A few weeks ago we discovered we may have a mouse in our dog van. We hd kept a pot of treats in there which had been eaten and some bit had been nibbled. We gave the van a thorough clean out, removed all treats and hoovered up all crumbs, didn't find the mouse though. Last weekend it was apparent that it was still around so I bought 2 humane mouse traps and set them up on the passenger seat over night. The next morning I checked, we had caught one so we set him free away from the van. Every night since I have set up the traps and in 1 week I have so far caught 5 mice!

Obviously we will now keep going until we stop catching them but any ideas on how they got in there in the first place? And how we can stop it again (not keeping treats in there aside)?

Are you sure its not the same mouse keep coming back as it knows you are giving away free gourmet food???
Think the only way you will know is to use a little nipper trap, primed with chocolate spread and kill the blighter. Sorry.
Lea :)

Or do what i did, take him for a loooong drive and drop him off well away from your home(and obviously anywherer you park the van)
That way he can't find his way back.

Mice can be quite resourceful when it comes to getting to nice food and into the dry! A friend has a Land Rover that developed an £800 leak from somewhere in the engine compartment ... turns out a mouse (or mice) had been nibbling bits of pipe and cables :-O So, I'd be thinking it was getting into your van via the engine compartment or under the wheel arches :-(

Sounds silly but the only way I can think of immediately stopping them getting in is to park on a huge tarpaulin and just bring that up around the sides of the van overnight, if that's when they're getting in. Otherwise it's a case of blocking the holes, but not sure that would be totally practical as I think there are air vents in the body work over the wheels of some vehicles.

Honestly, I'd use a snap trap.

1) It could well be the same mouse coming back.
2) It's coming up to winter, it's cold out, setting him free could well be a death sentence if he can't find food elsewhere.  Mice get cold quickly if they don't have somewhere warm to get to sharpish.
3) Mice are territorial - so again, setting him free could be a death sentence if he's in another mouse's territory (or again, could be another reason for him possibly coming back, if he's being driven out of another mouse's territory).
4) Mice can and will learn how to get out of humane traps!

I've had mouse problems here for a fair while now, the only time I finally started to get it under control was when I stopped releasing them and started killing them.  Harsh, but true.  Any females you trap could well be pregnant too, so if you release them and they come back you'll end up with a lot more!

And if you drive them far away and release them, then 2) and 3) are a much higher risk for the mouse.  Not really humane.

And they can do thousands of pounds of damage!!!!!
Lea :)

put the cat in the van overnight with a warm bed! DONE!!!

I actually think the snapper traps are more human than humane traps. For a wild animal to be trapped and then have a human come close and pick it's box up, then to be deposited far from it's home would all be very traumatic - kill them quick :)

> are more human than humane traps

Yes - we used them a few years ago and forgot to check them for a few days :(

> Yes - we used them a few years ago and forgot to check them for a few days :-(

Ooops :-D  Better a broken neck than starved to death :-D

I don't think you can be too 'soft' on mice though, they spread disease and cause major damage eating cables etc.

Don't know if this idea is practical - what about one of those things that plug in and deter mice (think they emit a high pitched sound that mice don't like). Depends where your van is parked. Was thinking maybe running an extension lead from house into van and plugging in mouse detterrant? Or parking van in a garage (if you have one) and having the mouse detterant plugged in in the garage?

Something like this
http://www.primrose.co.uk/mouse-repeller-whole-house-p-36.html?source=googleads&gclid=CPTOldj5srMCFSTLtAodPBoAhg

Agree with the others, we had the blighters in our old house and didn't get it under control until we gave up on humane traps and had to kill them.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">what about one of those things that plug in and deter mice (think they emit a high pitched sound that mice don't like)

I'm led to believe they don't actually work, we had pest control out a while back as we had rats in one of the barns and chatted to him about those sort of things (for rodents and moles) he said they don't work and then showed me a photo of a mole hill next to the device.

Thanks for all the advice though, think I may just have to kill them. I released one on Friday and haven't had the van here since as its away having some paintwork repaired after someone drove into me so there is no way the one from Friday can get back in, I'll get some snap traps this week though and give them a try when the van comes back.

I once found what I thought was a rubber mat rotted from the heat.  It was one of those things that you put on the dashboard and it stops things sliding around.  I honestly believed that the sun had done it!

Until I opened the door and a mouse raced past me.  I had fetched hay the previous weekend and assume that it was a passenger.

mice can find their way in no bother! i had trouble with them going into my engine. they had a wee store of grain there. i ended up putting traps all around the car in the garage. i tried the sonic deterrant, that did not work.