I have never had mice before, but this year both my houses have them.
The farm house / renovation project its expected, and we have caught a few in traps. The "edge of town" house, which I have owned 10 years has never had them before, and I only found them as a drain pipe has started leaking after 9 years of good service - now I know why !!
Is this a problem year for mice for some reason ?
My dilema is that I don't want to poison them and have dead mice rotting in the walls somewhere, but trapping a whole family of them seems to take for ever, are these my only two choices ?
AFAIK there is no known way of deterring mice or rodents in general. You either live with them or kill them. Cats are good and in a farm environment work very well with little intervention. Of course regular care, feeding and veterinary attention is required. Traps I have always found inefficient and messy. Bait works well as they prey become dehydrated and go outside to seek water before shuffling. I don't like using it but it is a necessary evil these days. Never had a problem with carcases rotting within doors. If using bait, be careful how and where you place it. The above may sound rather inhumane. I don't like doing it but it has to be done.
Cats are my preferred option but they have at least 2 other downsides - (1) trophies, or remains of, left proudly on kitchen floor for me to play twinkletoes with at 05.00. (2) A good mouser will probably also kill birds. If they took on pies & jays I wouldn't mind. Recently we have had a throstle and a robin. I detest that.
This sounds sarcastic but is actually the very best advice, provided you get the right breed of cat (ie not a docile pedigree). Trouble is that it's a bit of the "nature, red in tooth and claw". On the other hand, it's just nature running it's course. Didn't you say that you're renovating a farmhouse? Well, killing things is probably one of the ways of getting into the country spirit :)
Other than that, getting in Rentokill is the best option. These guys are professionals and will wipe out the mouse population for you. I would say you should stick to a larger reputable company than a smaller pest control bloke-with-some-traps, but others might disagree.
Once you've got rid of them, you'll need to find out how they've got in. And also try and stop them being able to move around the house and having somewhere safe to nest.
You can get rodent protection mesh - which will still allow ventilation but stop them getting past. So check all ventilators or grilles etc to the outside - IIRC, anything more than a 10 x 10 mm hole lets them in.
In the house, their likely paths are where heating and waste pipes etc go from floor to floor. If a semi, etc, don't forget to check party walls if possible.
However (according to the RSPB website) cats aren't actually having any negative effect on bird numbers and generally kill the oldest and weakest, which wouldn't survive anyway.
My cat soon worked out that feathers didn't taste nice and transferred his attention to the local rabbit population.
Not true, cats hunt for enjoyment. To get a good hunter though you have to train them from an early age (if mother doesn't do it for you) playing with them to encourage an interest in moving objects and chasing things.
They'll eat their way through paper. I find used supermarket carrier bags work well, since mice will only chew as much plastic as they have to, and when the bag is stuffed into a hole just so, it expands on the other side, blocking it more effectively.
I thought the idea of the paper was to fill the hole sufficiently to stop the permanent repair (cement compo) falling down it.
If you have mice, you can track their paths with dust such as talc. They also leave "scrabbling" tracks on emulsion paint. (They can climb straight up a smooth brick wall.)
Trace where they are coming from and kill the neighbours who have just moved in next door. The mice will then stay in that house until they have eaten the corpes. That should buy you enought time to sell the house and perhaps leave the country.
Stopping them coming in is going to be impossible if there is a shared attic or whatever. Cats won't do the job in my opinion. And they can stink too.
Clean bins, gardens and other rubbish collection points and empty bird-tables and other food sources. Rod and flush drains empty gutters of leaves and other detritus.
Then spread poison everywhere. Then dispose of the poison after a few days (or collect for re-use later.) Rotate the types of poisons you use too. Carry out poisoning excersizes regularly.
It is a major catastrophe having mice. Mice spread an illness caused Hantovirus. (I wonder if this disease was the plagues of yore?) It's a periodic event when the rodent population gets out of control. The unusually warm spring may have caused a surge in the population.
You need to keep everything in tins until the mice are eradicated. Wash the tops of tinned food before you open cans. (You should do that anyway as you don't know what conditions were like in the factories, warehouses and shops before you bought them.
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disease itself is considered rare, as the virus is not very infectious except under certain circumstances. As such, when someone contracts HPS, the incident is frequently considered to be a random "freak accident".
In this regard, contracting the hantavirus is very similar to being struck by lighting: (a) it doesn't happen very often, (b) it is worth avoiding, and (c) it can be prevented very easily if you understand how it works.
Always store or dispose of your food, including uneaten pet food.
Keep your garbage cans tighly sealed.
Close all holes with wire screening, steel wool, or cement.
Set spring-loaded rodent traps around your home, inside and outside.
Clear the immediate area around your house foundations. Remove all grass, scrub, and garbage. If necessary, install a barrier or metal flashing (going at least six inches underground) for extra protection.
Keep potential nesting sites (woodpiles, debris, etc.) at least 100 feet away from your house.
My favorite: Encourage snakes (and other natural predators) to live nearby.
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wrote my little essay on the fly. I was going to suggest keeping a small snake but thought it was a little OTT. How about a weasle?
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