Nimbus

We live on an old house in the country and the wife found evidence of mice in the house today. (droppings, nibbled items) I need to know the best (cleanest) way to despose of them. Any (sensible) suggestions?

Brendan Hughes

Put "mice" into search NSR and see what you get (ignore posts by Mice_Elf)

I loved the story of the guy who put a bit of bait into an electrical junction box and left the cover off. One flickering TV and "that's the bugger"

dome

Get a cat? A mate of mine in the country swears by his.

JoeyDeacon

Our cats are very good at desposing of mice. Bungle, our big ginger tom cat rather kindly eats them and leaves a neat pile of entrails on the carpet. Our other two cats are not quite as tidy and tend to leave them dead on the floor (occasionally with blood on the walls) or occasionally maimed and cowering under a piece of furniture/in my PC/ in the hoover/in the back of the cooker/etc. The advantage of cats is that they never get bored and will wait for hours to catch the mice once they are hiding.

Strangely enough not a single one of these mice wanted to come into the house, they were all bought in by the cats.

If it was cats versus any other method of getting rid of them I would back cats every time.

Nimbus

Don't want a cat (and from your post it seems they make more mess than the mice )..

I'll try the search as suggested. Nice story BH..

JoeyDeacon

Thats a good point, I had forgotten about the live rat we had in the house at 4 in the morning.....

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Mouse traps where you've found evidence, use cooked bacon or smarties as bait, not cheese Yes, I am serious.

B&Q, Screwfix, etc etc.

You can also get humane traps that just catch the little b*ggers, but let them go about a mile away or in someone else's house : or you'll just get them back!

Alcazar

BTW: if you're infested once, you will be again unless you ensure there's nowt to attract 'em, no goodies left out, packets open bread in proper bread bin ditto biscuits, sugar in sealed container, ditto cereals etc etc.

Schumacher

A milk bottle with a piece of mars chocolate in it.


-Schumacher

David_Dickson

Get wooden traps, not the metal ones, I found the metal ones werent sensitive enough as the mice could eat the bait without setting it off.

The wooden ones are easier to adjust the sensitivity on them.

Fat Boy

Get a hunting horse

Jap2Scrap

PMSFL

Seriously, there is some consolation. While there's mice around it means there's no rats. If there were rats on the scene the mice would've scarpered long ago.

r32

I'll send you some of my wifes cooking, leave it on the floor, they'll soon bugger off elsewhere............

scoob_babe

So your wife isn't keen on getting rid of mice in the same way as you did the wasps then

r32

I think she's trying to get rid of me, keeps packing my sandwiches in a road map....

Perhaps best stick to the traps ...........

Sith

I was going to suggest a pet rat. Mice and rats don't get along.

Nimbus

LOL. I'd forgotten about that.. No. On concideration, I don't think the same tacticts would be appreciated...

dtriggs

We've got mice too - wife is freaked - they have taken chocolates off the bleeding Christmas tree !!! But chocolate in the traps doesnt seem to work - they nudge the trap around but dont trigger it - is cooked bacon good ? or is there anything better ? Caught one so far but the remaining one(s) seem harder to get.

ProperCharlie

We get them every now and then - traps go down, mice die, problem sloved.

Peanut butter is good bait. Had a bit of a trauma the other day when a mouse managed to get out of the trap (after it had gone off!). Wife went downstairs to discover a mouse with half a head wandering about the kitchen. That's not a good wake up call, apparently.

Jap2Scrap

I was watching Tom and Jerry the other day and Jerry seemed pretty intent on stealing a cream pie with a single cherry on top. Worth a try?

SJ_Skyline

Nimbus - may I draw your attention to this thread

ajm

Unfortunately they are indiscriminate and will kill anything they can get their paws on, which in a rural setting could include endangered harvest mice which wouldn't come anywhere near your house.

Careful, considered trapping and, maybe poisoning should be sufficient to rid a house of mice, although they will always come back eventually unless you can actually find how they are getting in. That is part and parcel of living in a rural setting.

ProperCharlie

Or East London.

Drunken Bungle Whore

I had mice once at my old house. I started off trying to catch them humanely - drove to woodland a couple of miles away and released them. Then one of the ******* bit me! The tetanus hurt more than the bite.

Resorted to the less humane traps after that!

ajm

If you catch any more then I'll take them off your hands! I've got 12 hungry mouths to feed!

Nimbus

Mouse trap it is then.

The wife thinks we've only just got them. I failed to mention that a few weeks ago I found stash of penuts (bird food kind) in both of my scruffy boots I use for nipping into the garden with. Little bighters had been using them as a nest They had been by the kitchen door for for a while near where we store the bird food. Nedless to say, thesee have now been removed.... :O

Here's the house..





As you can see, we're pretty well in the middle of mouseland..

SJ_Skyline

I can see the ex-wasps next from here!

Brendan Hughes

Wow! Is that Bushey Park, or Richmond Park?

Nimbus

Nope. Best Leicestershire countryside...

ajm

I think I see the problem!

Mark in Ireland

We went down the mouse trap route, humain at first but it seems everyone I set free in the fields came back thru the cat flap, so we had to resort to poison. As we have cats and dogs the best thing to use is something similar to a branson pickle jar on its side with the poison at the far end. Place these along the skirting boards of each room and cupboard. Leave for at least a month, topping up with poison as required.
Not as dramatic a solution as the wasp nest but it does work.