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Original poster

Can anyone who knows anything about mice, patter over this way please......

33 replies

WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 08:49

Just wondering how a mouse came to be in my bathroom last night?

Can they climb stairs? Through open windows?

I am very puzzed.

While we are on the subject do you think IABU to have got very pissed off with dp waking me 3 times in the night to-

a) tell me mousey was in the bathroom

b) ask me how to catch said mousey

c) Bring the sodding box with the mouse in to our bed and ask me to identify whether creature was a mouse or baby rat

OP posts:
FabioThatFirggingCat · 31/07/2008 08:52

Yum, mice.

And
a)yes
b)yes
c)yes.

Where is said mousey now?

Original poster
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 08:57

Dp liberated mousey outside, could there be more?

Or even a nest

OP posts:
fryalot · 31/07/2008 08:57

they can get in through small holes round pipes and stuff - perhaps you have a teeny tiny hole under your bath or something.

Am quite surprised that dp managed to catch mousey in a box, tbh - tell him well done.

but YAdefinitelyNBU

fishie · 31/07/2008 08:58

there is never just one mouse. dh thought there was, but then he caught 12 in two days.

WelliesAndPyjamas · 31/07/2008 08:59

how close to your house did you release it?

FabioThatFirggingCat · 31/07/2008 09:03

It will return.
Do you have upmarket toiletries?
Mice do love a bit of Molten Brown, y'know.

WelliesAndPyjamas · 31/07/2008 09:06

Once I caught 6 in one go using a jam doughnut and mouse glue

Original poster
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 09:09

Hmmmm not sure how close, he was only wearing pants, so probably very close to the house, will it really come back?

Lol at upmarket mouse, maybe he was after my philosophy stuff.

OP posts:
Original poster
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 09:10

Christ, what's mouse glue?

Doesn't sound humane......

OP posts:
cremolafoam · 31/07/2008 09:10

sticky paper- cover bathroom with mice catching sticky paper

whooosh · 31/07/2008 09:11

A mouse wearing pants???

whooosh · 31/07/2008 09:12

NO to the sticky paper!-way too cruel.

Humane trap but you will have to deposit the little critters a good distance away.

Oh and they can get through the tiniest of cracks and can climb upstairs.

GordonBrownKickingHisHeels · 31/07/2008 09:13

poison - it is the only way forward (i speak as a veteran of scottish tenements)

Lemontart · 31/07/2008 09:17

OMG!! Mouse glue?!!?? That is soo yack.
I have this horrific image of going into the bathroom in the middle of the night and forgetting the floor is covered in glue. Then as the horror dawns on you, feet stuck to the floor, reaching for the light switch and.. cue the horror music and ear splitting scream.. as you see carnage everywhere. Tiny heaving little fluffy bodies writhing all over the floor. Boy, that glue sounds nasty

We use kitkats and peanut butter to lure them into the traps. Where there is one there is usually half a dozen or more.

Original poster
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 09:17

No can't bring myself to poison, if there were more, would I not be finding lots of poo, nibbled stuff etc?

Desperately trying to convince myself it was a one off.....

Dp wearing pants, not mouse in teeny tiny undies. Made me lol.

OP posts:
psychomum5 · 31/07/2008 09:18

we had a mouse.

it lived downstairs, eating any food left out and was clever enough to evade all forms of capture......

I resorted to waking up DH about it as I am not a fan of mice....especially when it kept stealing all my brazil nuts!

DH was not at all concerned, and did not care one iota that the damn thing seemed clever enough to not be caught.....and there was me thinking that maybe we could have made a FORTUNE with such a clever mouse.

anyhoo.......

we heard screaming one night, and it seems that mice can climb stairs, as this one DID and had run across the boys room one night...WHILE THEY WERE CAMPING ON THEIR FLOOR......

((made DH al a flutter....seems that mice terrorising his wife is fine.....when they venture upstairs, terrorise his children and they wake him up, he is galvanised into action!!!!

he stuff up the hole in the airing cupboard (seems the mice climbed cavity's in the house, he did not master the stairs.., and then the following day went to B&Q and bought hundreds a few choices of trap.

he then smeared peanut butter on said traps, upstairs and down.

we caught 4 or 5......

fabulously sadly the only traps to work were the snapping ones....

we are however mouse free

GordonBrownKickingHisHeels · 31/07/2008 09:20

have a really good look for poo. they are fairly discrete nibblers, i find. ours got too cocky and laid into the courgettes that is when i got the big guns out.

Original poster
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 09:20

Half a dozen??????

Bugger, maybe have to get humane trap.

Going camping on Saturday, do not want to return to a mouse house par-tay.

OP posts:
psychomum5 · 31/07/2008 09:22

oh, the poo is teeny!!!

I thought that one of the kiddies had been eating chocolate in the lounge at one oint as it just looked like teeny crumbs!

good job we had no toddlers at that point who liked to eat crumbs off the flor hey!

Walkthedinosaur · 31/07/2008 09:26

My cat brought a shrew in yesterday, jumped into house through dining room window, and dropped said shrew on the rug and jumped out of window again. I've been trying to catch the little bugger every since, they're so fast and I'm just pathetic. Got really cheesed off yesterday afternoon, so grabbed cat number 2 and locked him in dining room with me and said shrew. Little shrew ran up to huge black cat, kissed him on the nose and ran away again, cat smiled fondly in rodent's direction. So then I had to go and collect DS' from playscheme, so grabbed two cats and a dog and locked them all in the dining room with said shrew. Came back an hour later, with cats and dogs desperately trying to get out of dining room and shrew sitting on rug under the table washing its face. Kids now saying oh how cute. The little bugger has managed to evade my placing bucket over the top of him tactics and I'm now at my wits end. Can just imagine having a friend round for coffee as a shrew saunters up to table, helps himself to a biscuit and then buggers off again.

To top it off, I haven't seen him in the dining room this morning and no cats in house last night, so where is he? Made everyone check shoes before putting on this morning but am most perplexed at where its gone. Of course cats are steering clear of the house until the rodent has been disposed of. I mean, a cat catch a mouse, it's not like I'm expecting too much of them is it? They're the ones who dropped the damn thing in there in the first place.

Any shrew catching hints gratefully accepted, I don't really want to do poison or traps but I have enough trouble keeping on top of things at the best of times, it would just finish me off to be sharing the house with a furry thing with a long tail as well eek.

iheartdusty · 31/07/2008 09:28

check behind the sofa cushions, behind your washing machine or any other appliance which is easy to pull out, shine a torch under the fridge

mouse poo looks like little bullet shapes

i rather like mice, they are sweeeeet, but they do poo and pee uncontrollably everywhere and nibble electric cables, so they have to go.

iheartdusty · 31/07/2008 09:29

sorry x-post wih shrew tale

Original poster
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 31/07/2008 09:30

Walkthedinosaur, obviously sympathise but also pmsl, maybe the shrew asked the cat to bring him in?

OP posts:
JRocks · 31/07/2008 09:31

IME, shrews tend to hide behind cupboards and die, then you follow the smell and remove the corpse

Re mice - they are incontinent as well as pooing machines so wherever they walk, they pee. You don't want that round your house really! They can also climb easily so is feasible it came through the window. Could you ring Pest Control at your local council for advice?

Whizzz · 31/07/2008 09:32

We bought one of those ultrasonic plug in things for our garage - works very well. We since have a cat - could loan her out