The mice are winning. Any advice?

[User534]

We have a mouse infestation. There are droppings. I put a humane mouse trap near the droppings and caught about 10 mice and released them a long way away. Fine. Then the mice learned how to get out of the humane mouse trap. I don't know whether they chatted with each other about how to do this. I caught one of them in the trap, repeatedly hurling itself at the entrance side until it almost managed to get it to open enough for the mouse to slip through. I got that mouse, but others have taken the bait and forced their way out of the trap. So I got two of the killing traps and put them down. This morning the bait had gone from both traps. One trap was open and the other had sprung, but the mouse got away.
Should I move on to poison now? Won't that lead to horrible scenes of dead and dying and decomposing mice all over the house, including under the floorboards and in the ceilings?

You’re using shit quality traps. What brand are they?

I went to put something in the bin and there was this pair of eyes staring back at me. This time I have got you, I thought, and put the lid on the bin. Came back, 10 minutes later and the fucker had managed to lift the lid off and escape.

The mice heardquarters seems to be in the garage (droppings). This morning I've removed the traps (these are unbranded second-hand ones, but almost took my hand off when I tested them) and forcibly put the hungry cat in the garage and shut the door. I'm not holding out too much hope though, because she's getting on in years, though when she was young she was a very effective mouser. I've ordered poison in case I need it, and am going to experiment with making the door of the humane mouse trap heavier so that it's harder for a trapped mouse to force it open. Mice are very courageous and resourceful animals.

We have these ones which seem effective

Humane Mouse Trap | Catch and Release Mouse Traps That Work | Mice Trap No Kill for mice/Rodent Pet Safe (Dog/Cat) Best Indoor/Outdoor Mousetrap Catcher Non Killer Small Mole Capture Cage (2 Pack) a.co/d/dyf5duE

If kitty is hungry she will catch them. It might take her a few days to polish them all off, though. We brought our ancient cat home and after a 5 hour journey without food she had a mouse in her jaws within two minutes!

I left the cat in the garage for 2.5 hours. She came out ravenous for her breakfast. Pretty sure no mice were harmed. Don't know what effect her presence will have had. I've also taped a tin to the door of the humane mouse trap and baited it. If a mouse ventures in, I doubt it will now be able to force the door open.

You should try an ultrasonic rodent repeller. My friend had a really bad problem with mice and tried traps and poison but this is the only thing that has worked!

Mice are clever and will learn if they see others falling into a trap!

We found using different types of humane trap worked as they didn’t figure it out. We also made sure to release them several miles away as they are very good at returning to “home”.

I use black plastic snap traps loaded with smear peanut butter. Literally about 10 of them around skirting where they run along etc.

I've looked at these on Amazon. I'm put off by the 1 star reviews from people who apparently watched the mice scampering around, completely oblivious to the sonar noises.

We had a mouse infestation just before we moved house so needed to get rid of them quite quickly.

After a week of catching absolutely nothing, we had a pest controller with a dog round. The dog sniffed out all the mouse entrances which were then plugged with wire wool and guards fitted to air bricks.

One in particular we would never have spotted. We left a few traps down and some poison but we never saw one again.

Apparently if you can fit a pencil in a gap, a mouse can fit too.

Check your garage area , and in cupboards, for possible nesting material such as cardboard, plastic bags, paper etc. The little buggers will chew this up and build a nest . They reproduce at an alarming rate. We bought a Victorian terraced house years ago that had been empty for months. There were droppings in every room . I went to the local builders merchants store and bought a large tube of builders caulk ( yes that’s really what it’s called!) and one of those trigger gun dispensers and set about filling every gap and hole I could find. In the course of a week I’d used 8 tubes of the stuff.

Using traps will barely keep on top of infestation if you don’t combine it with blocking their entry points. I read that if you can fit a pencil into a hole a mouse can compact it’s body enough to squeeze through it. For larger gaps I found under the sink and in a cupboard I bought cheap adhesive vinyl tiles and cut them to shape and that worked well 🐭

You need to seal all the entry points. If you trap/poison them, more mice will eventually come and take their place so to speak.

Fill all holes, make sure all skirting boards and pipes don’t have gaps around them.

Make sure you don't have any broken air bricks. Fill any holes in the walls or floor with wire wool. Mice hate it. They love peanut butter and Nutella.

No dinner and leave her in there overnight.

Don't put poison down if you have a cat.
Clean the traps in diluted bleach after each kill.

Strong plastic traps with peanut butter. But first you need to get a pest controller in to find out where they are getting in. You need to know their ‘routes’ so the traps can be set correctly. Understand your enemy, then you can win. I did, after perseverance, and now mouse free for several years. Good luck
PS Check out the film ‘Mousehunt’ !

Sometimes poison really is the only way forward - I would get a professional in as they have access to more effective poisons.

Make sure its the right type and format for the location - no little portable packets of poison (designed to be a ratty/mousy takeaway, to be taken home and shared with family) around pets for instance as these are easily dropped by a startled rodent and left for pet/child to pick up.

I like the wax blocks with a hole in, they can be wired onto something solid or locked in a bait station so put in places kids and pets can't get at, and they're waterproof.

The downside of these is they are less palatable and won't be chosen if there are nicer things around - rodents are not thick!

I would also only ever go for a poison that uses Bitrex, and a mouth staining dye, (but be aware, some people cannot taste Bitrex... my Mum couldn't taste it when the rep brought round sweeties with Bitrex in to show pest controllers how strong it was... and she was a pest controller so whilst unlikely to eat poison on purpose, at a higher risk of accidentally ingesting it. Dogs can't taste it either I think).

Otherwise - block up likely access points, remove clutter from the house and garden that is providing shelter and remove food sources as much as possible.

Trapping is useful to tell you there is a problem and where and for long term monitoring, but poison in most situations is the only actual longer term solution.

The problem is the garage is used for storage and is completely full of all kinds of stuff. You can't even get to the walls. I've been round the outside and there's no obvious entry point into the garage itself. But that was before people mentioned pencils. There's are 2 airbricks that could gain them access to the garage. The airbrick holes are slightly wider than a pencil. I could maybe find some way of fixing some wire mesh or something to the outside of these. They could just conceivably get in through the boiler flume, but that would involve some acrobatics. Alternatively they might be accessing the house some other way and then heading for the garage once inside. I have heard them under the living room and in the ceiling above the room which shares a flat roof with the garage. The poison I've ordered doesn't have the dye in it but I've bought it with little stations to put it in.
The cat has already had dinner, but I might try putting her in the garage tomorrow night. Before I try using poison.

I live in a Georgian flat, in a city with many mice! I sometimes hear them moving around inside my walls
When my cat died recently, they got bolder and increased their presence in my flat. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I bought some sonic plug-in mouse repellents from Amazon. I haven't seen a single one since and it has been over a month now. I didn't expect them to work - people told me they wouldn't - but so far, so good.

I have a useless terrier (does not perform ancestral duties of dispatching pesky rodents)

I hate handling snap traps.

So we got pet-proof poison boxes - using a dessicating poison, so there's no corpse smell. Fingers crossed, it seems to have worked.

We've blocked every hole we can find. Goodness only knows how the beasties get in!

I had mice in my wall cavity a few months ago it was horrible they were so loud I thought it was rats or squirrels. I used the plugs ( used them years before and they worked ) right next to the noise , it did nothing . I called out pest control cost me £160 they haven't been back , the mice that is , well pest control as well actually as the mice are gone 😀

When we had a problem with mice in the old house we used chocolate sauce as in ice cream sauce on traps. Got every mouse in under a week. Our cat was also useless.

My DH knows our local Pest Controller, and he said that where we live in the countryside, we'll never be free of them, because we'll never find, or block up ALL of the holes! We use poison, it works for a while, and then we get another batch of mice! Drives me nuts as I hate the little buggers!

Don't give pussums any breakfast... make sure she is good and hungry when you put her in the garage.
You could stuff some chicken wire in the air vents also.