Help, we've got mice

[thegraduand]

I think we've got mice. I've just noticed some droppings, what's the best way to get rid of them? Not sure I could cope with a trap, is there a humane way?

We use bait boxes in the garage - but then you find little corpses in random places.

The trouble with 'humane' traps is that you have to check them very frequently otherwise they're less humane than a trap.

if you use 'humane' traps you need to take the mouse at least a mile away or it will come back. And clean all the mouse-crap out of the trap too.

there are some poisons that are slow acting, this means the mice die in their burrows.

You usually only get them because they've found food. Try to work out what they are eating, store food carefully, check cupboards for holes, check if they can get under doors. We usually do this and set traps but if you cut off food source they will go eventually!

Get a cat :)

YY to Grimmas 'less humane' comment. My DM has had two mice starve to death on her... one trap she just forgot had been set, the other they didn't deactivate before going on holiday.

I am an evil neck/back breaker with ours... I've never had too upsetting a trap situation to deal with. Put them in a narrow space and you'll be OK. The best ones are the Rentokil ones with a little feeding platform; easy to set.

balancing is right abut finding the food and the entry point. Ours got in through an air brick (they'd gnawed out two holes and made them bigger) and then via pipe holes and gaps at the top of the kitchen unit kickboards. I've noticed too that they'll find a hidey hole to eat their finds in - look under all your units or any furniture that has a space or cavity underneath it, especially those in the corners of rooms.

We tried allsorts which didn't work. DM presented us with some evil old traps she had and the mouse problem was over very quickly. I had to get DH to deal with them though, was too wimpy to deal with them myself.

Sorry can't help re humane traps- we used evil old traps and mice problem was gone within 24 hours.

Try and find where they are getting in - we used that expanding foam stuff from b&q as we realised there wee some gaps leading to outside in our porch etc

Good luck!

My sympathies- I found muce last week. I got a man in who blocked up all the holes in the kitchen where they were coming in. There were no mice in the flat when he did the blocking so no need to trap them thank goodness. And so far no sign of any more. So I thinm blocking the holes is the wag to go.

What size are the droppings? Rats are usually small raisins and mice no bigger than a grain of rice.

We had a mouse and I used a sticky trap. Then one morning a very distressed mouse was found stuck to the trap and I had to kill it myself anyway.

It was horrible.

Droppings are like brown grains of rice. No idea where they are coming from. Where can I get slow acting poison from? Otherwise I'll be off down b and q to get some old fashioned traps

Neosorexa Gold poison, you can buy it on ebay. Best I have found.

A friend of mine had the same situation as Tubemole - he never used sticky traps after that.

I used to have mice for a while when I had no cats for a few years. I looked around at all the dodgy diy/hidden building work such as gaps in plasterboard for wiring, and blocked them all up. I must have succeeded as I saw no more after that, but I also got a cat later and I haven't had a single reoccurence since then in about 4 years.

The sticky traps are awful, we had a baby mouse stuck to one which dp had to kill. We used humane traps & released them in the church yard about half a mile from our house. Pest control people came & put poison traps down too (but I think they favoured the peanut butter in the humane traps) they said they can get through a hole as small as a biro so you have to be really thorough about filling holes. We went mad with expanding foam under our kitchen units and put wire wool in holes in the floorboards. Also had to remove all food temptation by putting things in Tupperware, getting a bread bin etc. The little fuckers were even getting in the toaster and eating crumbs, which I only figured out when I realised the toaster smelt of wee. Yuck.

Neosorexa has been most reliable/least upsetting, as they do "throw-bags" which can go in places inaccessible to children and pets. Agree cats are useful, but not all are good mousers, and just as likely to bring half-dead wild-life indoors as gifts.

I'm another one who would say go for the evil proper traps I am afraid.

The problem with "humane" traps is that you then need to take the mouse a good mile or two from your house or it will come straight back in - and its chances of survival in strange territory are very slim - it will most likely either starve or get eaten by a predator. We tried poison once and it took ages and in the meantime this mouse got slower and slower. Awful. Kinder to despatch quickly imho.

They like peanut butter or chocolate so those would be my bait of choice. And as pps said, thoroughly block up any potential entry holes.