A mouse in the house

I found a mouse in the kitchen trap yesterday.
That was a fun breakfast.

Not very filling though

Was the chain dropping last night an excuse to throw up mickey breakfast?

Ha. No.
I didn't have to walk out past the kids as they ate their breakfast with a mouse in a trap. But I did.

Little Nippers truly are a better mousetrap. Got 5 little shits, one after another, with just a small bit of cheddar, and nearly all were quick and tidy kills (dunno how one seemingly exploded).

Very late response, but: obsessive spring clean, check the carpets for moth infestations, clean under floorboards if possible, wash all moth-favoured clothes at once, put dry clothes in zip bags, pit zip bags in freezer for 48 hours. Then wait for them to come back.

I want this story to be true, but it definitely sounds too good to be true:

Young says he once saw a rat pause at a glue trap that had been laid in its path, return to the bin it had just come from, and fetch a crisp packet to stick over it, meaning it could pass with ease.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/07/are-we-losing-the-rat-race-how-rodent-took-over-our-offices

Yeah, possibly, pest controllers will tell you that they don't use them that frequently because mice and rats get used to the sight of them and will avoid them. Why you would put one next to a bin though... Surely you'd empty the bin, or make sure the rat couldn't get into it, they're only there because of the food source.

Warning: graphic images may disturb some readers

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/19/you-cant-escape-the-smell-mouse-plague-grows-to-biblical-proportions-across-eastern-australia

People describing shining a light outside and the ground changing colour from all the rodents running from the light. A supermarket trapping 4-5 hundred vermin per night. Children crying as their parents are taken as tribute to the mouse king...

Apparently a flood or cold snap is what’s needed to stop them, which I guess means that Australia has been officially overrun and their fate is in God’s hands now.

Apparently a flood or cold snap is what’s needed to stop them

Well ...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/mar/20/nsw-weather-live-ses-issues-evacuation-orders-as-sydneysiders-urged-to-stay-home-live

Be careful what you wish for.

Damn.. They are back.

1 Attachment

Presumably the Exocet had a successful lock?
I am curious as to what you are actually using though for the image

A raspberry pi running motioneyeos

I would be lying if I said I haven't wondered whether I could build a gun lethal to them but not me/my cupboards etc

I genuinely wondered if I could modify a nerf gun. Non-trivial problem though I think to build something to kill outright, without mess, but not damage stuff.

Best suggestion so far came from my daughter aged 8 (in 2007)

dad if I got a pet rat like Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, would that not keep the mouses out of the houses?

genius

I think I said at the time that her pet rat would probably invite the mouses to lots of house parties. Without substantiating that claim.

It was the first time I saw her eyes roll in disbelief.

..and rightfully so! 🙂

Your daughter is right. Rats tend to keep mice away (or kill them). Muricide, they call it.

Just found this thread, a couple of weeks after having to deal with a mouse infestation in my kitchen.

The fuckers had got into a plastic tub full of bulk bags of grains & lentils, then colonised a shelving unit and turned it into a multi-storey hotel/restaurant complex.

Panic-bought some Amazon 'humane' traps without doing any research. Traps were highly effective, catching 3-6 little shits per day... Releasing them was interesting.

Cycled to a park a mile away to set them free. The first one decided to run across an exposed car park instead of under a bush and got instantly swooped on and munched by a bloody MAGPIE.

A few passed without incident, until one ran straight into the gob of a yummy-mummy's dog in front of her kids, and another two flung themselves off a bridge, into a freezing brook, and floated away.

I think I'll get instant-kill traps if they ever come back...

Egg boxes are your friend. In my previous workplace we used to have lots of mice everywhere. When caught, they were fine as long as they had an enclosed space to be in. It was the fully open areas they aren't used to. We used to capture them and when we released them, we put them into egg boxes. It provided them the security they needed in their new environment, to get brave enough to venture out at their pace on their own. But then, we also had people who just used to stamp on them with big boots.

I've heard of people cutting a hole in the plastic end and filling the space with something that sets solidly. Might incapacitate a mouse.

This is true it's very uncommon for rats and mice to occupy the same space, as for using a pet rat that's not used to finding it's own food I'm not so sure, might be a bit too domesticated.