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Mice, damnit

35 posts & 19 voices | Started 2 years ago by coffeeking | Latest reply from coffeeking

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coffeeking - Member

Opened my wall cupboard the other night, looking for a snack and found half my cupboard contents emptied and eaten through. Cute little buggers have come in through the hole near the gas pipe, which I duly sealed. Cleaned and disinfected the cupboard, binned half the food. No sign for a few days. Then this morning at 1am there was a rustle from behind the loo. DAMN rented properties, pull back the skirting board and low and behold - whoever fitted the loo appears to have taken a sledge hammer to the wall and poked the pipework through, then left about 8" around it, including directly under the floorboards. Surprised I've nto been innundated.

1 can of 15 litres of expanding epoxy foam later and the hole is filled, the room much warmer but now I have to find out if the mouse can eat through epoxy foam!

Posted 2 years ago #
SaxonRider - Member

Hate to say, but they probably can. What a nightmare.

If they do, it may be time to call Rentokil.

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

Mice ? I've got a rat in de kitchen
Had them before so I'm always very careful not to leave the back door open unobserved, but one has still got in!

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

I think I'll start by cutting the foam back to the wall and polyfillering the lot! Your rats come in the doors?! Brave beasties!

Posted 2 years ago #
Saccades - Member

Anything over about 2" depth kills mice so i've found, I dunno if it's toxic or dehydrates them or what.

Also it's lasted 3 years so far on the outside of the house (I should get around to fixing properly I know).

Posted 2 years ago #
donald - Member

Mice can get in anywhere - it's impossible to keep them out. Having said that stuffing the gaps with wire wool (like brillo pads - available from any DIY shop) and then using foam will be a better bet as they won't gnaw through wire wool.

Put down traps where you think they are getting in.

Cats are no use, they just bring in live ones and release them

Posted 2 years ago #
Rastapopolous - Member

To prevent mice ingress fill the holes with steel wool before firing in the expanding foam.

Put all loose food into sealable containers, be careful with food spills and empty your food waste regularly.

Get a couple of traps to catch any mice that may already be inside - best just to go for the spring loaded killer ones. The humane ones can be iffy and if you don't release the live mice more than a mile away they may find their way back. I've found raisins to be a good bait for traps. Don't go for the glue traps either - mice have been known to gnaw their feet off in order to escape!

Ultrasonic repellers may be worth a try in order to dissuade mice from returning.

Good luck!

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

Cheers for the ideas guys, I like hte idea of metal composite foam, I'll use that on the final assault on the outside of the hole (I filled from inside due to the -3 temps outside!).

Oddly enough they left the packet of raisins in the cupboard and went right for the Asda Dark Chocolate. But they did go right through (in one side, out the other) a pack of plain flour?! That would have been funny to see!

No poisons/death traps for me I'm afraid, as much as I dislike them being there I can't bring myself to kill them for just trying to find food. I'll just consider it a personal challenge to try to keep them out!

Going to buy some brillo pads and more foam on the way home tonight!

Posted 2 years ago #
roper - Member

well now your pad is warmer why nor get yourself one of these?

Jobs a good'n

Posted 2 years ago #
woffle - Member

if you're in a rented property then you'll probably find that the responsibility to keep the vermin down lies with the landlord. Previous to our current (owned) place we lived in a succession of old houses both of which intermittently had mice problems (and a clothes moth infestation too). The landlord had to pay for the Pest Controller to keep coming out.

(our mice used to run across the attic straight over our bed - was fun playing 'guess the size of that mouse' in the mornings)

EDIT:

No poisons/death traps for me I'm afraid, as much as I dislike them being there I can't bring myself to kill them for just trying to find food. I'll just consider it a personal challenge to try to keep them out!

Good luck. IMO you've not a realistic hope of keeping them out. They can squeeze through a hole the size of a 5p piece (according to the above pest controller). In one of the houses they were getting in via the roof - in older properties they're designed to 'breathe' so trying to get it anywhere near air/mouse tight was never going to happen

Posted 2 years ago #
chela - Member

We suddenly had a whole clan of them arrive looking for food in the kitchen at Christmas time when it first got cold. I think they climbed in along a pipe through the wall behind the sink. Used a couple of humane traps to remove them one by one over the course of a week or two and take them up the street and around the corner. I think in the end there was 15 caught. They seemed to have found a nook under the floorboards to live and would come up to go and raid the pantry. They can get through the tiniest of gaps so, like has been said, it's hard to keep them out.

Ours have nearly all gone now, though I there's still one resisting arrest. He seems far less partial to the bait of Quavers, Marmite breadsticks, and Galaxy than his cohorts...

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

As Im' on the ground floor I've only got 2 routes of entry, (assuming it's not gone to the roof and back down inside the wall) - 1 is the gas pipe (5-10mm gap around it) and the other is the loo wastewater exit. My plan is to excavate the mud from around the loo exit on the outside, backfill with foamy metal, then mortar over it and around the pipe so theres 1-2mm. Same with the gas pipe. The only other entry points are the brick vents then, but they're only about large enough for a wasp to get in.

It'll take months for the landlord to do anything TBH, might as well just do it myself for the minimal cost involved, otherwise I'd need to be present to let them in etc. I hope Ive caught them before they nested, or I've now got a box of rotten baby mice somewhere under my floor!

Posted 2 years ago #
west kipper - Member

Any ideas what sort of mice they are?
They sound from the damage to be house mice (greyish-brown, small squared off ears, small eyes) these are wee bast***s , fairly destuctive and harder to get rid of, since they're well adapted to live in human dwellings.
If they're field mice Apodemus sylvaticus ( yellowy-brown, pale underparts, big round ears, big eyes) they'd usually prefer to be elsewhere and are easier to persuade to p**s off. Despite not living anywhere near fields, I sometimes get the latter entering my house during bad weather. Blocking up entry points, as above, and placing cat hair near those places usually gets the message across.
Otherwise, try the snake idea.

Posted 2 years ago #
StirlingCrispin - Member

Keeping them out can be tricky: if you can put a pencil into a gap, a mouse can get through it.

I would use a mixture of spring-traps, baited with peanut butter, and live bait. The live bait can take 10days to work though.

Posted 2 years ago #
Nick - Member

Try and stop them comming in by all means, but if they do kill them, they piss and shit everywhere.

Posted 2 years ago #
Nick - Member

Presumably by 'live bait' you mean poison? don't use that, it's horrible and if they die outside they can be eaten by cats, buzzards etc.

Posted 2 years ago #
Keva - Member

got one or two that get into a food cupboard in our kitchen now an again... found a cereal packet eaten through the other morning, last week they ate my bread ! We've got two cats as well, leave the cupboard door open at night but the blimmin' cats are crashed out on sofa ! Think I'll starve the cats for a couple of days.

Posted 2 years ago #
brakes - Member

They seemed to have found a nook under the floorboards to live and would come up to go and raid the pantry.

that's what I've had in my 1st floor flat, only had 2 though.
the first one fell for peanut butter in a trap.
the second one was actually scared of traps. it used to come out at 1130 each night, I could hear it rustling about under the floorboards and would then come out from under the freezer, have a sniff around for crumbs and then over to the bins and up through the gas meter cupboard. any traps I put out he would go over to, sniff, and then scurry away
I tried many things to catch it, including cartoon-like boxes propped up with sticks with string attached, throwing shoes at it, shouting at it, but to no avail.
One interesting behaviour was that it would run over to the XBOX when it was switched on, I guess it like the vibration (!).
Anyway, it finally succumbed to a cheese-laiden trap at the end of an elaborate dead-end route that I created from boxes and toilet roll.
I was sorry to see him go.

Posted 2 years ago #
hels - Member

Have had problems with mice before, there are two ways to get rid of them.

1. Block all their entry ways, steel wool works they can't eat that. Leave not a single crumb anywhere, bleach on all the benches and floors and clean up after yourselves religiously. All food in sealed plastic storage containers.

2. Borrow a cat for a week or so.

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

Not sure what they are, never seen them. Thought they'd only arrived during the bad weather but there seems to have been some sort of attempt at gathering nesting material under the loo pipe. Its foamed now!I'll get the pencil out to probe some holes I'd love a cat but not sure its a cost effective way of solving the issue!

Posted 2 years ago #
MrNutt - Member

live bait is warfarin if I remember correctly, you're better off with some night goggles and one of these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siOEEOTjGqM

Posted 2 years ago #
woffle - Member

...if I remember correctly, you're better off with some night goggles and one of these:

That's what our neighbour did when we had rats in the garden. Shotgun (not auto!), deckchair in the garden, a warm coat and lots of patience...

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

I don't need no weapons to be rid of little furries*

*we'll see in a few weeks.

Posted 2 years ago #
bullheart - Member

Spade + Balaclava + Slippers = end of mouse problem.

That's all I'm saying.

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

Fairly sure the balaclava wont help much. Or the slippers?

Posted 2 years ago #
bullheart - Member

Mice are sensitive to the pigmentation of human skin. Therefore covering up your feet and face will allow you to stalk mice without arising their suspicion.

Maybe.

Actually I made all that up. But I think you should try it though.

Posted 2 years ago #
epicyclo - Member

Assuming you are running a clean house, a cat is the long term solution.

Short term, the best answer is to borrow a Staffie. They love mice at the rate of 10 a minute.

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

Assuming you are running a clean house, a cat is the long term solution.

I'm not sure anything that licks its own arse can be termed "clean"...

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

I'm not sure anything that licks its own arse can be termed "clean"...

In comparison with the antics of some humans, that's positively sterile considering they don't often lick anything else!

Posted 2 years ago #
tron - Member

Proper traps baited with nutella. Don't mess about with humane traps - they'll be back inside the house before you are.

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

Proper traps baited with nutella. Don't mess about with humane traps - they'll be back inside the house before you are.

Do they have a car too?!

Posted 2 years ago #
west kipper - Member

I caught all my mice with humane traps, but you do have to take them miles away.
Mice urinate almost constantly, and will use the trails to find their way back,
So whatever you do coffee, dont less them piss out the cars windows

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

I caught all my mice with humane traps, but you do have to take them miles away.
Mice urinate almost constantly, and will use the trails to find their way back,
So whatever you do coffee, dont less them piss out the cars windows

I won't. I'll tie a knot in it, they cant be doing it on my passenge seat, that's for sure!

Posted 2 years ago #
west kipper - Member

Humane mice-incontinance pads are another alternative

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

:lol:, I'll let you get them over their little legs then, I've been bitten one too many times!

Posted 2 years ago #