HELP! - theres a mouse in my house -

Hi,

Last night about midnight I was sitting at home in my little office minding my own business when what looked like a huge mouse or small rat scuttled right past me. (OK not so huge but the size of an adult mouse!) I think it was a mouse but ran by too fast for me to see. I stayed up til the early hours trying to catch it but it either ran too fast for me to fling a bucket over it or it hid in among my tat!

This house is only a few years old and there is no-where it could possibly live to find enough food to survive so what’s it doing in here???. its not as if I leave waste food hanging around…its an office full of papers!

This morning its still here…I’m in my office now (working from home) knowing that the mouse might run over my feet any minute…The door is shut and it cannot escape but there are enough hidey places for it to be clever and escape the mesh waste paper basket that I’m trying to hurl over it.

Please folks… any ideas on how to catch it without harming it? Oh and Ive checked all my local shops in walking distance and there are no humane traps anywhere and I couldn’t bear to cut its head off with a traditional spring trap and a piece of cheese.

Oh and when I do catch it what am I going to do with it? :smiley:

Wasp’s husband is the man you need;)

best solution i found was to get a small bucket or container and place a ‘ramp’ from the floor to the lip pf the bucket.
then take an toiletroll - roll and balance it on the lip as well with some cheese (better use peanut butter)**

the idea is that the mouse will smell the bait, climb up the ramp go into the roll and as soon as he steps near the bait the balance changes and it falls in the bucket.

you can then do what you want with it.

**see drawing bellow

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Cool, I’m gonna try this… Im assuming the mouse will try to jump out of the container so maybe it should be quite deep?

yep… but the bigger the cointainer the longer the ramp. you dont want it too steep

i used a food recycling bin that ealing gave me (and i dont use) good thing is that you can lock it.

ps you should hear it when the trap works

Apparently they prefer chocolate to cheese???

(Who doesn’t :smiley: )

Welcome to borrow an air rifle if you are up for a bit of “sport”…:wink:

Go buy a mousetrap and bait it up with peanut butter…they can’t resist the stuff…as for stopping it getting out the office if theres any gaps/holes that you can slide a biro/pencil in then it will escape!
I’m sure my hubby will post you a some ideas when he comes online shortly!:smiley:

Thanks Wasp, any ideas would be good as I’m selling my house and wouldn’t want potential buyers to see it when they come looking. I may hire him professionally if it becomes necessary!.

So chocolate or Peanut butter?

I’m gonna try Pan’s idea with peanut butter and another idea with Adzski’s chocolate suggestion. The second idea is to have the container upside down with one edge balancing on a cotton reel or something similar attached to a piece of string. When mousey goes for the chocolate under the container I pull the string and Hey Presto hes trapped… only trouble with that idea is I have to sit watching it all day :frowning:

exactly while with mine you dont need to be in the room.

also what happens if the mouse is trapped in an upside down container? how do you lift the container up without the mouse making a run for it? :wink:

Indian restaurant chocolate mints were the thing they went for in my previous house. More than once one was in the trap before I was out of the room.

Pan your hilarious, Im not sure if your serious or not!!! :w00t:

Good luck with mousey, were still trying to rid the house of the ghost so im not any help with mice!

thanks

but im serious mate! :stuck_out_tongue:

re the mouse - get one of those inhumane mouse traps that squishes their heads in. Saves having to dispose of a live mouse/rat.

re the ghost - I saw a movie where that have problems and they called in a priest http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/

Yours helpfully,
B

But I wouldn’t want to harm it, plus if I did that it’s ghost might come back for revenge and haunt me and I’d have the same problem as Lewis!:unsure:

pan’s idea/suggestion works well, you can also use a glass milkbottle, mouse cant grip the glass, bottle is rested on a 45 degree angle, small ramp, no bait is needed, mice are Inquisative creatures and will go inside just “to look” lol

as wasp say’s, if theres any gaps around the walls/doors/cieling/floor that a biro will fit into, then a mouse will get through no problem,

as for not enough food, lol

a mouse will eat anything that has the “smell” of food on it, and survive, wrappers,papers,cardboard etc, and only needs to eat a “match head” size amount daily to live, so biscuit crumbs down the back of chairs/desk are like a 3 course meal:D

if you want to jump on ya bike and come over here, I have a humaine multi-catch trap, that will catch upto 15 mice at a go, as one mouse, normally means, more than one mouse,

you would then need to transport it quite some way away, otherwise it’ll find its way back…

or, I can supply you with glue boards, or break back traps, as its amazing the amount of domestic mouse jobs I go too, where the homeowners are “wouldent hurt a fly” types, that then, when they cant catch their mouse, turn into

KILL IT,KILL IT,KILL IT, types,lol

get a cat :wink:

i once used one of those things which make ultrasounds that you plug on the wall, never had a rat problem since. it works by room and if you have more than one room affected you may have to use more than one, also if you have other pet rodent you cant use it as it would drive them mad.

or i can lend you my jack russell :wink:

Mice normally get in throug hthe holes in floors cut for pipes to come through. They can squeeze though imposisbly small gaps, so keeping them out is really hard. They are oftne under houses as the yare warm and dry and there are always airbricks with holes they can get through fro mthe outside.

Clearing out my lean-to shed a couple of weeks ago I found a little mouse-house under an old piece of furniture. The rodent had been quite resourceful in that it had managed to find a small length of flexible tubing and was obviously using it as some kind of bolt hole in case the neighbours cats appeared. It was full of ripped up paper and had the tell tale droppings all around. no mouse to be seen so I cleaned it up and thought no more about it…until the other day I heard some serious scuttling in the bathroom. Checked it out and it appears the mouse has moved in under my bath. So far he has peed on the floor and chewed through an unfeasible amount of organic bathroom sealant! Thanks Pan I will be trying the peanut butter bucket trap tonight. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the tips, and might take you up on this if I find out there’s more of the beggers in the house!

So…for now, in the absence of a cardboard roll or glass milk bottle (only cartons in kentish town cos we’re not that posh!!) my trap is set:

One mesh paper basket currently balanced upside down on one of those 35mm film black holders. String attached and leading to my desk. The bait: Organic peanut butter spread on cheesy doritos :D…he surely can’t resist that! If I could upload pictures on here Id add one cos it looks so funny.