Mice.

B&Q springy traps are amazing; not like the bit of wood with a bit of wire attached that I was expecting....real state of the art neckbreakers laced with peanut butter.....I tell you dontcallmegramps we are being invaded by the little critters..we're doomed. By the way, you were right about leaving the 'oh my they're so cute and straight out of Beatrix potter' behind. In fact, Ms Potter has a LOT to answer for. [note to self; they are NOT Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca; they are disease carrying vermin...]

ooh yes since it IS the purpose of this website... the doting Grandma and myself decided that the right thing to do when we catch a mouse on a board or in a trap we wouldn't hide it from the GD if she was around but show it to her and tell her how dirty they are and they are not pets

( always seems children can have one of two reactions -either screaming blue murder in fear or wanting to adopt the damn things...)

Blinkin' Flip!
talk of the devil and he will appear !
having been mouse free for ooh three months now no sooner do we contribute to this and "the mouse radar " goes off in the loft!
It's about the only part of the house which hasn't been given the once over on hole blocking very hard to up there....

We don't really have radar - just neat piles of bait around the corners and edges which are checked every few days to see if they have been taken - so they are back... any way glue boards and break back traps are arrayed...

When we had a pony we used to find dead mice in the water bucket..I started putting a stick in the bucket so they could walk out of it. Last night I put a bucket in the utility room with margarine, flour and chocolate buttons half way down one side....and no stick. This is all out war, because my grandchildren won't come to the house till they're gone. Will put some bird seed in bucket tonight as well... I am turning evil...

numberplease, your story about the bucket of water to catch mice reminded me of when we had geese. We used to give them wheat grain in a bucket of water as a treat. They rarely left any but if they did and we hadn't emptied the bucket, we would often find a drowned mouse in the buket next day — outside, thankfully.

pengran's mention of flour reminded me of when we lived in Sheffield for a year. It was a very cold winter (1978-9) and the mice came into our rented ground floor flat in an old house that had a cellar. They loved the straw-stuffed settee, but what amazed me most is that when I spilt a little cornflour and water mix, even though I'd scrubbed away on the kitchen carpet (yes, I know! It wasn't our house) to remove it, there must have been traces because next morning there was a bare patch where the mice had chewed away at the carpet! That and the noise of their chewing the skirting boards in our bedroom, which sounded like a large dog chewing a bone, made us tell the landlady and ask her to send in the Mouse Man. She was horrified and even moved the offending settee to a garage.

crimson, have you thought that perhaps the choosy little b*****s might prefer Belgian chocolates?

Found some mouse poo next to the trap in the living room [full of chocolate buttons]. This is now all out war and the S.O. has gone to B&Q to get some springy traps. I will even use the gluey ones if I have to. Will forget any Buddhist [sp] sentiments that I might have, or worries that I may come back as a mouse....

We once caught 11 mice in one evening. The tribe had set up home in my dresser. The best bait to catch them is with a pinch of flour on the trap. My husband and I often go away for extended trips over the winter and on our return we find teeth marks on the soap left on the side of the bath.

When we were first married we lived in a 2 hundred year old, decrepit cottage, and we were overrun with mice. I found out for certain one day when hubby asked for corn flakes for supper. I put the bowl on the kitchen table, got the corn flakes out of the old wooden cupboard on legs that we kept our food in, tipped it over the bowl,.........and a mouse ran out! It ran across the table, jumped onto the floor, and disappeared under the door leading to the cellar steps. I used to put his sandwiches for work up before going to bed, and wrap them in waxed breadpaper and place them on top of said cupboard , in front of the breadbin, till the mice started chewing their way in, then I put them into the pocket of his work coat, hanging benhind the front door, but the cheeky little buggers went in there as well! One evening, after supper, himself left his plate lying on the rug in front of the fire. After a few minutes, 2 mice approached, from different directions, climbed onto the plate and started licking it! Hubby moved his foot ever so slightly and they were gone! I didn`t want to hurt them, they were so cute, but after finding droppings in the drawers, and with a baby on the way, there was no choice. He started by placing a plastic bucket, with an inch of water in the bottom, under the cupboard where they`d been getting in through a teeny, teeny crack in the back, and every morning there was a dead mouse in there.
In later years, and houses, we had cats, so never any problems, but about 4 and a half years ago, we had one in the living room, saw it a few times over a couple of days, put humane traps down, but no joy, then it wasn`t seen anymore, don`t know what happened to it. Then the other day, I saw one streak across the opposite corner of the living room, but haven`t seen it since. No droppings either, so hopefully it was just a fleeting visit.

dontcallmegramps I'm not sure that the animosity between mice and rats is any comfort.

Anyone who wants to catch their mice alive and let them out into the open and think that's kind should remember HOUSE mice are just that, they have evolved to live with us in and around our buildings.

Let a house mouse out into a field or wood and it will die with 24 hours - it doesn't know how to feed in the country, its instincts aren't geared to look for the predators out there - hence the mouse in the allotment ( see someone's post) never saw the magpie coming!

Silver... lining.... cloud.... etc
if you have mice it means you won't have rats - mice are terrified of rats and leg it if rats are about

I think I asked Hub to empty the first couple of dozen dead mice into the bin. Somehow my squeamishness wore off after that and now it's more a case of "got you, you little blighter!" I do put rubber gloves on though!

Wood mice and bank voles in the garden I don't have a problem with. Bees are welcome to live in my chimney and bats (two species) in the loft, not to mention starlings, sparrows and house-martins under the eaves.

To find out where they are living, sprinkle a little flour along in front of skirting boards and watch out for tiny footprints. This does not work too well on fitted carpets of course.

Good score, scillygran! My highest is 17 in a fortnight. I only got that many because we hadn't dealt with the first few. I don't miss the initial signs now. The corpses in traditional mouse traps are not mangled as the spring loaded thwacker doesn't actually decapitate the beasties. There is a skill in loading the things so that the mouse is in the right position when the trap is sprung. Necessity.... mother.... invention .

We had a problem with mice migrating into the loft for winter and a friend recommended the Pest Stop Electronic Rat Killer. This machine is easy to use, clean and very efficient. We baited it with peanut butter and managed to get ten mice in ten days. You never have the messy task of having to deal with mangled corpses as the mice are electrocuted instantly. The next step is to move on to clear the pests from the garage!!!

I agree, grannylin. We usually get a few unwanted visitors at this time of year as it gets colder at night. We've filled obvious holes such as where the water pipe comes in, though this was only possible because a lean to was being re-built — otherwise it was inaccessible. So I just use the 'break back' traps as dcmgramps calls them. We tried the glue tubes. Hmm. The mice had obviously been through them unscathed! We can tell as soon as there are mice around by droppings in one or two places, so we just put traps out at night and the problem is soon dealt with. When mice have chewed the insulation off your water pipes and off your freezer pipes, you don't feel any sentimentality about them. They are not called pests for nothing! Getting sentimental about mice is like getting sentimental about head lice.

I heard them moving into the attic last night-it must be getting colder!We also hear them running up the walls behing the drylining. I think its almost impossible not to have mice when you live in the country in an old house.

Oh yes ... in addition to blocking holes ( see previous post)

Glue boards are very effective traps - put them where you have seen the mice. Glue Boards cover a larger area than a break back trap and don't rely on the mouse deciding it wants to look at the bait all it has to do it walk along its normal route and it gets stuck on the glue.

Yes it means you might find a live mouse stuck on the board and you will have to kill it with a sharp blow from something ( though I have shot them with air rifles at close range) but they really have been the best.

To see where they are the house we have found this works...
Get some mouse poison and lay out neat patterns of individual grains around the place then inspect them and see of any have been taken.

And a common route is around pipes they follow the pipes round the house and will often use the holes where pipes come through floor boards seal those holes!

AND FINALLY do not be soft or sentimental THEY are not sentimental about YOU - kill kill kill!

You must ruthlessly search out the holes and block them.

Never think that a hole is TOO small if you can get a pencil into it they can get through

Don't fall into the mistake of thinking a mousehole will look like they are in Tom and Jerry it might look like a tiny irregular shaped crack.

A mouse will never stray more than two or three yards from its hole so find and block every gap it means moving furniture turning the place upside down.

The people who say steel "wool" are right BUT...

make sure it is STAINLESS STEEL as it will not rust and decay or leavebrown marks Stainless steel wool is harder to get but...

TOP TIP use STAINLESS STEEL PAN SCOURERS they won't rust and have razor sharp ( for a mouse) edges that will cut them if they try to chew it

Push the scourer into the hole so it is tight and then in fill expanding foam.

And if you have seen one it won't be alone
And Ultra sonic repellers DO NOT WORK

Glad to hear magpies do something useful. Beautiful birds. Hated by all.

Except me .

My DD caught a mouse in the humane trap and drove it to the local allotments to let it free. As it ran away a magpie swept down and ate it.

The last time we had to catch a mouse, peanut butter worked a treat in a humane trap... it was a woodmouse and not a house mouse fortunately. We released it in the local park. The cat we have now is hopeless at catching anything - she thinks it is beneath her. Our previous cat was a whizz but used to find hiding places for the carcasses - she particularly liked dropping them into my wellies. The first time I found one I thought I'd left a rolled up sock in their when I put my foot in it. My screams could be heard for miles! Ever since, I have tipped them upside down before putting them on! The worst thing that happened was a rat found its way into our house when workmen were renewing drains in the road at the top of our drive. I nearly had a nervous breakdown and we had to call in a pest controller. Fortunately, it was only one and it was killed by the poison he laid, but we had to take up floorboards to get at the body which was creating the most awful smell. We still don't know how it got in.

The word 'shock' should be typed between the brackets, with no spaces. I hope you can get it to work.

The two square brackets in my message above should have shown a shocked face - what did I do wrong?