Oh dear I am being kept awake by scrabblings above me again.  This happened for the first time the year before last.  Never had it before in the 28 years that we have lived here.  How do they get in? I thought that I had blocked all the holes last time.   I put poison down the first time and nothing disturbed it.  I took it that the mice were just looking for bedding and had left.  They had torn a hole in the felting though.  Last year was all clear.  This year on inspection the poison has been completely eaten.  I had forgotten it was there and now I am running around the garden checking for dead mice now we have a puppy.  Went and bought some traps today.  I do not relish the idea of disposing of dead mice but rather that then a dead puppy!!

You can get a sort of trap that the mouse can get into but cant get out. This is all well and good but you must remember to CHECK it often. I cant stand the thought of killing anything so traps are out of the question! The only problem is that you have to release them somewhere far away otherwise they come back. They are drawn to these traps like magnets though.

We have just had probs with them in our loft. Our lights kept fusing and it took nearly a week to get to tyhe bottom of it (Ripping out plasterboard abnd ceilings etc :( ). Turned out the mice had chewed the wiring!!!

You were lucky the house didn't catch fire!

the holes only have to be the diameter of a pencil for a mouse to get in.

We had them couple of years ago in our garage and bought the humane mouse traps, 2 different designs.  Did catch a couple but more often than not they managed to set off the traps without being caught (Houdini mice I think).  I ended up buying the normal type, the Rentokil one I found to be most effective and easier to release the dead mouse from.  Best bait apparently is peanut butter because it smells so strong and it certainly did the trick for us. Put a dollop on a cornflake and leave against a wall close to where you think they might be getting in because that's where the mice run will be.

To begin with I thought we only had one mouse but in the end caught 5.

Happy hunting.

All this mouse talk reminds me of an incident we had last week. My youngest son had woken up and was complaining of scrabblings overhead. It did sound a bit mousey so I said i would check whilst he was at school.
When i got up into the loft I checked carefully for any signs ie chewing, or poo's. Didnt find anything. then suddenly something swept past my head, when I looked up i found a blue tit sat on the beam looking at me. How he had managed to get in god only knows but thankfully we have a small window up there so atleast i didnt have to chase him round the house to get him out. :D

And mice CAN climb brickwork ;) So get in under the tiles and also into the cavity walls and climb into the attic that way:(
Lea :)

We had this problem in our loft a few years ago, they went up and down the cavities and were even in the cupboard under the stairs. We used a trap because if you use poison they go off and die elsewhere and they then start smelling.

My bro had mice in the workshop where he keeps the dog food sack (unopened) they had chewed thru the sack and had eaten some :(  so he bought two traps and glued a 'complete' biscuit to them.  He caught 15 mice!   he hasn't seen any since.  I told him he was stingey glueing the dog biscuit on but he laughed and said that if they enjoyed it so much then they might as well have it as the sack had to be chucked anyway, it stopped them running off with the bait tho ;)

My sister has got the same problem apparently - only she says her mice wear boots.  My brother-in-law uses humane traps but I have visions of me dropping them as I climb back down the step ladder!  And what happens when they are released in a strange place I wonder - do they get accepted by the local mice?
I did wonder if they could climb up the brickwork or drain pipe.  We do have fir trees that touch the side of the house now too.  I have seen a squirrel scale the plastic window frame to get to a feeder that I thought that I had put out of reach. - He had to climb a brick wall to get to the window in the first place.  The first time we had mice in they definitely used the cavity because you could hear them climbing - this time I haven't heard them - I went round blocking every hole that I could find.
Hope it is a quiet night - no scrabbling and no snaps!

One of the mice I caught in a humane trap I took round the corner to the park, I chose a particular area that had open space to the front but mostly bushes and trees, especially to the sides. What did the little blighter do?  Started running then did a handbrake turn and ran straight behind me towards someone's garden shed :rolleyes:

I felt very guilty.

We had mice in the attic last year, for ages I thought it was birds on the roof We put half a dozen traps up there & one day I came home & OH had laid out 5 bodies on a plate - they looked like little furry kebabs
(They were very quickly cremated!)
I won't tell you about the night I dreamt there was a mouse in the bed, then woke up and .........
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH :D

When I was about 15 we had a rabbit and woke up one morning to find a white mouse in his cage.  We didn't particularly want a mouse (they pong :( ) so we took him onto the moors and released him about half a mile away.  Next morning the rabbit was snuggled up to the same white mouse we never did manage to get rid of him, he wouldn't stay in a mouse cage, somehow he always got out and every morning we'd find him in the same place.  We used to see him climbing the rose bushes after dark, to chew the flowers and then head back to the rabbit for the day :) They are more resourceful than we give them credit for :)

The mice I had were attracted by my rabbit.  I saw the droppings in the hutch but never saw the mice although they must have been snuggling up too.  Unfortunately their mates were in the garage making the most of the rabbit food.  When I cleaned the garage out I found lots of the rabbit food in various places around the garage and the start of what looked like a nest in a filing cabinet drawer.  Yuk what a pong

OMG - does that mean I've got rabbits in my attic too ? (could well be - they're everywhere else round here!)

Talking of mice kebabs, we went to Malawi a few years ago and on the way from the airport to where we were staying there were a number of men selling what looked like mice on skewers - asked our host what they were and they were indeed deep fried mice (whole) on skewers, a local delicacy apparently :D

That's what they told you, were they having a laugh?  Eeeuw

It's true :D

In that case maybe ceejay could go into the export business then? :D

Sorry to follow up my own post but see:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4188382.stm

Steve

ha ha - I know I am getting cynical in my old age, but it didn't say the correspondent saw any of the locals eating them did it? :D :D

Can't say I actually saw anybody eating (or indeed buying) them, however given the number of men I saw selling them I can only assume that there was a good market for them.

yuk - I wonder if they taste like chicken? :)

They probably do - doesn't everything :D.  Mind you with all this bird flu around it looks like we'll all be going round to ceejay's for Christmas dinner, nothing like a roast mouse on a stick eh :D :D

:D :D :D

We had this problem about 12 years ago in our old house and tried traps etc which didn't work.  Eventually we decided to employ a more radical technique and got a cat :D (well actually we got two cats but that's another story).  She got rid of the mice in a couple of weeks.  The only down side to this is that she still occaisionally brings us presents when she catches something.

Steve

We have something bigger than mice in our roof....

It wakes you up with the scraching, then footsteps, and then a dragging sound!! We reckon its a bird with a wooden leg :D :D

Or an armadillo. They're bigger than mice.
;) :D

:D :D :D

I got 2 last night :-(  they were very small - not much meat on them.  2 of the traps failed and their mates had a good feed on peanut butter.   I feel really bad about it now - however I have loaded up the traps again.  We had a cat for years but I dont' want another.  I like feeding the birds.  However it would be a bit cruel to stick a cat up in the roof to catch the mice!!!  Whoops there they go again - just heard a rustle above me. 

I must admit I hadn't thought of an armadillo... LOL :D :D

Well especially this time of year it could be squirrels, which can do much the same as mice but with bigger feet. Ditto rats (eew) or depending on whare you are in the country it could be edible dormice, we get quite a lot of them in the Chilterns area. A friend who is a thatcher says that they are the bain of his life as he has found up to 40 in one roof eating the thatch :o

We had a few squirrels come in through the cat flap a few weeks ago, we think they were looking for food after some tree's were cut down behind our house, haven't seen them since.

I wouldn't like to hurt any animal, but if I had mice in my house I would do anything and everything to get rid of them, they are lovely as pet's but wouldn't want wild ones in my house! Gives me shivers just thinking about them :(

This sucks: I am a 16 year old living in paranoia. I have an EXTREME FEAR OF MICE, and it seems they have infested my house. This problem has been going on for years, and I am so over it! We went through a phase where we were trapping them, but they never went away =[ My brothers thought it was hilarious to grab the traps with mice in them and knock on my bedroom door with the nasty little things at my eye level. This mouse-in-my-face prank contributed greatly to my problem, although it was already a huge dilemma before. I was living in another country doing foreign exchange for several months, not seeing ANY mice, and now that I have come back, it is like a constant nightmare. I keep hearing noises above my head in my room, which almost sound like human (adult) footsteps. It was so scary that it drove me out of my room! I have been sleeping on the couch since my second night back home (over a month ago), where until tonight, I hadn't heard any such noise. I really don't know what to do; I don't sleep very much at night, and I heard something (A MOUSE) in the kitchen about an hour ago. The thought of hearing a snap-trap go off is haunting, and I think it would make my paranoia worse lol. Glue traps are disgusting, because a lot of times the mice are still alive and squirming when they are found. The ones that are like a box with a little hole they go into just don't work, and I would never want to check one of those! I don't like looking into holes to discover scary things! What should I do??? This is such a huge problem. I am literally LOSING SLEEP over this! Suggestions anyone? Please!

Poison is good.  Just put dishes of it up in the attic and replenish it frequently.  Alternatively you need to get a cat :-)  I have them under my garden shed - presently trying to convince OH that I need a cat. In the meantime I have temporarily adopted the stray in the hope that his inner mousing instincts will come out.

My mum has raced off to Glasgow to rat-proof my brothers flat lol!  The downstairs neighbours have been infested for the past week.  And I can assure you that Glasgow rats are the size of small dogs.

also most councils will come out to help you block up access points and direct you where is best to put poison!

Get a cat (preferably from CPL) and give it free rein of the area where the population of mice seem to be at the most dense.   Make sure your brothers (or you!) do not leave any food anywhere uncovered - mice are incontinent and run through everything leaving drops of their urine as they go.

Your local council will come out at your parents' request as mahonc has said - but they will make a charge.   But for your peace of mind it would be worth it!

> Your local council will come out at your parents' request as mahonc has said - but they will make a charge.   But for your peace of mind it would be worth

my council dont charge! must differ from different areas. they will come out for mice or rats but ants you have to deal with yourself.

When you seem to have as many mice as you do, cats and poison will not really help...

I too live very very rural, and mice seemed to live in every cranny of my house.. I did get a couple of CPL cats, but it didnt help in the slightests

What I did do.. was buy a couple of plug in electronic rodent repellers.. around £30.. They DO work, although it did take around 6 weeks for all scrambling noises to cease..

This was over a year ago.. and I thought they had just left for the summer.. but the winter just past.. no mice..

I cant find them online, but they are very similar to this

http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home/improvements/792927865-ultrasonic-pest-repellers.html

good luck

> What I did do.. was buy a couple of plug in electronic rodent repellers.. around £30.. They DO work, although it did take around 6 weeks for all scrambling noises to cease..
>
>

yes they do actually, i use them!!

but i still would advise poison and blocking any holes up, any that you kill more will still try to get in if holes around pipes etc.. are open. remember a mouse skeletal system can reduce into the tiniest hole. in fact less than a cm hole

Kayc, Mahonc, would they work on rats do you think?

the high frequency repellants?
it says so on the packaging when i got mine. i got mine from b&q and i got 3 for 15 you just plug them in and make sure heavy bulky furniture is not in front of them as it blocks the sound apparantly

I would suggest the mouse repellant things too...the noise does work keeping them at bay, but yes it does take time for it to work.
I also use the humane traps as I cant bear to kill them and I just take them to the park and let them go.
Thing is once ive caugt them I want to keep them cos they look so cute lol.....I feel quite sad when I have to let them go.
The last one I caught was sitting at my feet munching on a dog treat the dogs must have dropped a crumb from and looking at me with absolutely no fear....I swear if id put my hand down to stroke it it wouldve let me lol.

ceejay we are up to 68 this year so you can see why we are rebuilding!! I use traps and try peanut butter or chocolate they dont like cheese much!!!

> also use the humane traps as I cant bear to kill them and I just take them to the park and let them go.
>

It's really a lot kinder to kill them than to leave them to fend for themselves in a new territory without knowledge of the food sources (if there are any) and shelter.

Sounds like there's a call for my pack of mouse hunters, two cats, one Cavalier & Wukee !!!!

For your info Isabel.....the gate to my back gardern opens onto the park....sorry I didnt give a step by step guide...once again I have to defned my self ....wen are people going to litterally stop pulling me on everyting I post

> I use traps and try peanut butter or chocolate

I always remember when I lived with my parents, one Christmas I got a giant bar of Dairy Milk as a present. Woke up one evening to a horrible scrabbling sound, turned the light on, and saw a mouse scuttling off from the shelf where I'd left said bar of chocolate - it had eaten loads of the chocolate, it had bitten through the foil wrapper and everything!! I've not liked mice ever since - I dont share my chocolate with ANYONE !!

> .....the gate to my back gardern opens onto the park

Do you mean you expect them to come right back?

> wen are people going to litterally stop pulling me on everyting I post

It's a forum.  I don't have any great recollections of people picking on you.  Have you considered that, equally, you may be making others feel that they dare not make a comment?

> I dont share my chocolate with ANYONE !!

:-D