...there's a moose, loose, aboot this hoose.
While watching television last night the unmistakeable shape of a mouse scuttled past the fireplace.
I suppose one mouse does not amount to an infestation or risk to health, although I'm aware they rarely choose to live alone.
Ignoring the little critter in the hope it goes away is tempting.
But that's not likely to happen, so I suppose I shall have to declare formal hostilities.
What would you do?
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if you have no other pets.
1/ Get one - a cat i mean
2/ if you no want cat - get some poison bait.
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You can live in harmony. Pat twught me to live with my little Mole
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Bait or traps.
And while they're around watch for stuff being nibbled/knawed. Are your food cupboards mous proof? Tins are OK at ground level but veg, flour, sugar and any other soft ingredients are going to get mousie's attention.
Look out for their dropping which are clues as to where they have been. They pee everywhere as well but that dries up. Keep food prep areas wiped.
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...Keep food prep areas wiped...
I think my food storage arrangements pass mousester, but the tip about work surfaces is a good one.
The kitchen is at the other end of the house to the lounge, so I'm hopeful the mouse has not reached that far.
But it's a relatively unmodernised Victorian terrace - gaps around the skirting and floorboards all over - the mouse could probably travel from one end of the place to the other.
I've had a root around and can't see any sign of mouse activity.
Bait looks a good option, I've no pets and there's no one else living here, so there's no problem with leaving poison lying about.
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>> The kitchen is at the other end of the house to the lounge, so I'm
>> hopeful the mouse has not reached that far.
>>
>> But it's a relatively unmodernised Victorian terrace - gaps around the skirting and floorboards all
>> over
We have them in the office from time to time. They use the the cabling ducts as mousey motorway. But even without they'd have no trouble ranging from my bit of the open plan through the registry and into the kitchenette. Thats half the length of Cursitor St!!
When they get sick from poison bait they blunder around in daylight. We had an an Ozzy lawyer with us for a while who was 'frit' of them. A Dame Edna type squeal from over the cupboards was a sure indicator that Nicky had seen a mouse!!
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 6 Jan 12 at 20:56
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...When they get sick from poison bait they blunder around in daylight...
I saw the same when we poisoned rats in the farmyard.
It was the only time I could get them with my air rifle.
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>> You can live in harmony. Pat twught me to live with my little Mole
Your Moles is not in your kitchen cupboard, KILL MAN KILL.
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Catch the critter (dead or alive) then tell Audrey you found it in a tin of her Scotch Broth and y'all tell The Sun, The DM and Men Only, if she don't come up with the readies.
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Once had a similar occurrence, telly on, fire blazing, cat asleep in front of fire, when the critter runs across in front of fire. The cat never stirred!
Traps every time now, baited with chocolate, they love chocolate seem to find where it's kept every time they come visiting.
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Cats are useless with mice. Ours used to bring the the things in alive and let them go.
Traps are the way to go. Get the tradtional break back type type - cheap and effective. Doesn't matter really what you use as bait as mice will eat most things. A bit of bread or biscuit is as good as anything in my experience. Mice always run along the edge of a room so place your traps by the skirting board. Mice also like security of being enclosed so a good idea is to put your trap in a tube. I use those cardboard sleeves that malt whiskey comes in. Set the traps in the evening and turn off the light. So satisfying to hear that trap snap!
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I use the humane tilt-traps with some nutella as bait - wouldn't actually eat the crap myself after reading the ingredients;-)
Hit rate is very good - and I drop them in the bins at a local hostelry and let fate deal with them.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Fri 6 Jan 12 at 21:16
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I have to agree with the advice above regarding cats (SWMBO has one) and chocolate as a bait. I don't like poison, as dead animals smell: tinyurl.com/clxb7p4
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>> I have to agree with the advice above regarding cats (SWMBO has one) and chocolate
>> as a bait. I don't like poison, as dead animals smell: tinyurl.com/clxb7p4
Poison is the only way to go in an office. Traps are a risk to fingers and toes plus 'Mat the Rat' only needs to come in once a fortnight to fill the bait boxes.
The smell can upset some folks though - fortunately mice rot pretty quickly.
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Thanks goodness for a bit of sanity Lygonos.
I go to bed and you turn into a bunch of vigilante's over a mouse.
A poor defenceless mouse I might add.
Don't use poison, would you want to die a painful lingering death?
We all come back as animals in another life, you know so it may yet happen?
Humane traps are the only way to go and the tilt traps work well.
Mousey can be released fit and well on the doorstep of anyone you don't like, and it gives the cats enless hours of amusement watching them.
Now, no more talk of being cruel to animals.
Pat
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>>We all come back as animals in another life,<<
Who are you having for Sunday lunch this week then?
:)
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Another vote for live traps. Who wants a dead mouse festering where you can't get at it. Less messy than the spring traps, and you can release them outside the house of the the misery guts at the other end of the village. We get field mouse or two in the house very winter, and it never takes more than a couple of nights to nab them.
Actually it was herself who made me get live traps a few years ago when we had one in the loft. We put a couple up there and remembered them 6 weeks later. We found a dessicated mouse that we had humanely starved to death.
We had another mishap a couple of months ago. I took a trap with mouse in with me when I left for work. I'd nearly got to the office when I remembered I'd forgotten to stop and release it in the usual place. While waiting at the traffic lights opposite the office I tipped it into the road so it could run off. It promptly dived for cover in front of the back wheel as the car rolled over it :-(
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Mice wander about snuffling and quite often stop for a moment. That's when Iffy can get them with a Webley or similar air pistol, one that can be made accurate, with proper adjustable sights. .177 is more than adequate for mice.
Guy I knew who had a carpentry workshop in farm buildings near here got someone to make him a mouse gun. It was a steel tube about the length of a large ballpoint, .22 bore. There are .22 shot cartridges, very short and low-power, firing lead 'shot' - actually a bit like filings or coarsely ground black pepper, not round and of consistent size like real shotgun shot - that the gun was made to take. It worked like a zipgun, with a catch you pulled back and just thumbed to the left a bit to fire it. But you had to unscrew the breech mechanism to reload it. It was a bit difficult to aim properly with it, as it had no handle of any sort.
The owner claimed that because it fired shot that was more or less on a mouse's scale, the mice died dramatically instead of just vanishing in a splatter as they would if shot with a .22 bullet. But I never witnessed the actual shooting of a mouse.
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Humane traps are fine for the consciences of those too effete to rid the world of vermin. :-)
I use an old fashioned spring trap (little nipper) baited with bread: kills the mouse stone dead immediately. We get lots in our garage, occasionally in the house and the greenhouse - fields and woods adjacent mean a never ending re-supply.
(The trouble with mice is they are food to foxes.. and we have too many of them. Fortunately my next door neighbour has a big cage trap and a shotgun..
As for the badgers!)
Last edited by: madf on Sat 7 Jan 12 at 10:03
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"Humane" traps are OK if you are prepared to inspect them regularly. If you don't the mouse may well starve to death - not quite so humane! The trapped mice are often so stressed that they will die anyway on release. The traditional "break-back" trap is efficient and kills instantly.
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>> "Humane" traps are OK if you are prepared to inspect them regularly. If you don't
>> the mouse may well starve to death - not quite so humane! The trapped mice
>> are often so stressed that they will die anyway on release.
I think that's true. Generally the trapped mice trot off looking OK, but I've certainly found a couple dead or in one case nearly dead after being trapped during the night (not counting the time we forgot about the trap for 6 weeks).
I have considered going back to the Little Nippers, but they didn't seem to work so well - often the bait would disappear without the trap springing.
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>> I have considered going back to the Little Nippers, but they didn't seem to work
>> so well - often the bait would disappear without the trap springing.
>>
I hold the bread on with small rubber bands.. works a treat.
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Over here they reckon that for every mouse you see there are seven others that you don't...
Break-back mousetraps are sold in packs of up to ten for a few euros!
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I've decided to risk reincarnation as a rodent and lay bait.
They had some in a shop I passed on this morning's rehab hobble, and I'm still unable to kneel or bend down fully, so deploying and maintaining bait will be easier than setting traps.
Let battle commence.
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I went for a brew with a High Court Judge once - he pointed out what he thought were "currants" on his worktop - it was mouse pooh !
"What should I do ?" When I helpfully suggested a mouse trap he asked:
"Where would I get one of them ?"
Other worldly or what !
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Did you have to explain also that the Beatles were a popular beat combo?
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He said "one of those" actually ! :0
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Are you sure he didn't say 'One o' they'?
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Break back traps primed with peanut butter used here to dispense the mice that the cat brings in !
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None of you will go to Heaven.....apart from RP who has learned to love his mole.
Pat
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I thought you kept 'ball bearing mouse traps' Pat?
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>> None of you will go to Heaven.....apart from RP who has learned to love his mole.
Who wants to Pat, with the place overrun with foxes, badgers, moles, cats, mice and other vermin?
:o}
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Who wants to spend eternity with the sort of people who'd get in there?
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According to the book I'm reading, you don't stay in heaven, you get reincarnationed.
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>> According to the book I'm reading, you don't stay in heaven, you get reincarnationed.
>>
You mean EVAPORATED?
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>>You mean EVAPORATED?<<
phut!
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My religion teaches me I will go to Heaven. The rest of you are sure of hell - you get dating ads.. a sure sign the Devil is after you.
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It'll just be me and you then madf, with all those animals;)
Pat
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>> My religion teaches me I will go to Heaven. The rest of you
>> are sure of hell - you get dating ads.. a sure sign the Devil is
>> after you.
>>
At least its warm down there...... ;-)
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Never been totally fond of harps either.
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>> Never been totally fond of harps either.
That's two of the Celtic fringes insulted Humph.
How do you feel about bagpipes, the favoured instrument of the other three?
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O4dXs81OdY
The world's sexiest harpist - seen her live absolutely brilliant.
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The women are hot as well.
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Iffy,
What if this mouse eats through your TV cables ?
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rats will say its a root kit to blame.
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>The women are hot as well.
But, which is Heaven and which is Hell? Could it be a trick?
What if those of us who spend the short time of our life on earth foregoing booze, fags, fornication and bacon butties are rewarded with an everlasting after-life of "Party! Party! Party!" while the mouse murderers and sinners have to sit on a cloud playing the harp and eating tofu.
It's all very confusing. I'm gonna have another glass of wine and think about it.
Last edited by: Kevin on Sat 7 Jan 12 at 21:12
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>> What if those of us who spend the short time of our life on earth
>> foregoing booze, fags, fornication and bacon butties are rewarded with an everlasting after-life of "Party!
>> Party! Party!" while the mouse murderers and sinners have to sit on a cloud playing
>> the harp and eating tofu.
>>
>> It's all very confusing. I'm gonna have another glass of wine and think about it.
I am prepared to pay in the afterlife for my use and abuse of Bacon Butties in this life.
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I know a guy who is a commited vegetarian except for bacon butties, oh, and gravy. Not together you understand. Oh never mind.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sat 7 Jan 12 at 21:27
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"(QURAN 78:31-34): "As for the righteous, they shall surely triumph. Theirs shall be gardens and vineyards, and high-bosomed virgins for companions: a truly overflowing cup".
;}
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>> "(QURAN 78:31-34): "As for the righteous, they shall surely triumph. Theirs shall be gardens and
>> vineyards, and high-bosomed virgins for companions: a truly overflowing cup".
But no bacon sarnies for afters.
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You can have bacon but - it must be TVP!
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"(QURAN 78:31-34): "As for the righteous, they shall surely triumph. Theirs shall be gardens and vineyards, and high-bosomed virgins for companions: a truly overflowing cup".
But all out of reach and no ladders.
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Maybe the virgins should go and get properly measured for their underwear then..
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Sorry to drag this back on topic, but I can report bait has been taken.
The instructions say death may take a few days, but hopefully the mice are already poorly enough to be put off making any more.
"Not now, Mickey darling, I have a headache."
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Giant rodents will come increasingly to haunt your dreams Iffy. Eventually fear of the vengeful spirits will rob you of sleep. After that, lingering insanity will set in.
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...update...
Deployed the bait in a little tray in the alcove beside the fire place.
It was taken the first night and continued to be taken each night for more than a week.
I've now used two of the three little packets which were in the cardboard outer.
No bait taken in the last few days, and I've not seen a mouse since I started baiting.
I don't wish to squeak too soon, but it looks like the bait's done its job.
This is what I used:
www.ratbait.co.uk/rentokil-rodine-3-x-50g-sachets--3-bait-trays-401-p.asp
The site says it takes longer to kill mice than it does rats, which is strange because you'd have thought the larger animal would take longer to succumb to the poison.
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My daughter had a mouse problem and used poison. Someone walked in the other day and said they smelled dead rodent! She's got wooden floors and can whistle if she wants me to find it.
She had rats in the ceiling of a previous flat. Poison was used there. Maggots were crawling down the walls after the rats died. I had to get them out and I'm not doing it again.
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I think there must now be dead mice behind my skirting or under the floorboards.
No characteristic musty smell as yet, but it is winter which will slow decomposition.
I'm not too bothered, mouse bodies are small and the room has an open fireplace which draws air all the time, so no smell will last long.
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>> ...there's a moose, loose, aboot this hoose.
Lord Rockingham's XI ~ 17 weeks at the top of the charts in 1958.
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...there's a moose, loose, aboot this hoose...
There's stuff on the net about the phrase being designed to lampoon the Scots accent.
None of our resident Jocks have taken exception - yet.
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"Lord Rockingham's XI ~ 17 weeks at the top of the charts in 1958"
In the charts for 17 weeks (18 in some lists) but only No 1 for 4 weeks.
Pedant's hat off!
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An me thought that Mooses were Canadian, not Scottish!! - well i never!
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The Picts have strange words:
on yonder hill there stood a coo,
if it's no there, it's awa noo.
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My wife and I came home from a meeting on Wednesday night to find a note from boy, "mouse in dishwasher".
I was disappointed, frankly, that he hadn't just dealt with it. After all, none of us is a professional mousecatcher, what did he think we were going to do that he could not?
I opened the dishwasher to see a perky wood mouse peering from the top basket. I made a grab but it retreated to the back corner. Confident of success, I baited a live trap with chocolate and left it on the open door.
Yesterday morning the trap was tripped, door shut. No chocolate, and no mouse! Rebaited last night, left on kitchen floor, with the same result this morning.
The trap was left all day today, baited again, but untouched this time. I can only think the mouse has died of chocolate poisoning.
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 20 Jan 12 at 23:25
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Mouse in custody this morning. To be released shortly, on the trip to the paper shop.
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Read im his rights, fingerprint im and get a mugshot for future reference.
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Was he caught as a result of mouse to mouse enquiries ?
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>> Mouse in custody this morning. To be released shortly, on the trip to the paper
>> shop.
Bad news my old fruit, the mouse has claimed asylum in your place and cant be removed to the wild, because it - well, wild - and would infringe his new found mouse rights.
This judgement has been upheld by the court of mouse rights who say "the wild" is cruel and harsh"
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Bait trap with peanut butter - they can't get it off like they can chocolate or cheese....
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Drown the little sods.. they breed like mice..
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Some rats have human rights, I hear.
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>> Drown the little sods.. they breed like mice...
You might be right. I remind myself that like sorrows they come not single spies, but in battalions.
This one was lively, and had had a good try at chewing it's way out of the trap. I nearly stopped atop the canal bridge but it seemed gratuitous to make it swim for it after a night in the cells.
When I did let it go, I expected it would be in a poor state but it was off like a two bob rocket. I wouldn't be surprised if it makes the mile back home.
I must get tougher.
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Post it to Pat next time.
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>> Post it to Pat next time.
Genius! Problem solved, conscience clear!
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I know where she lives, I can start a rescue taxi service.
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Ignore that lot Manatee, well done for taking the humane approach:)
Pat
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Forgot to add, black mark to Iffy for using poison and I hope the maggots come back to haunt you!
Pat
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Hoots mon... - Zero
