Any ideas on how to get rid of mice.

[CDavis]

Hey guys it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here but I’ve run into a problem I recently spotted a mouse in my home and I’ve already identified how it got into the house and plugged the hole with steel wool but I’m not sure what I should be doing to get rid of it. Should I just use the standard snap traps or is there a better way to do this. I would just use poison but I’m afraid the mouse would get into bonkers water bowl or something so I guess that’s out of the picture.

I’m pretty confident it’s only a few mice as I have been meticulously cleaning and have only found a few droppings. Should I take bonkers food and water out of his cage at night and like empty his tray every night after I take the food out.

 

[LordTriggs]

I would take the food out overnight, maybe refresh the water just before bed, temporarily I would clear out the bottom of the cage nightly just to be double sure

as for the mouse itself, you can get cheap humane traps like this for just a couple bucks off Amazon and similar places. Then just take the mice somewhere a bit better for them to be like a field or woodland and set them free. My grandparents had an old cottage in the country and mice were a constant battle but they disliked killing them so used the humane traps

 

[CDavis]

I would take the food out overnight, maybe refresh the water just before bed, temporarily I would clear out the bottom of the cage nightly just to be double sure

as for the mouse itself, you can get cheap humane traps like this for just a couple bucks off Amazon and similar places. Then just take the mice somewhere a bit better for them to be like a field or woodland and set them free. My grandparents had an old cottage in the country and mice were a constant battle but they disliked killing them so used the humane traps

That’s a solid idea but I’ve read that relocating them is just a really long death sentence anyway because they don’t have there food or nest. Maybe that’s incorrect though.

 

[ChristaNL]

Relocating them is quite a challenge because they find their way back quite easily.
Unless you are completely sure you've plugged all the possible entrances it may or may not work.


I would just kill them, and soon before they breed ...
(a snap-trap is far humaner than letting them be in a complete panick for hours on end before being dumped in a strange place imho. They will be dead but at least not suffer for an unknown time.)

 

[CDavis]

Relocating them is quite a challenge because they find their way back quite easily.
Unless you are completely sure you've plugged all the possible entrances it may or may not work.


I would just kill them, and soon before they breed ...
(a snap-trap is far humaner than letting them be in a complete panick for hours on end before being dumped in a strange place imho. They will be dead but at least not suffer for an unknown time.)

Yea that’s what I was thinking also I need to get them out before this turns into an actual problem.

 

[mrs.pants]

I've used catch and relocate many times in many different houses over the years and always had successful results. You just have to make sure that you bring them to a place far enough away usually several miles I'm fortunate enough to work far enough away from home that I usually stop somewhere halfway between my house and my job to let them go. Mice are very resourceful and they can survive fine in the Wild, or they will just find a different house to settle in or Barn Etc what I don't like about snap traps is they are not guaranteed to work at all, and I've come across mice who are half alive mice who were caught on a different part of their body and obviously suffered horribly before death, so for me personally it's not the way to go.

 

[Scott]

Where there is one mouse.... They are insidious and can chew tiny holes to create a vast maze of invisible living space in your home.

Best advice is to act immediately and aggressively or else they *may* breed generations. Remove all food sources from easy access, plug holes as soon as they are evident.

 

[wrench13]

I Agree with you, Scott. Mice reproduce at a prodigious rate, ( 5 to 10 litters per year with up to 14 per litter) and if you see one, most likely there are a dozen in the walls already. I set traps. Freaking mice ate the wires on my BMW Z3 one winter and made a home in the air intake.

 

[Scott]

I Agree with you, Scott. Mice reproduce at a prodigious rate, ( 5 to 10 litters per year with up to 14 per litter) and if you see one, most likely there are a dozen in the walls already. I set traps. Freaking mice ate the wires on my BMW Z3 one winter and made a home in the air intake.

Mice/rats love automobile wiring! Many wiring mfgrs use a soy based insulation that is an irresistible treat. Class action suits have been filed against various automakers.

Bought a 2016 vehicle in 2017 that had sat on lot for a bit over one year. Six months later I suddenly had a bout of warning lights and indications that made the car virtually unusable. Took to dealership, and after exhaustive tests they began to access wiring bundles in very inaccessible areas. Found one between front left wheel well and dash that had extensive rodent damage. Fixed per warranty because the car sat for a long while - charge would have been about $2K! In reality it likely occurred in my driveway.

 

[ParrotGenie]

I Agree with you, Scott. Mice reproduce at a prodigious rate, ( 5 to 10 litters per year with up to 14 per litter) and if you see one, most likely there are a dozen in the walls already. I set traps. Freaking mice ate the wires on my BMW Z3 one winter and made a home in the air intake.

Mice/rats love automobile wiring! Many wiring mfgrs use a soy based insulation that is an irresistible treat. Class action suits have been filed against various automakers.

Bought a 2016 vehicle in 2017 that had sat on lot for a bit over one year. Six months later I suddenly had a bout of warning lights and indications that made the car virtually unusable. Took to dealership, and after exhaustive tests they began to access wiring bundles in very inaccessible areas. Found one between front left wheel well and dash that had extensive rodent damage. Fixed per warranty because the car sat for a long while - charge would have been about $2K! In reality it likely occurred in my driveway.

Yep fixed a Mercedes that had that issue where rodents eat through the soy based insulation of wiring going to second bank computer of engine and other wiring. It started on fire. Thankfully owner put it out before any other major damage occur and disconnect both batteries. That was a pain in the ass as had to pull everything on top of engine pretty much.

 

[Betrisher]

I've always used humane traps and released the mice into the culvert on the corner of our street.

There are many myths around about mice, but no, if you transport them more than a house block away, there's no reason to think they will 'find their way back'. Think about it: the animal is less than two inches long and can see only six inches in front of itself! Unless you leave a scent trail for it, there's no way!

Also, while mice breed very prolifically (a nursing mother can fall pregnant right away and have another litterof fifteen or twenty kittens within three weeks), they don't breed automatically and at 'top volume' as it were. They need to make a colony first and nests. If you clean scrupulously and disrupt wherever it is they're nesting, they'll move along.

The very best thing to keep mice away is to have a large snake living under your house. We had a red bellied black snake called Snidely who kept our bird area nicely clean of mice for over five years (did a darned better job than the lazy cats!). When Snidely moved on, the mice moved back. It was tiresome, but trapping fixed the problem.

Just FYI, an easy cheap humane trap can be made from a large (two litre) plastic bottle with a handle (Australian milk bottle). You just smear the neck *very* thinly with peanut butter, put a peanut or breadcrumbs inside and run a long string from the handle or neck of the bottle up through a bracket or hook (so that when you pull the string, the bottle 'jumps' up to the vertical immediately) - and wait.

I've caught literally hundreds of mice this way. It's pretty hilarious if you enjoy watching animals do what they do. I remember being woken by squeals during a mouse plague and sat up in bed to see six or eight minute mouse kittens actually playing in the middle of the room. They were chasing each other around and jumping about to avoid being caught, squealing with delight. I can't bring myself to kill such charming little creatures, hence the humane traps. It's possible to get funnel-mouthed traps too. They're useful if you have neither the time nor the leisure to wait around for a mouse to walk into your milk bottle (which they do with alacrity, only it does take time). The funnel-mouthed trap will contain quite a few wild mice (they're much, *much* smaller than the fancy mice people keep as pets), but it's pretty inhumane to leave a crowded trap with no food or water for very long. Always check it every few hours and empty it in a drain or near a creek.

PS. I have actually tested the 'finding their way back' theory. My brother-in-law reckoned my humanely caught-and-released mice were simply recaptures because I'd caught so many (eighty-three during the last plague). So, I carefully marked the mice with hot pink nail polish before releasing them. Didn't have a single recapture! No doubt some amazed householders ultimately caught some of the decorated mice and wondered how on earth they managed to acquire a pink dot on the backs of their necks!

PPS. Mice aren't a problem for us any more, since our 'new' house is built on tall foundations (last one was at ground level, which made for many interesting visitors from funnel-web spiders to a blue-tongued lizard). What *is* a huge problem is cockroaches!!! Anyone got any failsafe ideas for those? And no, I'm not into humane trapping in this instance. I just don't want to poison my birds!!!

 

[ChristaNL]

The cockroaches are easy - I just use some small plastic square-ish containers (the same ones I buy the livefoodanimals in) make a small slit in the top and add 2 short slits on the side, fold it in (make a little slide). Half a fingernail wide is plenty: you want a gap large enough for them to pass through easily but not to be able to climb out again.
Whatever the roaches like to eat- get some in there and just put it somewhere (low on the ground works best of course), maybe pile up some carboard for even easier acces.
Just empty before they overcrowd to a point they climb back up over several layers of fellow roaches...


I just chuck the containers in a bucket of water for a few minutes.
(The small holes in the sides make them fill up almost instantaneous.)
Not nice but I do not want to squash them one by one...
=


The 'find your way home range' for (european) fieldmice is 300-600 metres and that includes swimming through/ crossing (small) bodies of water...
so good luck with that.

 

[Wingnut]

As much as I hate killing animals, even nuisances, if they are IN your home they need to be killed. I Live in Florida about 4 blocks from the ocean and we used to have a horrible rat problem with our two Macaws outside. They would eat the dropped food and knew exactly where to go. I would invest in the electronic traps personally as its a quick death, no mess, and no extended suffering....once they know an area (your home) is not safe anymore, they shhouulllddd leave.