Eradication of Meeces

[Kim]

Yeah, I rather like cats for exactly that reason, but I wouldn't recommend them for meece (unless you're looking to acquire some).

[Feline]

I had mice in my roof, and bought 3 humane traps which I baited with peanut butter. Each day there was a little mouse in each trap for several days. I caught 12 altogether. I released them 10 miles away near where I work so they didn't find their way back 
There was one casualty, I found him dead in his trap presumably gorged to death on the peanut butter!
That was 5 years ago now and I have had no mice since then.

[Ewan Houzami]

There was one casualty, I found him dead in his trap presumably gorged to death on the peanut butter!

The lttle things are apparently so easily spooked, it's quite likely it died after a heart attack from being trapped.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Sorex Mouse Killer II appears to have stopped working. Last night I had one large mouse running around the floor, and one teeny one leaping from the recycling bin to the kitchen bin and running round the rim of the bin.

I am negotiating with colleagues to borrow cats.

[bikenrrd]

When we had them in the attic of the flat we used to rent, I found the traditional mouse traps (Victory, IIRC) bated with Nutella to work a treat.  We had 5 up there at one point, catching 5 a night for a couple of days.  The first night I even went up to empty them after we heard the snap snap snap of three traps in quick succession while watching the TV.

Bait wise you want something that sticks to the traps so they cant make a grab and run manoeuvre!

Humane traps only move the problem.  Mice are the bottom of the food chain, and can be removed without any adverse effects!

[Jon P]

See the other thread, but I was sure I had Rats due to removal of whole blocks, council chap sure it was meeces but put it down as Rats as thus free in Dudley, blocked up access hole in external wall and no further sign of, dead dessicated rat found in entry afterwards.

[contango]

If you can find where they are coming in you can discourage them with something that smells of their predators.

Some friends of ours had issues with mice and I gave them a sample of snake poo and a shed snake skin. They put it where the mice were coming in and.... no more mice.

Unfortunately I had to have the snake put to sleep last year so that's not an option any more

[rogerzilla]

If you lose your iPhone, take heart from the possibility that a mouse family now has a flatscreen TV.

[Hot Flatus]

Humane mouse traps baited with choccy. Put out every night for a couple of weeks and release mice a few miles away. Works for me.

However, we have chickens, and with chickens come rats. Industrial strength poison works, but for the lolz I've just bought one of these...

http://youtu.be/J0T-DceJlg0

[Kim]

If you lose your iPhone, take heart from the possibility that a mouse family now has a flatscreen TV.

It's that Mrs Frisby again, no doubt...

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

One of the little buggers somehow got itself up to where the extractor fan ducting goes out of the wall, just below the ceiling, and then threw itself off to the floor. I was somewhat surprised.

My colleague's cat is coming to stay at mine for a few days next week.

[Canardly]

Forget cheese, chocolate gets em everytime.

[Poly Hive]

The only good mouse is a dead mouse, the damage they can and do do is unbelievable. there was a film we were shown at college where a condemned house was sealed up, and mice can get through a hole larger than 8mm btw, and a pregnant mouse was  let loose. 6 months later, and the house had been left with the normal cereals and so on as if people had gone away for a weekend type thing, the place needed one good shove and it collapsed. Wires stripped joists half chewed through etc.

As a beekeeper I know how easily they can kill a colony so use a killer trap please as dumping live mice around the country is not going to win you friends.

Best bait? mathesons smoked sausage. mice will take that in preference to honey comb........... and they love that trust me.

PH

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Have had a significant infestation this year as have the neighbours.  Now I have 4 killer traps, a rentokil live trap and a French live trap.  They all work and have accounted for 11 so far with 1 escapee from a live trap. 

At first I thought it wasn't a big problem but I have had enough of 'em now!  Am giving honey a go..  The bees revenge.

[pcolbeck]

A kitty is the best mouse deterrent / killer but unfortunately not all kitties. You cant tell when they are kittens if they will be deadly killing machines or useless softies. We have had three cats and the first two never caught anything, in fact one of them was afraid of it's own shadow never mind mice. Our current moggie is a tiny wee tortoiseshell and she is lethal, don't feed her quick enough when you she tells you she's hungry and within 10 minutes she will be crunching on some unfortunate rodent outside the back door. Never had a mouse in the house or garage since she was past 6 months old and we have a house in large garden with dry stone walls and opposite a field full of mice and voles.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

All gone now..

As Kim above said, it's quite likely our cat(s) introduced them.  Unfortunately they are elderly cats and no longer able to deal with mice as they should, they catch them, bring them in and then lose them!

[ian]

I should offer my services. I'm like some kind of anti-mouse ninja. I just grab them by the tail, take them outside and launch them on a ballistic trajectory over the fence. They do occasionally try to bite(they're south London mice, they'd take your iPhone if they could), but if you spin them around and around while you have them by the tail, the centrifugal force means they can't get you.

I'm a straight run of nine catches at the moment. They're all cat-related. The little cat is an excellent mouser but she has no teeth, the bigger cat has teeth but a very limited attention span.

Also found a live frog in their water bowl the other day. I've no idea where they get frogs from as there's no water nearby. Mail order, I presume.

[pcolbeck]

The mice here in the country don't seem to be very bitey but the shrews are vicious. They will jump up at a cats face squeaking and biting and if you try and rescue one from a cat it will usually try and bite you (ungrateful little sods).

[Nelson Longflap]

A friend of a friend (yes I know - a sure sign of an apocryphal story) had just renovated a cottage by the coast.  Rats or/and mice gnawed through the plastic plumbing that is often used instead of copper nowadays, causing a major flooding disaster. This story leads me to ask if they really like the taste of plastic pipes; to beware of cheap plumbers; and not to tolerate rodents in the house.

I've used Little Nipper traps in the past to get rid of them. Not nice but maybe more humane than anti-coagulants. A real friend uses a properly humane trap, then treats them to a bike ride to somewhere remote where they get released and hopefully get eaten by an owl. 

[Kim]

Excellent suggestion:  Get an owl!

Or maybe a snake...

[David Martin]

Our mouse issues diminished dramatically with the arrival of the chickens. I have seen what they can do to a mouse.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Our neighbours keep chickens.  And tell me the hen house is where all the mice are!  Maybe they need hungrier chickens..

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I should offer my services. I'm like some kind of anti-mouse ninja. I just grab them by the tail, take them outside and launch them on a ballistic trajectory over the fence.

I can pay in cake.

[nicknack]

I've just discovered that mice do not do too well when stuck in a "humane" trap for over a month.

[Wowbagger]

Excellent suggestion:  Get an owl!

Or maybe a snake...

You are W. C. Fields and I claim my £5 glass of whisky.