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🐭🐭🐭👀

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isha
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🐭🐭🐭👀

#1

Post by isha »

I vaguely heard and suspected them last week. Then last night himself saw a little 🐭 make a dash across his upstairs den. Then this morning I saw a little 🐭 lying asleep in the hot press.

😭😭

Before this year we have always had cats but our last really old one died a year ago. I don't particularly want another. Having had up to 9 outdoor cats for long times when the kids were small (because of their miraculous abilities to rescue abandoned kittens) I feel I have thoroughly expunged my cat karma.

What is the best way to deal with mice? Himself wants the sonic things but I wonder a) do they work and b) how does anyone know that they are okay for humans?

Traps? It's horrible. But is it best way?
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marhay70
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#2

Post by marhay70 »

You can get humane traps which capture the beasties alive and allow you to release the somewhere where there are, hopefully, lots of hungry cats. The sonic yokes are rubbish., my sister has them and reckons the mice dance to the tune. Really the old fashioned traps are the best solution, fast and effective, not for the squeamish, but my missus , if I'm not there . just dumps trap and all in the bin.
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#3

Post by isha »

marhay70 wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:06 am You can get humane traps which capture the beasties alive and allow you to release the somewhere where there are, hopefully, lots of hungry cats. The sonic yokes are rubbish., my sister has them and reckons the mice dance to the tune. Really the old fashioned traps are the best solution, fast and effective, not for the squeamish, but my missus , if I'm not there . just dumps trap and all in the bin.
Ok. Maybe the humane traps are best.

I was thinking with the sonic ones - how would you know if it was working.
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knownunknown
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#4

Post by knownunknown »

isha wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:16 am Ok. Maybe the humane traps are best.

I was thinking with the sonic ones - how would you know if it was working.
I tried that sonic thing before supposed to keep them away didn’t work at all. There’s a plethora of ideas for more humane traps. There are whole YouTube channels devoted to it.

For example:



There is one with a glass bowl and oil seems to work ridiculously easy as well.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#5

Post by Berties_Horse »

Couple of years ago we had an extended family dug in, eliminating them one by one took several weeks. Alas, the only effective method other than the broom is setting down a legion of traps. Sliver of cheese or chocolate on the hook, setting them next to gaps in appliances. Keeping mice alive? The bastards are capable of breeding every month, do your neighbours a favour and wipe out a clan where possible.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#6

Post by isha »

knownunknown wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:20 am I tried that sonic thing before supposed to keep them away didn’t work at all. There’s a plethora of ideas for more humane traps. There are whole YouTube channels devoted to it.

For example:



There is one with a glass bowl and oil seems to work ridiculously easy as well.
Oh my God!!
I will look into this more as it is obviously an area about which there is a lot more info than I suspected. Because we have had cats for so long i have not seen a mouse inside for over 30 years. Thanks for the recommendations.
But I'm afraid I had to stop watching that video half way through because the sight of so many mice all together in the one place was beginning to make me feel ill. And I am honestly not that squeamish at all (except about blood). :shock:
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#7

Post by isha »

Berties_Horse wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:27 am Couple of years ago we had an extended family dug in, eliminating them one by one took several weeks. Alas, the only effective method other than the broom is setting down a legion of traps. Sliver of cheese or chocolate on the hook, setting them next to gaps in appliances. Keeping mice alive? The bastards are capable of breeding every month, do your neighbours a favour and wipe out a clan where possible.
I am going to find it VERY hard to deal with mouse bodies to be honest. But I do get the point. And we cannot coexist in the house.
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marhay70
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#8

Post by marhay70 »

knownunknown wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:20 am I tried that sonic thing before supposed to keep them away didn’t work at all. There’s a plethora of ideas for more humane traps. There are whole YouTube channels devoted to it.

For example:



There is one with a glass bowl and oil seems to work ridiculously easy as well.

That video is the stuff of nightmares for a lot of people. As posted earlier, the fcukers can reproduce every three or four weeks and are a source of disease. I have no problem with the final solution.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#9

Post by knownunknown »

marhay70 wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:40 am That video is the stuff of nightmares for a lot of people. As posted earlier, the fcukers can reproduce every three or four weeks and are a source of disease. I have no problem with the final solution.
Sorry, didn’t mean to upset anyone I think I’ve become immune after seeing experiments like ‘rat park’. Dunno why I ended up watching hours of this stuff one morning but the creators would say this is more humane because they don’t kill them. I think they use the same mice for the same traps so maybe they are easier to trap then your regular mouse.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#10

Post by Del.Monte »

It's not nice killing them with traps but in my experience it's the only effective method. The sonic yokes just don't work. You also need to find out where they are getting in to your house or the ones you killed will be replaced by their friends.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#11

Post by Cyclepath »

Del.Monte wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 12:16 pm It's not nice killing them with traps but in my experience it's the only effective method. The sonic yokes just don't work. You also need to find out where they are getting in to your house or the ones you killed will be replaced by their friends.
We had to get an exterminator in a few years ago. He told us one of the most common points of entry for mice is the back door! Don't leave it ajar if you pop put to the shed or whatever! He also pointed out that our creeper was growing around a wall air vent on the first floor - said you may as well provide them with a ladder 🤦‍♂️
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#12

Post by CelticRambler »

Another vote for the utter uselessness of the sonic things.

For "reasons" (which we won't go into) I should be unequivocally opposed to the killing of defenceless rodents. I am not. :evil: In the absence of a suitably murderous cat, I am a fully paid-up member of the neck-snapping trappers club, and also have a stash of packets of unhealthily blue-tinted cereal on hand from the beginning of autumn to the end of spring. :evil:

I recently found solace in my position from an unexpected source - Neil deGrasse Tyson :



(start at 1m30 if the link misbehaves)
KHD
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#13

Post by KHD »

I haven't had a mouse in our house for years, and the back door is always open. Must be due to the complete lack of anything nice to munch on. Thinking about it now there are frequent days where I'm starving due to nothing to eat in the presses. The mice probably go to my neighbour's house instead. Don't blame them, the food situation in my house is depressing. Anyway I use traps in the sheds, any that don't take to them usually die of chewing on some hazardous substance or fried in the boiler house.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#14

Post by KHD »

Have to admit though I've probably murdered thousands of mice over the years. Even though I actually like mice. Figure that one out. :D
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#15

Post by isha »

We have already caught (ie killed) one today since laying two mouse traps. It's three inches long which is much bigger than the two tiny 🐭 sightings prior to the crisis being discovered. My youngest son has declared it to be a rat though his brother disagrees.

I am not going to post the photos here because I simply cannot cope with confirmation of my worst fear. I have a terrible hatred of rats. One came onto my shoulder when I lived elsewhere while I was breastfeeding my newborn. I immediately packed my bags and left with the children until it was sorted. I can pretty much cope with any hardship, put up with anything natural, but not rats. The very idea gives me the creeps and if the next catch is in any way ambiguous I'm packing my bags again!! To go where I don't know but this is my Achilles heel!
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#16

Post by Hairy-Joe »

I'm another that goes for the nuclear option of traps and poison. I've 6 or 7 bait boxes around the house outside and in the garage. I've traps in the garage and in the camper.

I've never seen or heard of mice or rats in the house but we keep no food remains loose and everything like cornflakes, pasta, etc. in plastic boxes in the press
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#17

Post by isha »

I'm very good with the food thing, overly so some might think. Everyone has to clean up after themselves when they make snacks. I've gone through every cupboard today and made sure there's no loose stuff. There isn't. I think I've caught whatever these are - hopefully 🐭 - at the very start of their attempts to move in, because last week was the first time I heard any untoward small noises and I would have heard it before if there was anything as I work in silence at my laptop alone in the house.

PS sorry to seem obsessed with this, but ☹️
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#18

Post by isha »

Cyclepath wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:21 pm We had to get an exterminator in a few years ago. He told us one of the most common points of entry for mice is the back door! Don't leave it ajar if you pop put to the shed or whatever! He also pointed out that our creeper was growing around a wall air vent on the first floor - said you may as well provide them with a ladder 🤦‍♂️
I have a thing about the door being open as much as possible. All summer unless pouring rain, and during winter if the day is fine I like a good blast of fresh air into the place for at least a few hours every morning. There is even a stray cat who mooches around by times. We have had no mice in all the time we had our own cats. Maybe I'm just going to have to go back to cats. Gnash. Gnash. Damn. Really you can't get just one because it is lonely for them. Sigh.
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#19

Post by isha »

Cat shit in the vegetable beds or vermin in the house...
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KHD
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#20

Post by KHD »

isha wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 6:53 pm We have already caught (ie killed) one today since laying two mouse traps. It's three inches long which is much bigger than the two tiny 🐭 sightings prior to the crisis being discovered. My youngest son has declared it to be a rat though his brother disagrees.

I am not going to post the photos here because I simply cannot cope with confirmation of my worst fear. I have a terrible hatred of rats. One came onto my shoulder when I lived elsewhere while I was breastfeeding my newborn. I immediately packed my bags and left with the children until it was sorted. I can pretty much cope with any hardship, put up with anything natural, but not rats. The very idea gives me the creeps and if the next catch is in any way ambiguous I'm packing my bags again!! To go where I don't know but this is my Achilles heel!
I remember two rats got into the attic of our house a few years ago, I set the rat traps and tied it to a nail and you want to here the noise and struggle with them. I never found out how they got in but since then every so often I have a recurring nightmare that I'm asleep in bed and the sides of the room has been eaten away with loads of rats staring into the room.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#21

Post by Del.Monte »

Rats are dangerous when cornered and I had the pleasant experience of killing one with a shovel in a bathroom in my last house.
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#22

Post by KHD »

Del.Monte wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 8:04 pm Rats are dangerous when cornered and I had the pleasant experience of killing one with a shovel in a bathroom in my last house.
When I was younger and had no sense, myself and brother cornered a rat between some stones, I remember it squealing, but we thought it was a hamster and I may have stroked it's head, can't remember fully. My grandfather came over with a shovel and gave it a belt and a lasting image in my head of the rat been thrown from the shovel over the hedge. :mrgreen:
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#23

Post by KHD »

Just thinking my brother used to sow and dress corn, when he had to clean out bins he always had a fork with with him, as the rats would be the size of Jack Russells at the end of the corn bins in the sheds.
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#24

Post by isha »

Del.Monte wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 8:04 pm Rats are dangerous when cornered and I had the pleasant experience of killing one with a shovel in a bathroom in my last house.
This is exactly an experience from my childhood that left me scarred. My father ripped the side panelling off the bath and then killed a rat with the shovel. I was absolutely horrified. Of course it was probably the best thing to do, but I will never forget it
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isha
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Re: 🐭🐭🐭👀

#25

Post by isha »

Christ, I'm going to have bad dreams 🥺
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