Furry Animals - an invasion - and struggling with life!

alyth

I live out in the sticks on an estate - I am utterly infested with small furry things (this isn't moneysaving per se, just a rant and wondering whether anyone can offer any advice!). I've rats in the garden rampaging around, I had a mice infestation in my cottage to the extent where I was opening drawers and they were sitting on boxes (I had to put everything into a box!) and I am sick of struggling!

I trapped about 18 mice within an hour last month - I had to get a friend to come and get rid of them, we were literally setting the traps and within a minute one was being killed. I'd found holes in the garden so my dad put rat poison down, but at the moment if I go outside I can literally hear them squeaking in the bushes and I can't find the next anywhere. I put more poison down and then came back inside about 5, and thought I heard something, so set a trap under the sink. About an hour ago I heard the trap go, yup another dead mouse, so have had to set the rest of the traps.

My boiler has been broken for 26 hours - rang the estate, plumber came out, it needs serviced and can't do it until tomorrow - not a massive problem, just an annoyance. I'm at uni and have the module from hell and despite emailing and telephoning the lecturer the advice she gives is usless in the extreme. I feel like I am losing control of my life, I had a bad panic attack a couple of week ago for the first time in months, and haven't really recovered from it since, despite doing the healthy eating/exercise/relaxation techniques.

I'm a middle aged woman but just feel like every single damn thing is a struggle - but these rodent problems really are starting to tip me over the edge - not literally! I go outside and there's a rat on the doorstep, they're running about so much that they put the security lights on.

I was doing okay at uni, getting B grades for everything but I really feel that this semester I was to jack it all in, hide under the duvet and come out when the mice are gone and someone's written my essays for me!

Sorry this is a rant but my point is I'm struggling and I don't know what to do - the estate help to a point but at the mercy of the plumber eventually turning up, the poison working, and having to take dead mice out of traps which just turns my stomach.

Lotus-eater

The easiest thing to advise, would be to move.

Presuming you can't afford that, you need to trap the mice and learn to deal with emptying the traps. You can get traps that you don't have to touch the mouse when emptying.

Mice are easy to deal with and once you have caught them all, your problem will be over, but still keep those traps set!

Rats, I would ask the estate about, or find out if your local council does free visits.

alyth

Lotus-eater wrote: »

The easiest thing to advise, would be to move.

Presuming you can't afford that, you need to trap the mice and learn to deal with emptying the traps. You can get traps that you don't have to touch the mouse when emptying.

Mice are easy to deal with and once you have caught them all, your problem will be over, but still keep those traps set!

Rats, I would ask the estate about, or find out if your local council does free visits.

you've no idea how close I am to moving tonight - I thought i had got rid of the mice infestation, I've had to email one of the guys on the estate to come round tomorrow and get rid of the body. It just feels like one thing after another, uni stuff I can deal with, small furry things are literally driving me mad..... because it's a private estate the council won't deal with any problems, it's a shooting estate rather than housing, or they will do but only in extreme circumstances, but it's so damn annoying!

Lotus-eater

It's not annoying, it's what you get for living in the country, you are going to get mice and you are going to have to deal with them.

You should be able to deal with one mouse body, sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Live on your own, on a shooting estate, deal with the reality.

faerie~spangles

Contact the local cat shelter and ask if they have any feral cats needing re-homed

alyth

Lotus-eater wrote: »

It's not annoying, it's what you get for living in the country, you are going to get mice and you are going to have to deal with them.

You should be able to deal with one mouse body, sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Live on your own, on a shooting estate, deal with the reality.

wow words hurt - a little compassion wouldn't go amiss, when someone posts on a forum there is generally a request for help or advice, so please think carefully before calling someone pathetic. Everyone has things that they don't like, mine happen to be killing animals, so having a dead body under my sink is upsetting to me.

onlyroz

For the mice, try Rentokil. They helped us out a few years ago.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

you live on an private estate?

if so, get to your nearest hunting shop buy a small airrifle called a ratcatcher some BSA elite pellets and co2 bottles.

and have some fun shooting in the garden.

does the estate have a game keeper? borrow his gun!.

the amount of times ive done this for people on farms is unreal.

from fox's rabbits rats mice pigeons, more shockingly is the rats tend to stop and starr at you rather than bolt it they were easy targets.

you need to find the point of entry into your home for them and block it off. pipes, brickwork even a down pipe leading into the attick is a point of entry. the can squeeze through the tightest of holes.

Lotus-eater

alyth wrote: »

wow words hurt - a little compassion wouldn't go amiss, when someone posts on a forum there is generally a request for help or advice, so please think carefully before calling someone pathetic. Everyone has things that they don't like, mine happen to be killing animals, so having a dead body under my sink is upsetting to me.

I gave you honest help and advice, if you don't like the reality, sorry, it's not my fault.

Give the poster faire that you thanked, advice a go. It won't help, but hey, maybe you'll feel better.

The facts are the facts, you need to deal with it, or you can't live there.

alyth

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

you live on an private estate?

if so, get to your nearest hunting shop buy a small airrifle called a ratcatcher some BSA elite pellets and co2 bottles.

and have some fun shooting in the garden.

does the estate have a game keeper? borrow his gun!.

the amount of times ive done this for people on farms is unreal.

from fox's rabbits rats mice pigeons, more shockingly is the rats tend to stop and starr at you rather than bolt it they were easy targets.

you need to find the point of entry into your home for them and block it off. pipes, brickwork even a down pipe leading into the attick is a point of entry. the can squeeze through the tightest of holes.

My next point of contact is the gammies on the estate - we don't have foxes up here as they are all trapped, I'm just a bit horrified that having got rid of the mice they decide to come back again - and I hate dealing with their bodies, I had to do 14 within an hour last month, some people hate spiders or snakes, mine are dead mice - in my defence I threw them over next door's fence and his cat ate them!

The point of entry to the house has been blocked - I know exactly where is it is between the factor/my dad and workmen working next door nothing can get into the cottage - or so I thought! it must just have been a rogue one, the weather is so mild that the cold isn't killing them off, I'm just utterly frustrated at having to deal with furry things!

Outer_Limits

What about those mouse repellant plug-ins that make a high pitched noise we can't hear? We have a similar cat repeller in the garden that works pretty well.

If you have any pets yourself you'd need to check if they would be affected (the garden ones can be cat-only or a wider range of mammals.)