Help get rid of mice

[Wesley]

Please help me get rid of our latest batch of unwelcome visitors. Our mice seem to have a liking for 'Hovis Best of Both' bread. I left it out a couple of times and found they'd chewed through the plastic wrapping and had a go at the bread.

The first time this happened, I put down a saucer of B&Q Mouse & Rat poison with half a slice of the Hovis bread on top but they just ignored it. Is it because the poison is past its 'Best Before' date? It consists of grain which is blue in colour. I've examined the container but there is no sell by date of any kind. In any event, I though they would at least have eaten the bread! If I leave a loaf of the bread on the kitchen counter they will eat it but if I put some on the floor in a secluded spot they ignore it. Doesn't make sense!

I then tried Nutella in ordinary mouse traps and caught two of the buggers but now they seem to be wise to this method and won't touch the traps. Do I need to put fresh Nutella in the traps every night because our mice are a bit fussy? I've examined it after a day or two and it still appears to be moist.

The B&Q poison worked very well a few years ago and got rid of them - they cleared two heaped saucers full of the stuff before they finally disappeared. I've put the saucer in exactly the same spot this time so I am puzzled why they won't eat it.

[Dave Liquorice]

Yes it's that time of year again. Must set the traps in the loft. Caught one last week.

How long did you leave it? If it still stinks of human they may well avoid it, rats certainly will.

Maybe the mice haven't found the floor yet. How are they getting onto the worktop?

I find it lasts weeks, again how long have you left the traps undisturbed? Had you just washed you hands in perfumed soap or have after shave etc. Mice tend to follow edges and corners, they don't like being out in the open.

[alan]

With the poisoned grain I've made up pea sized balls of mashed potato with the lethal centre - the mice took a dozen balls in a single night. I've had success with traps baited with both potato and peanut butter that have been down a week or more without replacing the bait. As the previous poster indicated, positioning is important. I place my traps and bait hard up against the skirting boards or walls as this is where mice tend to run.

They probably have already found their preferred route to the food and your secluded spot is not on their run - different mice - different food runs. You probably need to place your trap close to where the bread is being eaten.

On the other hand, if you have rats then they will be very wary of changes to their environment and you may have to leave traps/bait a lot longer.

Because there is something that smells better nearby?

[Frank Erskine]

I store bread in the freezer, away from predators such as rodents. It thaws to a useable state within minutes at breakfast time.

Your mice may not be able to understand concepts such as "sell by" dates, especially if they don't have to actually buy the bread. in ther first place.

It'd be best to wash the trap/s after each "kill". There's likely some odour left by a mouse after its "last supper".

Possibly alternate between Nutella and peanut butter (or even cheese)

[Reentrant]

Shouldn't poison have a "Worst Before" date?

[tony sayer]

In article , Wesley scribeth thus

Go to the local Cats home.

Take on a Cat, preferably a slightly mentally disturbed one that has a grudge against the world.

Brainwash it by showing it posters that say,

"MICE ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH"

or

"PUSSY GOOD .. MICE BAAAD!"

Feed it but do not spoil it.

Always remind it when it comes meowing for more grub that "if your that hungry go and catch a mouse"

Job done .. worked very well for us:)...

[Tim Streater]

Our cat wants to train *us* to catch mice. So it catches one outside, brings it in, makes a loud "I have a mouse for you, come along now" noise, and drops it. Mouse is astonished and sits there for a moment. If I'm lucky, I've made it there by then. Mouse then starts to leg it at

900mph, cat just watches.

I've become quite good at catching mice.

[charles]

In article ,

not for us - since the mice were in a field across the road. One dead cat, sadly.

[Periproct]

I lent a rat trap to a neighbour, along with a jar of peanut butter for bait. He returned the trap and said 'I've thrown the peanut butter away as it was past its use by date'.

Sigh.

I don't eat peanut butter so have to buy it just to bait the traps.

[tony sayer]

In article , Tim Streater scribeth thus

That tail must have whiskers on it;)...

[Tim Lamb]

Mice are eclectic feeders; they like choice.

Chocolate spread baited traps work here.

>

[Clive George]

Our traps are pretty bloodstained and still catch things. If it's icky I'll tend to give it a rinse, but mostly for ickiness rather than function.

[Martin Brown]

Always putting the bread back in the bread bin slows them down a lot.

How are they getting onto the bench?

Try fresh traps and avoid handling them unnecessarily. The old ones probably smell too much of human and dead mouse by now.

Too busy eating your nice fresh loaf? It is the time of year when they migrate indoors.

[gogmagog]

I always found peanut butter to work best. I've had a few squirrels in the loft (and they ARE destructive little buggers), and they just love it.

[F Murtz]

Get a tin of mouse glue and glue their feets to the floor.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Ditto. I have one trap that's positively Deathly. It's carried away more small lives than Charon's oars.

[Wesley]

OK I'll have another go tonight with Tesco's crunchy peanut butter. I bought the cheapest brand because nobody here can stand the stuff! - and the traps are hard by the skirting boards where we have seen the little blighters!

>

[ss]

It might be possible by tracking their droppings establish where their entry point is likely to be and focus in that area.

[Java Jive]

Mice are (at least) two problems in one: prevention, and cure.

Our very old listed building in Cambridge was initially infested by them. Our refurbishing it with central-heating, and many rooms being panelled, created mouse motorways all around it, and soon after we moved in, they did too, and appeared in every room. Trying to get to sleep in a room which is alive with mice conducting the rodent equivalent of rugby football behind the panelling is not easy. In the face of my mother's Scottish "It's a sign of good fortune to have a moose in the hoose!", I resolved that something HAD to be done.

We tried various things ...

First poison such as Warfarin, which worked, but contrary to what the manufacturers claimed, the victims didn't always just die in their holes, out of sight and out of mind, but occasionally an animal close to death would become so confused as to come out in broad daylight and wander round in a dazed and helpless fashion, so, if I was at home, I would have to kill it humanely. Ma found this too upsetting.

So next we tried cats, and one in particular was a good mouser, but of course cats play with their prey, so if I was at home I'd have to kill it humanely and quickly and put it and the cat outside. Ma also found this too upsetting.

I then suggested snakes, as they could follow the mice down their holes and eat a whole one in a single sitting, but I was outvoted by Ma.

But, as is my wont, all along I'd been thinking that prevention is better than cure. I'd noticed that they often first appeared under the sink, and in similar places, and that outside the builders who did our refurbishment had left the holes where the waste-pipes exited the house into the drain gullies unsealed.

I mixed up bucketfuls of cement, and went round the entire house at ground level, then later again up ladders at all the higher floor levels, cementing up all such possible entry points. This combined with the cats finally fixed the problem.

So, besides dealing with the ones that are already in, you need to find out how they are getting into the house, and block the holes permanently. This may require repointing all the brick or stone work, if the cement is falling out of the joints, or making good crumbling rendering, etc.

Of course, both mice and rats are rodents, and can gnaw their way through wood, and can even attack crumbl> Please help me get rid of our latest batch of unwelcome visitors.

[Wesley]

Very informative and amusing!

I agree that prevention is better than cure and intend to block up any potential entry points very soon so it will just, hopefully, be the case of offing our current unwelcome guests.

They don't seem very keen on my latest offering - Tesco's crunchy peanut butter :-(

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