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

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

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

[DontNeedAnything]

He really shouldn't have released it in your garden. You need to release them about 3miles from yor home or they will find their way back....

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

THanks all, no more mousey sightings yet, solidgoldbrass, at apalling waste of bounty bars, nobody but me gets to eat those here!

Off on hoilday in the morning, hope not to come home to house full of mice!

[solidgoldbrass]

I have had mice, dealt with them by way of snap traps baited with bounty bars. But I am still terrified that more may come even though I have blocked up all the possible holes with wire wool and taken to actually doing housework

[bealos]

we have mice*. have tried everything to get rid of them - snap traps, poison, high pitched ultrasonic things, shouting when you see one (worked the best out of all of them I think). It's really hard in victorian terraces as the mice just run between them. We have to make extra sur that no food is left out (even the fruit bowl) which is a bit annoying. The traps caught one, but then the others knew what it was. They seem to munch the poison and quite like it. Anyone have any other ideas other than getting a cat??

[*we do keep quite a clean house honest]

[girlandboy]

Never tried mouse glue - sounds horrific. Afraid we have resorted to the breakback traps. These have worked fine (mostly) apart from once when I heard the trap snap and then lots of thrashing noises! We only get little woodmice though which are quite pretty and it's a shame to murder them.

Do the humane mouse traps work? Only asking this because recently we have had a rat looking at us from the patio. Dh went out and bought a humane rat trap as well as a breakback rat trap, and it wouldn't even venture close to either. There was an array of tempting little treats on both, but obviously it was wise to our tricks. This rat was huge.......and I mean HUGE. It was like watching a rat-faced chihuahua running around. Fortunately rat has moved on since we stopped putting bird seed out for the birdies.

[WelliesAndPyjamas]

mouse glue was the last resort, nothing else was working (they were very cunning trap-defying mice) and as soon as we caught them we'd put them outside for foxes and cats to sort them out (sort of nature's way).

(you have to put the glue down on some wood or card, not on the floor )

[Walkthedinosaur]

Well thanks to the shrew all the spiders are up in arms because I've been into all the dark places of my dining room trying to find it - spiders are even bigger than the shrew. Scary times in Walkthedinosaur's dining room at the moment.

Would it be really cruel if I shoved the nozel of the Dyson under bookshelves, dresser and in dark crevices to try and get it out? It's only little I don't think it would get stuck it would possibly just go into the plastic bin thingy.

[Whizzz]

Walkthedinosaur - we are sure we saw a shrew too but have never found it. Our cat also likes to bring live things in to 'play with'. Shrews apparantly give off a bad smell/taste so cats don't really like them as a snack!

[Whizzz]

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

[JRocks]

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?

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

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

[iheartdusty]

sorry x-post wih shrew tale

[iheartdusty]

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.

[Walkthedinosaur]

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.

[psychomum5]

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!

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

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.

[GordonBrownKickingHisHeels]

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.

[psychomum5]

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

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

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.

[Lemontart]

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.

[GordonBrownKickingHisHeels]

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

[whooosh]

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.

[whooosh]

A mouse wearing pants???

[cremolafoam]

sticky paper- cover bathroom with mice catching sticky paper

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Christ, what's mouse glue?

Doesn't sound humane......