In my disappointingly small loft I noticed a mouse.
Tiny thing and I almost caught it, but missed.
I would like to catch it and any relatives as humanely as possible.
Can anyone recommend a humane trap that actually works?
On another note, there is a white box - about 5 inches deep and 12 x 12 inches, attached to power - (two normal power switches - like an immersion heater switch - one with a red light, they look like they are in series), then some sort of timer / LCD screen and then a connection to a phone line via a filter. Any ideas as to what it could be? I can't quite get at it to get pictures and there are no obvious marks. I have turned it off and can't see any changes.
It's a strange roof design covering 1100 sq feet, two apex roofs, one face on, one sideways on and merged in the middle. Makes for an annoyingly shallow interior space which it not much use for anything, even storage. I suspect access to the second apex section was removed when recessed ceiling lights were fitted. From what I can see of it, I looks like it may prove a better storage area and will need to investigate with a camera on a very long pole or some similar set up. Again, any ideas?
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>> I would like to catch it and any relatives as humanely as possible.
>>
poison trap, who gives a stuff about being humane to a mouse thats going to chew through your cabling if you let it live
>> get at it to get pictures and there are no obvious marks. I have turned
>> it off and can't see any changes.
Burgler alarm
>> one sideways on and merged in the middle. Makes for an annoyingly shallow interior space
>> which it not much use for anything, even storage.
Sounds like you have a modern house. They are not built for roof space storage., the trusses and joists wont take much weight at all.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 30 Oct 19 at 19:50
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>> poison trap, who gives a stuff about being humane to a mouse thats going to
>> chew through your cabling if you let it live
That's what my dad said. Unfortunately Mrs Z won't have it and I tend to agree, if you don't need to kill it....!
>>Burglar Alarm.
An installers sticker and instruction manual would have been useful. Oh well!
>> Sounds like you have a modern house. They are not built for roof space storage.,
>> the trusses and joists wont take much weight at all.
>>
1985-87'ish, custom build at the time. The two apex roofs at 90 degrees to each other and merged is just silly, in hindsight, especially as there is no easy way to get at Apex 2. Remeasured and its 1,600 sq feet surface area so such a waste of space. There is a huge steel girder in there as well and I will need to investigate why.
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tinyurl.com/y367wsav
These ones with a blob of Nutella work a treat.
>>There is a huge steel girder in there as well and I will need to investigate why
Presumably, with respect to Zed's reply, because the timber joists are made of papier-mâché and bend under the weight of a passing mouse.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Wed 30 Oct 19 at 20:27
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If you have mice in the loft, catching and releasing them won't fix the problem. You need to find out how they are getting in and block up their entry/exit.
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Oddly enough since we got 2 cats 3yr ago the only (rare) mice I've seen in the house have been chunked.
One morning there was a single head in the middle of the hall.
Nice.
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If you do decide to go down the mouse trap route, then tether it to something, or make sure the trap is quite weighty. The little sod that was up in my garage loft ran off with the trap I had set because it had only caught its leg. I eventually found the trap in among all the junk up there, with the remains of a leg still in the trap!
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I had one or more which got into the garage and under the bonnet of my favourite MB, where it ate the wiring. I laid traps and eventually it was no more.
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We had one or more rats once in the loft. Never saw them but SWMBO could hear it scurrying around. I bought an old fashioned rat trap (i.e. large mouse trap) but no luck. Then I spent a few bob on an ultra sound repeller which seemed to do the trick. It needed a power supply though. It's still plugged in. We did also find evidence (quite a lot of shredded paper) so she wasn't dreaming...
This kind of thing (but there are cheaper ones on eBay) tinyurl.com/yxqygpzv
I read at the time they were likely to have got in at the bottom of cavity walls and climbed them.
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We spotted a rat running round the garden a few Springs ago. Seemed to be coming under fence from next door.
No luck with traps but neighbour's then husband was a mate of the Council's pest control man. He put down poison. Next door later spotted a dazed/sick rat in his garden and delivered 'coup de grace' to it and another two similar over week or so following.
They were nesting under next door's shed.
Quite often see brown mice running round on patio and scavenging debris from bird table. They're no problem and are quite cute and fun to watch.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 31 Oct 19 at 09:53
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Watching TV one evening recently we spotted a tiny mouse emerge from under the sofa. Its body was about the size of a thimble and it was unconcernedly washing its whiskers. When I moved to grab it, it scuttled back under cover and we went to bed and left it to its fate which would probably be at the paws of the cat, although it was probably he that brought it in unharmed.
The following morning I was reading my paper in the neighbour room when it appeared just beside me from under a pouffe, settling down to whisker upkeep again. I reached down to grab it and it retreated under the pouffe. 15 minute later I got up and saw it, just beyond the other side of the pouffe. It did not move while I fetched a large plastic tub from the kitchen and dropped it over its head. I slid a piece of card under the tub and was able to upend it to enable us to take a closer look at Mr. Whiskers. A dear little fellow, I let him out into a dense plant bed in the garden.
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>> the cat, although it was probably he that brought it in unharmed.
Had a cat that kept bringing in this enormous, black toad - well I assumed it was the same one. I released it back in the garden a couple of times. On the third occasion I put it in a container and drove a couple of miles to a pond in a nearby park.
SWMBO was imagining me being questioned by local BIBs.
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Is "Frogging" a derivative of Dogging
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We used live traps for a while, it didn't seem necessary to kill them when I could release mice outside the house of an unpleasant individual about half a mile down the road.
We went to backbreakers after we forgot to check the traps and found we have starved/dehydrated one to death, which seemed less than humane.
Never had much trouble catching them with peanut butter.
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>> Never had much trouble catching them with peanut butter.
They love toblerone
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>> They love toblerone
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What a waste!!
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>> Watching TV one evening recently we spotted a tiny mouse emerge from under the sofa.
Reminds me we used to get them in the Quango's office, more in winter than in summer. They'd nest and breed under the floors using the data and electric cable conduits as mouse superhighways around the building.
There was a pest control chap, known colloquially as Matt the rat, came in every few weeks to put down poison. Once they'd partaken of this they'd get sick and start to emerge into the office during the day. They make you jump if you catch one out of corner of an eye but no bother - sometimes used the bucket/card trick and popped them out into Chichester Rents to fend for themselves.
We had though a staff member, one of several young Australian lawyers who worked for us as policy researchers, who was frightened of them. She would let out a yell like Barry Humphries as Dame Edna and go off to get out of its way.
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>>We spotted a rat running round the garden a few Springs ago.
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I discovered rats had invaded my plastic compost bins.
They had tunneled up inside to get at the newest vegetable peelings /offcuts at the top.
Now there is a square of mesh in the based of each so that stopped them.
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If by mesh you mean chicken wire, it won't stop them for long.
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>> If by mesh you mean chicken wire, it won't stop them for long.
>>
No we can easily buy stiff square sheets of mesh with various size square holes in it.
it stays in place when using a shovel to extract the compost or when the plastic container is lifted off
Last edited by: henry k on Thu 31 Oct 19 at 22:29
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"Then I spent a few bob on an ultra sound repeller which seemed to do the trick. It needed a power supply though. It's still plugged in."
I set up a couple of these in the loft - it must be 7 or 8 years ago - and we haven't been visited by rats or mice since. The rat was the real devil; we eventually caught him in a trap in the garage. He had been dining on anticoagulant poison, and the sprung trap had clouted him on the head, then he bled to death. My son reckoned that he was as big as a beaver!
A friend worked for a company that sold the sonic repellers; his explanation was that they would rarely rid a house of an existing infestation but would help to keep a non-infested house free of vermin. He said that it was like looking to buy a new house and finding a bunch of noisy neighbours living next door ........ you would move on and look elsewhere. However, if you had already put down roots, then it might take rather more to persuade you to shift.
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Kill them and kill them with fire (well maybe not). I've just this week set traps in the Garage and man-cave. Check them every day. Peanut butter is the bait. If any go off I'll get one of those mouse repellent thingies.
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Mrs O'Reliant insists on keeping bird feeders in the garden which is a big attraction for rats. I've shot countless of the things over the years. When you kill one the rest seem to get the message and disappear for a few months.
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We haven't had bird feeders here since we moved in. I think there's a bountiful harvest in the wild for the birdies this autumn
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>> We haven't had bird feeders here since we moved in. I think there's a bountiful
>> harvest in the wild for the birdies this autumn
you should see my grape vine, all the birds round my way are P***ed
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>> In my disappointingly small loft I noticed a mouse.
>> Tiny thing and I almost caught it, but missed.
>> I would like to catch it and any relatives as humanely as possible.
>> Can anyone recommend a humane trap that actually works?
>> On another note, there is a white box - about 5 inches deep and 12
>> x 12 inches, attached to power - (two normal power switches - like an immersion
>> heater switch - one with a red light, they look like they are in series),
>> then some sort of timer / LCD screen and then a connection to a phone
>> line via a filter. Any ideas as to what it could be
that will be your broken ultra sonic mouse repeller
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Mouse in Loft / Odd Electronics in Loft - Zero
