Getting rid of a mouse

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.

You need to borrow a cat or a Jack Russell.

Ear plugs?

peanut butter on the trap for the win.

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

Ear plugs?

It is hard enough getting it to eat chocolate.

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.

or a more elaborate trap?

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

***t

Stuff the holes with steel wool. They hate it.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

Get a pro in with some decent poison.

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.

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.

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….

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.

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!…) 🙄

Long-term: get a cat.

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

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.

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

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. 👿

Have a flick through this Harry.

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! 😕

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

BandQ prebaited traps worked for me

humane – BANG – dead, never felt a thing, well I didn’t

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

LOL

I bet it was called Rafe or Casper.

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

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

eat them then graham…you seem to have no issues with that 😉

you have to kill them IMHO…I used a cat as i t seemed like the most satisfactory vegan option..got one at the minute [ mouse] and it has not taken the bait in the [humane]traps yet but only seen two bits of munching evidence.

Cats dont work,some are right lazy bleeders and couldnt catch a cold,others actually like to bring mice in to play with so if the shock doesnt kill it you actual end up with a mouse in your house that was previously rodent free.

Breakback(spring)traps are very effective if set up right,they must be along the wall edges with the trap at right angles to the wall(a lot of people set them up inline which is not as effective.
Sticky chocolate(like Mars) is effective as anything.

As said previously you need to seal up any ingress points and gaps to prevent them free movement.
Wirewool,or Wall filler laced with Broken/Ground glass will prevent them gnawing back thru.

If you can get hold of them then “Sticky Boards” are very effective ,they are a piece of card with VERY strong non setting glue on them,place them along the edge of walls like a normal trap ,the mouse cannot see them and once on it will not be coming off it again.

Ex-pest control engineer so I know the above will work.

Waht is the point in using “humane traps” Put the mouse outside it will either die in the cold or it will invade your / another house. If yo are going to trap mice kill them.

We got rid of our mouse problem simply by stopping their access to food. we now get the occasional one but as they cannot get food in our flat they go elsewhere

eat them then graham…you seem to have no issues with that

I’ve no issues with eating animals. That’s just nature.
Mice though.. mmmm.. not exactly much meat on them and I suspect they are quite stringy.

If you can hear it in your roof void it may well be a rat.

Poison and lots of it is the best answer.