SOT Mice

[Jeff Layman]

Anyone else suffering from a surfeit of these rodents? We usually trap only one or two in the loft once every couple of years, but this year in the last fortnight we've trapped a couple in the loft and three in the kitchen. We don't leave food out, and can't work out where they're getting in to the kitchen, although possibly it's where the cable to the electric meter enters from the loft.

The SOT bit of DIY is in the baiting of the trap. Over the years we've used peanut butter to bait the trap, but for some reason the mice have mostly avoided setting off the trap (gentle licking, maybe?). I've had complete success so far with half a hazelnut pushed into the peanut butter. The peanut butter stops the mouse pulling the hazelnut free, so it tries to gnaw it in place by pushing down on the nut...

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I remember some time ago finding they were coming in from next door via a small hole where the staircase was about half way up which was under the stair cupboard on both sides. Fixed it and the rotten bit of floor in the cupboard and no more rodents. Brian

[alan_m]

I tend to get them each year just as the weather gets really cold. I've now given up on traps as some mice seem to be able to avoid them and use poison bait instead. The trick with bait is to replace it every time some is taken as the mice will take it for storage or back to the nest.

[charles]

Earlier this year, I found that a set of 4 traps, backed against the unit plinth, was needed with the bait in the middle. I used the Magic Bait found on ebay or Amazon

[Jeff Layman]

I'd use poison outside if I had a rat problem, but not with mice. If they die inside the house it's usually in a place very difficult to reach or not worth the effort (such as under T&G floorboards). You then have to put up with the stink of a decomposing mouse for several days.

I find the pest-stop traps work well unless the mice are very small.

[nightjar]

I use a single block from a bar of chocolate. Warm enough to be slightly sticky, it pushes onto the wire bait holder without breaking. However, the mice have to chew at it to eat it, which sets the trap off.

[Brian]

Some motorhome owners have problems with ?visitors? ( we?ve not, at least yet). The most common tip to deter them is mints or peppermint oil.

Obviously trapping kills some that get in but if you can convince them to stay away totally, so much the better. Let the cold kill them.

[JNugent]

Adopt a cat. It works.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yup. same here. They know ClimateChange? is bollox and they are after shelter. I think one is lying dead across some cable as one circuit with no load on (cooker I seldom use) trips the RCD. Guess what this weeks job will be.

I've caught 4 (until last years trap disintegrated: more on order) - on cheddar cheese rammed into the bait platform, You cant lick cheddar. They've eaten several plastic caps on oil bottles, so maybe they would eat that as bait as well - PVC!

I think there are about two left. Friend said one as big as a small rat poked its head in. I haven't caught him yet

I've had no cases of bait gone trap still set. Two managed a bit of a trek before they expired. The last one was still twitching so I bashed it little head in. Stayed twitching for some time after that. Not much brain there, more central nervous system,

[soup]

That's a thing I have always (FSVOAlways)wondered about. What happens if a mouse dies of natural causes , old age, disease etc , but it dies in an unaccesible part, does the rotting corpse still smell?

[Jeff Layman]

It would smell, but in the majority of cases it would get caught outside by a predator.

[alan_m]

I did think I had a rotting mouse recently in my kitchen. I looked in all cupboards and removed kick-boards etc. It was only after a few hours when I went into my garden that I realised the the smell was coming from the outside and more to do with plant life dying back.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I shot a hare or a bunny eating my alstromerias, and left it on the lawn for 24hrs. I went out next day to see if it was worth skinning and eating, but the crows had beat me to it. Just a skeleton. I threw that into the field for the foxes.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Year ago I had a Terrible Smell. Eventually it went away. A couple of months later I lifted my camera bag from the floor and found a dead mouse that had crawled under to escape the cat.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

OK as long as you don't have pets or visiting cats etc. Brian

[Mike Rogers]

Spiral pasta works very well on mouse traps.

Mike