What is it with mice this year?

[John Rumm]

I don't know if its just the relatively mild winter, or the fact that the cat expired last year, but we seem to be getting far more small hairy critters[1] getting in than previously...

There was a time the occasional one would be spotted, and then usually a few days later the cat would obligingly leave the tail with its arse still attached (but nothing else) somewhere ready to be stepped in / on.

This year however, we seem to be getting a constant stream of them from somewhere. Part of the problem might be the SWMBO moratorium on dispatching them in a particularly splattery way. The "humane" trap seems to be quite effective at rounding them up - sometimes three at a time! (they get deposited hopefully at a distance where they don't beat us back inside).

I know the general idea is that any gap big enough to get a pencil through will let them in, but what about air bricks like? :

have a bunch of those, and a few of the more traditional masonry type will small holes. These are the only obvious holes I can find at the moment...

Anyone know of a supplier of a suitable mouse proof metal mesh?

Any canny ideas for tracking the point of ingress?

[1] field mouse / house mouse - mid brown, white tummy and legs, deemed "cute" by SWMBO.

[Part Timer]

Forget that, buy Little Nippers in bulk! Set them on newspapers after she goes to bed, then all you have to do is get up early and dump them in the bin outside. Recently had a daring one that ran out of luck (I crimped the metal part which goes through the staple on the treadle, using side cutters, making it more sensitive). That and fixing a liquorice allsort down with 3 sewing pins so it wasn't going anywhere.

[ARWadsworth]

> We have a bunch of those, and a few of the more traditional masonry

Could SWMBO not just get Parcel Force to redeliver the humanly trapped mice to your address? That should stop them returning.

[Dave Liquorice]

We found that mild winters meant they stayed outside longer.

Since we had a cat the numbers of mice coming in is less. She only occasionally catches a mouse it's voles most of the time.

Sounds like you had Mummy and a Daddy mouse who had lots of children that by now are probably producing lots of grand children and maybe even great grand children...

Well we used to think that the bottom of the paddock maybe 200yds away was far enough until we had one with a damaged ear that we trapped on consecutive nights. We now deport them up onto the fells several miles away (and a well over a mile from the nearest habitation). They don't come back. Try marking 'em before release?

I'd have thought that plastic thing would have a built in fly screen.

"cute" until they nibble some treasured family heirloom or her favorite, handbag/shoes/dress... They are quite "cute" but the damage they do means I don't want them sharing my living/storage space. Hence getting deported and having to take their chances with the weather and predators.

[grimly4]

They ain't 'cute' at all - the incontinent little bastards leave a trail of piss everywhere they go. Despatched with maximum prejudice around here, by cat or me.

[John Rumm]

Yup, I did have thoughts that they may have set up a mouse factory under the floor somewhere!

Hmm, perhaps will have to lob them further!

I did think about that, but could think of an ideal way of doing it, short of having a mouse dip to dunk them in!

(if it were something that left a trial one could follow later, even better... UV fluorescent dye perhaps)

Does not seem to have - although the louvres are pretty close together...

I could do without them! So far the (visible) damage seems to have been one skirting board with a Tom&Jerry mouse hole nibbled through, and the wire connecting the Wii to the sensor bar! (they rather like it behind the TV)

[Dave Liquorice]

An indelible marker pen will do if you can pin the little beggers down or confined them such they can't run away from it.

They do that all by themselves as they leave a trail of urine, this fluoresces under UV.

[John Rumm]

Might be able to arrange to catch em going into the trap...

Just had a look with my UV security torch... either I have the driest mice about, or they don't fluoresce at that frequency.

[Brian Gaff]

The main issues with mice is that they breed very fast and for every one you catch there are at least another 6 or so. One friend of mine eventually found they were coming in through a gap between his house and his neighbour. there were two [ places the main one was under the floor, but there was another in the loft, but as he had not spotted any abseiling Mice it turned out to be the lower one which was the problem. So really talk to neighbours and try to all take action together. Brian

[Nightjar]

On 12/02/2012 19:48, John Rumm wrote: ...

will make up mesh screens to suit your air bricks, if you give them a drawing, but they are usually very busy, so it would be quicker to buy the mesh and cut it to fit yourself. Mesh with a 57 micron hole will keep out insects too.

Colin Bignell

[Phil L]

Peanut butter is the best bait, closely followed by bacon rind, but if you're nabbing 3 at a time, it won't be long before they've all gone, provided your neighbours have followed the same regime as you (assuming adjoining properties)

Can't see OP here... I doubt air bricks would allow them through.

>>> We have a bunch of those, and a few of the more traditional masonry

That's because you're stood upright looking down, get your head nearer the ground and look up under the front and back steps usually - there's holes everywhere, also another favourite entrance is the crumbled mortar around waste pipes / unpointed cable holes etc. If any PVC door frames have been sealed underneath with foam, this has probably long ago been chewed away, fill with sand/cement...add a handfull of glass shards to prevent them scraping it out before it's set

If they can get into the cavity via an exterior hole, they can get easily up to the loft and work their way down from there

If you've got mice, it's a sign that there's no rats in the vicinity - rats eat mice..

If all else fails, put up a small sign saying 'mice keep out' - it's always worked for me :-p

[John Rumm]

Nutella seems to work pretty well also... (we seem to accumulate lots of nearly empty jars of that)

Not convinced at the moment that we are not seeing the same ones several times. I think they need to be decanted further away!

Out in the sticks a bit, so no other neighbours particularly close (nearest is about 150' away)

>>>>> We have a bunch of those, and a few of the more traditional masonry

I did toy with letting one go close to the house just to see if it could be followed... ;-)

Yup, good point, will have to check.

Solid walls in this case, although I expect there is a route up from where the boiler pipes are cased in, and that leads into a voided off loft space.

Well that's one benefit I suppose...

(had one rat and one mouse that managed to get under the bathroom floor in our last place - you could hear them having a barny every now and then for a couple of weeks. In the end the mouse climbed out of some pipe work boxing, dodged the trap I had set for it, and did a lap of the bathroom while I was sat in the bath watching it. Then obligingly climbed up the back of the pedal bin a fell in! So he was easy enough to get shot of. The rat eventually must have decided the a diet of PVC cable insulation was not much fun, and gnawed his way out through the ceiling into the kitchen below, and sat on top of a cupboard for 45 mins looking rather dopey and on its last legs. SWMBO rang me at work and said there is a rat looking at me. I enquired if it had gone near the trap I had left for it on top of the cupboard, and was informed "its bigger than the trap!". Still it sat there long enough for me to drive home and add a small 5.56mm lead weight to the side of its head[1]!)

Be ok as long as these are not illiterate yokel mice ;-)

[1] It was the fall out (or should we say dribble out) from that incident that went a long way to the imposition of the ban on splattery endings!)

[Dave Liquorice]

That is what I use, peanut butter goes rancid. Nutella just dries out (evenutally).

Before deporting several miles away and before the cat we caught over

40 of the little beggers for several winters. Pretty sure now they were back in the house before we were... Since cat and long distance deportation it's normally less than 10/winter, ie Mummy, Daddy and their offspring...

A hundred yards certainly isn't far enough.

Gawd how can you live in such a densely populated area. B-)

[thirty-six]

Put a hatchet through them and leave for two days to deter other mice. To detect them, dust the floor or path with flour. The gap required by a juvenile or adult mouse is not pencil-shaped but elliptical. They seem able to flatten their heads and as they pop through the gap look like a limp wet cat hanging by its neck. Then they scurry off in the direction of your larder, or the inside of your sofa.

Looks suspiciously not mouse-proof, they flatten their heads and bodies to get through cracks.

There are suitable materials as I was given fine stainless mesh which would suit from a friend who is a laboratory technician. There were various mesh sizes for grading sand.

flour.

It becomes a house mouse unless you kill it. Unless they find suitable pickings elsewhere, they'll come back.

[thirty-six]

Chocolate gets em every time. If I smell or hear a mouse (the dog used to let me know by returning from his bed after he'd been sent for the night) I only need to put down one trap with chocolate on and I'll pick up up to three mice together. It's important not to make the trap more sensitive but to almost melt the chocolate onto the board with the fingers. It releases the chocolte aroma and they all congregate for a party. It's such a powerful draw that within two minutes of placing the trap that wonderful snap is heard.

[thirty-six]

My brewing shed will likely be covered in piss and shit by the time I return to it in the spring. If there's a monster mouse staring at me when I open the door, I'll leave him to empty my malt bins.

[Jules Richardson]

I found one of the hairy little gits had made a nest in one of my rawhide gloves up in the workshop the other week - well, probably mouse; may have been a chipmunk. The cats take care of them during the warmer months, but they skive off during the winter.

I remember in my student days though we had a regular visitor in one house - several times we watched him wander into the lounge and plop himself down in front of the TV. So I suppose they do have a cute side, too...

[dennis]

I used 1/2" x 1/2" mess for the rabbit hutch. A mouse wove itself into the mesh before it died. It went in one square, out the adjacent square and then back in and couldn't quite manage it.

[Huge]

I think that's how they were getting in to my place. I finally found a hole that led into the cavity, behind the gas bottles. I've filled it up and the mouse onslaught has ceased. We've caught 78 this season, about 3 times the usual number. We have cavity wall insulation but that apparently didn't make any difference.