Project Mouse In The House

[HystericalMe]

I have a mouse, in my flat, and am in the middle of a Spring clean in November, or a deep clean.

It has been making my life misery leaving mousey pellets/poo on the kitchen table and in my bed! (I think it likes the smell of lavender as goes to great lengths to destroy a lavender scented teddy bear!)
I can't sleep as I hear scurrying and squealing in the hall at night.

Worst of all of course it is unhygenic and I'm almost scared that they might come into the bed where DS age 3 is sleeping.

So far I have emptied out the cupboard in the bedroom, under the bed and cleaned and vacuumed the area, moved the bookcase and vacuumed behind there, the fridge, washing machine and oven too...

The more I do, the worse the flat looks! Have come home from work and feel like i'm in the wrong flat.

Any tips for me as I go round trying to clean up the mess the mouse/mice/worse??? eek! are making and hopefully make it harder for them to hide here?

I don't have a lot of storage and need to buy some item of furniture or storage boxes so that I no longer leave things under the bed and at the bottom of cupboards making nice snuggly mouse nests!

c'mon! I need tips your good housekeeping/mousey tips.

I'm exhausted from cleaning bookcases and hauling stuff out of cupboards and disgusted by the peppering of pellets that falls off things when i pull them out!

You need to get some traps and lay them against the side of the wall where they run down the hallway - just cleaning up won't get rid of them.

Sounds as if you have a large family living there - not just one mouse.

Do you leave any food out overnight?

Hysterical, have you tried the Humane Mouse Traps? We had one once and we bought the multi use kind. The only thing is you have make sure you follow the instructions on taking the mice away as they can find their way back.

Think the recommendation is 2km. DH took him to work with him and released him in the carpark by the canal

I wish I could give you some tips but am in the same situation down to waking up to find a mouse on my pillow! My plan is, apart from making sure no food is left out, to put poison into the mouseholes then seal them with steel wool.

Thanks, I have one snap trap, some poison, some glue sticky traps, one humane mouse trap meant to catch up to 10 mice - hope it will work soon.

You saw a mouse on your pillow velcro!!! They're so bold.

We've had the same problem for about a month, and touch wood things are starting to look like less of a problem. Less pellets anyway.

I have done traps, bait, plug-in electode things, peppermint oil - soaked in cotton balls and put around the house (apparently they can't stand the smell of it!).
Have also got a huge packet of glue traps but have not used them yet.

Did heaps of research and was told that they come inside in this weather and expect them to stay at least a month if they have just had babies - will stay to protect the nest.

I had a call from the nanny the other day as a baby mouse was dead in the middle of the kitchen floor. She would get rid of it . So I left work to go home to get rid of it and when I arrived it had gone! She said it didn't move for a good 5 - 10 min, wonder if it was fright? or if it was dragged away or if it dragged itself away to die under my floorboards??????

So feeling your pain - no mouse on the pillow though, that would completely freak me.

If I still have a problem in a few weeks will call council and get a proper poisoining, three visits for about £100. They also help you locate entry points. I have so many I don't know where to start to fill them up???
We are in a maisonette so problem could be widespread or they could just be visiting with your neighbours. Asked anyone if they are having the same problems??

GOOD LUCK

Might add that apart from the one that got away I am yet to catch one, but they have eaten a hell of a lot of bait.

(hoping they have just eaten it all and gone away to die......)

I had our council 3 visit thing, the man was most apologetic on the 3rd visit when he reported that they had not touched any of the poison! (This had worked last time we had some a few years ago). They won't go into the humane traps, or step on the lethal ones, or eat the poison, who bugger off behind the wire wool.
Thinking of moving to be honest - a fresh start in a mouse-free environment!
(hard to believe I used to keep rats -am now terrified of teeny mice!)

We had a huge mouse family in our house last winter and it totally freaked me out. We killed at least six in a two week period (using the sticky traps to catch them then executing them - horrible!!! definitely a job for the husband). Then we got a cat - as soon as it arrived in the house it caught one and touch wood, we have not had any mice since. A lot of people told me that once you get a cat you will never see another mouse and I am beginning to believe them. We got ours from the cat rescue place so were able to chose one who would suit the family - even if you don't have outdoor space you can still have a cat.

So in summary: get a cat and you will never look back!

We have cats, we now have mice courtesy of them

Same here but at least the ones the cats bring in are dead! Or happy to be chucked back to the field they came from.

I totally sympathise. Its just horrible when you've mice.We caught 17 last year. I only found this out as dh told me at the time it was only 4! Trying to keep a 7month pregnant me calm. We spent a fortune on stuff to get rid of them. The traditional traps work as well as anything, with a bit of chocolate. Just warn the dc not to touch. You really need to find out where they are getting in. Go around any pipes and check for holes.

You're supposed to try and locate where they're coming in and block any holes. This was pretty impossible for us as we have a basement and the floor is full of holes for pipes and cables etc (it's not our house)and supposedly they only need a hole the size of a 5p. Peppermint is also supposed to deter them, but we didn't have any luck with that, but you could try making up a spray with peppermint and tea tree oil and that would disinfect as well. Make sure any food is in tupperware as far as you can.

In the end I resorted to a tin of sardines and a neighbour's cat.

We've got two cats and we still seem to get them, although we are not sure whether the cats bring them in to play with. Hate, hate, hate mice!

We had a couple of mice - you do need to try and find out where they're coming from and block it up. We used chocolate in humane traps and again took them far away to be released..