Mouse in my House! Help...

linnipopz · March 2014

Hello, I don't tend to post but read a lot on this community & battling the bulge but I have encountered a new problem recently and I am looking for some advice and opinions .......

I have a mouse (ithink) appearing in the cupboard under my sink. I keep all my cleaning stuff & washing powder & fabric softener in there & No Food at all! I cleaned out the cupboard to put in my new massive box of washing powder in so I know there was nothing there previously, I came home from work the next day to find the label of my fabric softener bottle Nibbled/shredded and lying all over the cupboard, a couple of other things in my cleaning basket had been nibbled BUT there was a full kitchen roll & other cardboard items that hand not been touched? There was little droppings all over the cupboard also so I know somethings been there!

So I cleared the cupboard and bleached it & wiped it down. Kept it empty for a week and nothing appeared , no droppings or anything, i purchased poison but I am to scared to use it......I bought peppermint oil after being advised and I put it around the flat on Tuesday night & in the cupboard. After there being no sign I refilled the cupboard with my cleaning stuff, I then left on a work trip on Wednesday and I returned today to the flat still stinking of peppermint but some little presents in the cupboard and more shredded label so my visitor has been backkkk! Ironically I had a pet mouse when I was little but I am no petrified!! I have ordered one of them electric repeller things but its not arrived yet.

So what am I best doing....Do I put the poison down? Get traps? Give the peppermint oil time? Why is it only in the 1 cupboard and where there is no source of food at all.

Any advice appreciated x

Lisa1971 · March 2014

I'd get some traps and bait them with PB. I had 3 mice about 2 years ago and they were caught that night! My 3 lazy cats did nothing. LOL.

I wouldn't use the glue traps. They are inhumane and nasty! The traps are quick and easy!

jstout365 · March 2014

You might be able to get a "no see" trap that will get the mouse and you won't have to see it after it is trapped and killed. I hate seeing dead mice in a trap or otherwise so they are my preferred extermination method. We get them in the garage, but they rarely get out alive so I find them dead and not in a trap often. Yuck.

Here is what I'm talking about:

http://www.d-conproducts.com/no-view-no-touch.php

Lisa1971 · March 2014

Oh, good idea. I forgot about those!

linnipopz · March 2014

Thank you, looks like traps it will be!
Oh I love the look of those traps. I am in the UK though so will have a good search to see if I can get them somewhere.
The thought of disposing of a visible dead mouse in a trap gives me the creeps.

I have also been planning on getting a cat for a while now, so this has made me want one more!

linnipopz · March 2014

Oh No ! I dont think I can get those traps in the UK

BraveNewdGirl · March 2014

Just make sure you avoid those awful glue traps (as a previous poster mentioned) because they're just cruel. A cat (at least, one that's a good mouser) is even better! My cat actually eats the mice whole, so there's nothing for me to deal with (except trying to ignore the little sickening crunches of mouse bones and the trip to the veterinarian for reassurance that she wasn't harming herself doing it). Most cats will present you with the carcass, though, so there's that to take care of! Just pick up a box of latex gloves at the drug store, shoot it into a bag and take it out to the trash. You get used to it!

StraubreyR · March 2014

Traps baited with PB do the trick. If there are pipes in the cabinet, they could be getting in around the pipes. You can buy a can of spray foam insulation, and use that around the pipes, it might help. They can get through the tiniest spaces!

QuietBloom · March 2014

Jump up on a chair and start screaming.

If that fails, set snap traps with peanut butter. Much kinder and quicker than those damn glue traps.

randomtai · March 2014

This is why I love my cat.

SuperSexyDork · March 2014

I have 3 cats... I think their mere presence is enough to prevent mice in the rest of the house, but we once discovered mice in our attic (where the cats can't go).

We put traps out but never caught anything and the mice seemingly disappeared. My Love decided to vacuum up all the droppings up there and discovered why all the mice vanished. We have a different sort of visitor - a black rat snake. Since he can't get in the rest of the house, we just decided to let him hang out up there. Keeps the mice away.

TLDR? Let a snake roam your house!

AwMyLoLo · March 2014

This. And never use that cabinet again. :laugh:

Eta: just move.

AwMyLoLo · March 2014

No! Snake is worse than mouse.

randomtai · March 2014

Snakes are awesome lol.. Mice suck :P

fast_eddie_72 · March 2014

I built a mouse trap that uses an infrared beam. Works great. I'm actually pretty proud of it.

I just can NOT do pics on this site.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/fast_eddie_72/Mouse trap/5.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/fast_eddie_72/Mouse trap/5.jpg

Copy and paste those if you care to see it.

beattie1 · March 2014

I've used "Little Nipper" traps. They come in sets of three and are so cheap you could just bagup throw them away, mouse and all if you need to. I used to live in a very old house that got mice in winter and found a sultana pressed onto the pin to hold the bait worked well. I'm sure that traps are kinder than poison - the mouse's last thought is "Oh boy, a sultana!!! :-)) - the trap snaps and the mouse is dead immediately. Assuming you can't live with the mouse in your cupboard, that is......

SuperSexyDork · March 2014

Seeing as we also keep a ball python for a pet but would never have mice, I'm happy to let the non-poisonous snake stay warm in my attic in exchange for keeping disease spreading mice away.

BTW, letting a snake roam your house was a joke, in case you didn't catch that.

AwMyLoLo · March 2014

Maybe I don't get it. You found a snake in your attic and didn't mind? And you just left it? I would die. Is it a pet now?

SuperSexyDork · March 2014

It's not a pet. It's a snake. It's in the attic. We don't use the attic for anything and apparently mice had decided to use the insulation for a nest. Now there are no mice and I'm not sure if the snake is up there or not but really don't mind either way.

Why would you "die"? Are you frightened of an animal that you're never going to have any contact with? It's a rat snake, they're non-venomous and non-aggressive. What harm could it do me even if I ever did have contact with it?

AwMyLoLo · March 2014

Would I be frightened? Yes. I would be paranoid that it would come down from the attic and I would be nonchalantly walking through the house and it would slither past me or I would step on it and feel it between my toes or something. :noway: I am just skittish about stuff like that. I like dogs and cats and farm animals and that's pretty much it. Bugs and reptiles and wild animals freak me out.

Sometimes we get a mouse in our house (probably some right as I type this that I don't know about) and I am on edge waiting for it to come out from the wall or whatever. I didn't park my car in our garage for 6 months because it was infested with millipedes. Nope.

shandi_b · March 2014

I use traps that I buy in the supermarket or hardware store and bait them with peanut butter. I get my husband to deal with the dead mouse in the trap - usually it is caught overnight.
I had a mouse run past the window of the lounge room (inside the house) the other week. Put two traps out in that area and by the next morning the little mousey was dead in the trap with peanut butter on it's mouth (or so my husband tells me!)
My 2 cats are useless now when it comes to mice - they are too old and lazy - although they will catch and eat crickets and grasshoppers!

knra_grl · March 2014

+1 and when you catch him just put a plastic shopping bag over the little corpse so you don't have to touch it to throw him out ... or play the helpless woman and get the man next door to come and get rid of it

gsnobel · March 2014

This will not end well. Suggest blowing up the whole house!!!!

sijomial · March 2014

Have a look on UK Amazon - there's all sorts including enclosed traps and live traps (in case you want to feed the mouse to your cat or snake later!).

Flab2Fab27 · March 2014

Get a cat. If that one doesn't do it, keep getting more cats.

some_betty · March 2014

Where there's one, there are about 100 more hiding....

Myhaloslipped · March 2014

Definitely like snakes much more than mice!

Sovi_ · March 2014

Clean it?

tigersword · March 2014

This is how I feel about spiders. I don't mind a random (nonvenomous) spider in the house, because they keep the rest of the bugs away.

Lisa1971 · March 2014

I agree! Snakes don't really cause damage or spread disease so I'd be fine with a snake over a mouse anyway!

linnipopz · March 2014

Thanks for all the replies!

I ordered a plug in repeller on Monday and its arrived today so will give that a bash.

Rentokil do the same kind of traps where you dont see them and can just dipose of them. At £10 for 2 I hope they work. lol

Clean it? As in the cupboard. I have bleached the cupboard out several times, my home is not dirty! And as for there will be hundreds more hiding elsewhere I just find it strange I am not finding more droppings elsewhere, there is only ever a small amount of droppings in the cupboard and its only when I have put stuff back in the cupboard. I emptied it last night and this morning there is nothing there at all. Was the same for the week I kept the cupboard empty. I think the cupboard will no longer be used!

Seems I may have to get over my fear and try and get some traps. As my mother keeps telling me its better to see a dead mouse than a live one running about the kitchen!

Mouse in my House! Help...

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