Is there a sure fire way of getting rid of mice? We can't get a cat.

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We had one (some? Who knows) living in our sofa a few weeks ago, which we discovered because it ran across dh's lap as we were watching 24 one night . So, we chucked the sofa (it was knackered anyway) and got a new one and we thought the mouse/mice had gone. We ripped it apart before we chucked it and it did look like it had been living in there. But I can hear rustling behind the sofa NOW and I've just SEEN one running across the floor about 10 feet away from me.

Dh set a load of traps, caught a few but it obv didn't work. What shall we do? Would borrowing a cat work?

I dunno but we had mice in our flat in hammersmith. Pest woman came out and said if you can see one, then there are probably loads of them that you can't see.

She put down a load of poison (in places the kids couldn't get like behind the washing machine) and we had no more trouble!

I think she said our type of mouse lived outside and then came in so would eat the poison and then go and die outside. I'm not sure if mice live in the house do they?

Traps arent the best. You are best off getting some poison laid down, and trying to see where they are getting in from in the first place and blocking those entrance holes (gaps around pipes through walls, small gaps under doors, air vents etc). Use fine guage wire mesh for air vents, brush strip for door bottoms and expanding foam around pipes.

Get poison from a DIY store or call in the local council - they are fairly cheap. Not all councils do this though.

Also remove any potential food sources. Old food/biscuits/crumbs, fat/grease down the side of the cooker, some soaps etc. This will discourage the mice from eating an alternative to the poison.

can you borrow a cat?

Might work, although I think thats why we've had mice in the past as the cat brings them round to play, then lets them go.

QV is right about the places they come in, especially when it's so cold. They can get through ridiculously small gaps.

Cats don't work, we tried and it sits and watches them!!!!!! then meows for dinner

Just called pest control who are closed but I will call them on Monday. Foxinsocks, oh no, what a horrible thought! I think there's a nest behind the radiator and the sofa is in front of that.

my children like dry shreddies so I think that's prob what they're mainly eating. I wonder if dh can get the radiator off the wall? Gross, gross, gross.

check to see if that is where they are getting in

pest woman told me they like the holes left in the wall where the pipes go outside

(I know they are horrible things - kept thinking I was going to stumble across hundreds of dead mice after she told me that!)

QV knows as she used to work for a pest control company

Living in your sofa . They're up early as well! Much sympathies - we were overrun by mice in our last flat and never managed to get rid of them, but then I think the only surefire way is to find out how they are getting in in the first place and block it up. Don't want to be pessimistic on your behalf but they can get through tiny holes (if you can push a pencil through it, then a mouse can get through...). But houses are probably easier to mouseproof than terraced flats.

We currently have a rat (God I hope it's only one) which has been stealing pan scourers and nesting behind our cooker . Think I preferred the mice.

High frequency emitters which plug in to a normal plug socket is what we use in our shed. Works for us.

Mary Pop, if ours doesn't let them go, he eats the whole thing, cept for the gall bladder bit - tis rather horrid to see/hear.

WWW, pull the sofa out and have a look. we spent a couple of hours one eve chasing one round our lounge. DH swears by using a torch to shine at them and sort of stun them. Then uses empty ice crweam tub to catch them in. But you must take them a long long way away from your house, else they just come straight back in.

High frequency emitters really arent that great for indoor pest problems.

We used to have a rat moonshine, it was obv a big one because it gnawed the door tryign to get into the kitchen and the marks are about a foot up! You could hear it at night. But pest control man came and put poison down and it's gone. Hmm, yes, the thing about the tiny gaps isn;t good, dh trapped oneonce behind dd's toy box and kept trying to box it in but leaving GAPS and I kept saying, oh fgs, they're mice they'll get through gaps, which obv he found terribly helpful at the time.

I won't pull sofa out, I'll let dh do it when he gets in, he'll be like a man possessed, he hates them.

your poor dh having a mouse run over his lap

no wonder you chucked the sofa (note to self, never buy a second hand sofa off ebay)!

he screamed like a girl foxinsocks! We chopped it up and ILS took it home for firewood.

Rule is WWW if you can poke a pen through a gap a mouse can get through it.

thought you meant the mouse there for a minute

had a vision of your dh with an evil look in his eye, chopping the mouse up into little bits!

We had a family of cannibal mice once. We caught several over the course of a week in backbreaker traps and each one had had a part of its body or head eaten away .

That's a SMALL gap then vvv! Blimey, I didn't know that, v helpful. Will tell dh when he gets in. I texted him to say I could hear rustling and he wrote back saying 'I hope you're joking' I don't think he'll be v amused at the reappearance of the Mouse Problem. I'm not, come to that!