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Getting rid of rats/mice (merged threads)

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  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Eliza wrote: »
    I can't use poison as I have cats
    You use special little 'huts' to lay the poison in, that the mice can get into but cats can't. They'll be on sale at your local hardware store.
  • krlyr
    krlyr Posts: 5,993 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Just bear in mind that wild animals want three main things - food, water and shelter. Blocking the gaps can make the third one more inconvenient, but eliminating the first two can have a great impact too. I'm presuming you don't use your walls as a makeshift pantry but being strict around the whole house can help as mice are ones to stash food so they could have a nice winter's supply built up by now. Move food to higher cupboards, keep your bags of rice, cereal boxes, etc in sealed plastic tubs, make sure rubbish it put in the dustbin straight away rather than leaving bags lying about, clear plates straight away, make sure if you have a food recycling bin that it's kept locked. Clear up outside too - if you feed the birds, stop, or at least do it down your local park instead of your garden. If you have fruit trees, clear any windfalls up regularly. Avoid leaving anything that will gather water and make a nice drinking spot for the mice, indoors and out.
    It can be difficult if the resources are easily available outside, e.g. I currently live in the middle of a farm so I'll never be able to eliminate their food or water sources, but I can make my home as unappealing as possible in the hopes they'd rather set up camp in a burrow in the field, or second-best, in a neighbour's more mouse-friendly house!

    You can use all the poison or snaptraps you like but if your house is an appealing mouse hotel, the next family will be along to take up the vacancy pretty soon.
  • Eliza_2
    Eliza_2 Posts: 1,336 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Thanks both. Food is never left out in the kitchen, everything is in jars or wall cupboards - I have no evidence of them being anywhere inside the house at all - it's either under the floorboards or in the walls. Rubbish is always put into the outside bin immediately, or on the fire. I cut down a Virginia creeper thinking they might be climbing up to the roof space but still they come! Outside is more problematic, I live in the middle of the country with a few farms in sight, I also have chickens so the mice can find plenty of food. It's probably the warmth and shelter they are after as I don't have a problem in summer, it's always autumn when they come in from the fields.

    I'm afraid poison in containers doesn't do it, while the pets are unlikely to eat the poison directly, the mice will eat it and try to get back to their nests, the cat or dog could easily waylay them en route. I couldn't risk it I'm afraid.

    Am going to buy copies amounts of wire wool and stuff every gap I can find at the base of the wall.

    Unless anyone has a better idea of course..............
  • krlyr
    krlyr Posts: 5,993 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Sounds like the chickens (or their feed, anyway) could be a fab source of food. Have you got any way of making their enclosure a bit more mouse-proof? Covering the existing wire with a smaller squared wire, making sure sacks of feed are kept in metal containers, etc.
  • pelirocco
    pelirocco Posts: 8,275 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Eliza wrote: »
    Thanks both. Food is never left out in the kitchen, everything is in jars or wall cupboards - I have no evidence of them being anywhere inside the house at all - it's either under the floorboards or in the walls. Rubbish is always put into the outside bin immediately, or on the fire. I cut down a Virginia creeper thinking they might be climbing up to the roof space but still they come! Outside is more problematic, I live in the middle of the country with a few farms in sight, I also have chickens so the mice can find plenty of food. It's probably the warmth and shelter they are after as I don't have a problem in summer, it's always autumn when they come in from the fields.

    I'm afraid poison in containers doesn't do it, while the pets are unlikely to eat the poison directly, the mice will eat it and try to get back to their nests, the cat or dog could easily waylay them en route. I couldn't risk it I'm afraid.

    Am going to buy copies amounts of wire wool and stuff every gap I can find at the base of the wall.

    Unless anyone has a better idea of course..............



    We had gaps left when kitchen was refitted and they didnt putting skirting board behind the units , we have stuffed gaps with wire wool and then filler on top .............its not stopped them ! .......to be fair we had the mice before then

    And they get in the cupboards even tho there are no holes , they seem to be able to squeeze through the doors .......its probably best to put easily chewable food into plastic containers ...........they also seem to like paper napkins !

    They can be a monumental pain in the ar5e , you can never predict what will take their fancy next . We lay traps to kill them , but tbh it only keeps on top of the problem . We can go several weeks with no apparent sign of them , but i doubt that means they arent about , the dog ( jack russell ) normally alerts us by scrabbling at the kickboards of the kitchen units .

    At is worse , when we first moved in ( hose needed a lot of work ) you could hear them running up the cavities , they chewed everything in the loft , and one day had babies in a box of cereal ! ........one stray baby ended up in the toaster !
    Luckily these days its just the odd one or two
    Vuja De - the feeling you'll be here later
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    pelirocco wrote: »
    one stray baby ended up in the toaster!
    Way to go!!

    That's the answer, Eliza. No more nasty poison, no more messy traps. Just lay some bait in the toaster, give it three minutes, and - Ping!! - it's gone!
  • Eliza_2
    Eliza_2 Posts: 1,336 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Ugh - no thanks! Anyway I haven't got a toaster!!I've found in a previous house that they will merrily chew through plastic boxes to get at cat munchies (I think even the cat was impressed!!!) Now I keep anything like that in a cupboard which really is mouse proof and no evidence of them getting in at all. Chicken food is kept in bins - my biggest fear there would be rats so I hope to god it's just mice I can hear. Rats would be dire but no great surprise living out here.

    Definitely no sign actually in rooms - and there are only 4 so not hard to check. It's just the roof and walls. Very depressed to hear that wire wool doesn't work, now what can I do?!!!!

    Maybe just have to learn to live with them. It would help if my cat would mouse nearer home!!

    Ta all

    Liz
  • toffifee
    toffifee Posts: 237 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    You could try one of the plug in mouse/spider repellers. I think they don't bother bigger animals like cats.
    We had a problem with mice while we had pet mice, but as soon as the last one died we plugged the repeller back in and not had a problem since. Could be coincidence though.
  • ormus
    ormus Posts: 42,714 Forumite
    if the cats cant do the job properly, get rid of em.
    buy a jack russell instead.
    Get some gorm.
  • eilidh_s
    eilidh_s Posts: 254 Forumite
    I'm hearing what I think are mice in my walls as well and I haven't seen any evidence of them in the house so they are driving me a bit demented. I have been around everywhere, inside and out with a can of expanding foam but I didn't find a single hole. The house is only one year old and it is almost completely airtight (it has been pressure tested) the only gaps were in a couple of the windows but we are talking pinhole leaks. The plasterboard has insulation in behind it and you can hear them chewing away at it. I can't see any holes or gaps around the skirtings but just in case, i have laid traps and poison.

    I downloaded an ultrasonic repellant app for my mobile the first night I heard them and if I hold it against the wall, it would make them go a bit crazy for a wee while but I can hear the noise too so I amn't going to buy a proper one. They seem to be diminishing though, they aren't as noisy as they were last week so hopefully they will just die and leave me alone!
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