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Please Help! I Have Mice In The House - Anyone Heard Of A Rat Zapper? Is It Good??

I have seen a couple of mice running along my lounge. I am absolutely petrified and want to do what ever it takes to get rid of the !!!!!!s!

I have borrowed the neighbours cat for a couple of hours, soon after I saw the mice. I then went into town and bought mouse traps and glue boards, and placed them in the appropriate places, but it has since been two days and nothing has been caught.

I have discovered loads of mice droppings behind my fridge, and also behind my cupboard in the lounge.

I have been told a rat zapper will guarantee to get rid, the cheapest is on ebay for about £30. Has anyone heard of one of these and are they any good.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you
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Comments

  • RoCas
    RoCas Posts: 3,929 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Hi,

    Local councils provide pest control for a fee (unless you're a council resident when I believe it's free). My council charge £50, so if you're going to be spending at least £30 for a rat zapper it might be worth getting the professionals in.
  • Spikey_2
    Spikey_2 Posts: 14,119 Forumite
    Use your judgement, and above all, be honest with yourself. :)
    I walk with the world & the world walks with me!
    I don't make bad choices!!! Other people just fail to see my GENIUS !!!! :D
  • Spikey_2
    Spikey_2 Posts: 14,119 Forumite
    fad1211 wrote:
    I have seen a couple of mice running along my lounge. I am absolutely petrified and want to do what ever it takes to get rid of the !!!!!!s!

    I have borrowed the neighbours cat for a couple of hours, soon after I saw the mice. I then went into town and bought mouse traps and glue boards, and placed them in the appropriate places, but it has since been two days and nothing has been caught.

    I have discovered loads of mice droppings behind my fridge, and also behind my cupboard in the lounge.

    I have been told a rat zapper will guarantee to get rid, the cheapest is on ebay for about £30. Has anyone heard of one of these and are they any good.

    Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you


    If you use traps then use chocolate.

    and Clean up everywhere... and get rid of food damaged by them.

    Also store unsealed foods properly......

    Hope that helps
    Use your judgement, and above all, be honest with yourself. :)
    I walk with the world & the world walks with me!
    I don't make bad choices!!! Other people just fail to see my GENIUS !!!! :D
  • Symbeaux1
    Symbeaux1 Posts: 189 Forumite
    If all else fails, borrow a dog they are better micers than cats, mine (Welsh Collie) caught a mouse every day, it lived in a hole in my stable wall, but she carried it around in her mouth for hours drooling, and I would persuade her to let it go and it would make its way back. I suspect some sort of terrier would be more effective though.
  • WychWillow
    WychWillow Posts: 64 Forumite
    I had an extremely bad problem with mice in my first house, they were everywhere and I tried all the traps and everything else and nothing seemed to slow them down. It was getting to the point where I was finding them dead in my washing up bowl if I left water in there and my bins had been chewed through, food unless it was kept in the fridge would be got at within minutes, it was terrible.

    The worst thing though was watching my (at the time) 2 year old daughter sleeping in her play pen in the front room and seeing a mouse scuttle up the netting and climb in there with her :eek:

    I picked up the phone straight away and rang my local council and explained to them that we had an infestation of mice and also had a young child and that I was pregnant with my second baby and was there anything they could do to help me. Within 24 hours I had 2 specialists round at my house leaving boxes of poison in all the rooms and they came back 2 more times to check and refil the boxes, on the 4th visit which was about a week after the first visit my house was declared a mouse free zone and I wasn't charged a penny for it. The other thing was, the specialist that came round said they had never seen such a bad infestation in a domestic residence so if they can clear that up in a week then you should have no problem :)

    Try giving the council a call, you have nothing to lose at the end of the day.

    Just to add, I was not on any benefits of any kind or in council accomodation and a fee was never even mentioned.
  • diamondcatz
    diamondcatz Posts: 62 Forumite
    this is the advice of my enviromental health -if you use traps use chocolate ,its the equivalent effect of humans on speed drugs they will keep coming until last is dead. Poison is the biggest misunderstanding-apparently when you see the box empty "great all dead" not so. It all depends on how many there are its a bit like an overdose not enough just makes you ill. He puts a kilo at a time in the loft which when you consider what's in those little shop boxes no wonder they don't get enough. It also can take 3-5 days when took back to the nest to take effect. As for those devices based on ultra sound I was told don't waste my money as if the link is broke [and there are always odd corners /walls in way] His advise was to clear any borders etc outside that can protect their entrance/exit [they dont want to pop out into the view unprotected ]Most cats are too domesticated and dont need to chase round room when the can will be opened soon.Any gaps that can fit a ballpoint pen head "seal or fixafoam" Hope some of this helps
    olympic challenge week 6 = $414.70:j
    slowly slowly REBEL NO. 21
  • albalad
    albalad Posts: 1,194 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    if you have young children or pets then you should not use poison .... no matter what it say's on the packet . why not use a humane mouse trap instead , and they can then be released away from your property , we got a couple from homebase for around £3 each
    "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."
    happy travels !!
    "No matter where you go, there you are."
    albalad
  • Karnam
    Karnam Posts: 1,177 Forumite
    ultrasound didnt work with us, neither did the humane mouse traps as they just dont go in.

    poison works at my parents, but mil doesnt wanna have to move everything (there is a lot of furniture) to remove mouse corpses.
    :A Boots Tart :A
  • My new house had been empty for some time before I moved in and was infested with the little darlings, grandparents -parents - teenagers, all having a heck of a good time.
    The ONLY thing that worked was traps spread with cadburys fruit and nut, and peanut butter for the ones without a chocolate habit !
    You can see what you're catching and know when they've all gone as traps remain empty for weeks after the last member of the tribe has been wiped out. If you are a sensitive soul DO NOT use humane traps, as soon as you put the live mouse outside it will be killed, probably SLOWLY, by a predator - hawks will eat them piece by piece whilst they're still alive. A quick death by way of a spring loaded trap is preferable to a slow one.
    Instructions with traps will advise you where to place them, and in the spirit of moneysaving re-usable traps are available as well as one-time traps for the squeamish.
    Good luck - I have a few traps set now in case of a spring invasion, although I hope the word has got round in mouseland!
  • kittiwoz
    kittiwoz Posts: 1,321 Forumite
    We have mouse in our house. The skirting boards don't perfectly meet the floor boards (I think maybe because there is no underlay, just carpet on bare boards?) and there's a massive hole cut through behind the fridge. Since we are students and rent we can't afford to fix the holes ourselves and our landlord does the absolute bare minimum. (Which is considerably less for a student house then it would be if he wanted to rent it out as a family home) We try to keep things clean and have a full clean out of the kitchen and sitting room once a week but it is difficult to keep on top of things with six people cooking seperately. We have traps down, with chocolate and have so far caught one mouse. They get under the kitchen cupboards. There are loads of droppings. I once took the panels off, swept out the droppings and rubble from their holes, vacced out the remainders, then crawled under the cupboards on my back to try and stuff the holes up with carrier bags. Not a nice job. And because of the wacking great hole behind the fridge that I hadn't seen it it didn't help. I can hear them scrabling around and it stops me sleeping.

    I'm going to try ringing the council. (Hell I actually paid them three months tax this year because I graduated in June and started a post grad course in September. That stung! Stupid me thought I'd be able to find temporary employment over the Summer so I never signed on. But I couldn't get a job so I ended up with no money and ineligible for council tax benefits.) Question is this: If they charge for pest control can we invoice the landlord or can he just say that it's our fault for not keeping the house clean enough or that we should have gone through him first? I'm not entirely trustful of the standard of people he employs.

    Next option: Anyone live in Manchester and keep ferrets?
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