[Closed] Mices....

Get some proper traps and release your inner hunter.

Had it a few years ago - probably field mice looking for somewhere warm in winter. We had a humane trap, let them go in the garden and they immediatel went through an air gap in the bricks having tunnelled their way through the rockwool to get to the loft! Blocked the gap and it took a few weeks to get rid. Strawberry jam or peanut butter worked best as a bait.

No point in humane traps - what do you do with the mice you have caught? Put them outside they will either go back into someones / your house or die of cold / hunger

Humane traps. Waste of time.

You drop them far enough from the house they won't get back they will die due to unfamiliar surrounds.

Close enough to the house they know the area thy will be back in the house before you.

Snap neck traps bated with peanut butter

Naw, canny be doing with killing them. I've got karma issues there.

but what are you going to do with them once you have caught them?

House mice and field mice are not the same. If you trap and release house mice in some remote location, it will, most likely, be a slow and painful for it/them.

Loads of traps, country dweller here and I caught twelve last time they made an appearance.

Add bait boxes around the outside of the house if you are feeling particularly brutal

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request:
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,
An' weary Winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald.
To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

I understand what your saying but no mice will be malcky'd on my watch.

Humane traps are a waste of time. Rentokill advanced traps or other similar reuseable traps baited with peanut butter and a few bait boxes in strategic locations, plus a thorough search for their entry point is the only way to deal with the issue.

They carry nasty diseases, can damage electrical wiring, and pee wherever they walk. Cute little things but not what you want in the house.

If you really reallllly can't deal with killing them then at least get some plug in ultrasonic repellers, but check to see if your neighbours have pet hamsters or other rodents first before using.

Just had one in the garage, as well as raiding the birdseed sack thelittle beggar chewed through the mesh pockets on my Osprey backpack and scoffed a nutrigrain bar. His days are numbered. Have moved the sack of seed to the greenhouse and he has followed as the trap in the garage is untouched but he has managed to scoff peanut butter and chocolate off the trap without setting it off. Whacking big lump of chocolate it was too.

Yep, the little bastids have cut off the leccy to my shed!

Time for inhumane traps.

plug in ultrasonic repellers

I have two of these in my little kitchen and I thought they were working until it got cold, then I was seeing the little buggers sitting by the washing machine right underneath the repeller, completely unphased, waiting for me to go to bed. Big hole behind the kitchen unit so I blocked it off which will hopefully work.

Naw, canny be doing with killing them.

Come back to us when they have trashed stuff and you are ankle-deep in their piss and shit.

Seriously, I understand the whole humane trap thing - I did it myself.

When, finally, the little bastid had it's neck snapped in a proper trap I might have done a little dance around its corpse.

Ours were field mice and we have a suitable habitat at the end of the road and about a dozen warm houses to explore explore before they get back to ours 😈

Merak - Member

I understand what your saying but no mice will be malcky'd on my watch.

so what are you going to do with them once you have caught them?

You can borrow our cat, 3 live mice brought in the house in the last 5 days

I'll be mostly following dovebikers example as I live in a similar locale.

so what are you going to do with them once you have caught them?

I'd suggest a humane release down your local Tory MPs office....

Humane traps are useless IMO.

I chased one along the workbench with a rubber mallet. Little bastard got away.

Death to all mice. Well the ones in my garage anyways.

My Aunty got some humane traps caught two and carried them to the bottom of the garden. It was middle of winter and -5°C with a foot of snow. They were still there in the morning frozen solid!

We had them, did the humane trap thing, sometimes they died in the trap, if they were there all night. Took them far enough away, although whether they made it to someone elses house I dont know, we'd be free for a while. We've blocked up any holes we can find, although they can get through very small holes. We've also got one of those plug-in things that people say don't work, but nothing for the last 2 winters. Not sure what worked but the combination is working for me, not switching it off to find out, and I cant believe there's not a way in I missed.

We get them in our walls but not in the house since I blocked off a couple of holes early on. Have found the weak spot and usually leave half a dozen traps outside in the general area. Just get proper traps and peanut butter as others have already said.

It’s that time of year, colder weather ....

We had a thread before. One little buggar we had used to jump over the trap, we saw him do it more than once (he would come out when it was late and quiet eg tv off). Took three months to catch / kill him. Get many proper traps, bait when wearing kitchen gloves as they can smell your scent otherwise.

Burns on STW, superb, true genius.

I used a bad infestation in our house, upstairs and downstairs. The usual spring traps with peanut butter/nutella weren't much good.

What did work was Pest Control Bait https://goo.gl/oW7Svk and glue boards https://goo.gl/DEMxxA

The Bait was worked pretty well, although mice were pretty shy in kitchen, but possibly because they had other food sources. Glue traps worked well, especially in areas they would go around the bait trays instead.

Inhumane for sure, but i was at the end of the my tether. Good luck!

Make sure you leave their corpses around the perimeter of your property as a warning to any others.

beefheart - Member

Make sure you leave their corpses around the perimeter of your property as a warning to any others.

Or you could just make a necklace out of their ears 😆

I'll trade you your mouse for my squirrel 👿

To go against the collective wisdom, humane traps worked a treat when I used them. This was for field mice that had come into the house.

Mice are crafty little buggers

I use these in my garage

[url= https://www.screwfix.com/p/pest-stop-sure-set-plastic-mousetraps-2-pack/70203?tc=LA7&ds_rl=1245250&gclid=CjwKCAjw7frPBRBVEiwAuDf_LRZra3Lll544iqVYBLXGJbwF-xxacr4DN5ihjzfh6nEhn-OYD-g0XRoCBLcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CPb5s_DWqNcCFQUj0wodUhsAdA ]particularly brutal plastic mouse murdering traps[/url]

Mice are crafty little buggers

I use these in my garage too great effect

[url= https://www.screwfix.com/p/pest-stop-sure-set-plastic-mousetraps-2-pack/70203?tc=LA7&ds_rl=1245250&gclid=CjwKCAjw7frPBRBVEiwAuDf_LRZra3Lll544iqVYBLXGJbwF-xxacr4DN5ihjzfh6nEhn-OYD-g0XRoCBLcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CPb5s_DWqNcCFQUj0wodUhsAdA ]particularly brutal plastic mouse murdering traps[/url]

We have some wood mice in our compost that we're feeding. 🙂

Buy a snek and release it into the loft. Leave the heating on obvious to warm it up to hunting mode. Let it "UNLEASH THE FURY!"

Of course, for proper mouse removal...

[img] [/img]

Update, upon checking the humane trap this morning, the mouse was deed.

I'd have been as well using a traditional mouse trap.

Much hand wringing.

I hope he was just a lone wolf, I hate mice.

I hope he was just a lone wolf

Highly unlikely. If there's one, there're more.

I hate mice.

[img] [/img]
You are Mr Jinks and I claim my £500 +VAT

I hope he was just a lone wolf

A wolf in meeces clothing?

Having a cat doesn't help. We only have mice when she brings them in at sets them free in the house...

I wish someone had a copy of the Mouse in the Sofa thread somewhere 🙁

jca - Member

...

Having a cat doesn't help.

According to my friendly pest control chap, quite the opposite in fact, they are more enticed by the smell of pet food, and ready supply of fresh water than they are discouraged by cats or dogs in houses. Too many places to hide in a modern house where they're safe pretty much renders your feline useless. Outside or in a barn etc mice and rats steer well clear of dogs and cats.

Having a cat doesn't help. We only have mice when she brings them in at sets them free in the house...

I feel your pain, our cat is the same. Mice and voles I don't mind, its the shrews that get me, pick them up and the blighters bite like crazy.... 👿

They need to be tamed natrix, there's a famous manual on the subject to help though, should be easily available.

Been chasing a family of mice round the flat since about September. They come and go, but they've avoided our traps so far.

I think I need to wash the traps and set with gloves on, perhaps they can smell me on them.

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?

Which rat poison stw?

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.

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.