There’s a mouse in the house and I have no idea how do deal with it.
Mice are cute, in cartoons, and soppy pictures on social media. My daughter’s friend at school even keeps domestic mice as pets, and they are adorable.
But the mouse (or mice, I’ve only seen one) that has moved into our house is not a welcome visitor and I want him/her/it gone. We’ve never had a mouse issue before, although where we live, near the park and river, I know other people have had a problem.
You’d think, having two cats, that this wouldn’t be an issue, would you? Cats catch mice, right?
Nope, apparently not. Layla isn’t interested, and yesterday, when Mickey (I have named him, to give a sense of humour to the situation!) decided to pay us a call, and scuttled across the kitchen floor, quite unbothered by the madness of human feet and noise, Jasper just sat and looked at him and then at me, as if to say “and what do you think I should do about it?”. Given that Jasper hunts and catches frogs, birds (including the odd wood pigeon) and has caught mice and brought them home, dead, it’s a tad frustrating that our unwelcome domestic squatter hasn’t been tracked down by the cats yet!
I don’t want a mouse in the house. They’re dirty, they get into food, and they urinate and defecate everywhere. Also, they breed, like, erm, mice, and I don’t need Mickey starting a colony here.
So, what do we do?
We currently have humane traps, set with bait, but of course, Mickey isn’t daft and is avoing them like the plague (see what I did there? ?) and merrily seems to have decided he has the run of the place…
I’ve stopped up the holes I think he comes in via, we’ve cleaned the food cupboard and put everything in jars or containers, I’m being very strict about the children eating only at the table and not trailing food to leave crumbs and we have moved the cats food off the floor when the cats aren’t around.
But, Mickey prevails and has taken up an unwanted but regular residence. I’m reluctant to get kill traps or to put actual poison down, but I’m wodndering if we may have to resort to that. He is after all a rodent, and a pest.
So, dear reader, I need your help? How to get rid of the mouse that’s invaded our house? Humane ways if possible? I’d prefer also not to have to spend a fortune calling pest control either. I’m rapidly loosing my sense of humour, the children think Mickey should be allowed to stay…
Oh, and I’ve fired the cats… ?
Oh it is awful when they get in. Have you tried catching it up in one of those ball throwers you get for dogs. My father has managed that a few times and then deposited the mouse outside (while his two lurchers looked on with languid disregard). If we can’t catch them humanely we always resort to the old fashioned traps. Not nice but better than poison (which makes them crawl away to a warm spot to die and leaves the house smelling). Hope you manage to find a solution soon.
a quick google and i found this:
put peanut butter on the handle of a spoon, sticking out over the work surface with a bucket underneath, as the mouse goes along the spoon to get it’s treat, the spoon and the mouse fall into the bucket, let me know how you get on
Apologies for the late reply to this #AnimalTales post, I really thought I had read and commented and then realised I haven’t done any and the next Animal Tales is tomorrow. Am I forgiven?
Have you had any luck getting rid of Mickey? We too have had mice in the house and one even sat in the cat’s food bowl with the cat looking at it. Did the cat chase him – did he heck!!
We got Mickey and his mate. So far no signs of any more. The cats are well fired!! 😉
I’m afraid kill traps or poison boxes are the only sensible solution, unpleasant though it is. Humane traps don’t work well – if the mouse goes in, it can probably chew its way out, and unless you check it very frequently, it’s not very humane at all.
Look at it this way – trap it now and you might have to kill one, maybe two mice. Avoid the issue and in a few months you’ll need to kill dozens, with all the associated health hazards. The old-fashioned nipper traps are effective, and normally kill the mouse instantaneously if it tries to eat the bait.
Thank you. We ended up with kills traps and so far we have caught two mice and have since not seen any or found evidence of them so we are hoping we have dealt with it!