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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Shriek! A MOUSE! Help help help what do I do?

31 replies

madamez · 30/03/2007 21:37

Last night, noticed small brown furry animal on patio while looking idly out through kitchen window. It looked like a gerbil or something and, when I took a step towards the back door, it ran through the fence into next door garden. SO I kindly knocked on their door and asked if they had any small gerbilly pets that might have esscaped. They said no. So this morning, when I came down into the kitchen, something small and brown and furry and DEFINITELY F*ING MOUSE!!! ran across the floor.
Yuck. Help. DOn't want to call in Rentokill because a) they will put down poison and I have a 2 year old DS who wll find and eat it and b) I can't afford them.
So, what works? Borrowing neighbours cat? Sonic blasters? Humane traps? Please advise...

OP posts:
foxybrown · 30/03/2007 21:38

I'm learning to live in harmony with the one under the oven in my home.

Because no amount of chocolate or peanut butter seems to be tempting it into the 'humane' trap.

Its got a week, or its SNAP for the little bugger!

franca70 · 30/03/2007 21:49

madamez, we have an entire family living in the downstairs toilet... I saw the little bugger two weeks ago, having a stroll in our living room... dh chased it, and failed miserably. but we managed to follow it into his nest behind the toilet pipes. Humane traps unfortunately don't work. We have bloked the door to the bathroom now. The only effective thing you can do is putting a real trap. I know, it's horrible, but mice can be a real nuisance and even manage to enter the kithcen units if they want to ( I called the local council pest control, the consultation is free)

tinkerbellhadpiles · 30/03/2007 21:51

Either get a frisky cat or get a kill mousetrap. I know the nice idea about humane traps and I tried them for years but they are actually more cruel because the mouse gets trapped until you realise and let them out (and then they come back!)

A quick snap and their neck is broken, and they get a bit of chocolate.

NB you need to clear out under your cupboards, they are probably nesting.

Chances are they will bugger off as the weather warms anyway, they only come in out the cold.

tinkerbellhadpiles · 30/03/2007 21:57

If it makes you feel any better, I had 2 mouse related scares (I don't mind them particularly although I've been bitten an awful lot while rescuing them from the cat).

(1) the cat brought one in the catflap (traitor) and let it go in the kitchen. It vanished. I assumed he'd get it later. Next morning I opened the dishwasher to put a cup in and out of an upturned mug came a little brown head. I screamed, slammed the door shut and called DH. I got a new dishwasher out of that though .

(2) Overnight a tuppaware pot was shredded and teabags all over the floor half eaten so we realised we had company. So I got a small killer mousetrap. 3am I heard the unmistakeable crunch. Put head under pillow and pretended to sleep till morning. In morning found enormous fecking mouse, biggest I'd ever seen with big round ears, dead in mousetrap. Threw mousetrap and mouse in bin. Turned on TV. Animal Hospital was on. Explaining how people often mistake mice and rats and you can tell rats because of their ears. (holds us creature about half the size but undeniably the same species as the one I caught). EEEEWWWW a rat in my kitchen. Didn't get a new kitchen sadly but did get DH to pay for contract cleaners to sanitise it before I would set foot back in there!!!!!

Yurtgirl · 30/03/2007 22:04

I suffered Rats (and at least one squirrel) in my kitchen for 5 months, they have only just gone

Depending on where you live the council pest control man will visit for free. Here it is free which is just as well because he visited us many many times.

I assumed they would eat the poison and die fairly quickly - but noooooooooo!
They WOULD NOT TOUCH it let alone gorge themselves on it!!

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:15

RATS? Omygod! I think I could have a heart attack.

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:17

Yes, the consultation is free here as well. "Action" is free if rats are involved, around 40 quid if it's mice

Original poster
madamez · 30/03/2007 22:20

Arrgh arrgh arrgh! Can't clean under cupboards as cupboards are fitted units. Feeling kind of cross and furiously unreasonably resentful as I never had mice in former home despite having been much more of a slob there (I have political objections to excessive housework but now I have DS I do clean).DS has a bit of a tendency to hurl toast crusts or unappreciated biscuits around the kitchen, which may well be Not Helping.

ANyone got any opinon on ultrasound scare-little-furry-bastards-away gadgets?

OP posts:
Yurtgirl · 30/03/2007 22:21

Yes - they dont work!

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:26

Don't work.
traps are the only one that do, believe me. or cats, but they have the tendency of taking mmice inside as special gifts for you...

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:26

Don't work.
traps are the only one that do, believe me. or cats, but they have the tendency of taking mmice inside as special gifts for you...

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:27

ups

southeastastra · 30/03/2007 22:27

get a humane trap..add a shreddie..catch mouse... problem gone.

(repeat for more than one mouse)

Toady · 30/03/2007 22:34

{{shudders}} at the mention of mice / rats.

My cat brings them in sometimes, I stand on the sofa and shriek at him to get out, it makes me go weak, at one living under the cooker, would never cook again!

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:35

sea do yours go into the humane trap? mine are g&t, there's no way they'd fall for that!

southeastastra · 30/03/2007 22:37

well put in an algebra paper for them then. or a shreddie

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:39

I'll try with the algebra, then... (but that's a nasty move... )

Cloudhopper · 30/03/2007 22:41

We had them. THe first step is to check under cupboards etc to see if you can seal off any holes that run from the outside. I think you are supposed to use wire wool which they can't get through.

As for catching them, apparently the 'humane' traps are not necessarily softer on the mouse. I have heard that many mice get trapped and then die of a heart attack because they are so scared in the trap. The best bet is to get the snap shut traps, if you can stomach finding them.

I wouldn't worry - they will probably go of their own volition when the weather gets warmer.

One final tip is to ensure that every last crumb is cleaned up before bed time, and that you have no food accessible to them, which will discourage them from hanging around.

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:43

wire wool (eureka emoticon). Didn't know 'bout that!

Original poster
madamez · 30/03/2007 22:45

Thanks CLoudhopper. We live in a terraced house so it's just the back and side wall of the kitchen for holes (and a perhaps a friendly word with neighbours?). And borrowing a neighbour cat to run round the kitchen a few times. We can't get a cat as it's a no-pets tenancy and I'm allergic to animals.. (another reason for wanting the mouse GONE)

OP posts:
tinkerbellhadpiles · 30/03/2007 22:51

madamez - you only have to unclip the kickboards!!! They come off you know?

Sonic blasters - it would be more effective to stand in your kitchen and verbally chastise the mice away

southeastastra · 30/03/2007 22:52

a mouse can get into a gap the size of a pen apparently - seal all small gaps

franca70 · 30/03/2007 22:53

I'm actually quite relieved by the number of people with mice...

tinkerbellhadpiles · 30/03/2007 22:54

Cloudhopper - never heard of using wire wool. what does work is expandable foam with bits of broken glass jammed into it. Mice will eat any bloody thing, apart, according to Mr Rentokill, than glass (because it hurts their gums!)

If a pen can get through a mouse can apparently.

Oh and Madamez, make sure you disinfect your surfaces, mice are incontinent and widdle on everything.....(in case you weren't distressed enough, they'll have been in your cutlery drawer) - probably for weeks.

Cloudhopper · 30/03/2007 22:55

That reminds me - in the end we got the sonic repellent things. They were 30 pounds for a set of 4, which was far too expensive, but they did seem to go.