may have mice setting up residence with us but since Christmas I have been in no doubt at all.

The buggers have gotten so cocky that come 9pm they quite happily stroll past us without a hint of fear. They constantly steal food, the most recent being my DP finding one little blighter happily dragging a whole bag of crisps with him.

They have chewed through the back of kitchen cupboards and eaten a whole bag of porridge at the back. They are also partial to Jammy Dodgers.

We purchased the trap back in January with no luck at all. In fact they would eat the food at the front of the trap that was designed to entice them but would leave the bits where they would set the trap off.

Last night we were discussing what to do about the situation, looking at possibly hiring a company to come help. This morning when I came into the kitchen I noticed our dog acting very strange and scared of one particular corner of the kitchen. I was and am so pleased when I found this little bastard in there!

Anyone have any tips on how else to catch them? I am guessing we have a fair size infestation by now. I have been reluctant to use poisons but I suffer with a number of health conditions and am worried about the disease they may be carrying/could possibly cause.

Any help at all would be most helpful (dog is absolutely terrified of them as well).

We found gas traps to be the best. We got a contract with rentokill because our old property had them in a cellar that was concreted over but had a pocket to breed in. I hate rodents though so we went for nuclear option.

I don't think there's much point in humane traps. The mice will find their way back to you or into someone else's house, and then that person either kills them or passes the problem onto someone else.

The best thing to do is to kill them as quickly as possible. Snap traps are good, or if you catch them yourself you can kill them pretty quickly yourself.

That is definatly not a baby rat. It is a wood mouse. Google pictures.

The poo in the trap looks like mouse poo (size of a grain of rice) whereas rat poo is more like the size of a raisin.

If you get a company in do not let them use sticky traps.

Have you tried looking into blocking all the holes and then getting an electromagnetic or ultrasound device to deter them?

The tail is the easiest way to check - rats have mostly nude tails, mice have furry tails.

@steppemum - hmm, hate to say this, but that looks quite ratty.

That was my first thought too. At least that means you don't have mice

I used to have pet rats and mice, that looks like a mouse to me, the eyes are quite big and bulgy.

Another vote for the plug-in repellents. We stopped having a mouse problem after we got those, and have never had them back.

We did get a rat problem one winter though. The first we knew of it was when the dogs (terriers) started trying to dig up the kichen floor!

The council came round (the rat man turned out to be the father of a friend!) and he explained that they were coming in to have their young, that they would leave again when they were old enough, but would probably return to have their next litter.

He identified where they were getting in and, as soon as we thought they had gone (because the dogs stopped trying to dig up the floor), we blocked up the entry points and since then we've never had any evidence of them in the house.

There are loads around though. I saw one run up the trunk of our hazel tree the other day, and my neighbour often sees them in her garden.
Both of us, and the neighbour next door but one, have stopped feeding the birds, but next door the other side have feeders, a bird table and chickens.

They also leave out leftovers (including, on one occasion, half a family sized lasagne"for the foxes"). Plus the top half of their garden is completely unkempt and includes a big compost heap, not in a plastic bin or anything. I can't see the rat population declining while they have such a source of food handy.

We're not on speaking terms or we'd politely ask them to stop feeding the birds for a while.

DDog was an excellent ratter in her prime, but she's getting on a bit, is deaf and her eyesight is poor, and she hasn't managed to get one for ages.

well, just check the tail, as I said. No fur on a rat's tail.

Borrow someones cat.

My uncle took ours for a few days.

Came on to say it looks ratty too! Definitely the professionals

We are semi rural and used to get a lot of mice. I used the traps other posters have pictured, and they worked very well. I was catching 1/2 mice a day - caught 20 in less than 2 weeks. We used peanut butter. Haven't had one for ages.

You can also get electric traps which zap the rodents to death, it's instant death. Mostly we use the snapping traps here. Peanut butter is our choice of bait.

Put powder down (talc, rather than flour as you don't want to feed them) overnight to see where the little footprints are, then set various types of traps near those places.

Ensure that every hole and gap is blocked with wire wool or Brillo pads, foil in larger gaps, check under decking if you have it.

Poison is bad. You will end up with decomposing creatures under the floor and in the walls, and the smell of each one will last about 6 weeks or longer depending on size. It is a painful death but if you don't care about that, then please consider that they may well be eaten outdoors by other creatures, such as owls, that will also die from the poison.

We keep a large house size sonic thingy permanently on in our garage, once plugged into the system it is intended to work throughout the house.

Just get a selection of traps, zappers, snap traps and humane ones, but not poison unless it is laid in a box that will contain the corpses.

One more thing is to remove any source of water, they will drink from a dripping tap, pet bowl (could be a problem)wet sink....

Rat or mouse is irrelevent - you need to get these animals OUT of your house pronto. IF this is a young rat, it's the proof you need that they are breedign in your house, and where there's one young rat, ther will be others, with more to come.

As a PP said, do NOT use glue traps - they truly are horrific things.

Call in the big boys (the council are cheaper than Rentokil etc) and will put insurtial strength bait down. It's much stronger than the stuff you an buy from hardware stores.

I had a SERIOUS sewer rat problem in a flat I lived in once. It's not funny and it's not cute - they are vermin and you need rid. Now.

Looks ratty to me. If you have one, you have lots. We had to seal all teeny tiny holes, and rip up our decking as they were having a great old time under there. Don't put poison down with a dog.

Whether it’s a rat or a mouse it’s very cute but not as cute as your dog!
No advice I’m afraid, only dealings I’ve had was a field mouse visiting my kitchen for a couple of weeks, it used to sit on the side of the cats food bowl eating her tuna pate until one day it stopped visiting. Sometime later I was hoovering blind under the sofa with the hose and something sucked up the pipe blocking it, thinking it was a toy or a sock I shook the pipe until a little half decayed mouse body fell out, I screamed
Have had pet rats, brought 3 for DD, they were supposed to be brothers, they weren’t

Phone the local council, they charge a small fee (mine was £40) for three visits ( each two weeks apart). Buy mesh to cover any air bricks to stop them getting in, I got mine from Amazon, you can either get it on a roll or in sheets.

Oh that's huge. We had mice earlier this year but they were tiny. The only thing that worked in the end up was the traps that kill them. We used chocolate spread on them, worked first time using them. We caught 4. We blocked all the holes outside and have had no bother since.

Awww he’s cute. What you going to call him?

Erm...I’m just here to ask more about the dog!

I'm another voter for snap traps. We have a few rats and have caught 4 in the last 2 nights, 3 of them using snap traps and 1 in a live trap. I had to leave the house earlier because DH was about to dispatch the live one. I always thought I preferred the catch and release type but we have a lot of field near us and if I let the live one out, it'd come straight back and start humping reproducing again with hours. At least the snap traps have it all over quickly

We actually have another trap that delivers an electric shock but I don't even want to try that one (I didn't buy it and don't like the sound of it at all) so we'll probably stick to the snap traps so they're at least killed quickly.

Though I'd much prefer it if rats stayed the fuck out of my garden and I wouldn't have to set traps

I always used humane traps and drove them into the country to release them, despite my youngest's insistence on naming them all