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Ok it seems we have a mouse in the house - and not just any old mouse! The mouse appears to have super-mouse powers of extreme intelligence!
This mouse has outsmarted the 2 traps we have set and managed to get away - now it won't go near them even though we have changed to food attractant (have used dog biscuits, peanut butter, pinenuts, cheese) and the locations. This little blighter is keeping me awake at night and needs to go!
What strategies can I now employ to outsmart this vermin?
Borrow a cat???? Or if desperate bait it. It will probably die and stink to high heaven for a few days, but sometimes it's the only way!
Unfortunately our dog might eat the cat :p I could borrow the neighbours cats but I think they are a little on the lazy/well fed side. I may have to resort to bait - is ratsack still the thing to use these days?
I think so. Your local bunnings or even just supermarket will have the latest weapon on the shelf.
Good luck!! :o
do you have any jellybeans?? my parents swear by that as bait on a trap!!
ummmm, do you know where it is getting in? can you block the gaps? or put the traps along a wall where you know it's going (where you've found droppings?)
I will get some jelly beans at lunch time today (and hope I don't eat them all before I get home :lol: )
The mouse leaves no droppings! It is stealthy! I have been putting traps where I have seen it and where I have heard it. The house is about 100 years old so it could be getting in from anywhere to be honest - we also have fireplaces so it could also be coming in from there.
Try some sticky traps, they walk over them and get stuck. Then you can either dispose of them humanely or just kill them. If you put them along the edges of the wall behind/under places the mouse hides it should be relatively easy to catch it. Good luck!
the only other suggestion i have is to put it along the wall, put a super slim bit of jelly bean on it, and maybe more than a couple of traps. we thought we had one mouse, set four traps, caught three...
Would I get sticky traps from a Bunnings or Supermarket? They sound pretty clever! (Most mice we have had in the past just fall for the normal peanut butter in the mouse trap trick)
My guess would be bunnings, we got ours from our local non-chain hardware store, we don't have a bunnings here :)
Oh you too!! We've just caught 2, the first was not so smart and caught within half an hour of the trap being set lol... the second took days and he was caught yesterday. Not sure if there's any more!!! I've never heard of the sticky strip ones... awesome idea, might look into that :)
my friend had a huge mouse plaque go through, she lives right near our RAAF base and they are now developing some of the land for housing, so you could imagine it. Someone told her to put peppermint down... now not sure if she means the essential oil or not will have to ask, but since they have done that she has not heard one mouse. The mice were that bad that she even went and bought one of those electronic things to no avail.
She also had 3 cats who were doing their fair share of the job too.
no idea on how to help, as the last mouse we had,
*bit barberric so dont read if weak stomached*
df cornered it in the kitchen between cuboards, my dog made sure it didnt move while df "delt" with it, big knife skewerd threw its back. never had a mouse problem since.
but what ever you do, dont trap him and the nrealese him in the park up the road! a friend did this as she couldnt bring herself to kill it, a week later it was back, with 5 others!
good luck and hope you get rid of it, cunning little things they are!
Ugh Nai no idea sorry...our mice must be s bit dumber cos we only ever use peanut butter and I am catching one sometimes two a day...every day since the beginning of the year...:wall:
Astro...off to google that little piece of inspiration....thanks!!
Lasers and invisibility should do the trick.
Put on your cloak of invisibility and grab your trusty laser - then you wait and when supermouse comes out to steal your kryptonite, you blast him.
I have read they hate peppermint - you can soak some cotton balls in peppermint oil and put it in areas you have seen the mouse. You can also wipe peppermint oil over surfaces and add it to your bucket when mopping the floors.
You can also buy mouse repeller thingy's that you plug into the wall and they make a high pitched noise that only very small creatures can hear. They don't like the sound and stay away from your house. You can buy them a D!ck Smith and other places.
Good luck!
righto I'm off to buy a few litres of peppermint oil...
We had those clicker things that plug into power points last time we had a mouse problem. Didn't make an inch of difference. Steel wool gets rid of them apparently, they don't like it. We've just had a super clever mouse too, even touched DH's leg at one point, cheeky bugger. It survived 12 traps (yep, DH went wild on traps when he knew where it was hiding), vacuum cleaner and the beagle! But we won.....we found the hole it was getting in :) I'm over the mice. We live in a new estate and all the development means they're scurrying for cover.
Be careful with your dog and any poison bait you use. If the mouse eats it, then proceeds to die where the dog can then eat it, you'll have one very sick dog. I know of a family this happened to, their dog was only a few months old. She ate the mouse, got sick, fitted, and then has been on medication since and will for the rest of her life.
it isnt that the mice don't like steel wool, they chew threw it and then being steel it eventually kills them when it gets caught up in their system.
Ahh, Astrolady, didn't know that! I thought it was a deterrent!
have you tried chocolate? This was the only thing that worked and we caught 2 with it! We used dark chocolate, not sure if the type matters or not.
Ok - jelly beans, dark chocolate, steel wool and peppermint oil are on the shopping list! Watch out rodent - I am on the warpath!!
My big sister always uses pumpkin seeds and it hasn't failed her yet! Plus pumpkin soup is an added by product :D
My parents also had a rat problem after the floods, and found that if they left the BBQ unclean and put traps under there in the dark they would always get something, even without any bait!
And mice are like ants - there's no such thing as just one!
Hmmm I have peppermint oil cos someone told me about that for ants.... which not sure if it's overly successful for but hell I have it and I'll try it... downside... MAKES ME WANT CHOCOLATE!! lol Love the smell!
We have mice really bad at the moment to the point that we can hear them in our roof and walls during the day and they wake us up at night it has only been this bad for about three days we have put bait in the roof and i am off tomorrow to buy traps and as much peppermint as i can find!! I hate them, they are freaking me out!!!!! I hate the sound of them scratching on the inside of the walls and in the roof!! It is very unnerving i wish they would hurry up and go away!!!
My pussy is the mouse terminator! You can borrow him if you like ;) Since we've had him the only mice we see are dead at the doorstep!
we used fish food pellets with great results (well, not for the mouse:p)
or you could borrow my cat?
The little b@stard just came out, sat on our lounge room rug and looked at us! Raven, I might come and get that cat of yours!
Ahh I hear you!!!!
We have the rat sack things as never seem to catch any in traps!!
We are also careful about dogs and kids.
Argh Nai - the cheeky beggar! We had a mouse that was like that...it would scurry through the house in broad daylight! I blocked up EVERY hole in the wall/skirting I could find. Ours was actually coming through gaps in the fireplace. Since I blocked it up, we've had no problems...although I DO see a little mouse run along the fence every few days and go into our neighbours yard.
I worry about baiting. My sisters cat has been very unwell from eating a baited mouse, and we lost a dog at the farm from baited animals.
Traps are more humane, although you have to decide how to 'dispose' of it.