Mouse in the kitchen. Any ideas?

[Grumpyoldpersonwithcats]

Came home from church to find two dead shrews outside by the front door. Clearly not satisfied with today's body count, bloody Karl came flying through the living room window about 15 minutes ago with a mouse in his mouth, ran into the kitchen and dropped it. Mouse ran under the washing machine, but could of course now be anywhere.
I don't think there is any point dragging the machine out, as the mouse (assuming it doesn't get squashed) will just go behind the dishwasher, or the fitted cupboards.
Any ideas for mouse removal?
Karl is now just playing the waiting game.

Set poison, behind washing machine,plenty of it to kill the wee scurrying bastard
amazon sell poison. Buy plenty
block up any access points
you have more than one mouse btw they aren’t solo they have baby mice too

A couple of humane traps with a piece of chocolate, Karl will have to go out for a wee, further hunting or fall asleep sooner or later & the mouse will try to make it's escape probably tonight. Could you move Karl to another room to give the mouse a chance to escape?

Don't use poison as you'll run the risk of the cat eating a poisoned mouse.

I'd personally buy an electronic mouse killer (Screwfix about £25) bait with peanut butter, and place along a side the mouse may run along (they run around the edges of rooms, objects rather than open spaces). Shut the cats out of the kitchen and leave mousey to it.

you have more than one mouse btw they aren’t solo.
Well he definitely only brought one in, I didn't check its pregnancy status however

No desire to use poison, don't wan't the cats eating a poisoned mouse.

A humane trap sounds like the answer. Keeping the cats out of the kitchen may be tricky though.
It's not unusual for me to rescue rodents from the cats. They normally drop them in a room where I can corner and catch them myself. The kitchen however is a whole different challenge 🙀

I'd use a humane trap with peanut butter but you might have to wait till tomorrow morning. You might not be able to locate a dead poisoned mouse until it starts to decompose.

Don’t fuck about with humane traps etc. poison down back washing machine and behind kitchen floor cupboards
the aim is to kill the mouse
peanut butter, chocolate in traps…,all useless and delaying the inevitable
kill the mice they’re vermin that carry disease

I’d just leave it to Karl - one of ours brought a mouse in once - it was alive and ran off into the boiler cupboard I think - not seen it since

Glad you posted a picture of Karl the cat - for a fleeting moment I had a vision of a ‘ mad man ‘ coming into your house with a mouse

@Zone2NorthLondon
I tend to think that a mouse has as much right to exist as any other animal, so no I'd much prefer to catch and release assuming one of my cats doesn't find it first.

At least he’s waiting for it. When my cat did this she dropped the baby rat (ratty ran behind the freezer), looked at us as if to say ‘my job here is done, humans, enjoy!’ and she sauntered back off outside leaving us to deal with it

🤣🤣🤣

I'd trap rather than poison.

We've also had success with locking DC out of the mouse filled room, and leaving an old welly on its side with food inside. Mouse into welly, welly outside.

DC is very cross with me right now, as she was playing with a mouse on the lawn when I scooped her up and have locked her inside. I'm obviously an evil human slave.

I really can’t get sentimental or ponder rights to exist regard vermin that carry disease
no I’m not interested in the “right to exist” my sole interest would be quick death and prevent any future mice infestation

Leave it to Karl. It may take 24 hours.

Mine tend to stare at the last place they saw the mouse for hours, oblivious to the fact that the mouse has moved on and is now visible in a completely different room. Even picking up the cat to wave it at the mouse, they'll head back to where they were before.

However they get there in the end. If the mouse playtime bit looks prolonged and traumatic, we have found mice are very easy to kill by thumping with a long cardboard tube, or other handy implement.

Karl will sort it out, leave him to it. I doubt a humane trap could catch it - that might work if you had a ‘normal’ infestation and no cat, but here you’re dealing with a mouse in panic, it’s not going to be leisurely sniffing around for food. Sooner or later it’ll try to escape, and then Karl will get it.

My cat once slept in front of a bookshelf for 3 days and then suddenly there was a dead mouse where the cat had been!

I know you’d like to save the mouse but it’s probably doomed.

The biggest risk is it dying from shock/injury and slowly decomposing, watch out for nasty smells.

Option One: Leave Karl to it.

Option Two: Female cats are generally better mousers. Get Sybil on the Case.

Option Three: Call in the Big Guns. Make sure that NDN does not feed TC lunch and give him the run of the kitchen.

Option Four: Humane trap.

Pleased to report that Mousey has been rescued and returned to the outside world.
I noticed something odd between Karl's paws. Karl (now aka 'you stupid cat') had failed to notice that the mouse had run out from its hiding place and had ended up underneath him 🤣.
Captured and released photos enclosed
My apologies for disappointing those wishing 'DEATH TO THE VERMIN'

off you waft then,humming born free
meanwhile if I encounter a mouse it’s getting poisoned, and plenty of it

Glad mouse safely retrieved!

Pic of our mousy a few days ago, just couldn't bring myself to grab the tail to attempt to extract it. Cat had to spend the night shut in the laundry room with it, she was not impressed!!

Oh well done for rescuing it. One of mine brought a mouse into my bedroom and let it go. I locked him in the bedroom for an hour hoping he'd catch it, but when I checked he was just fast asleep on the bed (the cat, not the mouse)

A happy ending!

To those suggesting poison, that's not a great ideal if you like your cats.

I’ve invested in the onlycat company in the hope that their new catflap which is supposed to detect a mouse in the cats mouth and then not let them in. I’m sick of having live mice or birds brought in and standing on dead ones in the dark in the mornings! The cat flap is supposed to be delivered in April 23.

Well done. I couldn’t kill a mouse either. I was watching the baby rats foraging by the hospital car park but there’s bait traps there and I haven’t seen them since.

They wouldn’t be there at all if humans weren’t so dirty.