To be horrified at what I’ve come home to?

[deedeemegadoodoo]

I’ve been on holiday for two weeks and just arrived home to mouse droppings all over the house. My DH mentioned he saw a mouse in the hot bin composter just before we left and it seems to have snuck inside and run amok.

What can I do? I have a small dog so poison is a no no. I’m not scared of mice but obviously want a quick solution to get rid.

Yes put newspaper below them easier to remove afterwards 🤮

They carry disease, they're incontinent and so will be urinating everywhere they go. They will often die quickly in unfamiliar surroundings and have been terrified by you moving them, so rather than reduce suffering you increase it. If it's too close, they have a strong homing instinct so will come back. There's no bloody shortage of the things, they can breed every 3 weeks. Also unlike breakback traps, you can't just reset them quickly once you've caught one so will need to have more traps to be effective (as you take out the ones full). Additionally that mouse will be trapped in a small box until you have the time to drive out and release it (I'm assuming that won't be within minutes of you catching each mouse?)

So your thought that you're humane might just be causing more suffering for something that's likely to spread illness. A breakback trap kills instantly most of the time. Get over it. Just because you're not doing the killing, an owl probably is instead if it doesn't just come straight back again.

water bucket trap .
small bits of snickers bar.
google it.

and also do some very thorough investigations to identify where the mice are getting access to the house.
and close those.
this is the most important part.

My bloody cat brought the last ones in and left them to run amok.

Get loads of traps and use Nutella and peanut butter as bait. The traps should be placed along the run routes if the mice - along skirting boards etc - the bait closest to the wall so the trap snaps towards the wall. Make sure all food is in tins / boxes. Close all doors at night too.

Get wire wool and stuff it really tightly in any access holes that you find.

Then get the professionals in asap. Ours cost £180 for 3 visits. They were so thorough and helped us no end.

apparently they hate tin foil. Gives them a shock so we emptied all kitchen drawers and cabinets. Blocked up any holes with tin foil and laid down foil anywhere we could.
Only seen a couple since. Snap traps in the vicinity overnight. Done.

We had a bad infestation recently and had a lot of success with humane traps . Bait with cheese and peanut butter. We would have a couple to release every morning for a fortnight but did finally get shot of them. You have to release them a couple of miles away or they come back apparently

This makes me laugh , because we have 3........they are the REASON why we have mice in the house as they bring them in to chow on, but the mice are good actors They play dead and then leg it when they get put down!

Why has your DH left you to deal with this when you came home? Why didnt he take any action?

My husband was gutted when I sent him the photo of our first catch in the trap, he said it looked so cute with its big ears!! Field mouse 🐁 he's such a softy.

So you took them away from their territory and dumped them somewhere they would die a slow death from starvation and attacks?

As long as it made you feel good. A snap trap is kinder.

OP it sounds as if you've got a problem that might be too big for you now. Get a dude in to do it properly.

Again, you've sent them away to die anyway. Just slowly.
Boggles my head that people think this is kinder.

I had some mice, I made sure there was absolutely no access to any foods and got a couple of plug in sonar deterrents.

Have not had any problems since.

We had mice. Not many, but enough. We had a pest controller come round (free in our area) and he told me the following:

• mice can get in through much smaller holes than you'd think. Literally 1cm square
• get a big roll of steel wool and plug any and all cracks and holes with it. We had some gaps from the garage to the living room, through the single skin brick walls and where the skirting was. The pest controller told us that if we notice any smudges, that's them getting in
• Be aware of dropped ceilings because they will absolutely crawl around in there!
• We had an enormous bag of rice that we had to bin because it got chewed through. Sounds like you go this one, but get everything in tupperware!

Given the fact you are finding droppings in .multiple rooms, I recommend calling a professional. Mice are a problem you need to get on top of as quickly as possible. Please be careful when clearing droppings too. You have my sympathy, they are a pain

Genuine question. How is it killing them to drop them off further away?

I didn’t say he wasn’t helping, He went and sorted the traps, ordered and plugged wire wool today (we improvised with a scourer yesterday) and hoovered / cleaned several areas, like me. ‘It sounding occur for him to cone onto Mumsnet and and ask advice.

We closed a few rooms last night and today and have not seen any new droppings, my husband is going to check the loft tomorrow. If we spot more droppings, we will get the professionals in! No sign of the traps going off yet.

They're away from their habitat which they're familiar with. Mice have a lot of natural predators and will be absolutely terrified from having been locked in a box for at least hours (they're more likely to be caught overnight or when there's nobody around) then jiggled about in that box in a car.

Stick it miles away, they might be quickly caught by an owl. If it doesn't have a heart attack from the journey there.

And in the meantime, you'll have had to remove the trap and replace it with a new one which will trigger the neophobia again making it less likely you'll catch more.

They're just pointless. And not all that kind to the mouse either if you're all that bothered about something that wees every few minutes all over your floors, work surfaces, food, spreads disease and breads every 3-4 weeks.

Much as some people might think they're cute, they're really not. They're no better than roaches just with better PR.

Quick update - nothing caught in the snap traps (yet) but we put a couple of the poison bait boxes in rooms where we can close the door and keep the dog out. We found one dead mouse which we have disposed of. We’re keeping an eye open for any fresh droppings but haven’t yet come across anything. DH has plugged up any holes in external walls with wire wool. We will stay vigilant over the next couple of weeks, and keep the snap traps in any hidden areas.

The wire wool can rust over time just so youre aware. Progress anyway.

They will come right back, they aren't an endangered species

Even more reason to bring in a specialist I'm afraid OP. Not a reason not to. If you're not catching them, then it doesn't mean they've gone.

For anyone that doesn't know, most home insurance policies include pest control free of charge as standard. First call out with 2 repeat visits seems to be the norm.

I have fields behind my house and terraced property, so unfortunately, have to make use of the service annually for my loft. I've yet to be charged and they get them every time.

GREAT shout! I didn't know that! And what's more is as mice can chew through electrical cables, if they don't then raise some damage which has been caused (and you later have a fire) that's more on them than you.

I was so relieved when I found out, I tell everyone about it now! It doesn't count as a claim either, so doesn't increase your insurance premiums in the future.