Mice!

[sleepingdragon]

I have two cats, and seemingly a mouse problem that I'm not sure how to solve. The last few weeks I have been having mice in the house at least a couple of times a week, usually a couple of mice each day it happens. I live in a terraced house with a cellar with lots of mouse sized gaps in the walls that probably run the lengh of the street. But I have never had any mice problems before now.

A few months ago i came home and found a rat (!) sitting on a chair in the front room, being pointedly ignored by both cats who were sitting on another chair. I stood on a third chair and phoned a friend to come round and help - the rat kindly left by the front door when it was opened and was not seen again. A month later I found a mouse, and droppings suggesting it had been there for a while, under the units in the kitchen - after the cats had been spending most of their time in the kitchen waiting and sniffing. Fast forward another month and the mice in the house every few days began. I only ever see them when the cats are playing with them or they are dead.

My floors are lovely and shiney from all the cleaning, and the food cupboards have never been so organised, but I preferred our previous mouse free existance, so would love your suggestions and advice on how to solve this.

I am not sure if

• the mice live outside and the cats are bringing them in to play with/kill them - if so how could we stop this?

-I have a family of mice with no awareness/ fear of cats living in the house (in which case should I feed the cats less so at least they start killing and eating the mice rather than playing/ torturing the poor things to death as they do now??).

• I am feeding all the neighbourhood/ cellar mice with the cat food (the only food that is not sealled now). The cats often beg to be let down into the cellar, but they never sniff at the door. We started leaving the cellar door open a few weeks ago, but the cats started treating it as a large toilet.

Thanks

Or all of those?

Seriously, you clearly haven't got mousers in the traditional sense and as you're feeding them, they could well be bringing mice inside to play with. I don't, personally, reckon there's any point to restricting their food by the way.

I'd fill the holes in the walls (bearing in mind that mice can get through teeny holes so if they're big enough for you to notice them, they're probably big enough for rats - think filling even small gaps.)

Also, invest in some traps (the traditional ones are only cheap) and put them in likely places that the cats can't get to (cellar, attics etc.) Poison is not a good idea if you have pet cats who might decide after all to eat a catch which might itself have been feeding on bait.

Might also be as well to alert the neighbours if you're on reasonable terms.

It may be that you're only housing them and not feeding them and that not being great respecters of legal niceties, they're living with you but eating next door, say. I live in an old terraced house so I know the situation.

With mice, you're pretty well adopting the same attitude as with burglars. If they're determined to get in, they will, so your aim is to make your house/street less inviting than another one. The cleaning and storing measures you're taking will be good for the future - just get rid of the current occupants.

Best of luck.

There's a parasite in rodents that makes them less fearful of cats so that the parasite can be transferred to the cat when it's eaten the mouse.

I'd quite like a tame rat, I could have it follow me around the house and sit on my shoulder. Never gonna happen though.

You need traps, and to block all exits with wire wool.

Thanks both of you for your replies. The rat looked cute trotting off down the road, just like the one in ratatouille, but that was close enough for me- having a rat sitting on my shoulder would be like torture! I'm off to start hole filling. I will talk to my neighbours too - that hadn't even crossed my mind. I'm feeling a bit chicken about using traps, so will put that decision off for a couple of days.

Thanks again