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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how the HELL do you get rid of a clever mouse?!

254 replies

Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 06:47

Not an AIBU but traffic etc.

We've got a wild mouse living under the floor in our house. Discovered about a month ago when the thing scurried across the floor.

We immediately put some traps down. No luck.

For three weeks we've had pest control in, putting poison down, laying traps. He is coming back today and I've just found fresh mouse droppings so the little fucker is still alive.

My kitchen is a mess because nothing can be in the cupboards. I'm knackered with constantly vacuuming and cleaning up. We know it's getting out and about and I'm actually full of RAGE about it this morning.

I've got two kids. I don't want a fucking mouse. If pest control can't get rid of it, what else can I do?! This is really affecting me now.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
cuckyplunt · 29/11/2023 07:23

NO GLUE TRAPS FFS!
Think about it, that’s a living creature!

WhatIsAUsernamee · 29/11/2023 07:30

Chocolate and baking soda mixed together worked for me. Rodents can’t digest the baking soda as it reacts with the acid in their stomach which unfortunately for them means death

Original poster
Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 07:35

Seeing as nobody has offered a solution we haven't tried apart from the sticky traps, that's where I'm going next.

If you are someone that can live with rodents pissing all over your kids stuff then feel free but I'm happy to admit I'm not and this thing has been living with me for a month that I know of, but probably months before that due to the amount of droppings I found behind furniture once I realised we had one.

Totally agree that rodents can outsmart us - I've been stunned watching it on camera. It climbed up my radiator! I'm in awe of it but it has to go.

Im assuming I will have to pay pest control for his time on top of this. I just don't have lots of spare money floating around unlike the average person on here. Nor can I afford to rip my floors up. Or get a pet funnily enough!

OP posts:
SharonEllis · 29/11/2023 07:36

Loverofoxbowlakes · 29/11/2023 07:13

You've never, ever, only got just one mouse op (unless your own stupid cat brought the fucker in, but that's a different story).

Mice like chocolate in snap traps. Just sayin'

This is just not true. On several occasions I have had just ine mouse. Chocolate yes. Most are crazy for nutella.

SharonEllis · 29/11/2023 07:37

And Im sorry OP, its horrible. I've never jad one as smart as yours. Can you try a different pest control company?

Original poster
Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 07:38

Is it accessing food somewhere in the house? If so it may not be interested in the traps. We've had mice in the utility that the cats have brought in and found the only way to get them in the humane traps was to remove any possible food source.

All food is stored away now and no evidence it's getting to that. Nothing in the cupboards. Im vacuuming once a day but it must be finding crumbs from the kids somewhere. I don't see how else it's surviving either otherwise.

OP posts:
Mademetoxic · 29/11/2023 07:38

VerticalSausages · 29/11/2023 06:57

I know it’s cruel, but the sticky glue traps all along the kitchen kickbacks worked for us when traditional traps didn’t…

Glue traps are illegal. They're awful.

Ellemeg82 · 29/11/2023 07:39

My parents had a clever mouse like this too.
They spend a fortune on humane traps and pest control.
What worked was the old fashioned snap trap with a kitkat!

LyricalGangsta · 29/11/2023 07:39

Jack Russell was the only thing that worked for us.
She is elderly now but the mice moved out years ago as I think they can smell her so stay away

Mademetoxic · 29/11/2023 07:39

Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 07:35

Seeing as nobody has offered a solution we haven't tried apart from the sticky traps, that's where I'm going next.

If you are someone that can live with rodents pissing all over your kids stuff then feel free but I'm happy to admit I'm not and this thing has been living with me for a month that I know of, but probably months before that due to the amount of droppings I found behind furniture once I realised we had one.

Totally agree that rodents can outsmart us - I've been stunned watching it on camera. It climbed up my radiator! I'm in awe of it but it has to go.

Im assuming I will have to pay pest control for his time on top of this. I just don't have lots of spare money floating around unlike the average person on here. Nor can I afford to rip my floors up. Or get a pet funnily enough!

Please do not use glue traps. They are cruel. Imagine sticking for ages by glue and not being able to get out. They bite their own limbs off.
You will hear them screeching and crying.

A horrible way to die. Just don't. They're illegal.

Original poster
Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 07:40

And Im sorry OP, its horrible. I've never jad one as smart as yours. Can you try a different pest control company?

I'm going to have to if sticky traps don't work. I'm guessing I will have to pay the old one plus a new one though and i just don't have the money for all of this. Im so angry with the little fucker. Im seriously crying over the fact the little shit is still alive. I cannot cope with the thought of sharing my house with it!

OP posts:
Original poster
Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 07:40

Pest control is using snap traps. He says humane ones aren't humane.

OP posts:
OrlandointheWilderness · 29/11/2023 07:40

Get a good terrier in. There are specialist people like the rat pack in Derbyshire who do it.
Failing that start charging him rent.

pastaandpesto · 29/11/2023 07:41

Going against the grain here.

It's perfectly possible to have just one (or a couple) of mice. These are wild mice, not urban house mice.

It's also perfectly possible to peacefully coexist with said mice. We live quite rurally and at this time of year we will see/hear the signs of the odd mouse. It isn't a big deal. We make sure that the pantry is secure but other than that we all go about our business.

We've never, ever had it turn into an infestation, which I recognise we would have to relecutantly deal with.

I can't get excited about a miniscule amount of mouse urine or faeces.

LyricalGangsta · 29/11/2023 07:41

Just a thought - was/is it def a mouse and not a baby rat?
Had extensive experience of both and rats are incredibly hard to catch whereas mice seemed to go straight for the snap traps

GingerbreadlatteinOctober · 29/11/2023 07:45

It was made illegal in the UK to use glue traps in 2022. Not illegal to produce or sell them, but illegal to use without a permit. Also illegal to walk past one and not make it so it can’t be used (without reasonable excuse).

Sk while they are extremely effective, and for sale, I’d not risk it.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/26/enacted#:~:text=1Offences%20relating%20to%20glue,glue%20trap%20commits%20an%20offence.

Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/26/enacted#:~:text=1Offences%20relating%20to%20glue,glue%20trap%20commits%20an%20offence.

Ohforfox · 29/11/2023 07:45

A colleague had mice recently & the pest control advised they need to kill them or release them FAR away or they'll come back. They also told her that mice don't usually leave droppings? Unsure how true that is but she is mouse free now after months of stress!

Isitselfish · 29/11/2023 07:45

Did pest control say you only have one? Because the saying goes, you haven’t got a mouse, you’ve got mice.

The only thing that worked for me (assuming you do have mice and not one random one, which sounds unusual) is blocking all the holes. The pest control guy also put down bowls of poison that looked like nuts and seeds. He said the mice can’t resist it. He was right. It worked. We had one dead inside (really sad and also very pungent), and the sealed up holes meant the ones living in the walls where they’d nested (we lived in an apartment building) couldn’t get back in.

The hole sealing lasted about a year, then more broke in (chewed their way through) and we went through it again. Did work though, but needed maintenance.

VegetablesFightingToReclaimTheAubergieneEmoji · 29/11/2023 07:48

ive got a humane trap, they love a bit of chocolate. I put bedding in, in the morning I had a whole family of wood mice curled up having a little snooze.

I took them on the school run and released them into a hedgerow in some woods.
I felt bad, as they were just trying to be warm.

I then blocked the little hole up.

CafeNervosa · 29/11/2023 07:50

We bought a plug in ultrasonic mouse repellent and have never had a mouse since! Highly recommend! And we didn’t need to harm any mice.

VegetablesFightingToReclaimTheAubergieneEmoji · 29/11/2023 07:50

Squeakingmad · 29/11/2023 07:40

Pest control is using snap traps. He says humane ones aren't humane.

Says the man who poisons stuff for a living

sashh · 29/11/2023 07:52

Have you tried burning sage?

I used to have pet mice, you probably don't want to, but you could get a pet cage, put food and a wheel in there and when you hear the wheel go shut the lid.

You need to take mice about 2 miles away or they will come back.

VegetablesFightingToReclaimTheAubergieneEmoji · 29/11/2023 07:53

pastaandpesto · 29/11/2023 07:41

Going against the grain here.

It's perfectly possible to have just one (or a couple) of mice. These are wild mice, not urban house mice.

It's also perfectly possible to peacefully coexist with said mice. We live quite rurally and at this time of year we will see/hear the signs of the odd mouse. It isn't a big deal. We make sure that the pantry is secure but other than that we all go about our business.

We've never, ever had it turn into an infestation, which I recognise we would have to relecutantly deal with.

I can't get excited about a miniscule amount of mouse urine or faeces.

I’m of the same attitude. One or two, I’m really not fussed about.
the whole family I drew a line at.

I did have one cheeky sod who demolished my secret stash of Easter eggs. I found the bits of foil in corners of the room which meant I could block the holes up.
I also had visions of one massive tubby mouse struggling to get through the holes

HuckleberryBlackcurrant · 29/11/2023 07:54

Look up those traps where they fall into a bucket?

LakieLady · 29/11/2023 07:54

Ultrasonic pest repellers worked for me. I think I got them in B&Q. Plugged them in many years ago after being plagued with mice for over a year, and never had a problem since.