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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Expelling a mouse from the house in a kind manner

16 replies

Me2Me2 · 24/03/2014 23:30

Moved a few months ago and just seen a mouse in the kitchen. It sounds like there are more (squeaking behind the fridge). What do we do? I really don't fancy a mousetrap or putting down poison. How can we get rid of it/them without killing it/them?
I'm pretty horrified. We're not clinically clean but not too bad overall. No food establishments nearby Shock

OP posts:
Dappydongle · 24/03/2014 23:37

Mice carry salmonella and are incontinent. Get rid.

holycowwhatnow · 24/03/2014 23:37

You can get humane traps which catch the mouse alive and you then release it from the trap. I used one of these many years ago when we had a mouse in the garage. The mouse went into the trap just after my DH left for work so I had to deal with it cos I couldn't leave the poor thing in the trap for 9 hours. So I brought the trap out to a green area about 200m from my house.

The fucker was back the next day. So make sure you release it FAR away from your house!!

BertieBotts · 24/03/2014 23:39

If you have more than one stray one brought in by a cat, then you need to poison them really. Sorry :( I know it's not a nice thought but you'll never get the whole nest and they'll probably try to come back too. I like mice but you really don't want them living in your house.

RedPT · 24/03/2014 23:39

You can buy kind mouse traps, that trap the mouse not kill it. I put chocolate in and leave it by a wall. (Mice seem to like chocolate!) Then release the mouse outside. (My cat frequently brings mice in).

eatmydust · 24/03/2014 23:48

DCat likes to bring home field mice, he doesn't hurt them, he just carries them in the house, drops the terrified mice in front of us and then lies down and watches us manically trying to catch them for the next hour. Generally, they run and hide so we contain them in a room, and catch them in large tupperwareish boxes - think empty ice cream boxes - and then put them outside. I have looked at humane traps, but luckily have managed to find the mouse without having to use one, do agree you need to quickly catch the mouse/mice and get them out of the house though so as unpleasant as it may seem a trap could be a better option.

DCat appears to think he is being helpful by bringing us mice to catch and he is the problem really. Serious conversations with DCat haven't worked so far.....

BertieBotts · 24/03/2014 23:51

It's totally different if it's a lone mouse brought in by a cat. They'll be a bit dopey from fear and possibly injury, won't know the house, and there's only one of them. When you release them outside they will try to find their nest, which is not in your house.

When you have an actual nest it's different, they'll be totally calm, there is more than one to catch, they'll be trying to get back to the nest and there is more than one of them and you won't know if you've got the lot.

Environmental health will send someone out if you phone the council. If you feel bad you could always get some pet mice from an animal rescue centre Grin

justanuthermanicmumsday · 24/03/2014 23:52

Mouse pasta in DIY stores expensive delicacy . There's no humane way unless u want to run around catch them then drive out over a mile before releasing otherwise they will return.

Also get a cat might deter them even if he/she not good mouser.

Then go about stuffing all crevices in home with wire wool and or filler. If garage connected to house and u don't have a pet leave poison there permanently. If you do have cats or dogs not safe to leave it out.

We too gad mouse on moving in to new rental, but this place too gorgeous to leave I kicked mice out

tulipsaredelicious · 25/03/2014 10:16

I've had two houses with mice and tried everything humane. Unfortunately the mice are clever wee buggers and soon work out how to avoid them. I'm afraid the only effective remedy we found was poison. Rentakill came round and sorted it out for around 50 quid. That was a few years ago though.

Flibbertyjibbet · 25/03/2014 10:26

If you have seen one mouse then all its friends and relatives are only feet away.

Forget all the humane stuff, sorry. Mice can carry disease and breed incredibly fast. If they have got into your house then there must be a little hole or holes that more can get in if you get rid of this lot.
When we had mice we had two cats... no deterrent at all!
We saw one mouse, so dp went out the next day and bought a ton of traps. Put raisins or chocolate on them. He put them under the kitchen cupboards, under the stairs, behind the washing machine etc etc. Then he scoured the perimeter of the house looking for any gaps they could have got in (we think it was where the previous owner vented a dryer) and closed them off.
First night the traps were going off about every 10 mins when it went dark. I didn't look at any the next day but dp dealt with the mice and put the traps all down. Then more went off the next night, so these must have been living in the house. Over the next few weeks the traps would still go off sometimes, took awhile for none to go off at all.
If you don't get them ALL then they will carry on breeding inside your nooks and crannies and will be an ongoing problem.

The humane traps that you have to drive off to release the mice... well in our case we would be driving off every day for weeks on end... and we only ever SAW one live mouse.

MERLYPUSS · 25/03/2014 10:36

Borrow a cat. The smell of a cat will stop them breeding - they can have ten litters a year - and should, if any good, catch or scare them away. Our old cat was a monster so he was loaned out on more than one occasion.

NigellasDealer · 25/03/2014 10:39

i am not being cruel, but there is no kind yet effective way to deal with mice.
getting a cat is probably the best suggestion.

Original poster
Me2Me2 · 25/03/2014 16:59

crikey. not an easy solution then, at least not for the faint-hearted like me

we don't have a cat but there is one that visits the property. Indeed that's our other problem: it comes over the fence and does its business in the on the concrete path that runs down the side of the house. Imagine

This all makes the house sound really awful, which it isn't, tho it did stand empty for several months before we bought it

we have a baby and toddler so I'm not keen to put poison anywhere. maybe the humane trap then. The one we saw sat under he toaster for ages, glaring at us. Must have been terrified, tho we were prob more so

OP posts:
OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 27/03/2014 14:51

Umm, getting a cat doesn't necessarily work as a mouse control method.

We occasionally have mice. I would confidently say that 90%+ of any rodents in our house have been brought in alive by one of our cats and let go in the house so they can be played with and caught again later.

BertieBotts · 27/03/2014 17:10

If you call environmental health, they will put the poison either in places the DC can't reach (e.g. behind the fridge) or they have special dispensers like those ant powder dispensers which the DC can't get into but the mice can (or have I imagined that? Hmm)

BertieBotts · 27/03/2014 17:12

Although then it would seem the other solution is to use kill traps at night and get up to empty them before the DC get up and see :(

Sleepyoto · 28/03/2014 12:37

Some years ago I successfully removed around live 11 mice from my loft using this awesome trap:

www.rmca.org/Articles/ssmousetrap.htm

It was so effective I just carried on setting it till all went quiet, then I was 100% sure I had removed them all. It can also be used to capture escaped hamsters, guinea pigs etc.

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