Mice in our kitchen

[David Martin]

I have seen more foxes in my garden than mice in my kitchen (except the dead ones on their way to the micecream box).

I have lost three chickens to foxes.  

So far I have not lost any chickens to mice, nor have I had a problem with mouse excrement (though treading on a slug on the tiled floor is somewhat unpleasant)

It appears to me to be as legitimate to set a trap in the areas where I know the mice run, even though that is not where they cause the problem, as it is to seek out a fox, even though at the time it is not in my garden.

As it is, I don't usually bother too much about the mice until they become an apparent issue (though I do have concerns about cables etc being chewed through) and I don't go fox hunting, I fox proof the chicken run.

If I were trapping live mice and microwaving them for fun, that would not really be very nice, would it? As it is I am not sure how long it takes a mouse to die in a spring trap - possibly seconds, possibly hours depending on how it is caught.

..d

[Adam]

Surely the only solution to the dilemma is to go chasing after the mice with hounds??

[clarion]

You complain about others' inconsistency, yet completely fail to see your own glaring one.

[Wowbagger]

I'd prefer no killing of mice personally, which is why I've only ever used the humane traps and released the mice outside in the countryside.

I have a humane trap, baited with dog food, sitting totally neglected beside the skirting board in the kitchen. If I thought it worked, I'd be all for it.

I also tried coffee jars, baited with dog food, placed at an angle of about 40° to the horizontal believing that mice enticed in would be still there, alive, awaiting tranportation and exile (I'm not sure how humane it is to remove a house mouse from a nice warm house to a frozen, snowy hedgerow at least half a mile from the nearest warm place but I was prepared to do it). The mice successfully removed the dog food, and themselves, from the jars.

Edit: in answer to David Martin's point about the length of time that it takes a mouse to die in a trap, so far I've caught three. In each case death has been instantaneous. I heard the trap go off in two cases, and each mouse was very dead in the time it took me to walk the 10 to 15 feet to where the trap was set. In the other, the mouse's skull was very crushed.

[Bledlow]

Back to mouse disposal, has anyone suggested this?



One might have to patch some holes in plaster afterwards.

[Wowbagger]

Back to mouse disposal, has anyone suggested this?



One might have to patch some holes in plaster afterwards.

She's always welcome at our house, whether or not she's armed.

[Adam]

I'd prefer no killing of mice personally, which is why I've only ever used the humane traps and released the mice outside in the countryside.

I have a humane trap, baited with dog food, sitting totally neglected beside the skirting board in the kitchen. If I thought it worked, I'd be all for it.

I also tried coffee jars, baited with dog food, placed at an angle of about 40° to the horizontal believing that mice enticed in would be still there, alive, awaiting tranportation and exile (I'm not sure how human it is to remove a house mouse from a nice warm house to a frozen, snowy hedgerow at least half a mile from the nearest warm place but I was prepared to do it). The mice successfully removed the dog food, and themselves, from the jars.

No problem, I'd already seen your comments about your various attempts to deal with them.

[Clandy]

We had mice a couple of months ago. Tried normal traps, different baits, all to no effect. Then we tried these. In the first day they caught four mice. In total six. Haven't seen a mouse or its droppings since.

[andyoxon]

I have a humane trap, baited with dog food, sitting totally neglected beside the skirting board in the kitchen. If I thought it worked, I'd be all for it. ...

Wowb - I haven't read all the posts, but these humane mouse traps (bought from local Wyevale garden centre) really worked for us a few years back. They just seem to be a really efficient mechanism; easy to clean etc  And... forget about any other bait apart from peanut butter, and/or chocolate buttons...  

[andyoxon]

Ahem..this thread seems to have sub-forum warped into POBI...

[mrcharly-YHT]

I have a humane trap, baited with dog food, sitting totally neglected beside the skirting board in the kitchen. If I thought it worked, I'd be all for it. ...

Wowb - I haven't read all the posts, but these humane mouse traps (bought from local Wyevale garden centre) really worked for us a few years back. They just seem to be a really efficient mechanism; easy to clean etc  And... forget about any other bait apart from peanut butter, and/or chocolate buttons...  

I've used those, worked very well, particularly when baited with raisins.

[andyoxon]

OK... recipe for the perfect bait. 

Tsp peanut butter
2-4 chocolate buttons
4-8 raisins

[clarion]

Well, there seems to be a case that chasing a living animal and ripping it apart might be humane.


And fun.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

So there is a genuine question there

It may be a genuine question but it's probably the most foolish one I am likely to encounter in the foreseeable future!

Are you seriously saying it's worthy of a seconds consideration?

[Wendy]

Crikey people.  Step away from this and go throw some snowballs or something!

[clarion]

David, at my end of the scale, harming an animal is just wrong anyway, so trying to find a 'humane' length of suffering is in the realms of angels & pins.  Is it OK if it lasts ten seconds?  One second?  Half a second? 0.1? 0.01?  Why?

[Domestique]

Are the mice dead yet 

[Wowbagger]

Are the mice dead yet 

They are reading this thread as we speak.

(click to show/hide)

These creatures you call "mice" are merely the protrusion into our dimension of hyper- intelligent pan-dimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese must've been a front. They were experimenting on you, you see. A vast computer program...

[her_welshness]

Are the mice dead yet 

They are reading this thread as we speak.

(click to show/hide)

These creatures you call "mice" are merely the protrusion into our dimension of hyper- intelligent pan-dimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese must've been a front. They were experimenting on you, you see. A vast computer program...

See, thats just like you Wow to give that sort of answer     

[Wowbagger]

Are the mice dead yet 

They are reading this thread as we speak.

(click to show/hide)

These creatures you call "mice" are merely the protrusion into our dimension of hyper- intelligent pan-dimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese must've been a front. They were experimenting on you, you see. A vast computer program...

See, thats just like you Wow to give that sort of answer     

It was a close call when I first joined the predecessor of this forum whether I chose "Wowbagger" or "Slartibartfast" as my user name.

I chose Wowbagger on the grounds that I've never been to Norway.

[Seineseeker]

I am totally against hunting, I am currently wiping out the mice population in my house with poison. I don't see the problem!!!

In fact I am happy to say I think they may now all be dead, and I think I have located all the possible entry points to the house for them, so hopefully next year I won't be killing them all again!

[C-3PO]

The posts in this thread which were about hunting have been split into a new topic and that topic has been locked. This thread is for advice and information about how to deter and remove mice from a property. Please keep it on-topic.

[Rapples]

But then that's because you are remarkably stupid, Rapples.

You kill foxes for fun.

I'd much rather not kill mice, but they are crawling all over our food surfaces.

Seems odd that you missed this rather "excellent" one C-3PO

[C-3PO]

Apologies. It's easy to miss one post in 14 pages, 9 of which have to be removed.