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A mouse in the house
Valerie 7
Posts: 59
Not exactly a garden problem, I know, but one I'm sure some of you will have had to deal with.
We have mouse activity in the cupboard under the sink. Since we have spent the last couple of years actively encouraging wild life into the garden, it feels wrong to think about traps or poison. That said, I don't want the mice to consider moving into the house as a permanent option.
Can anyone suggest a way to discourage them from coming in?
Thanks, Valerie
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In my experience they can't be discouraged once they've found a way in. You could try a non-lethal trap and set it free somewhere else. Make sure every gap you can find is sealed. They can squeeze themselves through the smallest gaps. A cat helps
We set indoor traps with either cheese, chocolate or peanuts. I know this goes against actively encouraging wildlife but we feel our home is ours, although I wouldn't kill a spider or other insect that found it's way indoors, but mice and rats are a definite no, no to me. However the said dead mouse would then go onto the compost heap so will compost down or be a tasty treat for various insects.
I agree GD. I wouldn't kill them in the garden but we do have traps in the roof and catch things sometimes. We have a timber framed house and the climb up the frame into the roof.They can't get into the house with us but they're noisy and chewy at night up there.
In the sticks near Peterborough
House mice and rats are not very nice critters. They use their urine as scent trails. They both urinate and defecate on food stuffs and surfaces. Sadly you have to bite the bullet and deal with them.
They can also be very expensive as they have been known to chew through electricity cables in the roof space and cause fires.
We had to have our living room replastered because one escaped to behind a bookcase. When I moved the bookcase to get at the mouse, the plaster on the wall fell off.
Beware of rodents in the eaves and lofts as Berghill has warned, the little creatures are not fussy with their food, if none is readily available they will chew through paper, wood, cables etc. They are incredibly agile and will scale an outside wall especially where climbing plants make it easier for them to enter your home through the smallest crack in an open window.
I'm with the others on this - you have to get rid of them if they're in the house. No such thing as one mouse either...
I also love to encourage wildlife into the garden - I have a regular little mouse who visits - but that's where the garden stops. My door.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
There are a number of humane traps available but even they aren't perfect. We had a situation some years ago where the trap we had set had been activated at some point during the day when we were at work. It was a hot day and the mouse had suffocated - not so humane after all.
Unfortunately, if you want to get rid of them you are going to have to use some form of trap and seal any access holes you can find. 'No Entry' signs don't seem to be very effective.
You may also want to look at your bird feeders. I found that the seeds etc left by the birds was what had probably encouraged the mice in the first place. Sadly I had to stop feeding them for some months, and it did seem to deter the meeces
Mice and rats in the garden are one thing; indoors, quite another and not acceptable for all the reasons stated above. Use a good quality rat poison left well out of sight and reach of children and household pets. Dogs and cats are good but not 100% effective.
We have recently moved from one old farmhouse and garden to another. Both have rodents of various sizes in the garden but this one has rats that have eaten a crater in the insulation under the car bonnet and left droppings near essential cables so I have used sachets of poison. They've also eaten some collected seeds stored in the outhouse. Not part of the deal.
Clean affected areas thoroughly and make sure no food scraps are left out. Be careful where you store bird food and make sure none is left on the ground at feeding stations overnight.
Last edited: 09 January 2017 09:38:55
We had mice last winter and bought a plug in sonic mouse deterrent. I was sceptical at first but it certainly worked for us. No mice inside ever since. (famous last words probably....) We are in a pretty rural location and have lots of mice and voles outside.