A mouse in the house

It is now a pet.

Want to borrow some plug in sonic thingies

Wash your traps or get new traps. The smell of his/her former family members on your trap may be putting it off your tasty treats.

The ceiling boards amplify the scratching sounds. We thought we had something huge in our loft but it was those pesky li'l meeces.

We used white chocolate last time. They love it.

I hope so. I don't fancy coming face to face with rattus rattus.

Same here (definitely rats!), they even wake me up at night as the sound is as loud as a human scraping the wood with a chisel.
Apparently they found their way under the old wooden floor from the front yard, it's been more than 2 months that we hear them and we found isolated traces of presence in the house, but never got to see one or understand where they come from.
Pest control came and filled every possible floor gap with wire wool, but that doesn't stop them from getting under the floor boards...
Not sure what to do apart from moving somewhere else.

Pest control who has a jack russell. We have had a few on our flat. Who one decided to gnaw at the carpet whic ill have to replace if i move out. Caught a dead one under the fridge as i thought let me just have a look for any signs. I have pictures available to show the landlord

Thanks - these are new traps so no mice on these - but they might smell of 'factory' rather than bait.

White chocolate. in other words pure sugar!

last couple of pages ... best thread evar

apart from all the death and ting

On the squirrels

Red Squirrels = cute and fluffy and protected by law, more likely to be found in Scotland than London. Don't off a Red Squirrel Nutkin.

Grey Squirrels = murderers of the Red, non natural UK inhabitants (Reds are) double hard bastards live in and around London parks and are known to gang mug children for crisps and things.
They are very edible, lean and free range and several years back did cause an uproar when some resturants had them on the menu....... :)
Greys are classed as vermin and need a bigger trap/shooters.

Rentokill mouse traps work well, ours have notched up many mices with peanut butter, just place them so the cat (who brings them in mostly) can't get at it.

Snake story was ace, anyone tried a big fuck off toxic tarantula spider for mousing dutys :)

I used to do peanut butter plus Nuttella on the traps. Little motherfuckers loved that stuff.

Have you seen them? I think mine may not be rats because of the small size of their shit. I still haven't managed to spot any with the endoscope though. It's a two-person job: one person to look at the screen, another to manipulate the endoscope. My girlfriend has limited appetite for either job. So far I've seen more shit, that's about all.

We've seen and caught two (rats) the same night almost a year ago, pest control came and fitted wire wool, but then nothing until the recent start of scratching and biting noises (but still didn't see them).
Last month we were in holiday for 20 days, once we came back we didn't find ANYTHING messed up, chewed or moved, apart from traces in the bathtub, where it looked like one of them fell inside and couldn't get out for a period of time as there were rat droppings inside.
Still, no other traces were found.
We put traps over a long period of time, but those rats are clever bastards, they never fall for them.

So after reading all this thread the solution appears to be this ...
Lay traps laden with mouse treats/poison and sit around of an evening with a loaded gun readily at hand ( like next to the remote ) and , depending on your marksmanship , shoot them just as they start to investigate the traps resulting in a swift and humane dispatch.

Party at yours?

You forgot about the rise of the Sith Squirrels...

Fella reappeared after 3 months. Hadn't seen a thing so put traps away.

Didn't have white choc to hand, but did have Montezuma's 'dragon ginger' which was enough to stun the mouse in the trap.

Thankfully I was nearby when the trap snapped, and bashed it with a broom. Part of me wants to leave it under a bucket for my other half to find, but with a 5 week old and her fatigue really kicking in I will fling into the garden before I go to bed.

Yes, middle class chocolate is the key.

caught 2 in the last 2 days in the house
released into the back garden
pretty sure they can't get back in

anyone got a good mousing cat i can borrow for a week
preferably pre starved so it can get straight on with the job

I need one too, our winter mouse is back. It's damn clever and manages to steal the food in the trap without setting it off. It also seems to be immune to rat poison.

Cats are 100% effective but it's not a nice way to go for a mouse...

Best trapping method is to create a tunnel or corridor with two traps in the middle, facing each other with no space around the sides, so that in order to get to the food, the mouse has to pass over at least one trap.

Usually both traps go off and you get a trap-mouse-trap chain... Sounds a bit like something out of Saw IV but it's quick and works.

Placement is key, go for the edge of the room as close to the skirting board as possible.

+1 for peanut butter/nutella combo.

We just moved into a new place with a mouse problem. The other day one of the neighbourhood cats was meowing at out door. I opened it to say hello and he ran straight past me and plonked himself by the gaps in our skirting boards tail wiggling in anticipation. He hasn't managed to get one yet but I like his enthusiasm.

Pull up a floor-board and buy a mop.