To get a cat because we have a recurring rodent problem?

[gigi556]

We live in a Victorian terrace. We moved in 4 years ago. For the first 9 months we never saw a mouse BUT we had a much loved Yorkshire Terrier. Sadly, she passed away. Since then (so for the past 3 years!) we get mice coming into the house constantly. We've tried everything:
Snap traps
Glue traps
Humane traps
Electric traps
Poison (they don't eat it!)
Sealing holes
Those plug in things that make noise

We do manage to eventually trap them and then don't have an issue for a month or two and then they come back. We even had rats in the floor at one point. We don't think they ever came in the house but it was unnerving and we think (hope) they've gone now. We never did manage to trap the rats.

We try to have traps around all the time now and we are constantly on alert as to whether we have a current rodent problem.

I've been considering getting a cat for the last year as it's the only thing we haven't tried. Is this an insane reason to get a cat (or two)? I'm at my wits end. Am I trading one headache for another?

I've never had cats and I'm not even sure if I like them 😬 I was a bit traumatized by my elderly dog's final year and I've been put off the responsibility of having a pet. I'm really torn. I don't desperately want a pet. In fact, I think I'd prefer not... BUT I also really want to stop CONSTANTLY worrying about mice.

My cat is a proper hunter and because of this, we never had a cat flap - can't cope with him bringing stuff in!!

This is what my mum did, sorted the problem right out and gave her something new to love, win win

All my cats have been good mousers .. but my big boy cat who I have now seems to get one most nights and just leaves one weird bit of it on the kitchen floor after eating them 🤮... be prepared for the odd live one though .. he let one go and it ran inside the curtains ! ..

Worked for us!
Victorian terrace in the city. Over populated street. Rodents.

Got a female tabby kitten.

No more mice!! Most houses in the street have a cat or dog so i'm guessing the mice all come up at the few houses that don't.

Downside is that yes she does bring in the occasional half dead mouse / frog. But it's not as horrible as mice running around under the floorboards and in the walls. At least we can see where it is and dispose of it.

Another Yorkshire terrier might be better overall but we live in a country cottage and have always had outdoor semi feral cats come that we sort of tame and we house them in our outhouses . 9 years ago when we had no cat we got a couple of mice in the house
but since we got a very good female and she is a very good mouser not one has got in
Since then a male kitten turned up a few years ago, and he never seems bothered about hunting.
I think the smell of cats about prob helps deter the mice tho.

Not all cats are interested in catching mice - the tom I have at the moment is a lazy swine who wouldn't bother to get out of bed for them. The cat I had before him was a brilliant mouser - nothing got past her. She was born in the countryside and I think she learned from her mum.

We had a rodent problem so got a cat. Definitely recommended. Ours was a few years old with rescue history and we knew we were getting a mouser. She more than earns her keep but we don't have a cat flap as she would bring her kills in if she had unsupervised access.

Or cat is a terror for mice. He finds them daily outside somewhere and brings them in, then maybe drops them. They hide under the furniture but he waits-sometimes a day or two! We have rescued a few, too.

Worked for me. I would never be without a cat again. Even my neighbours said their mouse problems disappeared when the cats arrived.

So shocked at the casual mention of using glue traps. Nobody who could be this cruel to animals should be allowed to own a pet.

@gigi556 YAB MASSIVELY U using glue traps!! They are so damn inhumane and cruel. Please please don't use them again.

However, as per your original point, cats are definitely a huge advantage in tackling a rodent problem. Our cat rarely brings back live rats/mice. Definitely get a cat and let nature take its course!

My current cats are bloody useless at killing. They rarely catch anything and if they do they don't know what to do with it.
One of my old cats was a born killer. He never ate mouse liver so that used to sit on the door mat for counting purposes. You want one of those.

You need a mouser

[quote gigi556]@Pukkatea a lot of people have told me that cats and dogs even keep rodents away just because of the smell so I guess the cats don't necessarily have to catch anything just living in the house deters them from
Coming in[/quote]
This is true. In one way, it would be better therefore to get one which ISN'T a particularly prolific hunter. This way it will put mice off with its scent but won't bring live ones in to play with. A bell collar can help in this regard.

We do manage to eventually trap them and then don't have an issue for a month or two and then they come back.

Is that because you leave them in the trap for a month or two so that as soon as you let them out they immediately return?

We had a problem with mice coming in - 1920s semi and the other side was empty for quite a while and the garden was overgrown. We tried all of the usual methods and had pest control in a couple of times but finally decided the most environmentally friendly option would be to get a cat. We got a 4yr old male from Cats Protection and even driving him home from the rescue centre I thought we had made a huge mistake - neither me or husband were cat people at all. Best move we ever made. Never had a mouse problem again and we loved that cat so much. We never had a cat flap and would just let him out as and when (he would knock on the window to come in) so if we saw through the window that he had a mouse we wouldn't let him in until he'd eaten it (he ate every last bit). He passed away in the summer and we were devastated, we now have a new rescue cat as we are v much cat people.

I just want to respond to the above poster.

Perhaps if you are releasing them immediately they are going for trauma counselling for a month or two. Best to leave them in the trap - that should stop them from revisiting.

I have a yorkie that had a bit of a nervous breakdown when a field mouse got into the house. On the other hand the staffy dispatched it in one quick pounce, and then promptly sat on it so I hand to wash dead mouse off her bum too 🙄. Not all cats are mouses, not all terriers are cut from a similar cloth apparently.

I have lot of cats, and live in a very old rural house. We've had trapdoors put into the floor so we can place traps inside which works really well. The cats tend to keep mice from the public areas, but obviously can't get the ones inside the floor and walls. Its worth getting a cat or even better a pair of cats (I had 20, now 16 so have watched a lot of mouse hunts take place) as they do hunt as a team and will take it in turns to flush mice out to their companion cats to catch.

@Catsup the vision of someone washing dead mouse off their staffies arse has made me laugh far more than it should have. 😂😂😂

I have three lovely cats, a Mother cat, and her two offspring boys. Not so much of late, as it's colder weather, but during the spring and summer, and early Autumn, one of the males is always bringing mice in the house. Its annoying, as he brings them in, usually alive, skits about trying to catch them in the kitchen, and then after a while, gets fed up and leaves them, so I have to try and catch them, to put outside again.

I have had a few dead mice brought in, and left on the kitchen mat, but I have never seen him kill a mouse in my house,he just flicks them about, then leaves them after a while. The Mother cat, and the other male just sit and stare while all this mouse palaver is going on.

I agree females are better hunters. I love cats they are such loving animals. I've got 2 males but both are rubbish hunters, that's not why we got them though. You have to think of other implications a cat might have. They sometimes scratch furniture, can potentially spray (female cats do too) usually if they are neutered before spraying happens they are fine. Neither of mine spray but they do scratch furniture even having multiple offers of scratching posts cat tree etc.

As a post grad student I had a house with an awful rodent problem. I thought a cat was better than setting traps (naively at the time thought traps were cruel). Mine was half Siamese and a kitten. OMG she turned into a very effective mouser...she cleared the house of rodents in weeks!

The only problem was she had really got the hunting streak. I moved somewhere fairly rural afterward and she went out in the fields hunting mice, rats, rabbits...you name it she got it. Lovely cat through, very affectionate.

Our tortoise shell little girl is a brilliant mouser yet will happily sit there as birds fly into the garden. She even brings down rats that are nearly as big as her (she is smaller than average).
She taps on the window when she wants to come in so we avoid the problem of her bringing live thing in.
The thing is cats are all wildly different and you can’t predict how yours will end up. We had every intention of her being a pampered house cat. Not a chance! She is affectionate but definitely not a lap cat (unless you are DH) and she is happiest outdoors climbing etc.
Fingers crossed you get a mouser!

Have you had pest control out? Some firms are better than others. We have used one which specialises in blocking holes and they have - so far - been successful in our Victorian house. We used them in our previous modern terrace and they kept us mouse free for 10 years when our neighbours on both sides had recurrent issues. If you're in London, message me for their details