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Original poster

we have mice!!!!!!!!!!

29 replies

forevermore · 30/08/2005 09:29

found dropping on cooker yesterday ...any suggestions with respect to getting rid of them from a victorian terrace in london????

DH frantically filling up holes under stairs and in kitchen and very worried since have 4 week old at home.

have heard that Robert Dyas sell plug ins which emmit a high frequency sound wave which repels them....do these work?

I have called environmental health but i know other than leaving a few baits boxes not much else will be done. any tips greatly appreciated.

OP posts:
LilacLotus · 30/08/2005 09:31

apparently they like chocolate if you would use a trap...

jessicaandbumpsmummy · 30/08/2005 09:36

traps are the best way.... my dad had a mouse, it was a sneaky little bugger! The plug-in things didnt work, and neither did the little black boxes that the fumigator laid. It was a bog standard mouse trap with CEREAL of all things on it!

dropinthe · 30/08/2005 09:38

Poison does work how-however,you end up with little bodies all over the house,sometimes where you can't find them which in turn can attract flies then,horrors of horrors,MAGGOTS!

dropinthe · 30/08/2005 09:39

We've had traps with chocolate laid in all the usual places but our mice are just too clever for that-they must jump over them!

northerner · 30/08/2005 09:43

I know how you feel. We had them a few months back and I was horrified. The plug in didn't work for us, we used traps and we caught 14 We used raisins or chocolate to bait them with. At first we used the humane traps but it became such a pain every day letting the mice go (you have to realease them over a mile away from your home or they come back)

Put the traps in your kitchen as that's where they come for food and water, also in your loft as that is normally where thye live. You must get them all ASAP cause they breed like rabbits.

Fill in all your holes - even the tiny ones. They can get through a hole the size of a pencil.

Good luck.

GeorgieVickyLou · 30/08/2005 09:43

We had them ... i spent the night while having contractions filming them on my mobile to prove to DP that i wasn't making it up (i suspected before - thought i could hear them but he didn't belive me) took my mind of the contractions. We used one of these things where they run in get the food (the deadly, evil mouse posion)and then ran off and share it with there little mice friends - they haven't been back since.

Original poster
forevermore · 30/08/2005 09:48

Georgie thats sounds exactly like what i need.

could you please let me know where you got it from?

OP posts:
Tessiebear · 30/08/2005 09:52

your bog standard traps are the best (the kind of wooden ones with with metal catchy thing)
Also the plastic ones from places like Homebase are good (BETTA Trap i think)
We used peanut butter and smeared it onto the bait bit - you dont want to put on anything that they can just grab and run IYKWIM
Also used Jam , chocolate spread.
Keep your kitchen immaculate so that there is no other dropped food etc on the floor for them to snack on.
We had mice in our last house and they got INSIDE the cooker - so i would give that a good clean if i was you!!
It put me off cooking for a while when i found one running around trapped in my grill pan

GeorgieVickyLou · 30/08/2005 09:54

We got ours From Focus (DIY place) i'm sure B&Q and places like that would have them too

Eaney · 30/08/2005 10:07

We've had them for over a year. Currently we have standard traps, humane traps, electronic noise thingy and finally we have tried 2 different poisons. We live in Victorian Terrace and therin lies the problem.

Someone on MN suggested an electronic devise that emits a noise and a magnetic field which makes the mice very itchy and they run away. It taps in to the wiring in your house so it covers a huge area. They are a bit pricey but as you can see it is our next option. Would love Cat but DS allergic. I will try and find a link for you.

Eaney · 30/08/2005 10:13

Pestclear

Have a look at this.

northerner · 30/08/2005 10:28

Tessibear in your grill pan? Shudder.

Pacific · 30/08/2005 10:41

We used a poison called "Alphakill" bought in Homebase.

The mouse died within a 12 inch radius of the dish so it was almost instant. If the dish was disturbed, I knew to look for a body nearby.

It wasn't nice though, the mice looked lovely and sleek and I felt like a murderer!

Original poster
forevermore · 30/08/2005 10:50

anyone know if pestclear works? its 40 quid so wouldn't want to get it unless a few people said it worked...is there a thread on this?

OP posts:
GeorgieVickyLou · 30/08/2005 13:49

Never used it but thought i'd give you Bump..

Eaney · 30/08/2005 14:03

Thread

Someone on this had used it.

Skribble · 30/08/2005 23:25

We used poison for rat in MIL loft, all was quiet for a few weeks then the smell led us to find it under the boards. I might try Alphakill if we get problem here.

The traditional wood and metal traps are best we tried the new style plastic ones but they only mamed the mice not kill.

Check any places where there could be nests, piles of clothes, bags in the loft/ cupboards, behind cooker/ fridge (the heat from the fridge motor attracts them). I put the traps under kitchen units away from the kids.

Nbg · 30/08/2005 23:33

My dad uses one of those humane box things. He was told that mice love Rolos so he puts a couple in the back of the box with a soaked cotton wool ball.

It works everytime for him. Although he forgot one of the three times he's had to do it and the poor thing died. My dad was mortified.

Anyway he lets them out in a field somewhere away from the house.
He's only had to do it 3 times and they've never had a problem since.

Tessiebear · 31/08/2005 18:23

How are your Mice Forevermore??

vickitiredmum · 01/09/2005 08:12

Hi, just wanted to add my input to this one. Its worth calling a pest control company in for a free survey so they can give you as much free advice as possible - like possible entry points, options on getting rid off and helping to keep rid of etc. The electric thingies do not work. If you trawl the net looking for evidence of success on these i dont think you will find any tbh. What you do need to do is block as many entry points as possible - where pipes come in through the wall, bottoms of external doors with the brush strip stuff, cover air vents with fine grade wire mesh (dont block air vents totally!)Regularly remove droppings - this is a better way to check for infestation than to put food down to see if its eaten - thats just another excuse for them to come wandering in to your house. Make sure all food sources are kept shut well away so there is no reason for them to come into your home. And check all possible nesting sites - as someone said - bags of old clothes etc. Once you have done all the above poison really is the best option - sorry. Humane traps dont solve the problem they just move it temporarily. Hope that helps.

vickitiredmum · 01/09/2005 08:15

btw - mice can climb walls hence blocking air vents and if no other food source is available will quite happily eat the grease off a cooker - its highest in fat content so they quite like it! So kitchen has to immaculate.

Freckle · 01/09/2005 08:18

We had a problem with rats when we first moved here nearly 3 years ago. They were in the loft above our bedroom (yuck). We used the plug from R. Dyas and it seemed to work, but it has a limited radius so might just drive the mice to another part of the house. When they came back, I bought a much bigger plug (can't remember from where but it was from a website). It's designed to cover a 4-5 bedroom house and cost about £60 - which is a lot of money, but worth it not to have constant scuttling sounds running across my ceiling in the middle of the night!

Aphrodite · 01/09/2005 16:26

A cat really works. Ours caught two this spring - one in our sitting room in front of guests.
Peanut butter on traps is supposed to work well.
Those sound emitting contraptions didn't.

swizzy · 01/09/2005 21:05

We had a mouse, we think he was an opportunist mouse as there was no evidence of any more. We thought he'd got out (scared by my hubbie and his mate chasing it round the kitchen). I know they are incontinent, so it was a bit of a worry.
We got rid of it after a few attempts with a mouse trap, but we had to prime it a few times (using our fingers as test mice ouch!) as they are not as sensitive as you might think. If you are finding that you mouse is eating the bait and not getting caught, try adjusting the spring and lever. We found that pushing the food right underneath the clip, rather than on top of it did the trick. Sorry Mr Mouse!

Passionflower · 02/09/2005 13:08

We were overrun the first winter in our Victorian end of Ter, tried everything. In the end we got two beautiful pedigree tonkinese cats and haven't seen so much as a dropping since.

Not the cheepest option but we and the children get a huge amount of pleasure from the cats!