Getting rid of mice in the house - Page 4

racinghamster · 09-27-2013, 04:32 AM

That`s good that you caught one of the cheeky monkeys! Do you know if they are house mice (all brown in colour) or wood mice (will have a cream underbelly and a longer nose)? I had to picture the scene of one sitting on your coffee table, that was very cartoon-like!

Not funny I know, but they do sound as though they are coming in just looking for a few tasty morcels!

cactus · 09-27-2013, 04:55 AM

I think they're all brown in colour. I've seen two that I can remember well, one was a mid to light brown and the other was bigger and a darker brown. My OH let the one we caught out of the trap far away from the house this morning and said he thinks it was the bigger mouse we caught. We've only seen two we think so hopefully just one more to go!

I started talking to the one on the coffee table, it just sat there and looked at me like any of the hams would. I had to do a double take just to make sure it wasn't Holly I was looking at and she'd somehow managed to get out. It ate a crumb and then ran off again

I caught sight of that one again as it ran out into the middle of the room. It saw me and tried to run under a chair but my laptop case was leaning against it and it wasn't looking where it was going. It ran into the side of the case, squeaked and then finally made it under the chair and off out of the room. I don't much like them in the house at times but that really made me giggle. I hope we get the other one tonight and then it'll all be over and done with hopefully.

starshme · 09-27-2013, 04:58 AM

I have had mice in the house and it is a HUGE pain as they reproduce so quickly. We finally had to have an exterminator come in because I couldn't stand to use glue traps or put down poison and none of the traps I bought were doing anything. I was able to find the spot they were coming in and he put steel wool into several small spaces that seemed likely spots of entry. That was what finally seemed to work although he did have to put some bait boxes around the house under furniture, etc. I hated the idea of killing them but I was completely unwilling to share the house with them. They had gotten quite bold, darting out at odd times - which was really fun when we had visitors. My inlaws are middle eastern and already don't understand why we love our hamsters so much - they had half decided that I was inviting the mice inside!!
I never found any dead mice or nests and we removed the boxes after a few weeks and didn't see any signs after that.
I did find a mama mouse and her 5 babies in our shed and I relocated her into the woods near our house. They had chewed through a hammock, a tennis net and several sets of gardening gloves to make a nest. Anyway, it's a tough job and decision - good luck!

cactus · 09-27-2013, 07:02 AM

We're really hoping ours haven't reproduced though one of the two mice we've seen does seem smaller than the other. Hopefully getting one out will be the start of the removal of all of them. I actually have some steel wool about the house, I won't have to wait until I go to the store to get the expanding foam if I use that. Hadn't occured to me to use it so thank you for the tip

They really are a pain at times, we have guests coming over soon and I'm hoping they won't make an appearance during their visit. I'm glad you managed to sort the problem out in the end and thank you for the luck in sorting out ours!

starshme · 09-28-2013, 05:10 AM

Hopefully they won't pop out!! Seriously our problem had gotten out of hand which is why I had to call in a professional. He said with the number we were seeing that there were many, many mice in the house. We had mouse droppings everywhere and they were chewing into things in the house. I found droppings in my kids closets, toy boxes, food cupboards, everywhere you can imagine. Years ago in an apartment we had a mouse and once we caught it and let it go I never saw it again. This wasn't the same situation at all!! Hopefully yours hasn't reached infestation level and you can find a happy solution.

fluffydd · 09-28-2013, 04:01 PM

Glad you caught one of the mice. We had mice a couple of years back and found that humane tilt traps worked as well as keeping all potential food sources out of the their way. The trickiest thing was that the mice were coming through from our next door neighbours house. Their answer to mouse control was to through a shoe at them. We caught about 5 or 6 and then the next door neighbours moved out. The house was empty for months and because they had no access to food in our house or next door they moved out they very quickly moved out. It was very frustrating that we were doing everything we could to discourage the mice from our house but they just keep going next door for food. They were very bold mice too. A couple of times I looked round and saw a mouse sitting in the middle of the floor watching me.

HollyHamster · 09-28-2013, 06:27 PM

Just be thankful your little problem isn't as bad as the epic plagues of mice in the grain belt of Australia. They swarm by the millions of billions of trillions there. Your best bet to be rid of them is to just give up and move away til they eventually run out of food sources and die off.

hammy2 · 09-29-2013, 01:19 AM

They only swarm like that because humans leave their grain stores for them to eat they eventually all starve to death.

cactus · 10-16-2013, 03:01 AM

Just a quick update on the situation, still can't get the remaining one or two out

One of them is getting so bold as to sit in the middle of the floor and stare at us when we talk. Moving the trap now to see if that will help any. Glad our neighbours aren't such idiots and we're not in Australia too!

**DrKMcK** · 10-17-2013, 10:55 PM

I really hope you get this taken care of. Poison is a very bad idea for anyone who has pet rodents. My hammies have escaped and were found, but poison being available to them would be awful. Keep up with the traps and do the best you can. :-/