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We've had small amounts of mouse evidence for some time, and were not too fussed as long as it kept to itself and didn't disrupt our cupboards. And it hasn't.
But I just saw it creep out from behind a speaker. I screamed, threw my empty spew bucket at it, and it ducked off. Of course it made its appearance right after DH left for a conference for 4 days, so I'm dealing with it on my own.
It has to go.
What should I do?
SCREAM
run away
RING your Dh and demand he come home from some silly conference to save his wife
The best MOUSE traps are the grey ones which are enclosed. So it means when its caught that half of it wont be seen, depending on the size of it. Rather than the older style wooden ones which are now around in plastic. Peanut butter is the best option.
Woolworths sell really great mousetraps. They are grey plastic, I think they are called "Striker" or something similar? We've had a bit of a mouse problem in the last few months, and it was a shock to me having never had mice problems before! We first became aware there was at least one mouse when I woke up one night to hear scrunching sounds...and there was a little mouse munching away on a ferrero rocher behind the bedside table (I have no idea where the chocolate even came from!!).
Where there is one mouse, chances are there are more...so set a few mouse traps if you can. Maybe one behind the speaker it was behind, one in the pantry, one under the kitchen sink etc. They love peanut butter, so I use a bit of that on the traps. The woolies ones are great, they aren't like a traditional mousetrap with the wire...once it snaps shut you can't see the mouse's head and don't have to touch it to get it out of the trap...hard to explain but my mum told me about these traps and having tried them they are great.
It's ok...I screamed when I first saw our little mouse too..threw an icecream container at it (DF was trying to catch it to get it out of our bedroom) and screamed again and the little bugger squealed back at me! Lol.
We use the same grey plastic traps.
We actually had one a few nights ago that DH caught thankfully! I cannot stand them in the house but we have parrots outside the back door under our patio and the bird seed attracts them. We are building an avery in the back corner of the yard very soon so hopefully we won't get them anymore. They always end up in our bottom kitchen drawer - ewwwww.
*off to Woolies*
I never thought I'd be a mouse-killer, but this little guy is a GONER!
We live in a semi-detached so will also put a complaint in to RE about living habits of other half of house as we had no issues before they moved in.
Thanks SOO much ladies, I feel heaps better knowing that I have some options...
LOL snugglybean - I know how you feel. I once had a mouse in the house that my cat brought in and let go :doh: I went to so much effort to catch it alive and free it again, then when I told the people at work (who all grew up in the country), they told me off for saving a mouse as mouse plagues cause a lot of damage and loss to farmers. :doh:
took us 20 minutes the other night to catch our little buggar in a woolies trap with peanut butter....
no you don't have to touch them to get them out, but I tend to chuck the whole thin.....ewwww
We had a mouse problem a couple of weeks ago. When you think about it, they all breed over the summer and now that the cooler weather is coming on, they are looking for shelter (Dont know why it has to be in my house though....). The grey traps are definately the best as is the peanut butter. The traps are so easy and safe to set as apposed to the old wooden ones. You can also block any holes that the little buggers are coming through with steel wool.
Good Luck!!!
saw this the other night - thought it was a fabulous idea...
If you dont want to kill it, get your self a mars bar, a ruler and a bucket big enough that it cant climb out of again.
Put the bucket next to a ledge (tv unit, box, coffee table whatever) and the ruler hanging over the edge over the bucket. It needs to be far enough over that it will tip and fall into the bucket when the mouse runs along it.
Open the mars bar and put the wrapper at the beginning for the ruler, and half the mars bar on the end of the ruler above the bucket.
Eat the rest of the mars bar and go to bed :)
The mouse will come along, be enticed by the wrapper and run along the ruler to get to the mars bar, the ruler, marsbar and your mouse will all fall into the bucket, quite unharmed, with their necks intact (not withering on the floor in a painfull drawn out death) and you can relocate the mouse where you want to.
and if you are not so nice like me you can fill the bucket with water and it will drown.
I've tried to be nice to them but all that happens is they find their way back in the house and bring along the extended family!!
I have a compassionate mousetrap from Bunnings.
They get trapped in there to be released somewhere else, and it works pretty well
You can also buy (more expensive than the grey traps) single-use 'Mortein' traps from the supermarket. They're a round black trap with a hole in the bottom you open up to put peanut butter or something inside the trap, and a gap on the outside for the mouse to go in, then there must be a little device inside the trap that closes on the mouse when it goes inside. There's an indicator on the top that tells you if the trap is set, not set, or if mouse has been caught...then just throw the whole thing out and you don't even have to see the mouse.
Good luck getting rid of him...you will probably find that there is a little family of them somewhere so keep the traps out until it starts to warm up again outside (or for a couple of months), they're just looking for somewhere warm to stay over winter, and perhaps water as well as up until recently it has been pretty dry.
We use the Tomcat traps. Seem to work well and easy to dispose of the mouse afterwards. We found peanut butter only worked the one time, after that they learnt how to lick it off. Half a date squashed on the plate has worked very well.
Don't forget to place mouse bait in your ceilings as this is a great place for them to hide. You are left with no bodies and no smell which is great.
The bait I use is in a yellow box with about 4 baits in the box.
Nothing is worse than hearing them scratching in the wall or ceiling in the middle of the night.
Ohh Rivlas...my mum was telling me the other day she keeps being woken up by scratching in the walls at night...she thinks they have some rats in the roof! My brother has been on "throw rat bait in the roof cavity" duty for a while now. Mice freak me out enough..no way could I handle rats!!
Their Jack Russell loves being let into the garage too, there's a definite mouse smell in there and she loves hunting around for them!
Well, so far this little tiger is not a climber - we can leave stuff on the bench and it's fine, unlike the mice of my Albert Park sharehouse years ago, where they got into everything, including the fridge! (Which was probably warmer than the rest of the kitchen...)
We have no access to our ceiling, so can't put any there anyway.
Didn't make it to Woolies today - feeling really sick. Will have to try again tomorrow.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
We had a mouse incident recently when we turned on our reverse cycle aircon/heater on to heat. After a few hours this really foul smell was everywhere. It didn't take long to find out where and why the smell was occuring.... BBQ mouse anyone? It was horrific!