Rat (or Mouse) in my kitchen - what am I going to do?

Mutton_Geoff

Alanp said:

Sorry, I’ve got the song in my head now.

Me too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLoXFmJBvlk

Apodemus

MickeyMouse999 said:

 I could walk with the trap about 200m and dump it somewhere else - so it's far enough away from my house... At least if I put it outside, far away from my house, it won't be coming back to me.

I would think 2,000m would be more like the thing!  Of course a lot depends on whether you have the house mouse (Mus musculus) or the field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus).   While the field mouse might decide not to look for another domestic dwelling and be happy to return to the wild, if it has babies in a nest in your house, 200m will not be anywhere near far enough away to stop it returning.   If it is a house mouse, it will either be back in your house pdq or end up in someone else's!

Maxson

Even 2000m might not be enough.

MickeyMouse999

Apodemus said:

MickeyMouse999 said:

 I could walk with the trap about 200m and dump it somewhere else - so it's far enough away from my house... At least if I put it outside, far away from my house, it won't be coming back to me.

I would think 2,000m would be more like the thing!  Of course a lot depends on whether you have the house mouse (Mus musculus) or the field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus).   While the field mouse might decide not to look for another domestic dwelling and be happy to return to the wild, if it has babies in a nest in your house, 200m will not be anywhere near far enough away to stop it returning.   If it is a house mouse, it will either be back in your house pdq or end up in someone else's!

How does it manage to track its way back to my house? Can't it just go in someone else's? (and no, I don't care if it does. I'm damn sure they wouldn't care vice versa)

BTW, about this question - anyone?

No-one's yet said if there'll be any remains of the mouse behind the kitchen units, if it died almost 4 weeks ago?

elsien

Mice can travel long distances back to familiar places. 200m away is not going to stop them from returning. 

MickeyMouse999

BTW, about this question - anyone?

No-one's yet said if there'll be any remains of the mouse behind the kitchen units, if it died almost 4 weeks ago?

elsien

Probably - they'd take longer than that to decompose. But I'd expect you to be able to smell it if it was festering away behind there. A neighbour had something die in a wall cavity and it ponged for weeks.

MickeyMouse999

elsien said:

Probably - they'd take longer than that to decompose. But I'd expect you to be able to smell it if it was festering away behind there. A neighbour had something die in a wall cavity and it ponged for weeks.

Thanks. I haven't smelled a thing, but now I'm wondering if like how the mouse in the front room yanked the sellotaped trap over towards the hole, the trap went off and then the mouse still escaped back down - that it's actually the same mouse, or another mouse that's just done exactly the same. Hence, while in the kitchen, it escaped the trap, figured "Nuts to this!" and scarpered into the front room and down the hole.

Hence, whenever I do get my builder back here (I'll need him at some point for the dryer's old hole where they got in, which needs sealing up, but which is blocked off enough to stop anything getting in), I'll ask him to check the kickboards, but that it's not urgent right now.

J_B

MickeyMouse999 said:

How does it manage to track its way back to my house?

Many mice have their own GPS/SatNav installed

MickeyMouse999 said:

BTW, about this question - anyone?

No-one's yet said if there'll be any remains of the mouse behind the kitchen units, if it died almost 4 weeks ago?

If it's a deceased mouse, you probably won't smell it .... if it was a rat, you would know!

Doing a major loft clean up recently and found this  ...

MickeyMouse999

J_B said:

MickeyMouse999 said:

How does it manage to track its way back to my house?

Many mice have their own GPS/SatNav installed

MickeyMouse999 said:

BTW, about this question - anyone?

No-one's yet said if there'll be any remains of the mouse behind the kitchen units, if it died almost 4 weeks ago?

If it's a deceased mouse, you probably won't smell it .... if it was a rat, you would know!

Doing a major loft clean up recently and found this  ...

Re: the GPS bit, how about if I trapped it in the humane trap, and just put THAT in the bin, making it rather less humane? Or, throw it into the nearest volcano?

And for your loft finding, if I found that in the loft, you'd soon find me spark out cold at the bottom of the steps going up to the loft. I'm wincing just thinking about it!