Down to breakfast the day before yesterday, mouse droppings on surfaces in kitchen. Cleaned every scrap of everywhere, moved everything out, totally disinfected everything. Put down a trap.
Yesterday morning, down to breakfast, mouse caught. Cleaned everywhere again, put down a trap.
Down this morning, mouse caught. Cleaned everywhere, put down a trap.
It's a bit annoying keeping all the things that normally would be on the kitchen surfaces locked away elsewhere, as they are at the moment, and swabbing the decks so thoroughly every day.
Do we just repeat until mice gone, if ever? I know "there's never just one". Is there ever "just two"?
Do any of those sonic things help? Don't say get a cat, not an option.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Tue 9 Jan 18 at 11:09
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>> Do we just repeat until mice gone, if ever?
Yes, and then you leave some traps set behind the kickboards and check them occasionally.
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I am pretty sure we had a rat in the loft a few years back. SWMBO could hear scrabbling on the ceiling, and some paperwork was eaten.
I put down traps and didn't catch anything so after a while I got a sonic thing. I couldn't say whether that scared it off but it is no longer there. And I've recently done quite a bit of work in the loft and found no remains...
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>>pretty sure we had a rat in the loft a few years back. SWMBO could hear scrabbling on the ceiling
Tis a regular thing above the ole woman's bedroom, she even reckons they wear hobnail boots sometimes, which I very much doubt. Fortunately I don't have a loft space above mine my bedroom :)
I keep meaning to have a butchers in the loft space but, we've only bin 'ere 6.5 years and I'm sure I'll get a roun tuit 'one day'.
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>> we've only bin 'ere 6.5 years and I'm sure I'll get a roun tuit
Wouldn't worry Doggo! - I've bin in ere 33yrs come June, an I've never been in my loft either! (until 2yrs ago I was too fat to get thro the hatch!).
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>>Wouldn't worry Doggo! - I've bin in ere 33yrs come June, an I've never been in my loft either!
I 'ave bin up there ike, and set 'backbreakers' with p nut butt due to the ole woman bellyaching bout the patter of very, very little feet but, I've also had to deal with the poor little dead mainly field mice.
SHE wouldn't do that job b'cos it's man's work!!
I don't mind killing rats though, and I've 'dispatched' some rats as big as cats - in my kitchen!!
I caught one steward of the bar in a 12kg bag of dog kibble and strangled it wiv me 'bear' 'ands.
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Get a cat. Since his unexpected arrival some years ago I have, for the first time in my London life - and for some years now - been rodent free. Before then rats played freely in the garden.
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Me: Don't say "get a cat."
Mapmaker : Get a cat.
Cheers, that made me smile. Ok, as advised, will keep,traps permanently in there from now,on somewhere. And interesting there's a vote for the possible Sonic thing. I knew mice didn't like hedgehogs.
I expect Amazon will sell me a Mr-Placebo-mumbojumbo 2000 or something.
Talking of Amazon, they are doing a promo at the moment where if you buy £30 of gift cards they give you, a day later, another £6 credit. Oh ho, thinks I, so I bought £30 worth yesterday and gifted myself. Yes, that works. Today I have £36 worth to spend.
They are also doing "put £50 on your balance and we will make it £55", so am off to see what that actually entails and if it works now.
Don't know if this is for everyone or just some accounts, but the £30 thing is here:
tinyurl.com/ycwrkr2n
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>> Me: Don't say "get a cat."
>> Mapmaker : Get a cat.
The mice will always be there, so they need to be killed by somebody (or scared off by something). Either you have to do it, or the cat will take the load.
Wikipedia says:
Effects on rodents[edit]
Rodents adjust to the ultrasound (or any new sound) and eventually ignore it. At best, ultrasonic waves have only a partial or temporary effect on rodents. Numerous studies have rejected ultrasonic sound as a practical means of rodent control in favor of rat traps or rat-catchers.[citation needed] Tests of commercial ultrasonic devices have indicated that rodents may be repelled from the immediate area of the ultrasound device for a few minutes to a few days, but they will nearly always return and resume normal activities. Other tests have shown that the degree of repellance depends on the frequency, intensity, and pre-existing condition of the rodent infestation. The intensity of such sounds must be so great that damage to humans or domestic animals would also be likely; commercial ultrasonic pest control devices do not produce sounds of such intensity.[12]
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its worth identifying what type of mice you have. We get periodic mouse visits to our integral garage in winter. These are some sort of field mice seeking shelter and once I've caught 2 or 3 they disappear. I would live and let live but its part of the house and they have once got in one of the bedrooms.
Proper house mice are more prolific and can carry diease. Once moved in they will probably not move out as the weather warms up.
If you can see where they are coming in then block the holes up and keep laying traps. As i expect you know they can get in via tiny gaps so its not easy to block them off especially in an old style house.
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Oh, thanks Martin. Bit of googling and I think they were field mice, and also it's not breeding season for them. So here's hoping.
Gaps, yes, but been around the damn place on hands and knees and around ceiling too, and can't find anything at all, not even under doors from other rooms. Mystery.
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Another bit of advice I got was to use steel wool to plug all the gaps as they cannot chew through it.
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>> Another bit of advice I got was to use steel wool to plug all the
>> gaps as they cannot chew through it.
Not heard that Bobby, that's a good one.
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Mine were back just before Christmas. Field mice, I guess, 'cos we have a field at the back. There was evidence on a different workbench where I do lighter work. I keep some precision instruments on there as well as my kettle, biccies and brewing up kit. I wouldn't mind so much but they pee on everything all the time so I made up a ' mousocutor' with a glass jar and 240 volts worth of bare cable.
Got one the following morning but nothing since although a Cuban cigar I had been saving and put in a safe place had been chewed, fortunately at the burny end so a Stanley blade soon sorted that. My biccies and coffee are in tins but I noticed the other day that they'd had a go at an unopened packet of industrial wet wipes and nicked a few........for a nest, presumably.
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>>although a Cuban cigar I had been saving and put in a safe place had been chewed,<<
Karma works!
Pat
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>>Gaps, yes, but been around the damn place on hands and knees and around ceiling too, and can't find anything at all, not even under doors from other rooms. Mystery.
I was told that if you can push a pencil through a gap, then a mouse can get through it.
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Yes, I tried with a biro but nothing. However, I might now have discovered a way in, where the radiator pipes go through the wall into the next room. The hole they go through is a bit bigger than the pipe. Some squeezery and a mouse might get through, perhaps.
That next room has a suspended timber floor, and also has air bricks to the outside. Could be it.
I shall trap a few more nights, then if clear block that pipe gap with steel wool, see how that goes.
Little tykes.
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I have a wooden cabin in a forest. Steel wool absolutely keeps the place safe. It's about the only thing that seems to.
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That's interesting because they will chew copper cable....is there a reason why they don't chew steel wool?
We occasionally get one in the house that the cats have brought in and got bored with and the radiator pipes going through the wall is where they hide in the cavity.
A mousetrap usually gets them the next day though but I insist upon humane ones!
Pat
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>>....is there a reason why they don't chew steel wool
Copper has a hardness of 3 vs 5 for tooth enamel on the Mohs scale so careful gnawing will see them cut through copper wire.
Steel is typically 5-6.5 so they can't bite through hardened steel at all, and have a significant risk breaking their teeth on mild steel as tooth is far more brittle
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>> A mousetrap usually gets them the next day though but I insist upon humane ones!
Your cats surely aren't very humane with them Pat?
I've probably posted this before but we used to use live traps. I released the mice on my way to work, about half a mile away outside the house of a particularly unpleasant (to people) man.
We discontinued this after my wife became upset at finding starved, desiccated mice in the traps when we forgot to look at them for a while. Backbreakers now.
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>>Your cats surely aren't very humane with them Pat?<<
No, I agree, but that's nature so I can live with that!
>>inding starved, desiccated mice in the traps when we forgot to look at them for a while<<
We've done that in the shed too..*embarrassed face* :)
Pat
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>>>>Your cats surely aren't very humane with them Pat?<<
>>No, I agree, but that's nature so I can live with that!
My two dogs chase rabbits, squirrels and cats. They and will 'dispatch' them if caught. That too is nature, so I can live with that.
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I don't know why, and I was sceptical at first.
However, its in the middle of a forest and since I plugged every cable or pipe hole with wire wool - not very tightly packed - we haven't had a single rodent in 12 - 18 mths whereas before we were plagued.
Though the house is raised about 18inches and there's evidence of them underneath.
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Our cats catch lots of mice. Some they bring in to eat, leaving the bits on the floor for us to tread on. Others they bring in to play with and then abandon when they get bored or lose them under cupboards or the fridge.
Usually the mice starve to death or the cats eventually recapture them. They are less gruesome than the half-eaten rats, squirrels, rabits, pigeons and the odd weasel or mole.
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I found mouse droppings in the integral garage in the old place. Having three bikes in there, doing nothing was not an option. Two "Rentokil" hair trigger traps from Amazon were set. They netted 11 in between them, all beautifully marked field mice. There was a heart rending moment once when I went in to get something as I turned the lights on I caught a movement by the scooter, I could see a pair of tiny black unblinking eyes with two perfect reflections of me looking at it in them. Still killed it though. It must have known that its number was up. After No 11 I kept the traps set - no issues after that. I either got the lot or they got the hint. Spaniels are hopeless mousers.
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>> Two "Rentokil" hair trigger traps from Amazon
>> were set.
Like this?
tinyurl.com/y7d3plld
Not cheap, are they?
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I used to think to myself when I set them....of the SAC motto..."The Price of Peace is Eternal VIgilance" - they were left set for weeks after the passing (beheading in fact) of Mouse #11, silently waiting with their deadly payload of peanut butter lest a diminutive rodent fancy its chances...
I tested it, even the slightest of movements in the bowl meant instant curtains....
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4.45 each in 2015 - now over £6.00 ! Well worth the money (sort of .88p per mouse in my case) - but rugged, reliable and re-usable for years I reckon. (and not as vicious to the human user as the cheap wooden ones).
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That’s the same type I used.
Ours was spotted by the washing machine repairman who found droppings under the utility sink. My missus ran out the house when he told her.
First trap I set in the cupboard, I shut the door and by time I had taken ten steps towards kitchen, I heard it snap shut! That freaked the missus out even more!
Mine were coming in under the decking which we got built at the same time as our extension and I think the builders took the lazy option of not completely sealing the main house as the decking was covering it. I have now fully blocked up all sides to the decking.
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One thing they're not is stupid Bobby. They had set up home in our garage in a TV box that was packed with dust sheets, complete with multiple exits...
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Today's headline: Nothing Happened Overnight.
Tomorrow on "Crankcase Towers":
A woman draws some curtains
A man delivers some junk mail
A light gets turned on
Stay tuned....
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Very good crankcase:
A front door opens very briefly and is quickly closed
A staircase creaks
A light gets turned off
There is a scuffling, squeaking sound like mice
Morning news:
A front door opens very briefly and is quickly closed
A woman draws some curtains
A milkman calls
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Mice - Manatee
