A mouse in the house

I've seen him (pretty sure it's a guy) before but this time I got to see the whites of his eyes. Had him all cornered behind a bookshelf, girlfriend was keeping watch, I was poised with a tupperware container I was going to drop on him when he made his move. Then he disappeared. I mean, he melted into thin air.

Now my girlfriend knows he's there I have to confront the issue. He's too cute to kill, so I'm looking for any advice the forum might have on humane methods for capture or eviction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUm6hDFiy8

Not glue traps.
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You could borrow one of my cats, then go out for the day, and ask no questions upon your return?

Guaranteed humane, for a given value of humane.

It's not a guy.
It will eat your food.
It will eat your clothes and furnishings.
It will crap indiscriminately.
It will chew your wiring.
It will make your home smell of urine.
It will attract more vermin.
It will breed with others and multiply the problems.
The health of you and your girlfriend may be at risk - research Weil's disease.

Humane traps don't work.
Poison will only give it the opportunity to die somewhere inaccessible and smell even more.
Buy a Little Nipper, polish the release arm, oil the pivots, and dispose of the insanitary vermin when girlfriend is not watching. The bags sold to dog owners are good for this. Then set the trap again in case there are more.

We have one at the moment that most of a banana a few weeks back.

Could be rat.

Humane, as in torment and eviscerate? That said, I'd feel much less guilty about having a cat do the killing for me.

• and don't immediately trust the advice of someone who can't work out which 'Reply' button to use. My earlier suggestion applies to the mouse, not Dammit's cat.
  

Seriously...
Listen to @MrE

We were in the exact same position a couple of years back.
Our lass wanted to be humane about it - human traps everywhere, peppermint oil on the surfaces and floors (which is apparently too strong for their noses), hi frequency motion sensor vermin deterrent things.
Fucking useless.

All of them.

Fucking useless.

We were overrun in a month. They started in the kitchen, within weeks there were dozens of them eating through tupperware to get to food, and in the bedroom while we slept.
Running over the duvet while we were in bed.
Over the fucking duvet man.

Find where they shit.
Find where they get into the house.
Buy this in bulk.
Lay it everywhere you see them, or find evidence of them.

If you are lucky you will never see or hear from them again.
If you are unlucky they will crawl away and die somewhere, then you smell rotting mouse corpse for 1 week.

Human traps?

makes mental note to NEVER go to Casa de WjP

If you know where they're coming in then plug the gap with some wire wool.

Now you've all got me worried...

Get down to Robert Dyas and buy three or four traditional traps (e.g. Little nipper as mentioned) , bait with peanut butter, leave a few days (they might be suspicious at first), then dispose of corpses, repeat daily until it stops. Sorry to be heartless but the HEADSHOT DEREK its the only way.

.

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We had "mice" in our kitchen that I'd been to keep the true size and extent of from Mrs until the alpha male got half caught by a trap then promptly walked into the middle of the kitchen floor and lay down. I was in the pub and my other half called to say she'd closed every door and shut herself in the bedroom, got home after a few pints and proceeded to do a terrible job of catching a half dead rat. Either it possessed super rat strength or the B&Q traps are shit! Thankfully she didn't see the blood splattered up the side of the cabinets!!!!

We had "mice" in our kitchen that I'd been able to keep the true size and extent of from my Mrs until the alpha male got half caught by a trap then promptly walked into the middle of the kitchen floor and lay down. I was in the pub and my other half called to say she'd closed every door and shut herself in the bedroom, got home after a few pints and proceeded to do a terrible job of catching a half dead rat. Either it possessed super rat strength or the B&Q traps are shit! Thankfully she didn't see the blood splattered up the side of the cabinets!!!!

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Air rifle.

@stumpy Savage!!

Air rifle.

/Well that escalated quickly

take off and nuke the entire site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

More humane than traps. I shoot pigeons, rats, mice, squirrels etc, and they always die very swiftly, with shots to the head. A trap will likely catch a limb, and it will die a slow, festering, bloody death.

I've always used this fucker.

Allow me to introduce the Crosman Ratcatcher:

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With the larger vermin, and/or if you can't check the traps daily, then you prob have a point. But for mice in a London house, setting a few traps and going to sleep beats tooling up and hiding out in camo fatigues for Mr Mousy to make an appearance!

A proper trap baited with peanut butter will work best. I tried a humane see-saw trap and it only worked properly once and was tripped many times subsequently. Proper wooden Little Nippers have never failed me or been set off without doing the job. Every winter I have to use them in my garage. Apparently a gap equal to the diameter of a pencil is all that a mouse needs to get through.