Mouse problem

[Dave2002]

We sometimes get mice in our house in winter. Conventional traps seem the best way of dealing with them.

I suspect one has taken revenge and died close to one of our heating pipes. The smell gets significantly worse when the heating kicks in.

Does it make sense to wait until the smell goes away, or will that be so long we'll have to take more drastic action?

The pipes and the run where I suspect the cadaver is are boxed in, and I'd say largely inaccessible.
Obviously removal is the best option, if feasible, but it doesn't seem a very realistic option right now.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

We sometimes get mice in our house in winter. Conventional traps seem the best way of dealing with them.

A pet cat or two also helps - alas I'm allergic. We had the same problem for a few years until we spent a lot of money (just under £100) on ultrasonic plug-in repellers: a couple of thirty quid ones (one upstairs, one downstairs) and one smaller model in each room (no more: the wavelengths cancel each other out). After three weeks (during which time they seemed to be useless - we have a photo from about five years ago of a mouse preening itself immediately in front of one of the plug-ins!) they all just left and we haven't had any problem since.

No use if anyone has a pet hamster or similar rodent-based pet on the premeses!

(Before this, we were also advised by a friend with such tendencies to try asking the mice politely to leave. Didn't work for us, but ... )

And, apparently, "humane" mousetraps are the worst thing to use: the mice may not be killed instantly, but they do try to find their way "home" once you've released them and don't know how to fend for themselves. Fine if you want to help feed owls, but not if you think you're being kind to mice!

[Ferretfancy]

I had a terrible Christmas problem a few years ago. I had made a Christmas cake, put on the marzipan, and left it on a small table in the hall under a clean cloth to let the marzipan dry out before icing. A couple of days later, as I came downstairs, I noticed that the cloth was moving! Two mice ran out, and we had shop cake that year!

We get a mouse straying in from time to time, in spite of precautions. When the two elderly ladies next door died and their house was empty for a while there was an invasion. I'm afraid there's no real substitute for the old fashioned mousetrap. Chocolate is a mouse favourite.

[Frances_iom]

melt a small piece of high cocoa chocolate to the old fashinioned trap - good for about 3 or 4 kills - however the poison in a tunnel box (eg from B+Q) seems to work effectively but sometimes the vermin dies where you can't get at it - usually a mouse mummifies fairly quickly but I had a similar case to D2002 - I suspect one died underneath semi-fitted bookcases - the smell has gone but recently had a plague of flies which I suspect may have been feeding on carcase

[Bryn]

... Chocolate is a mouse favourite.

Absolutely. From direct experience, one can leave a chocolate digestive biscuit out, chocolate side up, and come back to fine most of the chocolate nibbled away without the biscuit part being touched! I kid you not.

[Dave2002]

The smell is the current problem. I'm assuming one has died. Above our living room - nice!

Re methods of catching/killing the blighters I think regular traps are the best. I use the cheap ones from B and Q. I have thought of poison, but I don't want them crawling off and dying in awkward places. Seems one has done that anyway.

Also, re poison, I had a box of poison from B and Q. I never used it. It was in the garage. Mice got into the packet and ate it! I then dumped the remainder in the wheelie bin, then fearing it was an illegal act, I rang the council before the bin was collected. Perfectly OK, they said.

[Bryn]

The smell is the current problem. I'm assuming one has died. Above our living room - nice!

Re methods of catching/killing the blighters I think regular traps are the best. I use the cheap ones from B and Q. I have thought of poison, but I don't want them crawling off and dying in awkward places. Seems one has done that anyway.

Also, re poison, I had a box of poison from B and Q. I never used it. It was in the garage. Mice got into the packet and ate it! I then dumped the remainder in the wheelie bin, then fearing it was an illegal act, I rang the council before the bin was collected. Perfectly OK, they said.

Mice love the usually poison bait. They go so far as to collect and store it in little stashes. It takes longer to dispatch them than it does with rats, but in 3 to 4 weeks it should work. I too, however, think the standard sprung mousetrap, baited with chocolate, the most effective, and indeed humane, method of killing them if one must.

[Anna]

I've found that mice love crunchy peanut butter even more that chocolate biscuits. I get occasional invasions of field mice and have a large humane trap which has plenty of airholes and a perspex lid, it works very well and can accommodate about 4 mice comfortably, the small humane traps (the tunnel style ones) leave the mouse in a very sweaty and distressed state. The advice to get a cat can backfire when the cat starts to bring mice in to play with ..... one cat I had bought a mole in and on another occasion a baby rabbit (both rescued unharmed, although what happened to them when I liberated them in the field I have no idea)

[Simon]

For heaven's sake don't get a cat! There are far too many of them around anyway and they are vicious hunters of small birds.

Nothing wrong with a few mice around, as long as they don't get near food or food preparation areas. Part of life, as far as we're concerned. Live and let live...

[Dave2002]

Mice love the usually poison bait. They go so far as to collect and store it in little stashes. It takes longer to dispatch them than it does with rats, but in 3 to 4 weeks it should work. I too, however, think the standard sprung mousetrap, baited with chocolate, the most effective, and indeed humane, method of killing them if one must.

I came to the conclusion some years ago that there is no realistic alternative to killing the little creatures and spring traps do it quickly. The mice seem unable to read the instructions to leave which I placed strategically. Unfortunately their education is woefully inadequate. I tried the so called humane or live traps, but I decided that they were mostly ineffective.

I didn't realise that poison would take 3 or 4 weeks, I still don't see how one can cope with poison, as the mice would still wander off into nooks and crannies and then decompose. Does the poison somehow reduce the unpleasant effects of such decomposition?

[Ferretfancy]

Dave,

Poisons like warfarin kill by dehydrating the victim, and that should reduce the smell as in effect the mouse bodies become mummified. It's not a nice way to die, unfortunately.
There are now poisons which affect rodents but don't harm other wildlife. The New Zealand authorities have targeted Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean with pellets dropped by helicopter to eradicate rats, and this has been a complete success. The island is an important breeding ground for albatross and other birds.
A similar project is getting under way in the Galapagos Islands.

[Frances_iom]

There are now poisons which affect rodents but don't harm other wildlife....
A similar project is getting under way in the Galapagos Islands.

there's one even closer - Calf of Man where longtails were introduced by a shipwreck in 18th c and killed off the Manx Shearwater colony (aka Puffins but not the same as the cute bird of that name) - I believe a couple of remote Scottish Islands are also being dealt with in same way in hope that the nesting seabird colonies will recover

[amateur51]

For heaven's sake don't get a cat! There are far too many of them around anyway and they are vicious hunters of small birds.

Nothing wrong with a few mice around, as long as they don't get near food or food preparation areas. Part of life, as far as we're concerned. Live and let live...

Cats are naturally vicious hunters and cruel taunters of their prey - that's what cats do - but there is no evidence that their killing raids actually affect the size of bird populations (you didn't say that there was, by the way).

Humankind with its destruction of environments, pollution etc are much more culpable, unfortunately.

[Simon]

there is no evidence that their killing raids actually affect the size of bird populations

Really. And there was me thinking that if a cat kills a bird it means one fewer bird alive. Ah well. You live and learn. Thanks.

[Dave2002]

For heaven's sake don't get a cat! There are far too many of them around anyway and they are vicious hunters of small birds.

Nothing wrong with a few mice around, as long as they don't get near food or food preparation areas. Part of life, as far as we're concerned. Live and let live...

Sorry, but the stench has really put me off those little furry things - totally ruining my weekend and I've no idea how long it'll take for the smell to become acceptable. I don't like killing animals, even small ones, but I don't see much difference between exterminating these creatures if they become a nuisance, and eating other ones for food. I'm guessing that most of us here are not vegetarians.

Also you mention a few mice. Often the presence of one may indicate that there are quite a lot more, as they are such prolific breeders. I'd be really concerned if I became aware of a few, and I'd want to stamp them out as soon as possible. That's probably where I am at the present. I've trapped a few since the summer.

They also chew through wiring, as do squirrels - another reason why mice and humans don't mix.

If I'd killed this one before it wriggled off into the cracks and crevices I'd be feeling much better now.
I'm reasonably happy to let mice live outside, but if they get in with us I'm going to be ready for them with traps.