Mice

Faith

We seem to have mice in my flat. One was spotted about 5 weeks ago, and then disappeared. It reappeared in my flatmate's room last week, and there was another one in the kitchen. It was then spotted the next day in the kitchen, and later on in the living room (although we think it panicked when we saw it and it just ran, ending up in the living room).

My flatmate insists on recycling, so there was a big box on the kitchen floor, full of recycling. She hadn't emptied it in about a month, so I think that might have attracted them. When she emptied it, I noticed that there was some cereal at the end of the box. I threw the whole thing out, disinfected the floor and set traps. Since there, I haven't seen any mice and there's been none caught.

What are the chances that they've just gone away? I'm in a big tenement-style building, so the mice can presumably travel within the whole building, maybe along the whole road. What more can we do to stop them coming in? They appear to be entering and exiting from behind the fridge. We've blocked it up as best we can with steel wool, but there's a lot of space still. Can mice get through styrofoam?

What's the best bait to use? I had peanut butter down, but it caught nothing. I've replaced it with bits of apple now.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

delly

Chocolate is the best form of bait in my experience. Regarding the styrofoam, i'm pretty sure your new friends won't have a problem getting threw it as they have great teeth. Just make sure you leave nothing that can attract them back such as waste food or packets on the counter.

Faith

I'd probably end up eating the bait if it was chocolate! How determined are mice, though? I mean, if they encountered resistance like styrofoam, is there any chance that they'd just give up?

I can't sleep at night because I think I can hear them in my room .

delly

I suppose if they think theres a good meal at the other end they'll keep at it. I wouldn't really worry about hearing them in your room, its when you don't hear them that i'd be worried (Just don't sleep with your mouth open ).

crosstownk

I'll second the chocolate suggestion - mice just love the stuff.

Here's some suggestions I got when I'd a mice problem earlier this year > http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054904769&referrerid=&highlight=mice

Faith

I take it that yours are gone now, crosstownk?

I might try metal traps tomorrow. The problem is, I don't know if somebody in another apartment has already killed them, or if they're super intelligent and know that the traps are there!

crosstownk

Yep - all gone now. I'd loads of them - they usually appear a few at a time. I moved into a house that had been vacant for some time, and when I moved in I got the place rewired and the electrician used leave the hall door and garage door open all day so thats how they got in. I caught a good few then in the end I had to get an exterminator who put down poison. Mouse free since.......................fingers crossed still.....................

Mellor

Its very hard to block up the holes. because they will find the smallest gaps ever and get throught. If you block them up, they will just find new ones.

Mr Magnolia

Raw bacon makes good bait so, chocolate cover raw bacon ftw. Chances are they're living in somebody elses apartment by now, if you suspect they're gone don't put down the traps you might only attract them back. Keep all the recycling in a good bin in future

BTW, tell you're flatmate you can't recycle cereal.

Victor

delly wrote:

(Just don't sleep with your mouth open ).

Isn't that more stoat territory?

charlesanto

Faith wrote:

I'm in a big tenement-style building, so the mice can presumably travel within the whole building, maybe along the whole road.
What's the best bait to use? I had peanut butter down, but it caught nothing. I've replaced it with bits of apple now.

Get onto the management company or whoever looks after the whole building, there is no point just gettin rid of them from your apt. the chances they are all over the building and will keep coming back. Rentokill or similar need to treat the whole building !

Faith

There is no management company, as far as I know. All the apartments are just privately owned.

I caught one last night, so I'm happy about that! Hopefully, there's only one left.

Mice are an extremely common problem in buildings like mine, so I'm not particularly worried. At least if I've seen them, others probably have too, and most apartments probably have traps down.

dubmick

I have mice myself at the moment and it is driving me mad, they are waking me up everynight. I don't know if they are in the attic or the walls. I have only seen one and that was in the en-suite about 2 weeks ago. I have put down nine traps with chocolate and bacon since then and I have not caught one.

I am contemplating getting rentokill out.

Mr Magnolia

You need to make sure they're not getting food anywhere else, otherwise they won't go to the trap. Check all your presses make sure they're not getting in the back. Check your hotpress too, if they're in the ensuite then they'e probably running along the pipework.

Good luck.

Goll Mac Morna

Had a visitor recently ourselves. First thing Monday morning we discovered lovely dropping on worktop in presses floor etc.
Went to work and set traps in the 'dark' of presses and along skirtings.
the best place to put traps is supposed to be along walls (as they tend to scurry along close to the wall)
came home from work and mouse was caught.

My mother had two mice in her house recently and we put traps along the wall with a shoe box to make them separate them from the room- to provide cover- caught both.

We used toast crumbs as bait, also read somewhere that warmed or roasted oatmeal attracts them .

The cheapo classic style snap your fingers wooden traps are best.
~We have been setting these and the fancy expensive plastic ones and have found the old style ones to be best.

crosstownk

Lifted up some floor boards this evening while redecorating a room and found a glue trap that I put down 6 months ago, complete with dead mouse and dead maggots stuck to the glue:eek: . Jebus, I nearly puked.

dubmick

good news, I got one today. Went home from work at lunch and checked all the traps. Guess where I got it? the hotpress?

I would love to believe there only was one.

antoinolachtnai

One suggestion if you are blocking holes: steel wool. you can get it in the hardware shop. I hear from the experts that they don't much like chewing through that ...

Faith

I've still to catch the second one. There hasn't been much evidence of it since the first one was caught, but I think I saw some poo on top of the washing machine yesterday. It was only there, though.

The Hill Billy

We've caught five of the buggers in the past week. One in the kitchen & four in the hot press.

I've loaded all of our traps with pieces of Mars bars. The chocolate definitely attracts them & the caramel helps stick the chocolate to the trap. Sometimes the pesky creatures can get it off the trap if it is not secured properly. Rolos are also good bait.

dubmick

my hope of there only being one was to be short lived, the little bastards woke me at 5am this morning. I'm declaring an all out war on Mice!!:mad:

FrankGrimes

what do people do with the bodies when you catch them? Where's best for disposing of them and do you reuse the trap or just get rid of it with the victim?

Am planning me a bit of a mouse killing spree.

dubmick

I just threw the trap and the mouse in a bag and put it in the bin outside. I was laughing at a mate of mine who says he re-uses traps. They are about 80 cent each plus who want to have pull the metal back off a dead mouse!

Snowbie

Hill Billy wrote:

We've caught five of the buggers in the past week. One in the kitchen & four in the hot press.

I've loaded all of our traps with pieces of Mars bars. The chocolate definitely attracts them & the caramel helps stick the chocolate to the trap. Sometimes the pesky creatures can get it off the trap if it is not secured properly. Rolos are also good bait.

I got five myself in my last house.It was a definite family i caught over a week long hunting.:p and all were different sizes.
Mice are not rouges they are usually in a family,if you see one the chances are that you might see a second or third.
But in a flat/tenament building etc,it is a bigger area and might be more spread throughout.

The Hill Billy

Another two yesterday - both in hot press.
It looks like the critters are getting in from the attic next door.
Thought of trying the "mint" solution in the HP, but am concerned that this will just move the mice elsewhere.
Don't want to poison the fcekers & have to deal with the smell.
Any more ideas?

Mr Magnolia

@ Hill Billy, you might need to talk to the pro's, sounds like a bit of a problem. Can you seal your neighbours attic from your own?

The Hill Billy

Sparks400 - Our house is a 160-year-old mid-terrace stone cottage. The roof-space was originally shared between all properties in the terrace. When I renovated my place I put in fire-breaks on both sides & sealed my roof-space off.

Still, those little critters can get through a hole the size of a pencil.
Or may have eaten through the expandy-foam filler.
Or may be coming up through spaces between the stones in the party walls.

I have to say that the neighbours are having a rougher time of it with the mice. I may have a chat with the neighbours about us clubbing together to get the exterminators in.

Tis strange though - we've not had as bad a problem with mice since we moved in over two years ago. Up until a week ago we only caught one & that was over a year ago.

dubmick

maybe there is a bit of plague of them this year!

Where are you Hill Billy? I am in Balrothery. I bought a couple of traps in Balbriggan yesterday and the chap in Chorrs said there is a lot of people coming in for traps this year i.e. more than usual.

The Hill Billy

I'm a mile & a half up the road from you at the gates to Ardgillan.
Even the neighbours - who've been living there all their lives - are astonished at the numbers.

BaZmO*

Is there a lot of new buildings, i.e. Houses, going up around where you live? Actually, what a silly question. You live in Dublin, of course there is!!

Anyway, older houses always tend to get these mini-plagues of mice whenever there's new builds going up near by. Generally it dies down after a short while.

The Hill Billy

BaZmO* wrote:

Is there a lot of new buildings, i.e. Houses, going up around where you live? Actually, what a silly question. You live in Dublin, of course there is!!

Anyway, older houses always tend to get these mini-plagues of mice whenever there's new builds going up near by. Generally it dies down after a short while.

No new buildings. The closest building work is almost 2 miles away where dubmick lives. Just lots of fields & parkland around me.

iascanmore

I'm in Cabra and have caught 5 in the last 3 weeks. 2 the whole of last winter and none the year before so I think numbers are up. Friends in Blanch are catching 1-2 every day!!

I think it's because we had a warmer summer than usual and more of em survived, now they are coming in from the cold.

ballygobackward

Just moved into brand new house, me and three guys, none of which are bothered my mice!!! saw the first one about a week ago and bought all the stuff even the sonic thing but nothing seems to work have caught no mice and saw another one tonight!!! just wondering how often do they breed???? lots of mice poision laid now but know that can cause probs too if they crawl under floorboards!!!

BaZmO*

Was up in my sister's house tonight and she spotted a mouse in the house today. Must be a bit of an epidemic happening at the moment. There might be something in the warm summer theory.

Faith

Pretty much everyone I know has, or recently has had, mice. I attributed it to the old buildings in Edinburgh, but it seems it's a widespread issue! It must be due to the weather we've been getting.

dubmick

Thursday night must be party night for mice because they had me awake for half the night. Absolute torture!

dubtom

Luckily this year we have had no mice, I put down to the fact that we converted the attic last year into a room and blocked up a lot of the spaces between us and our two neighbours. Next doors cat may also be helping, even though she doesn't come into our house she patrols our back garden. She caught one recently and played with for an hour before killing it. I know we have some under the little wooden shed because she will sit for hours perfectly still looking at it.I wouldn't go with rentakill, they will simply put down poisen which may kill any mice that eat it but wont stop more coming in. If you suspect they are coming from next door through the attic a good way to find out for sure is to block any hole's with loosly rolled up paper, not much obviously because mice aren't that strong, if the paper is disturbed you know thats one of their runs so you block it permantly. The same can be done in hotpresses and behind kitchen units. If you make it awkward for them they will move else where.

Victor

Faith wrote:

Pretty much everyone I know has, or recently has had, mice. I attributed it to the old buildings in Edinburgh, but it seems it's a widespread issue! It must be due to the weather we've been getting.

They like being outdoors for the summer, but come in for the winter.

Faith

Right, for the last few nights, the sound of the little bástards in the wall behind my bed has been waking me up (at least, I hope to God that's what it is!). Is there anything I can do to get them to stfu? There's been no more caught, I think the steel wool is doing its job - although it looked like a mouse tried to push its way through a bit yesterday!

Do I just have to put up with it?

Mr Magnolia

You could cut a small hole in the plasterboard and set a couple of traps beside it. Sounds like you have them cornered, you just need to kill them and get rid of them now.

CJhaughey

Use stainless steel scourers rather than steel wool, they don't rust and are impossible to chew through.

I have a packet of "storm" (mouse poison) in the shed, went to get some more to lay some extra bait and found that the mice had beat me to it:rolleyes:

I've heard about mice throwing themselves onto traps before, but this is the first time i've seen them actually break into a box of poison.

Ah well... saves me form bringing the bait to them;)

Victor

Faith wrote:

Right, for the last few nights, the sound of the little bástards in the wall behind my bed has been waking me up (at least, I hope to God that's what it is!). Is there anything I can do to get them to stfu? There's been no more caught, I think the steel wool is doing its job - although it looked like a mouse tried to push its way through a bit yesterday!

Do I just have to put up with it?

You need either loud sex or a snake or both.

The Hill Billy

Further to earlier posts - up to last Monday week we caught 9 mice. 1 in the kitchen, 8 in the hot press in our bedroom. I had one of those gizmos that emit high frequency noises mean to deter spiders, mice, etc in the kitchen. I then moved it to the bedroom & there hasn't been sight nor sound of a mouse since.

Expect an "Oops - Spoke too soon" post tomorrow.

Faith

Hill Billy wrote:

Further to earlier posts - up to last Monday week we caught 9 mice. 1 in the kitchen, 8 in the hot press in our bedroom. I had one of those gizmos that emit high frequency noises mean to deter spiders, mice, etc in the kitchen. I then moved it to the bedroom & there hasn't been sight nor sound of a mouse since.

Expect an "Oops - Spoke too soon" post tomorrow.

See, this is the kind of thing that freaks me out. Why are they in your hot press? What's attracting them to it? They could be anywhere!

patrickolee

I heard before that you should fill the holes with normal filler, but add some broken glass to the mixture. They cut their little feet when trying to re-excavate....

Could always buy a cat... and don't feed it too much.

The Hill Billy

Faith wrote:

See, this is the kind of thing that freaks me out. Why are they in your hot press? What's attracting them to it? They could be anywhere!

This was where they were coming in from the attic next door.

patrickolee - Yup, expandy-foam with crushed glass is a good deterrant for mice & rats. It's not that they cut their feet though - they normally chew through obstacles & the glass ususally puts a stop to that.

dubmick

I think they might be coming into my attic from next door too. I spent an afternoon sealing any holes/gaps in the house a couple of weeks ago.

I had just caught two more before this.

I thought they were gone but I found another one in a trap in the attic last night.

Current Kill Count: 4

Faith

Me again! I was cleaning out the box room during the week, which had ironically been stuffed full of boxes since I moved in. Anywho, the floor was covered in mouse poo, and I think I found an entry point. I blocked it up with steel wool and all.

But earlier I found some mouse poo on my bedroom floor while cleaning. I've no idea how long it has been there for. My cleaning could have dislodged it from its original place, leaving it somewhere where it appears newish, or it could actually be new. There's been no trace of them in the kitchen for weeks, and the only other evidence I saw was two poos left outside my bedroom door, that could have been left any time between the 15th of December and the 7th of January. I haven't heard them at all.

Basically, I can't decide whether to declare all out war and put mouse traps down EVERYWHERE or just leave it and hope for the best. I'm scared if I put traps down, it'll just attract them back. And ideas/ advice?

looksee

We had a small invasion of mice this year after years without any. I got some new high-tech traps with a kind of roller thing instead of the wire bit that snaps down. The mice are gone (3) but the traps are gone too - the old sort would kill a mouse instantly, but these new ones didn't. You would hear the snap and go to investigate and the poor mouse would be struggling for s ome time before it died. I've no problem about killing them (its them or me) but it should be quick. So if I need them again it will be back to the old-fashioned cheapo ones (and peanut butter).