Humane traps don't work.. Yadda yadda yadda...
THEY DO.
We've twice have had (different) families of mice in our house. We got rid got them via catch-and-release.
It worked.
We used a few Tip-Trap traps like these placed along the skirting and other places we knew the mice were actively looking for food:
Once caught you have to take them a good distance away or they'll just come back. We took them to a wild hedgerow about a mile away and on the other side of the Tyne.
You also have to make sure you figure out where they are getting in and sort it out. Any hole big enough for a pencil is big enough for a mouse. Stuff with wire wool then squirt in some expanding foam. They don't like chewing through the wire wool.
Excellent advice ^
They need to be tamed
For a minute there you had me thinking about taming those shrews 8)
Kill them.
Coming from the perspective of having a house gutted by fire because mice chewed through wiring (luckily daytime and we were all out).
Or humane trap and as big a trebuchet as you can find.
I got zero sleep last night, my compassion and karma are out the window. I'm a fickle soul, I am now in possession of agent orange.
The tales of chewing through wiring etc means I'm going chemical.
A new plan of attack then, I will be unleashing the fury when I get in. Once the nocturnal maneuvers have stopped I will go mad with wire wool and expanding foam.
I hate mice.
Those plastic SPIKED ones Franksinatra linked to on the previous page... first word in the description is "Humane" 😆 then "no need to touch dead mice"!
I made my own humane trap with a milk bottle and a bit of olive oil to stop Mickey climbing out again. It worked, but I had to rename him Elvis cos he had a greasy quiff from sliding around in the oil. Elvis was released near the local pub 🙂
On a side note, my brother has rats in his garden. He bought an air rifle and spends hours waiting in the back bedroom... I think he's 'got' 4 so far. A man has to have a hobby.
Yeah there is two types of "humane": live trap for catch-and-release and the kills-them-quickly-and-humanely type.
The tales of chewing through wiring etc means I'm going chemical.
Be careful with poisons - especially if you or the neighbours have cats or other pets that might gobble up a dying mouse.
We have rats in our garden ,coming from neighbours "scrubland". I'm all for poisoning the gits but so far the b&q stuff I bought is only making them fatter .
Which rat poison stw?
Go to your local mole country store and get a bromodialone based one.
Edit re B&Q one - bear in mind rats will take a small amount when they first find it and slowly increase their consumption as they're nervous eaters so they may yet be building towards a fatal dose.
Rats - you need one of those massive snap-traps. The biggest baddest one you can. If it looks like it will break your hand, then that's probably fine.
I say probably though. As a kid I often night fished, but one occasion my mate and I were being bothered by rats nicking our bait. So we set a rat-trap. This particular one had a chain to secure it, so we put a 6" nail on it and hammered it into the baked hard ground. Some time later it went off. Good we thought, the rat is dead. Then we heard a metallic trashing and coming towards us was the very big and angry rat, wearing the trap like a scarf with the chain and nail flailing from side to side 😯 .
We've twice have had (different) families of mice in our house. We got rid got them via catch-and-release.It worked.
So you have been back to check said family are still alive in their new grounds or you have just consigned them to a nice slow death of starvation and cold.
We have rats in our garden ,coming from neighbours "scrubland". I'm all for poisoning the gits but so far the b&q stuff I bought is only making them fatter .
If they're nesting, all you have to do is make their life uncomfortable, and they'll move on. I had a family of rats under the compost bin, which was solved instantly by digging out the compost.
This particular one had a chain to secure it, so we put a 6" nail on it and hammered it into the baked hard ground
Ah yes, make sure to secure your traps so they don't disappear with a not dead rodent in it. Screwing to the end of a piece of T&G works well and allows you to shove them under things and pull them back easier.
Which rat poison stw?
I got a big tub of TomCat stuff from Amazon which did the job for us.
Dunno, but I did discover if a mouse eats a significant quantity of it, it 'burns' through the mouse from the inside out and leaves a mouse with no belly and pile of poison.Which rat poison stw?
Bit grim, but guess it serves it right for being greedy and stealing the rats dinner.
Ah yes, make sure to secure your traps so they don't disappear with a not dead rodent in it.
Brings back the night of the living dead mouse when we lay awake listening to the mouse dragging the trap across the hardwood boarding in the loft. Sounds pretty much as you would imagine a ball and chain being dragged. I now tie all the little nippers we use to a bit of fishing trace wire (Works out really well when the little dears retreat behind the kitchen units or skirtings).
Most of the pest controllers I've spoken to say that traps are only good for telling you that they've got inside again. The only way to get rid of them is poison bate stations.
MRs Weeksy thought we had rats... We had a couple a year back....
We paid a 'man' £140 to come out and get rid of them....
It appears after a week of traps, food and other stuff....
We didn't.....
However, i'm still £140 worse off LOL.
Thanks for the poison advice . They're definitely there,I've seen them & so did my mother !
Ha.
We get rats a lot and only poison works. Not keen on it but no other reliable option. Used a cage trap a few times but trapped rat quite cross and didn’t fancy releasing it so shot it. Told the boys I’d shot it at 20m while it was running across the garden. The boys think I’m a sniper.
Trip traps are handy as they hide the mouse from the missus. Then I drown them in the trap with a brick.
Vermin.
So you have been back to check said family are still alive in their new grounds or you have just consigned them to a nice slow death of starvation and cold.
Someone always says this. I give them the best chance I can, releasing them somewhere with plenty of cover and natural food sources. The rest is up to them.
If they survive, great, if they don't then hopefully they feed a hungry owl or some other predator. Circle of life and all that.
To me either outcome is better than needlessly killing them, or poisoning them along with anything unfortunate enough to eat the corpse.
So I've settled into my murderous flow now. It's averaging one dead mouse a day. I think I will continue with my old school snap neck approach until there are no more.
Spoke to one of my outlaws, a vet who advises that if you poison them they hemorrhage slowly internally. Jesus!
I'd rather their end American swiftly.
I killed a rat at 1am naked with my bare hands cornered after upendeding the sofas in my upstairs living room, which has no curtains.
The neighbours thought I'd declared war upon the wife until I explained that I'd been bare knuckle boxing a rodent.
Luckily they were also having issues with some rats.
Been quiet for 2yrs years now.
Had to get a tetanus jab in the doctors surgery afterwards as it bit me as I decorated the room with it, fun and games
Graham - one of two things will happen to those house mice you caught and released. they die of cold and hunger or they get back into a house.
IME / IMO the best way to stop mice is to remove their food sources. they are getting food somewhere in your house or else they wouldn't be there. we got quite a bad infestation a few years ago and found they had been getting into a bag of rice. We trapped about 6 so killing the family and removed the food source. Seen an occasional one since but only that. Being a part of a big old building there will allways be mice somewhere about - same as you ar=e never more than a few metres from a rat
Had them in the loft in our last house. Council chap came and left bait trays. The poison worked and killed all the mice. However we then had a loft full of dead decomposing rodents. We found a few corpses which we disposed of but there must have been many more hidden away under the insulation. The loft stank after that. Traps and electronic deterrents if we ever get them again.
IME / IMO the best way to stop mice is to remove their food sources. they are getting food somewhere in your house or else they wouldn't be there.
Only partially true. They usually come into houses at this time of year looking for warmth and safe nesting places. I have found them nesting in various places in and around my property. From the deafening material on the underside of my van bonnet to a rucksack in my loft and even inside the dust collection bag of my electric planer, which was inside a closed box, inside a locked van. There are none whatsoever inside the house itself as the house is well sealed. There are no food sources available to them anywhere on my property other than the kitchen cupboards. They do like the spare bits of pipe insulation that i store in my garage though, all chewed up in little piles below the rack i put them on.
Touch wood, we've never had any at home, other than one that was brought in live with the cat. Wondered why the cat kept trying to get behind the TV. Not had any in the garage either, despite keeping bird seed in there.
We have had over wintering mice at the plastic shed at our caravan, the tarpaulin bike covers never seem to last more than a winter stored - comes out with big chewed areas once we re-open the van in spring.
