A mouse in the house

@dicki That rat looks familiar... are you sure you don't live next door to @ Cornish_Bike?

now you mention it the similarities are striking. the furry body, the long tail, the nose, the beady little eyes, uncanny

That's a relief, used a can on Saturday.

Pretty quickly after he brought the big one in these were left outside the cat flap. Obvs did not think they were worth the extra hassle of getting them through the cat flap..

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I am just pleased he did not bring them back alive or eat them, that’s the usual with Mice and Birds.

Picking up rat guts would not be a minor inconvenience

How do you know he’s not taking them out of the house? Might be doing you a solid, and you’re slagging him off online?

I was running around the track in Walthamstow a couple of weekends ago, and on my last lap, a seagull was pecking at a dead rat. It wasn't there for my previous 51 laps.
I ran past and it flew off, but a magpie jumped in to carry on pecking, and looked to be targeting the eye.
Possibly the tastiest part of a rat?
I had finished my run so went home. The rat wasn't there the following evening......
I'd love to know what happened to it

Fair point, but I don’t live in a zoo. In the time we’ve had him he’s caught and brought home (or caught in the house)

Mice - loads of them
Rats - see above
Birds - only 2 made it back outside
A frog - they scream and it scared the shit out of me
A Magpie chick / fledgling - that one was brutal
A squirrel - that was quite funny as the stupid dog was walking around with it in his mouth wondering what the hell was going on.

I live in Sidcup, it’s hardly the Amazon but we seem to have a thriving animal population to keep the cat happy.

He is our 3rd Bengal but his hunting instinct is through the roof vs the other two we’ve had.

We live in an old Victorian with air bricks and gaps / holes everywhere, I let the cat in the basement and loft on purpose to make sure his smell is everywhere. Touch wood the only issues we’ve had are self inflicted (he’s let a live one run off)

Fair point, but I don’t live in a zoo.

Lol’d. I’d continue joking but can’t be sure how offended you are, so I’ll leave it. Good he’s hunting mostly pests, bad he’s a bit of a menace to birds etc.

Apparently chickens well and truly hate mice. Shame they make such a mess otherwise they’d make handy pest controllers.

Ha, no offence taken…

What with all of the kids pets, it is pretty much a zoo in the house

I accidentally prodded a toad in the garden in the summer (it was down the side of something and I didn't see it) it let off such a weird high pitched scream. Took me a moment to realise what it was and recover. I only jabbed it lightly but felt awful that it must have feared a mortal wounding. That or a great defensive penchant for melodrama.

A chance to post on of the finest YouTube videos ever:

https://youtu.be/Mwy4X4F3mB4

Cats on form again, 2 just inside the cat flap, 1 just outside the cat flap and another 2m away from the cat flap. Obvs got bored by then…big buggers too

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FINALLY!
2 months later with the sacking of 1 rodent controller and having another come along we finally found how a big fat rat was accessing the loft space. Bodge jobs on the drains of a 90s extension meant access up the plastic drain pipe up the side of the house , into the guttering then nibble away the fascia board and partying in the loft space.
This dirty rat avoided eating any other poison then last week our new favourite person put 3 big massive traps (from India apparently) with Lidls peanut butter mix on them and hey presto the same night we heard 2 or 3 seconds of loud thudding in the ceiling whilst watching telly.
Being squeamish i didn't venture up there but as we thought today he retrieved a big fat dead rat.
Blocked up all the access points with fine metal mesh so hopefully tonight we should have a nice peaceful night.
#jobsagoodun

My girlfriend had a couple of mice in her last flat. Tried poison, sticky traps but got nothing, although blocking holes with wire wool seem to do the trick.

Anyway, new flat, more mice. Picked up some pre-baited spring traps, and a few hours later, dead mouse with a broken neck.

sticky traps

Thought these were banned now?

Yea they are banned, but some do stick around..

sorry I'll get my coat

Apparently not, but there is a Private Member's Bill to ban them going through Parliament at the moment.

Any ideas on ways to mouse proof this gap on top of kitchen cabinets. Presence of (long) deceased mouse suggests potential ingress point. Or given no other signs of active infestation should I climb down off my chair (not a fan of dealing with rodents)?

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Steel wool into the gap (to stop them chewing through the decorator's mastic), decorator's mastic over the top (to give some chance of aesthetic acceptability depending on how visible it is and how much time you spend finishing it, and to stop them pushing the steel wool out of the way).

Silicone round the wires (needed for the under cabinet lights)? appearance isn't important it's 9ft up below the lip of the top of the units (weird stepped ceiling)

Hold the steel wool in place with silicone if you want (mastic's cheaper), but I'd push for something they won't like chewing through ...

Mice have flexible bones. They can get through a gap the size of a pencil. Holes need to be closed really well.

chased 2 out of the backdoor just today
not sure how they're getting in

first for a year or so i hasten to add, today wasn't a regular day

Our guys at work use no more nails rather than silicone to finish it off, certainly sets harder.