[Closed] I'm an idiot. Just spotted a mouse in the kitchen.

Was he wearing clogs?

before he gets jiggy with the missus

as long as humane traps aren't left at night...mouse scares itself to death in no time atall.

that would be a hamster, surely ?

Rat up a Drainpipe?

I'm more sausage up an alley 🙁

You need one of these.

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Remove any potential food source. Like leaving bird seed lying around for a start.
Trust me, I used to breed mice for my snake...and they breed like... rabbits.

Well don't make a song and dance about it...

I've stashed the seed, torched the shed, shot the birds and eaten the muesli.

Anything else?

Find out how it got in and block it up.
(Unless you left the door open of course 😉 )

God knows how it got in, but the evidence indicates it's living under the floorboards and scurried off to where the water main comes into kitchen (big gap in floorboards).

Having fun and games googling now - really don't want to kill the poor sod, but options looking limited 😕

Somehow not very sleepy either now; might bleach the entire downstairs to feel like I'm doing something useful 🙂

Humane traps... My grandad had mice in his attic. He built a humane trap. Every morning he recovered a mouse from the trap in the attic, and released it at the bottom of the garden.

After a few months of this, he put an ink mark on the mouse before releasing it. It was mostly the same mouse each day, and it was apparently not learning not to go into his attic. He got a proper trap after that.

🙂

We have a sonic thingie.

They move on once the kids are grown up (about 3 weeks iirc).

Not seen a mouse since we got it.

I made a slight variation on that style.

Make sure it's a very tall bucket or add water in the bottom.

Don't fancy killing it and would like to get on top of this situation

That was my thinking at the start. Then the mouse pissed and shat over everything in the kitchen, I cleaned everything, it pisssed and shat....( repeat many times over the course of a couple of weeks )

I did a little dance when I came home to find the Little Nipper trap sprung, and a bloody smear several inches long across the floor where it had tried to get away.

Moral of the story - they are dirty and destructive, get a proper trap.

That was my thinking at the start.

+1

They will **** your shit up.

Two examples recently.

1- Car won't start, no bother I'll get my jump leads. The little bastards had chewed through the insulation on the cables.

2- Riding to work, go to use the drops. Bar tape missing, again mice have eaten it.

I hate to think what I'll find next.

Proper traps are now set. They may look cute but they are vermin.

Get a cat....

They may look cute but they are vermin.

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I am a pseudo pacafist tree hugger and fake vegetarian my wife is the real thing with emoyment experience and qualifications to back it up I wanted non kill traps she insisted 1 they ain't humaine 2 they don't work . Get a good kill trap per point of entry set it against the wall if you can find external points of entry plug them with wire wool .Keep kitchen clean and free of food scraps dirty plates etc.
Good luck

If you use a live catch trap you need to do two things

- check it very regularly
- release the mouse effing miles away or it will just come bacross

I used to use them but, after a few starved mice and the pain of driving to release it, I now use good old fashioned spine-breakers. Much better.

Had some in the loft. Used a tin cat humane trap seemed to work very well just made sure to relase them some miles away.

peanut butter for bate

Get a proper trap. Your cave man will soon kick in and every morning you will look forward to seeing if you have caught anything.

If you think you have one, you have more than one.....

In my old flat we thought we had one, it had a nickname, we thought it was quite amusing etc, not an issue. It shat everywhere and we decided to get a kill trap.

We caught 6 in 6 days. Then nothing for months. Come winter, we caught the odd few, but they were more likely to be visiting to escape the cold.

Second to wire wool for filling the entry gaps... Not met a mouse that can chew through that yet!

Sonic thingys seem to be effective (ish) but we need 1/room with brick walls. The live ones the cat brings in can seem to get away fast enough (but that may have something to do with being chased by a fat cat)

Wire wool and expanding foam ftw.

I did a boob when fitting the heating pipework for the external boiler and cored a hole then stuck 4 pipes through it looked full so didn't do owt.

Mice came in. Snap traps were deployed and said hole was wire wool and expanding foamed .

2mice were killed and Mrs t-r is happy again 🙂 -we still don't use that cupboard though. Little shitter ate the flour bag then crapped all over the cupboard thanks to some bodging previous owner cutting the rear out of all the cupboards to run the water pipe instead of lowering it under the cupboards. Musta saved him about 20quid he was a plumber ffs

yup get a proper trap, your local hardware shop will them, get the cheap ones. I found they all do the same job. best bait I found was peanut butter. Just don't forget to check the traps before leaving them for months like I did. Came to access under the kitchen units and found two remains of mouse corpses, little pile of fur and bones in the traps.

bearnecessities yesterday........

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What you need is a spear and magic helmet*.

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* effective against wabbits. Probably mice as well.

There really is no need to kill them.

We had a lot of success with Tip Traps.

Find their common paths (usually beside walls and along skirting boards) and put a few traps near them then check the next morning.

As for "scared mice", if we couldn't release immediately then we just put the mouse in an old plastic fish tank with some shredded paper, water and food - pretty much as you'd do with a pet mouse or hamster. Seemed perfectly happy in there for a day.

As above, once you get rid of them make sure you seal up any gaps and entrances with wire wool and expanding foam. That seems to keep them out very effectively. Also remove any obvious food sources.

We've deployed a few sonic plugs too, which we leave plugged in permanently around the home. Not sure if they are effective or not but I consider them "fair warning" 😀

Time for a bit of UB40 eh...

The only good use for a 'humane' box type trap is if you trap mice in it then chuck it in a drum of water and drown them. If you release them, even a fair distance away, they'll keep coming back. Best to just kill them instantly, drowning isn't a terribly nice death for them, if effective.

Get little nipper mouse traps, they're ace, you can set them really finely, takes hardly a mouse paw to set them off, powerful too. Bait with some sort of chocolate bar that contains caramel, twix is my current favourite, the caramel helps stick the bait to the pin on the trap.

I'd also chuck some poison sachets under the floor, but would advise caution on that if you have mice catching cats in the area (though evidence to date would suggest otherwise.

I know I seem pretty bloodthirsty, but not being able to sleep for weeks because of mice in the loft making a noise all night kind of drives the humane approach out of you. However DO NOT under any circumstances use glue traps, they're horrendous.

If you release them, even a fair distance away, they'll keep coming back.

Not if you are sensible.

We dropped our prisoners off a couple of miles from the house, away from other buildings, in a nice bit of hedgerow with plenty of cover and natural food sources. As we caught more of the same group we dropped them off at the same place.

And even if they wanted to come back from that distance, they'd have had to swim across the Tyne 😆

We get mice in our kitchen, or rather we did get mice. Started off with humane traps, mostly to identify whether it's a mouse or a rat. once it was clear it was mice, we had humane traps set up around the kitchen, checked and emptied twice a day if needed. We ended up just relocating them to a nearby field.

They were more of a nuisance than anything, the dog would keep them restricted to the kitchen, so we got a couple of sonic repellers and they seem to keep them out now.

I've had rats before, not in this house, but in one of the flats I used to live in. They just need killing, they can't be relocated as they'll find their way back.

Field mice are OK, keep things as clean as possible and all foods sealed up and they will lose interest. However, watch your cables. house mice will chew anything, field mice less so, apart from biodiesel filled fuel lines. They like the chip fat smell.

Releasing them miles away from familiar surroundings just about as painful a death as drowning.

Creatures of habit struggle with change and finding food sources in unfamiliar surroundings.

Releasing them miles away from familiar surroundings just about as painful a death as drowning.
Creatures of habit struggle with change and finding food sources in unfamiliar surroundings.

Bollocks. They are adaptable wee things. It wasn't their natural habit to eat cornflakes and chocolate before they got into my house. They adapted. And they'll do the same outside.

And if they don't, then at least I gave them a chance. The local owl population will still benefit.

I found chocolate to be the best bait.

Had mice coming into the garage last autumn. Got one of these humane traps and baited it with chocolate and peanut butter.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p60863?mkwid=s3Z3fpJI3_dc&pcrid=142463375177&pkw=&pmt=&product=60863&gclid=Cj0KEQjwqMHABRDVl6_hqKGDyNIBEiQA

Caught 5 or 6 over a couple of weeks and released them all in a field about 3 miles away, after reading some research where they found some mice would return from up to about a mile away.

Not had any sign of any more since but have started setting the trap again now that the weather has gone a bit colder in case they start coming in again.

While we're on this - not for the first time there is mouse suspicion in my house. However, for the first time this is in the roof cavity above our bedroom, which is under a sloping roof and has no meaningful access.

Difficult to establish how it's got / getting in there, and no space for accessing to trap. The only entry point of any kind to the space (unless I cut into the ceiling which I may well!) is through the five LED light fitting holes in the ceiling. Any suggestions on what to do are most welcome!

under a sloping roof and has no meaningful access.

Could it be bats? Or squirrels?

I don't think so, but it had crossed my mind it could be something other than a mouse. It sounds quite mousey in the noise it's making during the night but that is all I'm going on at the moment it must be said!

Have you considered moving to Australia?

[url= http://www.instructables.com/id/More-Handy-Tricks/step17/Catch-a-Mouse-With-a-Jar-and-a-Nickel/ ]I used this method to catch about half a dozen. Very easy and simple to do.[/url]

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I've gone for the humane option first that mark90 linked to (cheers). Will give these a couples of days..

Wouldn't be right if I didn't [i]try[/i] humane and dump him/her/all 57 of them somewhere they could survive, or be food 🙂

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When we had mice, we tried to be fair with it -

We bought two humane traps, and two death by death traps.

Both promised the bait included was "irresistible" to the mice.

Guess which one they chose and which one they totally ignored.

Bloody hell, that didn't take long. Number 1 (?) shonky shed mouse caught. 🙁 Poor thing, hope any family follow suit quickly - off to pre-decided drop off point in a local field.

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Nice way to guilt me mousey..

Praying?!

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To the little baby cheesus

little baby cheesus

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Peanut butter is the way forward for bait.

Then use electric traps and put the corpses in the garden rubbish.

Job done.

I think you should keep him.
Like the bloke in Escape from Alcatraz .

We have this problem right now. You want rid of them pronto, peeing and crapping all over the worksurfaces and every thing they can get there evil little hands on.

Get some traps and hit them hard. They will learn pretty quick that the free food means a broken neck once they have seen their buddy come a cropper so you need to move the traps about and use different bait.

Put everything in tubs or jars and keep up on shelves - if there's no food they will lose interest.

Wipe down surfaces every night to clear crumbs etc away, it's easy to think you've cleaned up the kitchen but you'll miss something.

If you have a dog or cat don't leave food out in the bowl.

Once you've had your wiring chewed, your plumbing chewed and your ceiling brought down by a flood you'll wish you'd got medieval on them sooner

got a rat in the kitchen a while back. bastard was stealing the mini eggs and hiding them under the kitchen cabinets. they were mine! missus worked out he was pinching them one at a time taking them into the kitchen and carrying them all the way round the kitchen under the cabinets and storing them under the cooker.
got a mate round and we more or less took the kitchen apart to get it - cue much comedy screaming when it ran past my ear and so on. the only person who remained calm was my missus. eventually trapped it and i beat it to death with a 1995 tz250 clip on.

i beat it to death with a 1995 tz250 clip on

Classy

quite. much better than a ropey old gixer

I'm sure mouse-death is inevitable in some scenarios, but hopefully this shows that you can try to be humane first - 20 mins and shed mousey was in there.

In other news - I should say that praying pic wasn't an opportune photo. It had been in there for about ten minutes when I noticed a cat right over it, trying to get in to the mousey-goodness.

I got rid of kitty and I am not a religious person at all, but it stayed completely locked in that fear-like state, with it's paws together in a prayer fashion - pretty weird!

Anyhow, it's happily in the shed gorging on peanut butter now, whilst I try to entice out any family so they can be re-homed together.

Still, that locked 'prayer pose' was a really odd thing to witness!

I did feel a little sorry for one of the little buggers I got yesterday with a proper trap as I don't think it killed it instantly. There was a fair amount of scratching after the initial thud.

Last year I set my traps and after a few days found them empty of bait and not triggered. Whilst refilling them I set one off and trapped my finger.......outsmarted by a mouse 😀

My dad was re-homing a mouse a few years ago.
Driving along he glanced in the rear view mirror, to see the mouse sat on the back of the seats, between the head rests.
Nearly caused dad to crash. And instigated a 3 day mouse trap setup in the car.
He no longer uses humane traps, not sure how it got out of the trap.
No damage to the car luckily.

top thread, loving the updates bear.

Quick work bear. You'll have 'em evicted in no time 🙂

So far, so good - No 2 waiting for me this morning in the kitchen.

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Time to join is outdoorsy cousin.

You're missing a trick bear. Mouse taxidermy diorama is the way forward

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To bring this non-bloody episode to a close, now re-homed down the allotment 🙂

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Will deploy [s]any[/s] the inevitable further critters down there.

Awaits the 'I'm an idiot - mice eating my pea shoots' thread 😉

But really - nice work!

In other news - I should say that praying pic wasn't an opportune photo. It had been in there for about ten minutes when I noticed a cat right over it, trying to get in to the mousey-goodness.

Useless cat you've got there if it didn't get Mr. Mouse sooner. (Or maybe not, maybe it's already eaten 3 or 4 of them and was just coming back for another...)

Awaits the "bloody things followed me home - what nerve gas for mice invasion" thread

Had ones in my flat, big block of flats and a big supply of mice. Tried humane traps and caught a few, they were ok until I went away for 10 incredibly hot days and my flatmate never set it free. The sonic deterrents were useless. One in the kitchen, one in the livingroom and one in my bedroom. Mice were seen under every one. Spotted one in a bag of bread directly under it.

I was awful with them, female flatmates were a lot better!

Only way I stopped them was boarding up the holes. Now only dead ones arrive in my house courtesy of the cats, have heard from my tenants though that the flat had them in again, hopefully the holes are now blocked again.

Awaits the "bloody things followed me home

Straaavaaaa!

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Well clearly this isn't over.

I've learned two things in the last 24 hours.

1) It's a piece of piss to catch mice humanely.

2) I am not alone.

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How many is that now?

You released them on the allotments! Bloody hell you'll be popular with the other growers. 😆

Had mixed results with humane traps. We had a family of mice living behind the fridge and we tried peanut butter, mars bars, cheerios etc etc. Until we figured they were actually gorging themselves on a pack of hemp seeds that the missus had left open. Popped a few of them in the humane ones and bought a few ACME Spine Snappers and had the whole lot gone in 48hrs.

You released them on the allotments! Bloody hell you'll be popular with the other growers.

Trust me, mice are not the issue down an allotment 🙂

Trust me, mice are not the issue down an allotment

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Has anyone tried making that so-called [b]simple[/b] humane trap out of a drink bottle?

The wire I used was a fair bit thicker so bending it was quite difficult to get right. In fact I didn't get it right at all. Then you need to get the hole in the bottle at exactly the right point where it tips at a slight provaction (I believe mice aren't exactly weighty creatures). Experimentation helps. The oh-so-simple video doesn't. Simple my arse.

It's doubtful you'll get rid of them...they're prolific breeders and clearly like the environment that you've created for them. You need something on sentry duty.

[img] https://goo.gl/photos/WYhpBwUyrCwaDP4L9 [/img]

The wire I used was a fair bit thicker so bending it was quite difficult to get right. In fact I didn't get it right at all.

It reminded me of an aptitude test I took at a nuclear laboratory when I was 16...and I didn't get the job...

It's doubtful you'll get rid of them...

I successfully got rid of ours when we had them just using catch & release combined with removing food sources, blocking holes and adding sonic repellents.

Based on the quantity of peanut butter in best necessities traps I assume they needed 24 hrs without food to enable them to squeeze out.
Good job as they are annoying destructive little creatures!