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Original poster

Best way to get rid of mice

28 replies

Frecklesandspecs · 19/04/2013 08:10

We bought our house about 5 months ago and seem to have been left a few freebies with it.

Not long after we moved in, I heard scratching in our loft room. Didn't think too much of it as thought it could be on roof. Then started hearing it in the large cupboard (which is ajoined to the room but we have not opened.

Then, a couple of months ago my husband SAW one run across our room. He shreiked and ran out and the 'mouse' disappeared.
We checked for holes and filled in any gaps (its a fairly new conversion). But then I saw mouse droppings on the stairs. I knew we had a problem.

Since then, we have not heard or seen anything in the top room BUT I have heard in the middle bedroom and I am sure something is still in there. I put peppermint oil everywhere which seemed to help (no more droppings) but after a while started hearing in the middle of the night.

It has always smelt funny (musty) in that room also which I think could indicate a mouse problem.

Whats more our very informative elderly neighbour told us the house has had mouse problems before as have the other houses in the close.

Anyway. What is the best way forward?
We have two young kids and I am pregnant and scared about wires and fires ect.

Do we call someone out or DIY it and what with?
(I've tried the humane traps which haven't done anything and DH is worried about putting other stuff out because of our kids and having to deal with dead mice probably!

Does this sound like one mouse or a whole lot?
Husband is trying to get me to believe I am seeing and hearing things!!! That it was just the one.
I know we still have residents with us.

OP posts:
Original poster
Frecklesandspecs · 19/04/2013 08:12

ps : we also have some floors upstairs that need to be done and are just bare floorboards (with some gaps in) so I am thinking they could be in the floorboards?
How would we get them out of there?

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 19/04/2013 08:18

Poison.

Neosorexa gold, you can get it on ebay.

As you have I presume young children follow the safety precautions [dont put it in places accessible to the children]

If you have one mouse, you will have lots more that you cant see.

Poison is the only method that actually works IME.

AmberLeaf · 19/04/2013 08:19

Re floorboards, you put the poison down, the mice come out and eat it [it is mixed with grain] and then they tootle off and die.

mrsminiverscharlady · 19/04/2013 08:21

Agree about poison. This winter we put poison down in the pantry and left it there permanently and it's the only winter when I haven't opened the door to find a mouse looking at me! Previously we'd tried traps of various kinds and we also have a cat. Neither really worked.

Original poster
Frecklesandspecs · 19/04/2013 08:21

amber, if they go and die somewhere, what happens to their bodies? :(
would it smell really bad?

OP posts:
mrsminiverscharlady · 19/04/2013 08:22

We haven't smelt anything yucky. Unlike the year when we had lots and one got tangled up in my knitting bag, died and then exploded

SoulTrain · 19/04/2013 08:23

I had this problem when we moved into our house. The house had been empty for a year, and then was completely renovated during particularly wet weather, which apparently disturbs them. We tried humane traps, nothing. I was making myself ill as I'm petrified, plus we had (at the time) a 10 month old. We called in a specialist who detected where they were coming from and hid boxes of poison that they eat and then later die Sad. I know this isn't nice but they are particularly unsanitary. We also bought some old fashioned traps from B&Q and had instant success with these over night. We caught two and never (touch wood, a year on) not seen any more.

As for the roof, are you sure it's not a bird nesting up there? Mice are so light I would be surprised if you could hear them moving up there? It's nesting season at the moment and we also have this issue!

Basically, I think you need a professional to determine where they are coming from and advise you. We paid £75 which was a one off payment that involved three visits and he would have kept coming back if we were still seeing them.

I appreciate that traps/poison aren't to everyone's choice but with young children and being pregnant I don't think you have much choice.

Good luck!

Original poster
Frecklesandspecs · 19/04/2013 08:30

Errrg - mrsminni - gross buit informative!! Grin
Soultrain, I have sat up, middle of the night trying to determine where the scratching is coming from but pretty sure it is coming from IN the room. Plus the dropping ect.

I think best way then is to get some poison and we will see if that helps.
There were people living in it until we bought it so I bet they knew they had mice too (post grads!!)

I'll also have a look at getting in a pest control person.

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 19/04/2013 11:33

Don't waste your money on pest control companies! they will only do what you can do, but with less regularity [I was refilling poison bait bowls twice daily for two days] and for loads more money.

Re the mice dying/smell etc, well mice don't live that long, so if you have an infestation [which is what it is] some mice will die naturally anyway.

You do get the odd whiff, but its really not that bad and tbh no worse than the smell of a mouse infestation anyway! which is like very strong cheesy feet IME.

Some poisons have something in them that does something to the corpses that speeds up fossilisation? so it won't be a case of loads of decaying bodies don't worry! they tend to live under floorboards and in walls anyway, so you won't see them.

www.steamandmoorland.com/acatalog/Neosorexa-Gold-Rat-Bait---Rat-and-Mouse-Poison-500g-1Kg-3Kg-6Kg-NeosorexaGoldBait.html

AmberLeaf · 19/04/2013 11:35

Not fossilisation, calcification

EntWife · 19/04/2013 13:10

get some snap traps and some peanut butter. bait the trap with the Pb and put it down in the room before you go to bed.

i would be very suprise if you don't get them in just a few nights if not the first night.

snap traps kill quickly and usually humanly. there is no long lingering death.

we had a mouse problem once. we thought it was just one or two. over the space of a week we caught 22!

gybegirl · 19/04/2013 13:21

I second the cheap wooden snap traps (a la Tom and Jerry). They have a long needle which is then balanced in a notch. Try and get the ones which have a notch in the side of the needle, not that go into a circle at the end of of the needle .

If you find them buy more than you think you'll need - I killed four in five minutes once. Unset them each morning so your kids don't play with them. Bait them by melting a tiny bit of chocolate on the end so that it sticks to the metal - I've previously had the buggers eat the choc and survive. I refuse to be the mouse equivalent of McDonalds.

Ps the humane traps are completely crap - as are the sonic things that you plug in.

LePetitPrince · 19/04/2013 16:57

I have the exact same problem at present.. I have mice under the floorboards of an old-style semi but the floorboards in question are expensive Amtico so I am not that keen on lifting them! There is a visible gap behind a water pipe behind a false wall panel and we can't decide if just plugging that is preferable to actually lifting the floor and fixing the problem at source.

At the moment, there is a dead mouse in a trap there now but I can't bear to move it. So in the space of 12 hours, we have laid 4 traps and caught 4, all within 60 minutes of laying the trap (record: 5 minutes).

It is totally gross.

Is it better to have mice in the foundations or on the surface? Can't really decide to be honest.

AmberLeaf · 19/04/2013 17:05

I don't think its a question of either or tbh. You will see them or evidence of them on the surface, but they will undoubtedly be living under the surface.

They can get in through the teeniest of cracks and tend to retreat into walls and under floorboards.

That's why poison is good IMO, you don't have to get to the 'source' if you put down poisoned bait, they come to it and that's that.

Plugging any visible gaps is wise, use wire wool. If you can get a pencil in a hole, then a mouse can get through it.

acceptableinthe80s · 19/04/2013 17:49

I went into my shed today for the first time this year and half my sunlounger has been eaten! Foam all over the place!
They're destructive little beggars. I'd go for poison too, they'll eat anything including electrical wires!

Original poster
Frecklesandspecs · 19/04/2013 18:40

Thanks Amber. My neighbour said the same RE pest control. Funny you said about the cheesy smell because I was sure I smelt cheese in one of the rooms today (before I read this)
I got more wire wool today and went around that room filling in any gaps.
Should I do the same between the floorboards until we get the floors done? (or would that be counter productive and keep them above the boards?)
Ent, thats awful. :( I hope we don't have that many!
Poison it is. I am not really worried about how the mice die tbh. I think my young kids are more important. It's just dealing with them once they are dead! :(

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 19/04/2013 22:19

We had loads and once the poisoned bait was put down, well I was filling the little 'plates' of bait twice daily for two days, things got quieter fairly quickly and by the start of day three, the bowls were only half eaten.

I never found a single dead mouse, I think they retreat to die!

I probably have many mousey skeletons under the floorboards and in the walls, bit I can live with that!

I would block gaps once you have administered the poison and know it has worked, to stop them if they come back in the future.

Original poster
Frecklesandspecs · 20/04/2013 20:00

Thanks Amber - great help. Will use advice :)

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 20/04/2013 20:44

Good luck!

mathanxiety · 21/04/2013 01:03

You are going to have to have your house very thoroughly professionally cleaned and disinfected once you are satisfied there are no more mice.

Mice are incontinent and they pee as they run. You'll only be able to see the pee using a black light. It's invisible to the naked eye. Urine and poo of mice carry viruses.

They leave pheromone trails for their little furry friends so the thorough cleaning (ask for mouse cleanup) is necessary.

Original poster
Frecklesandspecs · 21/04/2013 07:10

thanks math, one of our neighbours said also yesterday that if we have them then the whole row of terranced (four houses) will have them and all of us would need to do something to rid them properly. :(

OP posts:
eedibops · 21/04/2013 13:18

Get a cat they will soon disappear when they smell a cat, i have had a few friends have this problem, one of them her house was crawling with mice, every drawer she opened had a mouse in it, so she got a cat, and they vanished, if they smell a cat they move on xxx

Bramblesinafield · 21/04/2013 13:40

We had our two cats well before our mice came. We made sure we blocked up any entrance to the house through holes and gaps around pipes. We locked the cat in the room with them overnight and it took a week for them to catch them all. We had tried humane traps before the cat solution.

Bramblesinafield · 21/04/2013 13:40

Are the attics linked? Could they be coming along the terrace that way?

mathanxiety · 21/04/2013 16:10

If you're all joined up together and everyone has mice there's probably at least one culprit whose home is attracting them. A cat in a situation like this would be very useful as they might bypass you. But you still need to set traps (the old snap traps are the best as they kill instantly) and perhaps the attic would be a good place to do this if all of the attics are 'communal', plus your children won't trip the traps if they're up there. You can set traps in your living areas if you keep them under furniture and close to walls (mice tend to stay close to walls). And you will need the deep cleaning and sanitising too.