Mice in the house!

[scaredofmice88]

I was just sat on the loo in our en suite and a mouse ran out in front of me from under the shower! I shouted and it rang back to where the towel is now stuffed in the photo. I'd heard scratching a couple of days ago but thought it would be birds.

What the heck do I do now? How has the damn thing got in?

Any advice?

It’s unlikely to be just one. And unfortunately they breed at an alarming rate. Their gestation period is around 20 days . So the sooner you take action the better.

Don't use poison, other animals and birds might eat the mouse and its a terrible death. You can block up the gaps, there will be a humane pest control in your area.

If you see one mouse,it is almost certain you have more. They can get in a hole the width of a pencil, come in along the tops of gas and water pipes, in terraced houses along the attic eaves - so go around your house and block every hole you can. Mice love the back of fridges - water tray at back, warmth and nice hum. They aren't too fussy about what they eat- a nibble here, a nibble there. You need to put multiple traps and/or poison along their runs - which you now know are the under the shower tray and in the kitchen. You need to keep checking the traps and poison to see if it has been eaten and keep putting them down for several weeks after you think you have got rid of the issue. Try to clear your countertops ( mice are incontinet) and make sure everywhere is clean and free of crumbs and they can't access other food sources, so they are forced to try the poison/trap food - although mice are strange. I lived in a student house years ago where they nibbled newspaper and a soap bar on the sink rather than the box of cereal a house mate had left out.

If you can afford it have a professional come out to deal with it or see if you are lucky enough to be in an area where the LA still provide pest control.

I've had mice numerous times. I tried my best with the humane catch and release traps which stopped working. I had to call pest control in the end and as am animal lover was horrified when he out poison everywhere, but in the end it was the only way.

I've since learned that catching and releasing them is cruel as they won't know their surroundings and will just be bird prey.

The kindest way is instant kill traps. You can also get electric ones which I has some success with.

The sooner you address this issue the better. Good luck.

This is my nightmare. Give me a tarantula or a boa constrictor any day but a rodent? Absolutely not. We had a baby mouse in our house apparently (DH kept this from me as he thought I'd be hysterical and demand a hotel room if I knew). He called an exterminator in and it was all sorted in after 2 trips.

Apparently the mouse most likely got lost from it's family and was seeking warmth due to unusually cold weather we were having at the time. I really wish he had not told me that.

If you have one, you have many. Don't hesitate to kill them, otherwise you will end up having to kill 100's because they reproduce so quickly. It's more humane to kill less - yes?

We got pest control, they basically put poison down, 2 weeks later they came and blocked all the holes under the kitchen using expanding foam (I had no idea there were so many). It worked. I spray vinegar/peppermint when I go away for a few days.

So if you can afford it, I recommend pest control, before it gets out of control.

My cat brings them in, plays with them under my bed,wakes us up and then lets them go and we have to try and find them.

There’s very rarely just one. I used the humane traps with peanut butter and they were very effective. I had to take several 6am walks with the traps to let the mice out away from home. It’s distressing and I really hated it, but the sooner you start the better, or it will be difficult to control. After I got rid of them all I was hoovering / swapping cushions on the sofa and I discovered mouse droppings underneath the cushions, it was horrible, God knows when or how long they were there.

Agree with Scorpiogirly - humane traps aren't humane. They won't survive dumped. In a random field, they're house mice not field mice. Kindest is the use of old fashioned snap traps.

Don't panic. Just run to the hardware shop and get some mouse traps. Put peanut butter in and lay them along the area you saw the mice. Mice stick to the edges of rooms so you'll get more luck if you put the mouse traps alongside skirting boards/walls etc. they literally run into them.

Gosh some of these answers.😱

op, please don’t use poison, it’s not instance, they crawl away and die and it could be outside and a neighbours cat or other animals will eat it and also die.

or they crawl back to their nest and die and the stench is appalling. And that could be under your shower, so you’d need to dismantle.

snappy traps are actually the most humane, as the mouse dies instantly , bait with some jelly tots or peanut butter.

ans don’t panic. Just get some traps and you will be fine.

we get them all the time as we live rural, little field mice.

I had one for weeks, damn thing got so clever at avoiding traps or getting the peanut butter out of the traps. It then got a bit cocky and used to come and sit in the middle of the living room floor when I was in there. He eventually climbed up the curtain and fell into a waste paper basket and couldn't get out. I might add this was at 2 in the morning, he woke me up scrabbling around🫣

When I was I'm temporary accommodation. They all had mice/rats . I became a semi pro at sorting it .

Depending on how you feel about it . You need snap traps . Or the human type. Then bait choc/peanut butter

If it was me I would remove the shower tray . Look for any holes . Even tiny ones. If a pencil can fit so can a mouse. Add wire wool. Any expanding costs to any holes you find. Do the same in the outside of the shower where the white pipe gos into the shower same with any other piping in the bathroom also add chalking.

Also fill around pipes from radiators, also if there are any gaps/cracks /holes in skirting boards. All over the house.

In kitchen wire wool /expanding foam. Under the sink where any pipes are. Also under Any kickboards . I removed base units filled any holes etc and then put it all back.

Outside mesh grills over air vents . Over lap to make the gaps smaller. Check for other holes around the outside as well .

I thought we had one for ages and we have caught 17 now - most recently 8 babies who were taking their first steps around our living room. Snap traps were the best way to catch the bigger ones m, although DC managed to catch the babies and release them.

I always keep some cheap wooden snap traps in the house now as weve had mice several times over the years.
I once i saw one in the kitchen several times before i could find the cheap traps to buy. I also have an electronic one which sits in the corner. I caught 6 mice in the snap traps and 1 in the electronic one when i had thought they were all gone 😯

Oh and i just remembered ( had blocked it out) coming home to a horrible smell that i tracked down to the hallway. After a lot of searching i found the electronic mousetrap merrily flashing its light to tell me a mouse had been caught. Unfortunately it was well under the radiator cover so was invisible to me. I will never forget that nasty smell though - and that is why the electronic trap stays out in full view.
Im a dab hand at setting the wooden traps now and throw the whole lot away away once a mouse has been caught. Horrible but necessary.

Thank you everyone. We had someone come round today who discovered the attic is riddled with them 🤦🏼‍♀️ I completely forgot I'd heard scurrying last year between upstairs and down so who knows how long we've had them. Our attic is also terribly cluttered.. I'm talking piles of kids clothes in bags, toys, Christmas trees.. I don't even know what's up there as it's so much you can't see.

He's laid some traps and stuff and is coming back to see if it's helped.

ARGH

We’ve just had mice - they ate 2kg of pasta leaving empty packets in a cupboard. We called in the mice exterminators - £180 later, mice free. Very simple 😉

Pest control is the best bet IMO. Snap traps are the best especially if you have pets or children, bait with peanut butter. Make sure pest control fill the holes to stop the mice getting in. To be honest I would probably go through what you have upstairs and declutter, put remaining stuff in plastic boxes. Kitchen should be kept immaculate. Never leave food out. Try to make sure they can't get in the cupboards / backs of cupboards. They only need 1g of food per day and reproduce at a crazy rate. And disinfect the counter tops every morning as they will have likely weed on them. It is a lot of work.

Snap traps were the best way to catch the bigger ones m, although DC managed to catch the babies and release them.

Surely releasing 'baby mice taking their first steps' is akin to leaving them to starve somewhere?

Hmm what about house spiders ? Could these sonor sound things stop the invasion of house spiders come September - without upsetting the dog ?

OP regarding the mouse - my parents had mixed in their house - I managed to trap and release around 6 of them before realising they were still running around in the attic / under floor boards and had to get pest control in . I would give the humane traps a go first off though - it may just be the odd one .

I had mice in my house. got plastic snap traps and caught a fair few.
Worked out it was the gaps between the floor boards and skirting boards in my front room.
foil, brillo pads and sealant all around the room did the trick and I didn’t see anymore for a while.
then happened to get a cat and the smell of her seems to keep any away.
I know next door gets mice but they haven’t sealed any holes.

Well she wasn't going to keep them and feed them

@HungryandIknowit the pest control guy said to not declutter just yet as apparently disturbing their surrounding can make them less likely to take the bait as it might make them on edge where as if we leave everything as it is they would hopefully just go for whatever they can.

So I think the plan of action is to wait until pest control man thinks he's got them and then we're going to hire a small skip and have a huge declutter of the garage and attic. The house itself is quite tidy honestly.. it's just my garage and attic that looks like a hoarders!

I'm so on edge about it all. We've only just had a new kitchen fitted in October. We also have a cat who is a good mouser so she's letting the side down!! God knows how they got in and got all the way up into the attic x

Can mice get onto kitchen worktops?!!

have previously had them, but not for ages ( fingers crossed)

only coming out of same hole in kitchen wall from next door

Buy some mouse traps. Keep all food items in cupboards not on the kitchen side. Keep doors closed whilst its so cold. They feel the heat and run inside.