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

[Squeakingmad]

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.

You need to put some food in the cupboards along with the mousetrap set with a bit of shortbread. They love shortbread.

Put traps under the floor too.

Prepare for at least 6 mice op and they give birth every 21 days so the sooner you get this under control the better.

Borrowing a dachshund would work too.

No they don't! We've released a few mice into the wild after spending a night in a trap. That's just not true. Sticky traps are vile, barbaric things. I can't imagine causing that level of suffering to another living creature who's probably just cold.

You need to put chocolate in the traps. They love chocolate. Much more than cheese.

I don't care how fed up you are, do not sue the sticky glue traps. They are evil, the mice suffer an agonised death and they should be banned.

They're more than cruel. There are videos of rodents being caught in glue traps. If you saw them the thought wouldnt enter your head.

They don’t necessarily die within an hour, but it’s not good for them to be shut in a humane trap overnight and they could well die in there. Rats and mice have very delicate respiratory systems, which is part of the problem. When we had a field mouse in the house we closed the trap overnight, then reopened it at 5:30am.

I would always suggest a humane trap, but OP is right in thinking that they’re actually crueller than a quick death if you don’t use them properly. Glue traps are horrendous though. I didn’t realise they were being made illegal, but I’m pleased.

Seconding a pp for an electronic trap - I have them in the back of the ground level kitchen cupboards and the attic - you put a bit of Mars bar or peanut butter or sweetcorn in and they run into the tunnel and die instantly.

You don’t even have to look at the body. A flashing yellow light tells you something set it off and you get an inside out dog poo bag (or whatever) over your hand, click the lid off and whatever’s in there can have the bag pulled over and be binned.

then you just reset the trap (the light having gone off) and put it back.

Pest Stop is the brand. Best money I ever spent.

We had mice once in cupboard I couldn’t let the cats in. Snap traps with ice cream chocolate sauce in the bait bit is what got ours. We also blocked up the hole so they where trapped with the option of eat the chocolate and die or come out and face the cats basically.

All this 'use this bait, use that bait' is pointless - they like a huge variety of foods, many foods will work IF your mouse is confident, relaxed, etc etc.

If your mouse is scared of new things however, and a mouse being presented with loads of different traps, baits, environments where items are constantly moved around to check for turds and footprints and wee etc will be... then they'll take next to nothing.

Put traps down in sheltered spots, electric traps are the best... and leave them alone! Don't keep going to check, clean up, etc etc, just LEAVE it, ideally several days.

There must be a couple of spots in this mouses daily travels where you can do this, it doesn't have to be everywhere you've found evidence.

Sticky traps - I don't need to repeat whats been said, the only possible use for them is if you're actively pursuing a mouse and can ensure that the mouse is offed within a minute or two of being stuck on the trap. I have done this, put a couple down where I knew the mouse would bolt to once I moved an object - mouse dead within seconds of being stuck. For a more humane option though, a pint glass can work well, the panicked mouse won't see it, but you have to be quick to cover the open end (and I knew in my case the mouse had already ingested poison, so I wasn't able to release).

They have just as a right to live as us humans.
They can't help existing.

What an awful attitude to a living creature.

And yes Google, they are now illegal.

Agree with pp don’t keep moving or cleaning stuff in the area you’ve put the traps or they will never get the courage up to go near.

*They have just as a right to live as us humans.
They can't help existing. *

Of course not. But just not in my house thanks.

They were shameless when I had them. Used to nip around my son's feet when he was on the PS. ( he didn't care )

Completely agree.
we all co exist, we aren’t better than them. They feel pain like we do, they raise families like we do. Whilst I’m not saying anyone should have to have a mouse infestation, we need to co exist with nature for our own survival.

Do his feet smell exceptionally cheesy?

We are not better than them.

Shame on you for such a barbaric way to prolong a mouse suffering. They literally bite their own limbs off trying to get free.

They feel pain, just like we do and would have suffered terribly.

Sometimes I wish humans did not exist. We are not any better than them.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but…
where’s the one mouse there’s a whole tribe of them.

when my ds was little and we lived in a run down crappy terraced house that had fields and a pond at the back we had a mouse infestation

im not kidding we caught 17. Yes. 17 mice in 2 days.

they were everywhere, cupboards, under the stairs, in my sons room, we’d here the mousetraps go off under our bed at night. It was awful.

over the space of 2 weeks we’d caught fifty fucking two of the buggers.

I assume poison caught more.

my dad came round and plugged everytiny hole we could see in and outside the house and environmental health came and sorted out the cesspit that was the house next door.

we moved the year after ewwww

The only thing that worked for me were good quality sticky boards.

Nothing else worked, exterminators failed as did everything else until the cardboard sticky books

Those are glue or sticky traps. Illegal from April and rightly so.

Oh mice seem to like rolos as well lol.

i tried all the humane traps, mice wouldn’t touch them. I would only buy the traps that would instantly kill the mice, the cheap ones were awful.

I don’t think people who are crying over mice have ever lived with a mouse infestation where there’s dozens of them

I don't want to harm any living thing (but I'm aware I do just by existing) and have gone to great lengths to humanely trap and release rats before. However, ratting terriers like JRTs (not cats) are actually considered one of the more humane ways, if you have to do it. I live semi rural and I've seen rodents killed by both cats and JRTs. The JRTs were generally much faster and cleaner. There is some truth in the myth of cats "toying" with their prey, though of course its nothing to do with sadism (that's a human thing). Its because cats train their young to hunt by disabling prey and bringing it to them. Sometimes they do the same for 'their' humans. Dogs don't seem to have the same instinct.

A terrier will just grab a rodent by the neck and shake it until it's dead. No messing around.

I'm genuinely marvelling at the amount of posters who don't read the OP posts crikey it's like Groundhog Day! Nothing new to report. Oh, except it's found a new cupboard to poo in.

Not read the whole thread but have you tried the tipping pipe type of humane trap? we tried LOADS of types and that sort caught the little b&"%£"$ , aware you said you've tried everything but ours could get back out of every other type of trap we tried so thought worth mentioning in case! we used peanut butter with a chocolate button wedged in it 😂

Good point about the amount of cleaning I'm doing actually. I'm going to take have two empty cupboards and literally not touch them at all.