mice in the piano [angry]

Try putting a trap under the piano, Tricia

This reminds me of when we moved out of a large farmhouse in 1975. Our furniture was going into storage for three weeks as the house we were moving into was still being renovated. We often had problems with mice and just as the removal men were about to load up our piano, DD, who was four, whispered to DH that she'd seen a mouse run into the bottom of it. We had visions of mice having a field day in our furniture for three weeks so DH ran over and said he wanted 'One last play' and thumped the living daylights out of the poor keyboard.

The removal men clearly thought he was a tone deaf lunatic

Maybe they are musical mice! With clogs on! My Grandparents once had a mouse nest in their piano, it seems to happen if nobody plays for a long time.

MerlotGran have you still got your piano?
Yes I think I'm just going to have a running battle with them - we have got a few mousetraps.
It's annoying though because the piano used to have a very pleasant lively sound, and now it's dull in patches. (Like me )
I must be more disciplined and play more!

Yes we have, Tricia and I check it regularly by lifting the lid, NOT thumping it.

I think i would sprinkle rat poison inside it as well.

The problem with putting poison inside the piano is that it will attract mice in to the house who will then go off and die somewhere else in the house and you will have to find them when they start to smell.

Could the answer be to find out how and why mice are getting into the house and then deal with that?

Have you tried 100% peppermint oil? I read about it on another GN thread. Apparently rodents don't like the smell and move out. The advice is to put some onto cotton wool on a dish (Google it). I have placed some under my shed, using several of the little Knorr Stockpot containers which I save. I can't say whether it has worked, but one dry day I will spread sand to look for footprints.

Good advice on here.
www.gransnet.com/forums/house_and_home/1202341-Eek-Weve-got-mice

Get a cat? I think you need mouse traps its not worth ruining your piano completely, they could a lot of damage.

Shysal you have gone all forensic! Make plaster casts of the bottom of their trainers. Will you get their fingerprints and DNA as well so you can identify them in future?

We had a phone call last night at around 10pm - late for us which put me in a panic (phones tend to bring bad news!) - from DD who was standing on her sofa because of a mouse running around would DH go and round it up. What she would have done if we lived miles away I don't know but it's less than 5 minutes in the car so off he went armed with a plastic container.
He took his own keys and once in found DD still on the sofa skyping the DGCs who were staying at their dads and thus showing them the pandemonium that was evolving.
Needless to say the errant rodent was trapped by DH and brought home where it was tipped over the fence into the field behind our house. Luckily it was a field mouse but sadly it is now far from home.
The piano? Well, DG hasn't got one and ours was safe but this thread gave me a chance to recount the tale

All power to your DH, goldengirl. It's incredibly difficult to catch a mouse once it gets indoors.

Thanks for all the ideas.
It's impossible to keep mice out of our house, it's the way it's built, and we've got poultry outside. We have a cat but she's no deterrent - the mice just sit there in front of her washing their faces.
I fear some of the damage would be too expensive to repair this time, I blame myself for neglecting it.
Shysal - thanks for the link, I'll study that.
I'm going to get an estimate from the pianoman next week but think it will be at least 200€.

For some reason, cats are useless at catching mice once they get in the house. You need a Jack Russell.

When our Rhodesian Ridgeback was alive she was dozing in front of the fire when a mouse ran out from under the dresser and sat in front of her nose. Nahla looked up at me in surprise and made a noise that sounded like,
'WhatllI dooooooooooo?????'