A mouse in the house

I hope you won't use a glue trap again, they're really horrible.

Trapping mice generally makes zero sense, a bit like shooting foxes makes no sense. You want to stop them getting in by closing up the holes (as has been said a number of times in this thread). If you kill the current incumbents, you'll usually get the next lot moving in a couple of days later.

I won't. The distress may be short-lived but it is absolute.

As regards closing all points of ingress, completing that task would involve dismantling the kitchen, and I don't fancy it.

I do agree that glue traps are horrible and I think if you do use them you have to be prepared to finish the mouse off quickly as soon as you find it - stomping on it's head hard will do it.

I don't agree that trapping mice makes no sense - it's impossible to close up all the holes in a lot of older house without rebuilding them as @Sharkstar says.

Mice are a health risk, you don't want to be sharing your living space with something that can carry hantavirus, salmonella or lyme disease.

Well said, my late dad was always very good with the shovel on the farm.

After being liberal for some time spotted on the kitchen top working surface decided thats it. I glue trapped one in my old place between the dual aspect room central doors running back into the other room. Straight out smashed it against the front garden wall. This was in the evening; nothing left in the morning.

You don't even need the argument from illnesses. Mice are wild animals and if they get into houses there's a culture clash.

You don't have to 'rebuild' houses to keep the mice out. If people spent a fraction of what they spend on 'pest control' on closing holes effectively (that is, not just superficially) it would be prevention for years. The problem is that it's evidently not as lucrative a business as 'pest control' (i.e., take ineffective and cruel action only for the problem to the guaranteed to return very quickly = kerching). Often it only takes a simple job with a sealant gun with a long nozzle. They will take a while to get back in through that.

Our flat is in the beer cellar of a victorian pub. The mice are getting in from one or more places behind the kitchen units, most likely where the pipes come in and out from the street. I've looked at it and I would have to dismantle at least two or three of the units in order to get to the ingress points and seal them up. It's a big job, and there's always the risk that it unravels somehow halfway through and it takes forever or the moneygun has to be deployed. I've sealed up everywhere else.

Get a 🐈

Dogs are more reliable ratters. Get a terrier of some sort.

Get a owl.

How about a python 🐍- it could eat the mice and plug the gaps.

Aren’t otters like big watery rats? They’ll be after you next.

I've a norfolk terrier and the bloody sod had mice eating his food about half a metre away from him and he did nothing, NOTHING. He had ONE job to do.

Often it only takes a simple job with a sealant gun with a long nozzle. They will take a while to get back in through that.

I bung a sachet of poison down the hole, then hit it with expandable foam in a can to fill the gap. Seems to do the trick.

Read upthread for adroit's fantastic python&mouse story.

SMIDSY

sorry mouse I didn’t see you

This made me laugh more than is perhaps decent.

There are recurring Mickey problems in my upstairs flat, with unfilled wall gaps behind poorly fitted kitchen cabinets. I've filled in all but one hole which physically can't be reached without taking out the shite Ikea built-ins which were here when I moved in.

One recently wiggled his way through 2 inches of steel wiring around a pipe and in turn tore through 7 bags of my jumbo pack Pom Bears. So much for mice being only nocturnal as it was at lunchtime I heard the familiar sound of crisp packets being rustled in a nearby cupboard...

I usually manage to trap them in a room once sighted, work them into a dark corner then lay a humane flap trap down on the escape route wall. Agitate them enough in the hiding place and they tend to run straight into it in blind panic. Unfortunately the whole fucking family seems to be following the scent of the most recent evictee and they are conducting nightly tours of my bedroom looking for whoever disappeared last, which is bit of a vicious cycle at the minute!

For all the pacifistic mice catchers- a brief word of warning, I noticed a humane flap trap had caught something at around 1am but couldn't face taking it out to the marshes until the following morning. By which time the poor fucker was 99% dead and couldn't even make it out of the trap to run free. Some 'humane' traps have almost no ventilation it seems, I may have to drill a few small holes next time.

Anyway, did the merciful deed and dropped a 30kg paving slab on his head but it seriously reinforced the concept that I was not put on this planet to hurt other animals, yes they are an inconvenience but have as much right to an unimpeded existence as me.

30kg paving slab on his head

Strong effort

tore through 7 bags of my jumbo pack Pom Bears

shit mate, sorry to hear that :(

Strong effort

..indeed!

This really is the bestest thread on LFGSS.

a owl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK3bYhDcUVg

Walked into the dining room last night to notice the cat was on full hunting alert around the pile of kids bikes, scooters and skateboards on the hearth of the fireplace. I joined him in his hunt and soon spotted the tail of a mouse poking out from underneath, but it managed to make a break for it and go down a hole in the floorboards before Jack could get it.

Today I will be mainly sealing holes in the floor...

Our office is absolutely riddled with the fuckers at the moment

There's been what I can describe as an amplified scuffling /scurrying at nights in our house. Upstairs. Near our bedroom. Proper wakes us both up when it kicks off. The poison from the hot water cupboard has gone. I've put some old school traps down with cheese tonight. Wish me luck in eradicating the fuckers and wish the mice a swift painless death.

Jack has provided the other half with an excellent mother's day present - he's currently playing with a barely alive mouse in the kitchen.