Author Topic: Meeces!  (Read 10557 times)

clarion

  • Tyke
Meeces!
« on: 10 September, 2008, 11:06:21 am »
We had a mouse scritting around under the bed last night, and Our Kid saw it/anotherone in the lounge too.

Now, I like mices, mesen, and Butterfly does too, and I've spent long enough living in the country, where you'd expect a mouse intrusion at least once a year, and be grateful it wasn't rats, but I ain't keen on getting mouse poo over everything, or the gnawing.

Sooooo...

Bearing in mind that I am a Buddhist...

Anyone any solutions to the issue?

I'm talking humane traps & release plans (do they immediately find their way back into the warm, for example?)

Anyone?
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Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #1 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:07:35 am »
A cat!  That way you'll know they won't be back.
Quote from: clarion
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Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #2 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:10:20 am »
As a one time 'Small Game Hunter' my solutions tend to be death based (the little gits ate my left over Chicken Tikka Jalfrezi and crapped in my wok.  It was me or them from then on).

If you go the humane traps way, remember to check them regularly.  Long dead mummified mice smell really bad.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #3 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:12:44 am »
Er...no.  I ain't getting a cat.  Not allowed in our current flat.  If the plans for a share dhouse had gone ahead, we'd have had two, but right now I don't need any more difficulties getting a place...

But you're right - with a cat, the only wildlife you have is what they bring in (voles, shrews, sparrows, frogs etc)
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clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #4 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:14:00 am »
As a one time 'Small Game Hunter' my solutions tend to be death based (the little gits ate my left over Chicken Tikka Jalfrezi and crapped in my wok.  It was me or them from then on).

If you go the humane traps way, remember to check them regularly.  Long dead mummified mice smell really bad.

You're right that death-based solutions won't be deployed.  And I concur about checking the traps regularly.  I know too well that slightly sweet smell of mice decaying under floorboards, behind washing machines, etc....
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andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #5 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:15:37 am »
Humane trap and take it a long way away.  I've had 'em return * from 25 yards away.




* Not from a humane trap but from the literal Jaws of Death, personified by Tiddles the Destroyer.
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clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #6 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:16:29 am »
So humane traps work, then?  Are there many types available?  And what is people's experience?
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iakobski

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #7 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:17:52 am »
Humane traps - like a square tube with a hinged door at one end - yes they work but you have to wait a couple of days for the mouse to find their way in. Can be better than real mousetraps, you often find the trap has sprung, the bait has gone, but no mouse.

Last one we had we caught it by hand rather than wait for it to find the trap cos we were worried the cat might get it first: One of those poster tubes, open at both ends down next to the skirting. Chased the mouse round then quickly shut both ends of the tube as soon as it went in.

Take it a long, long way from the house: for some reason they like to come back to the same house.

iakobski

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #8 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:19:17 am »
Oh yes, if you go for the humane trap, peanut butter is the best bait, with meusli stuck to it.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #9 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:19:50 am »
Do you have to bait humane traps?  And what works best?

EDIT: Ta  ;D
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iakobski

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #10 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:21:14 am »
A cat!  That way you'll know they won't be back.

You jest! The mouse will definitely be brought back to you - in bits.  :sick:

Kathy

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #11 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:25:29 am »
Humane traps work, but studies have shown than mice are able to return having been released more than two miles away, and they can cross motorways and rivers to do so!

If you do use humane traps, check them every few hours, as the critter inside (it was always voles with us) will get stressed, dehydrated, and will start gnawing their way out.

Oh, and the humane trap didn't solve our rodent problem, but that was probably because we had too great a rodent population nearby. The only thing that made the voles and meece move out was the rat moving in. :-\

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #12 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:26:30 am »
Also, if you can, blocking up all the holes you can find (they can find their way in through holes that a biro could fit through) and being scrupulous about keeping all food sealed up, might help. Removes their point of entry and the food temptation.

I am so glad I don't have to persuade you away from glue traps. Which are wronger than a very wrong thing.

If Ellington The Rat wasn't so old, I'd send him over for a holiday (meeces don't tend to go where they think great big rats are lurking, just their scent means they tend to stay away).

Chris S

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #13 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:28:31 am »
A piece of cheese.

A 4lb club hammer.

Patience.

HTH.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #14 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:31:43 am »
Awww!  I wish Ellington (can I call him 'Duke' for short? ;D ) could come for a holiday.

I am actually surprised that w ehaven't had more of a problem, as the supermarket next door throw out old rice for the pigeons onto the pavement outside. >:(
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αdαmsκι

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Re: Meeces!
« Reply #15 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:36:11 am »
Like NSTN, don't leave any food around.  You don't want them dying in the house because they stink as they start to decompose  :sick:

I am actually surprised that w ehaven't had more of a problem, as the supermarket next door throw out old rice for the pigeons onto the pavement outside. >:(

Is that not a H&S issue that could be brought up with someone, erm, like the council or some such body?
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clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #16 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:37:38 am »
We try not to leave any food around, and tidy up when we've eaten, but there is a 17yo random factor who might not always eat off a plate... ::-)
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Re: Meeces!
« Reply #17 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:49:25 am »
You can call him what you like, he doesn't mind. Rob, for his own strange reasons, calls him Jimmy...

Good luck with the mouse situation. And I would have thought the council would have something to say about the rice thing...

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #18 on: 10 September, 2008, 11:51:59 am »
So humane traps work, then?  Are there many types available?  And what is people's experience?

Yes, we have used a see-saw type trap: mouse goes thru open door to eat the bait at the otherend of the trap, see-saw does its thing and door slams shut. 

You need to release the mouse within a few hours or they die, and then smell nasty  :sick:

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Meeces!
« Reply #19 on: 10 September, 2008, 12:34:46 pm »
I was plagued with them in my flat a couple of years ago. I was almost demented with it; they were scurrying about the bedroom all night, leaving deposits on my pillows, it was awful. I tried snappy traps, ultrasonic repellers and humane traps, but they kept coming back.

You need to make the place as unattractive to them as possible which means ensuring there is no food for them - all food needs to be bagged or boxed or otherwise stored in a secure container and kept in the fridge or a cupboard. Don't leave dirty dishes lying around, wash them up at least before you go to bed. Block up all the tiny holes and cracks you can with something they won't chew through - steel wool, or polyfilla mixed with ground glass. A pregnant mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil end, so do even the tiniest gaps.

And - my piece de resistance - use peppermint essential oil. Buy yourself a big bottle and pour it liberally around the house, particularly on the places you know they use as routes. Do it at least twice a day to start with then decrease it and once they've gone, you can drop it down to once a week and then just whenever you remember. They hate the smell and they don't like walking across a pepperminty area - I saw it with my own eyes a couple of years ago when one of the little gits started to walk across my newly pepperminted hearth, squeaked, shot up in the air and ran away. Haven't had sight nor sound of one since.

Your house will smell like a humbug factory for a while though.
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Re: Meeces!
« Reply #20 on: 10 September, 2008, 12:47:18 pm »
Oi! You leave my friends alone. >:(
Quote from: Kim
^ This woman knows what she's talking about.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #21 on: 10 September, 2008, 12:48:45 pm »
We had them in our loft.  The humane traps caught the mice but still more came.  In the end we had to resort to poison - regrettably.  This has solved the problem.

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #22 on: 10 September, 2008, 01:18:42 pm »
I like mice. They don't really do any harm and the poo isn't a propblem - if I can see it, I can clear it up, otherwise, it doesn't matter. :)
Quote from: Kim
^ This woman knows what she's talking about.

Re: Meeces!
« Reply #23 on: 10 September, 2008, 01:27:04 pm »
The problem with mice is that they chew stuff and electrical cables seem to be highly attractive to them. They've been the cause of more than a few house fires...

If you're releasing mice, don't take them to some piece of wasteland. They'll die. House mice are called house mice for a reason! Drop them off by the cafe on Clapham Common, no-one will be any the wiser!

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Meeces!
« Reply #24 on: 10 September, 2008, 01:40:44 pm »
I like mice. They don't really do any harm and the poo isn't a propblem - if I can see it, I can clear it up, otherwise, it doesn't matter. :)


I know what you mean, but I can't help feeling that the meeces would be a lot happier somewhere else (and I might get more sleep ;D )
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