mouse under house

We've spotted a mouse peering out of one of the ventilation bricks under our house. This particular brick has one hole broken, which is probably how it got in.

I can't easily get access under the house floor - the entire downstairs is covered with laminate flooring. However, I bet the little blighter(s) could get into the house easily, through the hole in the cupboard under the stairs where all the cables come up from under the floor. (too small to get a hand or trap through). No evidence that they have - yet.

I guess it's essential to block up the hole in the ventilation brick, but before I do that, how to trap/kill it? (them?!) Will a trap outside do the trick? If it does catch a mouse, how will I know it's ours? I don't want to have to take the laminate floor up. I don't want to entice it up into the house.

Any ideas?

TIA, David.

Reply to
David Robinson
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Poison is probably your best bet. Try and get some through the hole(s) in the ventilation brick, and put a small amount in a container by the cables. Obviously, only use it if there is no danger of any children or pets getting hold of it.

Reply to
Farmer Giles

Unless you have decent underfloor access then you have no choice but to poison them/it. When I moved into this house and working on various projects I put down those catch them alive traps and caught 4 which I released. When it came to sealing the floor I dumped a load of poison down it as a safeguard, hopefully it isnt necessary but they had their chance to surrender :-) I hate killing them but sometimes you have no option.

Reply to
ss

Then wait for the mysterious pong... Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Not from mice.

Reply to
ARWadsworth

Thanks for the replies all.

Plenty of pets and children in this house - but I can't see how they could get hold of the poison if I can get it under the house. _They_ can't get under the house.

However, if the mouse got it and then got up into the house before dying, I guess the poison could be transferred to cat, child, etc? Which would be just as serious? That's a real worry.

I can't think how to block where the cables enter the understairs cupboard effectively - not against an efficient gnawing mouse. The cables just come up through a floorboard at present.

It sounds daft not to think of the possibility of mouse infestation before, but the house was built in the 1970s, and when crawling around under the house last year, I looked out for evidence of mice or rats, and found none. Concrete sub-floor, and plenty of old cables (now removed) - no droppings, no gnawing, nothing.

Is poison safe if out of reach of pets + children? One child is only one year old, and would probably try to eat a dead mouse if it found it!

Cheers, David.

Reply to
David Robinson

I've used steel-wool soap pads to stop mice gnawing their way in. It was very effective.

Reply to
S Viemeister

Definitely from mice, but they dry out quicker. It's not a nice perfum.

Reply to
<me9

Shrews OTOH really stink when they die.

Reply to
Steve Firth

A nagging smell, all right.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

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