Getting rid of Mice

[Ch. Rajinder Nijjhar Jatt]

Hi,

We have got a mouse in our house and we want to know best way to get him out of the house.

We do not want to kill him. Ultrasound system any good?

Rajinder

[Jeff]

Cat ?

Regards Jeff

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Meeow!

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Dave Fawthrop]

| Hi, | | We have got a mouse in our house and we want to know best way to get him | out of the house. | | We do not want to kill him. Ultrasound system any good?

You will have a family at least, even if you can only sees one.

Poison is IMO the only way :-( There are numerous baits, some just have a tray and bait, but if you have children or pets around the enclosed box ones supplied/made by B&Q or Rentokil are better.

Go round the house and block up ***all*** holes which a mouse can get through. That is anything you can push a *pencil* through. They will gnaw through filler, and wood, so put steel wool, or steel wool pan scrubbers in the hole and cover it with filler.

Starve them out, put all food in mouse proof boxes, remember the pencil rule.

[Dave Fawthrop]

| Ch. Rajinder Nijjhar Jatt wrote: | > Hi, | >

| > We have got a mouse in our house and we want to know best way to get | > him out of the house. | >

| > We do not want to kill him. Ultrasound system any good? | >

| > Rajinder | | Meeow!

Does not always work, some cats have been known to ?adopt? a family of mice.

[Pinot Grigio]

You can get a humane trap available from pet shops. It is a square shaped tube with a trap door. Put half a peanut in the opening to get its attention and a few more at the back so it doesn't starve. Check every morning until you have caught it. If you place it where you know the mouse will be it should only take one night. Release it at least 10 miles from home.

[Chris Bacon]

Waste of time, expensive, may irritate you. Buy a "humane trap", which has flaps that close when the mouse enters a tube to take the bait. Examine the trap frequently for trapped mice, they will starve/dehydrate inside a day. Release the mouse a good distance from your house!

[Chris Bacon]

etc. Multi-traps are good - this is expesive, but lasts years.

[Farouq]

If you want to get rid of the mouse for good your are going to have to kill it. No point pussy footing around (excuse the pun). You rarely get a solitary mouse, there'll be more if they haven't arrived already.

Get plenty of lethal bait and exterminate the lot, follow the advice others have given in covering as may holes as possible etc.

[Chris Bacon]

He said he didn't want to kill the mouse, let alone have the creature slow-tortured to death. I shouldn't think he wants an animal that might scratch up his furnishings, spray piss all over his house, crap all over his or the neighbours gardens, and kill all the local wildlife to boot, as well as being an on-going expense.

[Dave Fawthrop]

| > We have got a mouse in our house and we want to know best way to get him | > out of the house. | >

| > We do not want to kill him. Ultrasound system any good? | >

| > Rajinder | >

| | You can get a humane trap available from pet shops. It is a square shaped | tube with a trap door. | Put half a peanut in the opening to get its attention and a few more at the | back so it doesn't starve. | Check every morning until you have caught it. If you place it where you | know the mouse will be it should only take one night.

There is never one mouse, there is always a family, so continue whatever method you chose for a month or so.

Mice run round the walls, so place traps/bait close to a wall.

| Release it at least 10 miles from home.

Not near other houses which your house mouse will invade. That way the local predators will kill it, but *your* hands will be clean :-(

[Andrew Gabriel]

Mice are not normally solitary animals.

Make sure there's nothing for them to eat inside the house. That won't stop them comming in for warmth, but they might find someone else's house with warmth and food a more desirable property.

Humane trap, and release outside.

[Dave Fawthrop]

| In article , | "Ch. Rajinder Nijjhar Jatt" writes: | >Hi, | >

| >We have got a mouse | | Mice are not normally solitary animals. | | >in our house and we want to know best way to get him | >out of the house. | | Make sure there's nothing for them to eat inside the house. | That won't stop them comming in for warmth, but they might | find someone else's house with warmth and food a more | desirable property. | | >We do not want to kill him. Ultrasound system any good? | | Humane trap, and release outside.

A *long* way from your house. They know how to get back in.

[soup]

If you see one there is probably a whole "family" of them

Ultrasound is a bit of '6 and half a dozen', seems to work for some not for others a LOT of money is to be made for those manufacturing Ultrasound devices, but I do not feel they work.. A killing trap is more humane in the long run, remember if you release the mouse within 200 yards (or so) of your house it will just come back [1] if you release it miles away then you are condeming it to a long lingering death (if a predator doesn't eat it) as it is not adapted/suited to living wild.

The problem with poison is that poison takes a while to work, plenty time for the mouse to crawl into some innacesable place and die and subsequently smell. Once mice are in the walls it is almost impossible to get rid of them totally all you can do is stop them coming into the human part, seal all holes (remember they can get through what many consider impossible holes) put all food in mouse proof boxes clear up any spills immediately . Obviously it matters if you live on the 12th floor of a tower block as opposed to a farmhouse

Mind you I lived 30 years in Edinburgh [3]where 90% of the buildings have mice[2] (lots of stone walls ) and now live in the countryside where mice are endemic about all you can do is not invite/let them into the human part.

Rats are a TOTALY different matter.

[1] Or to a neighbours which if you live in a terrace is almost the same as having them yourself [2] Can't remember where I got this figure from it may well be apoccyphal (bit like 6ft from a rat in London) and it does not mean the mice are running about the floors merely that they are in the walls. [3] So all this is IMHO. For a more proffesional opinion try googling for "pest control"

[Owain]

Get a snake then. A big enough one will eat the mouse and the cat.

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

You won't have one, well you might ATM but it'll be joined by another and then a family. At this time of year they are probably coming in to find the warmth. We get them every year about this time, 5 so far this autumn.

Good for you, I'm happy for them to be outside but not in the house.

Well the ones we have don't seem to make any difference. They can certainly hear it as they visibly jump when you turn it on but it doesn't seem overly worry them. It has various settings and it's set to "quiet", if set to "loud" it drives you out...

We find that Nuttella is good, doesn't go rancid like peanut butter. No need for anything at the entrance mice like holes and will go in anyway.

Agreed, we have a trap down all year "just in case" but normally it only ever gets anything around this time of year. We are very rural and surrounded by ideal mouse habitat. The fields and banks are riddled with mouse/vole sized holes...

Yep.

If it is a house mouse. House mice are grey, field mice brown. But what ever it will go looking for the warmth again.

We have the advantage of some forested fell tops only about 4 miles away that are a good couple of miles from any habitation. But certainly releasing in the back garden is useless, the mouse will probably be back in before you are!

Why :-( ? I'd much rather let the mouse takes it chances with the local predators and help support them than simply kill it and bung in the compost bin.

[Rob Morley]

Except they can then wander off and die in inconvenient places ...

[Rob Morley]

I used humane traps - chocolate chip cookies are good bait. Place them next to the wall where you suspect they are active, and check every day. Don't leave any food where they can get to it - keep cupboards closed, put anything else in sealed containers. Do not underestimate their ingenuity - they are good at climbing and can squeeze through improbably small gaps. I put some in a cage until I got around to releasing them somewhere suitable, and they ended up quite tame - one would run up my arm and sit on my shoulder for a while, then go back into the cage.

[zymurgy]

Bit of an exaggeration !

My cat is 18 and hardly moves more than to go outside in the sun or come in and eat. Let alone scratch, piss on or kill anything !

Why doesn't he rescue an old cat, for that 'not too long on-going' expense ;)

Paul.

[Ian Stirling]

Humane traps are a great idea. Plus, you can train cats to some extent to chase mice, if they were not taught by the mother, just using similar techniques.