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Mice!
coozer - 29/4/14 at 11:14 AM

So, once again I have the manly duty of being the mouse catcher..

Haven't seen any for a while, couple years ago they ate all my Strawberry's..

Anyway one runs across the kitchen floor last night and within 30 minutes there's one in the little nipper... and another in the trap this morning.

What I'm thinking now is getting one of these electronic reppelers, anyone got/use one? Are they really a be all end all solution?

If that works I just need something in the garden to get rid of the slugs....


JoelP - 29/4/14 at 12:01 PM

If you use a repeller, Darwin theory says you'll end up with a load of deaf mice!

On a more serious note, is suggest blocking all holes and keep catching them relentlessly. Ensure all sources of food and water are unreachable.


Scuzzle - 29/4/14 at 12:03 PM

I don't find these electronic repellents work on mice, my car sits in an old barn next to a field and I have terrible bother with mice. I find if I have the car up on the trolley jack for any length of time they must climb up it and get into the car.
So far they seem to like eating the rounded dome parts of the plastic nut covers and the roll cage padding, thankfully they have not gone for any of the wiring that I know of.

I always renew the plastic nut covers as it's a good way to tell if the mice have been at the car. Now there's an owl frequents the barn and it has a habit of ripping mice and birds apart on top of the car as there's very often blood and guts and feathers that need washed off it if left for any length of time.

I also get some in the loft in my house, guy next door ripped up his floorboards a couple of years ago and I got them in droves in my loft afterwards. I was setting three traps at a time with a Rolo pressed in as bait and was getting 3 a night. It calmed down after a couple of weeks and now I get spells of 4 or 5 months with nothing then I will get 2 or 3 in the space of a few nights then nothing for months again. Last week as the weather got warmer I got 3 over 3 nights.

I tried the electronic repellents both in my car and in my loft and they never did a thing to help.


r1_pete - 29/4/14 at 12:25 PM

One of these:

mousetrap
mousetrap


When they built on the crop fields at the end of our road many houses without one were struggling with mice as their natural habitat disappeared.


owelly - 29/4/14 at 02:01 PM

+1 for the Rolo on the trap although I used to use Mars Bar...
I tried those electronic things but it used batteries at an alarming rate and the mice loved it!
I renovated an old cottage and dry-lined all of the outside walls. The air gap made a brilliant habitat for mouses. Every now and then the house electrics would trip so it meant pulling socket fronts off and checking for continuity to find out where the little buggers had nibbled through and fried themselves.


Benzine - 29/4/14 at 02:50 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer
If that works I just need something in the garden to get rid of the slugs....


I've used beer traps with good results. 4 pack of tesco value bitter, poor 'beer' into a sunken yoghurt pot in the ground. Upturned ice cream/spread tub over the yog pot to stop rain diluting the beer, and a few 'doors' cut in the sides for the slugs to come in through. They love the smell of the beer, slide in and can't get out.


whitestu - 29/4/14 at 03:01 PM

quote:

They love the smell of the beer, slide in and can't get out.



Sounds familiar!


JohnH - 29/4/14 at 03:39 PM

Any holes bigger than a Bic pen and a mouse can get in. But don't bloke up air bricks, or you'll get damp. Lots of traps and milk bottles on there side. They get in but can't get back out ( up the slope).


jollygreengiant - 29/4/14 at 05:00 PM

When ever I've had occasion to use traps, I've only ever used a small bit of bread. Worked perfectly every time.


turbodisplay - 29/4/14 at 06:16 PM

My cat got a taste for mice livers, woke up one morning to find a head, all the organs, minus the liver in anatomically corect position. Got the picture somewhere .........


Slimy38 - 29/4/14 at 06:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by r1_pete
One of these:

mousetrap
mousetrap


.


Our cat brings the little b**gers in! Apparently it's a natural instinct, but I wish she would just kill them first.


Proby - 29/4/14 at 07:04 PM

I also get mice in my loft space. They must come through the air brick as once I heard them scurrying in the wall cavity, popped up into the loft space and the cavity wall insulation was spewed out into the loft exactly vertically above where I heard them in the wall. They love Mars bar on a little nipper. Had a couple last minute month up there, but nothing since. I tend to leave 4 traps set up there and check once a month or so.


DarrenW - 29/4/14 at 09:58 PM

You are lucky compared to my experience in last house. We had rats. I was told if there are rats in the house you are unlikely to have mice. So in a bizarre twist of fete, i guess you don't have rats unless they are causing the mice to flee through your living area.

Dead rotting mice in the walls / ceilings is not nice.

We don't live there anymore........


blakep82 - 29/4/14 at 10:20 PM

Cat for mice, duck for slugs. Natures way


DarrenW - 29/4/14 at 10:24 PM

Judging by the amounts of dead mice seen in Rats nest, you can add rats for mice to that list.


tegwin - 29/4/14 at 10:28 PM

I find poison left in all the mousey places works eventually. The decent stuff dehydrates the mice so they go outside to look for water and die en route


AndyGT - 30/4/14 at 05:59 AM

quote:
Originally posted by r1_pete
One of these:

mousetrap
mousetrap




+1

SLIGHTLY under-fed cat will soon get rid of any unwanted rodents. Just for a few days every 2 or 3 weeks, I give her less biscuits and then I find a few dead mice.


renetom - 30/4/14 at 08:04 AM

Have'nt got any in the house but our cat brings us
a dead one most every day,she's doing her bit.
Our last cat used to bring them in then let them go
then we had to catch them ourselves.


motorcycle_mayhem - 30/4/14 at 08:10 AM

Bait, the Rentokill blue seedy looking stuff works well. Usually takes 2-3 days if the mice are confined, longer if they're only passing through the baited space on route.
Previous house owners had blocked the airbrick holes with silicone, I'm still dealing with the damp damage after 2 years.

The urine from these things, particularly when poisoned WILL eat through Suzuki magnesium rocker covers.

They're happy to eat away at all types of pipe insulation, towels, fabrics, foams - but have no interest in the wiring of the house or car. They stripped the acoustic padding out of my Transit van, I'm sure the van is continually occupied by the things.


morcus - 30/4/14 at 08:20 AM

Another vote for getting a cat, preferably a known mouser. In one of our old houses they turned feilds opposite into houses and many people got mice. With 4 cats and a terrior we were fine.


19sac65 - 30/4/14 at 09:36 AM

I live in a converted barn with a farm next door
Our upstairs windows are velux,so the guttering is behind the headboard area
You can hear them scurrying along and knawing at the flashing as the cold weather arrives and they feel the heat
Last 2 years they drove us both insane,they are habitual so same time every night
I spoke to a commercial pest controler , he said old fashioned traps with cheese of mars etc
The blue pellets are good because they make them thirsty,they leave the house to drink,water reacts with the pellets and kills them
In large kitchens they use A4 sized sticky paper,thats very good if you can stand seeing them pull their own legs off trying to get off