Getting rid of a mouse « Singletrack Forum

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Getting rid of a mouse

94 posts & 45 voices | Started 4 months ago by Harry_the_Spider | Latest reply from letmetalktomark

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Harry_the_Spider - Member

We have a mouse and an old house. The damn thing wakes us up by scurrying about in the roof void above our bed at 4:00am EVERY BLOODY DAY. This morning I was sat bleary eyed on the khazi at about 6:15 and the damn thing sauntered into the bathroom and back into the wall cavity through the water pipe holes, passing the 4 SACHETS OF MOUSE KILLER AND THE TRAP BAITED WITH CHOCOLATE BUTTONS in the process.

The trap has now been re-baited with mini Mars Bars from the Christmas tin of Cadbury Celebrations.

If this doesn’t work I shall start blowing holes in the walls and ceiling with a blunderbuss.

I’m pretty sure that the mouse is alone as it has been with us for months and we’ve not been infested with baby mice. There were two mice but I caught one and released it on the fields ages ago.

Your suggestions, no matter how stupid, for ridding us of our furry little visitor are much appreciated.

Your,

Bleary eyed of Manchester.

Posted 4 months ago #
ohnohesback - Member

You need to borrow a cat or a Jack Russell.

Posted 4 months ago #
Jamie - Member

Ear plugs?

Posted 4 months ago #
wwaswas - Member

peanut butter on the trap for the win.

of course you could just sit on the loo with an air pistol/shotgun and wait.

Posted 4 months ago #
Harry_the_Spider - Member

Ear plugs?

It is hard enough getting it to eat chocolate.

Posted 4 months ago #
GrahamS - Member

We have found the B&Q Trip Traps very effective when baited with some "Big Cheese Bait" (also from B&Q). We've caught SEVEN mice with them.

They are live catch traps with a very simple and effective mechanism - basically a bit of angled pipe. Mouse enters pipe and goes for bait at the top end, pipe see-saws which makes the door shut behind them.

Be aware that if you are releasing them then you need to go a good distance from the house. Some recommend at least two miles.

Posted 4 months ago #
wwaswas - Member

or a more elaborate trap?

Posted 4 months ago #
Harry_the_Spider - Member

We have a trip trap. That is the one that I re-load with MY BLOODY CHOCOLATES

Posted 4 months ago #
Harry_the_Spider - Member

***t

Posted 4 months ago #
nickjb - Member

Stuff the holes with steel wool. They hate it.

Posted 4 months ago #
jp-t853 - Member

As said above peanut butter is the favourite food for mice

I had a friend who placed a trap under a loose floorboard in his sitting room. He heard the trap snap and then a slide, slide, slide of the trap. He opened the floorboard and the mouse had dragged it away out of reach for a slow painful death.

Posted 4 months ago #
Alpha1653 - Member

My dad's got rid of the mice in our house by installing a device which emits a high pitched whistle. I think the mice got headaches and buggered off. However, when my sister and I came home for Christmas we could hear it whistling - either it's broken or my dad doesn't want us around anymore.

Posted 4 months ago #
mustard - Member

Get a pro in with some decent poison.

Set traps along the walls as they like to stick to the edges. Use old school sprung traps, not these modern crappy plastic things or anything humane.

I got one in our kitchen by putting two traps side by side in the gap at the edge of the cooker, that I was sure it was coming out, so there wasn't enough space for it not to go through the trap.

Do not release them, kill them!

Posted 4 months ago #
ohnohesback - Member

Live traps. FFS! KILL the little b'stards!

Posted 4 months ago #
nickf - Member

A traditional mousetrap with either peanut butter or chocolate spread will do the job. If you use a rat trap be careful, they're much more powerful and could take your finger off if you were unlucky. Certainly decapitates a rat from personal experience.

Long-term: get a cat.

Posted 4 months ago #
Jamie - Member

Get a pro in with some decent poison.

Posted 4 months ago #
GrahamS - Member

Get some of the Big Cheese bait, it has proved more effective than peanut butter and nutella for us.

Stuff the holes with steel wool. They hate it.

Yeah that too. Steel wool mixed into expanding foam. (I was just doing some more of that last night actually).

Live traps. FFS! KILL the little b'stards!

Personally I'm not really into killing animals just because they are mildly inconvenient. They are just mice being mice. Live and let live.

Posted 4 months ago #
hels - Member

Or even just borrow some cats for the weekend. When I moved in my first flat it was hoaching with mice, Edinburgh tenements are notorious for them. Looked after a friends cats for a month, the very first night the mice kept me awake with lots of scurrying as they packed their bags and got the hell out. No more problems after that (oh, and the polite but firm words I had with the people next door on seeing the state of their kitchen floor when I went over to discuss the mouse problem).

The smell of cats will keep them at bay for a while.

Posted 4 months ago #
derek_starship - Member

Can you hire one of these?

Alternatively, try placing a clock set to New York City time in the roof void. This will mean you'll be out of the house when Mickey / Minnie stirs.

I remember when I was about ten a mouse had set up MQ in my bedroom. My dad put a baited spring trap under my bed. In the early hours one morning, I heard the trap spring shut. Curious as a ten year old would be, I switched on the light and drew out the bed. The poor little bugger had been caught by the very end of its little nose. It was dead though. I felt a bit sad and might have got dust in my eye from moving the bed....

Posted 4 months ago #
saxabar - Member

Yeah, on moving into my new pad we found mice. Turns out the cat [we inherited] likes to bring us presents (we have a stream and field opposite). For the mice that like to remain hidden, I used the humane traps baited with a cat biscuit (the mice had been storing excess ones lying around). This worked fine although make sure it is placed against a wall.

Posted 4 months ago #
splashdown - Member

I have exactly the same problem at the moment - every morning between 4 - 5am

I swear that the little b*stards are wearing hob-nailed boots for the racket they make.

It also doesn't help that Mrs Splashdown has an irrational fear of mice (evidently it's a well known fact that mice are highly radioactive, extremely dangerous and could easily take your leg clean off at the hip given half a chance!...)

Posted 4 months ago #
jam bo - Member

Long-term: get a cat.

Unless you have a cat that brings them inside to play with...

Posted 4 months ago #
Harry_the_Spider - Member

I've just been looking at getting some "sticky boards" to put down near his access to the wall cavity as the little fecker clearly isn't interested in chocolate or bubble gum smelling poison.

Posted 4 months ago #
globalti - Member

You can borrow Toastie our cat next week if you feed her and keep her indoors. We are going skiing.

Posted 4 months ago #
mintimperial - Member

If you are woken by mice scuttling about, for heaven's sake don't get a cat. We have two and they wake me up more frequently than our three-year-old does, the little sods. They jump on the bed and knock stuff off shelves, if I lock them out of the room they claw the carpet up, if I lock them in somewhere else with a litter tray they break things or stage dirty protests. Plus they bring mice in to play with and sometimes they escape and it can take ages to catch the damn things. I like cats, no really I do, but mine are being right **** at the moment, I swear.

Posted 4 months ago #
derek_starship - Member

Have a flick through this Harry.

Posted 4 months ago #
GrahamS - Member

I've just been looking at getting some "sticky boards"

Yeah, glue the poor little beggar's feet to a board for 12 hours and then cackhandedly finish him off with an old shoe.

That'll learn 'em. Maximum cruelty FTW!

Posted 4 months ago #
brassneck - Member

Speaking as a card carrying pinko lefty lentil muncher, the only thing that has worked for us is poison. Catch and release and they come back, I've even taken a few on a little ride across the county line.. maybe I should tattoo them to see if it's the same ones.
Two cats and a terrier - bloody useless. Once they are in the voids your options are limited.

I live rurally though, so it's mainly winter migrations to the warm.. I reckon in a city it'd actually be harder to clear up.

Posted 4 months ago #
Klunk - Member

those glue traps are a cruel and inhumane way of catching mice. It's not very nice having mice especially when they crap every where, but you have to be patient, make sure there are no other easy food supplies for him (we used to have a big problem from having lots of wild bird food in the kitchen till we got it properly boxed up) and he will have to go for the traps in the end. Another bait to try is Nutella.

Posted 4 months ago #
Harry_the_Spider - Member

Yeah, glue the poor little beggar's feet to a board for 12 hours and then cackhandedly finish him off with an old shoe.

I was thinking of using a bucket of water actually.

Posted 4 months ago #
Klunk - Member

the only thing that has worked for us is poison

never smelt a decaying rat in a wall cavity when slow poisoned and crawled away to die.

Posted 4 months ago #
16stonepig - Member

We caught our (evidently very middle class) mouse with a humane trap baited with hummus.

Posted 4 months ago #
BigButSlimmerBloke - Member

BandQ prebaited traps worked for me

humane - BANG - dead, never felt a thing, well I didn't

Posted 4 months ago #
Harry_the_Spider - Member

We caught our (evidently very middle class) mouse with a humane trap baited with hummus.

LOL

I bet it was called Rafe or Casper.

Posted 4 months ago #
dan1980 - Member

The mice I've caught (In a humane trap) have been undone by bits of twix.

Posted 4 months ago #