mice under floor boards

[alecgreen]

Please help!

I have a mouse or possibly mice under the floorboards in my disused airing cupboard, I have placed rentokil rodine mouse killer which has started to be eaten. Although I cant see them I can clearly hear them scatching and sweeking! - can anyone suggest a better answer?

Also I think they have come up a boxed in type pipe cover through my living room and down under the floorboards, in here there are hot and cold water pipes. Can anyone suggest anything to fill the void in the box to deter the mice in the first place? I though about expanding foam, but thought this may catch fire with the hot water pipes!

Many Thanks

Alec

[MikeH]

I don't have any to hand, but I would have thought that expanding foam would do the job. Just check the can for the maximum temperature to which it can be exposed.

Given that they're in the floor void and boxed-in areas, I think I would have used a conventional trap to bump them off. The poison is probably not an instant death, so you might find they snuff-it somewhere where you can't retrieve the corpses...

Mike

[Lobster]

That would do fine. No way is it going to be set on fire at the temperature of hot water (even boiling water, for that matter). It's even sold for it's heat-insulating properties.

David

[Clive George]

They're quite capable of eating expanding foam :-(

cheers, clive

[Guy King]

The message from Lobster contains these words:

Won't stop mice though - they'll just nibble through it. Scrunched up chickenwire would do though.

[Phil L]

It's a bit late now that they've already been poisoned, but a conventional spring trap {1} would have worked a treat with the bonus of having the bodies to dispse of, with poison they could die anywhere, although it is almost always in the nest, they go to sleep etc and that's it, although poison usually takes up to ten days for mice and five for rats (you won't have rats if there's mice there - they are mortal enemies)

Expanding foam will be fine, but they'll only stay where there's a food scource in the first place.

{1} bait your trap with bacon rind or any kind of gristle from meat, this holds on better, especially if warmed up a bit prior to using, this gives it a rubbery texture...don't use cheese, mice don't like it, despite a million cartoons to the contrary

[Andy Cap]

I think it might work if you kill them off first. We had a one-off infestation a couple of years ago and I killed them off with poison - takes 6 -8 weeks IIRC. Then I sealed the gap between the floor and wall on two sides of the kitchen and there has been no further problem. If they can't smell the food. I guess there's nothing to tempt them in. Well, fingers crossed eh !

Andy

[Dave Fawthrop]

|alecgreen wrote: |> Please help! |>

|> I have a mouse or possibly mice under the floorboards in my disused |> airing cupboard, I have placed rentokil rodine mouse killer which has |> started to be eaten. Although I cant see them I can clearly hear them |> scatching and sweeking! - can anyone suggest a better answer? |>

|> Also I think they have come up a boxed in type pipe cover through my |> living room and down under the floorboards, in here there are hot and |> cold water pipes. Can anyone suggest anything to fill the void in the |> box to deter the mice in the first place? I though about expanding |> foam, but thought this may catch fire with the hot water pipes! | | | |I don't have any to hand, but I would have thought that expanding foam |would do the job. Just check the can for the maximum temperature to |which it can be exposed. | |Given that they're in the floor void and boxed-in areas, I think I |would have used a conventional trap to bump them off. The poison is |probably not an instant death, so you might find they snuff-it |somewhere where you can't retrieve the corpses...

Before using foam, filler etc block the holes with Brillo pads/Steel wool they will chew through almost anything else.

[Bill]

In message , Phil L writes

I've just had a mouse visiting my lounge for the last couple of weeks, first thing I noticed was a conker had vanished off the hearth and then a few carnations from an arrangement in a basket. Anyway I put out a humane trap, plastic box with a spring triggered door. First of a l baited it with a bit of icing which I knew the mouse enjoyed. How did I know? Before putting the trap down I set a CCTV camera to view the area he had been in and watched him for a while, he sat and ate the icing not in the trap and also nibbled a bit off another conker so that it would fit through a hole in the skirting where hew was gaining access to below the floor. He refused point blank to enter the trap even when baited with chocolate, bacon, Southern Comfort soaked bread (that worked on the last one, he looked totally wrecked in the morning though, I felt quite sorry for him!) He would walk around the trap and over it but not in it. Finally in desperation I sacrificed a Twiglet, no problem he walked straight in and that was that!

Therefore Twiglets are the bait of choice here for a while.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh, I think it does stop them..the smells wont come through so they won;t know where to go..

Of course teher is a fair chance of perfectly preserving a mouse-in-foam for posterity, which has to be of value to the Tony Robinson's of the next millennium.