Why, oh why am I not catching any mice?

[GoAgainstNicki]

I’ve been posting about the mice situation within my flat for nearly 6 months now. I’ve had two different pest control companies come round to set traps and ‘mouse proof’ the flat. There’s been traps and poison placed on the floor underneath the kickboards yet not one mice has ever been caught.

I’ve gone around the kitchen nearly 3 times and have filled all holes with wire wool. Yesterday I found another massive hole in the kitchen (absolutely no clue how I missed that) and filled it straight away. I finally thought okay, this will be the end of seeing any mice now. I also put two traps with bait underneath the kickboard right next to the massive hole that I’d found.

My younger sister was at my house earlier and said she saw a small mouse in the kitchen whilst I was outside. I just don’t understand, what the hell am I doing so wrong? I have 2 under 2 and this is starting to impact my mental health so badly. My anxiety is at an all time and I’m not sleeping anymore. I’ve baited the traps with chocolate, peanuts, peanut butter and bacon. I have snap traps and the electronic trap. Nothing is working, please help

We only caught mice in humane traps with half a snickers bar as bait.... Then we released them in the woods... They would go near the snap ones...

I catch mice sometimes in the garage, couple of snap traps and chocolate never fails...... you just need to be patient.

My experience of city mice was that they quickly learn to avoid traps. We only had success with small amounts of the blue poisoned grains hidden in food boxes under or behind furniture.

Even though you've blocked holes to stop more mice coming in there will be some in your house to catch. Sticky pad traps the only things that worked for me, have you tried them?

If there’s poison down they will eat it and go away somewhere to die. It will take time though

Please don’t use sticky pad traps. It’s a terrible slow death for mice and they really suffer. They don’t understand that your home is off limits. (Speaking as someone who had an appalling mouse problem, )

These are so cruel. Get humane traps and use peanut butter. They work a charm. Make sure they are along the baseboards and not perpendicular.

They like shortbread. Use that in your traps

Please don’t use these - they are inhumane. The mice rip themselves apart trying to get away. Be patient and never handle the traps with bare hands - they will smell you. They hate mint so put lots of mint oil around areas you think they’re coming in.

If you’re in London, there are a few companies that come and mouse proof your house. Not cheap but they guarantee the work.

Goes without saying but everything in tupperware, clean up crumbs immediately etc.

We used chocolate in a humane trap. Worked in about 2 days.

Could you borrow a cat if you know someone who has one that is a good mouser? Once the cat has killed a few of them, the rest will probably bugger off.

Mice scoot along the baseboards and kickboards in kitchens. So you may notice they get dirty quick. We had an awful problem with mice in every house before our current one. Snap traps with peanut butter as others have said worked best.

Humane traps worked for us (user name is just a weird coincidence)

The mice can't help it and don't deserve to die a slow death. Good luck!

Are you in a flat or a terraced house? Are the mice getting into the building somewhere that you cannot block off? The only thing that worked long term for us (old London terraced house) was getting my beloved cat who turned out to be an amazing mouser.

snap traps with peanut butter wirked for us.
and close up any hole that you can get a pen through, for example the gap next to pipes. mice can get through gaps that tiny.

and don't feed them. no fruit bowl. clean the toaster of crumbs every day. no grease on pans waiting to be washed up etc.

glue traps are the best.

Cat. The ultimate mouse worrier.

Just the smell of a cat and mice leave. I too tried all traps, bait, sonic mouse scarers.

Cat arrive, mice move out.

Use lots of bleach on worktops before you go to bed and peppermint oils and fresh lemon on cotton wool anywhere they have been seen

Snap traps with nutella worked for us,

Right. Mice will fit through any gap that a standard biro will fit through.

Where's there's one mouse, there's a family. Minimum. Unless you live in the countryside and get a one off intruder.

Mice have neophobia. The minute you put something in the way of their usual path they will avoid it for a long time, so keeping putting new traps out won't work. You need to leave them down in the same place until they're used to them.

So, you need a torch and a pen. You need to find every tiny hole. You can also put talc down and try and see if you can get track marks and then you can follow the trail. Hopefully they will lead you back to the hole.

And mice are picky. They like high fat food. But some mice love chilli. Chilli nuts are a good example!

The problem is that mice can be too light to trigger traps. We had to stick coins on our traps to make the mouse heavy enough.

Catching a mouse in a humane tap and dumping it somewhere might actually cause the mouse to go into sock and die.

Sticky traps are beyond cruel.

Poison traps can affect animals that eat the mice - fancy poisoning a neighbour's pet or another animal?

If you are not willing to borrow a whole cat, maybe some cat litter would suffice? Just need to think for the best place as where to put it strategically

Thanks for all the comments. I live in a flat in SW London. @Bingbangbongbash @Globetrotterwitch if you have any recommendations on people/companies who can mouse proof then please let me know.

I originally used glue traps but didn’t have any luck with them. Were people putting bait on their glue traps or leaving them bare? I’ve also looked underneath all cupboards THOROUGHLY. I understand that their may still be mice trapped inside the flat but why the hell am I not catching them?!

I have different snap traps all with different baits, some even have meat inside them and still nothing. I did consider getting a cat but I can’t stand them and don’t want one in my house. I genuinely do not know what else to do

You borrow a cat for a few days. Mice smell the cat and leave. Give cat back to alleged "owner"