Mice in Loft

ripplyuk

JJC1956 said:

ripplyuk said:

Don’t buy a cat. Very few are good hunters. A ferret would be better. The smell alone will deter mice if you let it play in the loft (but chances are you’ll also dislike the musky stink). I really wouldn’t recommend buying any pet as a pest control method. Maybe you could borrow a terrier occasionally. 

Also please don’t leave mice to die on glue traps. Yes, they will die eventually but it’s cruel. If you must use glue traps, check them regularly and put any mice out of their misery with a brick or something similar. 

Yes, hitting them with Bricks isn’t cruel 😆 maybe drown them in the bath or better still, do what one of my lodgers did about 20 years ago, let the thing go 😳

Let it go from a glue trap? 🤔

And yes, a quick death is much more humane than leaving them to die through stress and dehydration. 

JJC1956

ripplyuk said:

JJC1956 said:

ripplyuk said:

Don’t buy a cat. Very few are good hunters. A ferret would be better. The smell alone will deter mice if you let it play in the loft (but chances are you’ll also dislike the musky stink). I really wouldn’t recommend buying any pet as a pest control method. Maybe you could borrow a terrier occasionally. 

Also please don’t leave mice to die on glue traps. Yes, they will die eventually but it’s cruel. If you must use glue traps, check them regularly and put any mice out of their misery with a brick or something similar. 

Yes, hitting them with Bricks isn’t cruel 😆 maybe drown them in the bath or better still, do what one of my lodgers did about 20 years ago, let the thing go 😳

Let it go from a glue trap? 🤔

And yes, a quick death is much more humane than leaving them to die through stress and dehydration. 

Yes it was a Spanish Girl studying English In London, I had a pub and a friend of mine asked me if she could stay there for 6 months, anyway I checked the glue traps one morning and there was hair on one, I thought that’s strange but as she was the only lodger it wasn’t hard to work out who the culprit was, anyway the cleaner went into her room and I saw the walls were covered with Animal Photos from the Daily Mail weekend magazines that someone had given her in the bar, when I asked her why she had let it go, she said she wanted to be a vet so she let it go, I don’t think she paid for a drink in the bar for about a week after I told everyone what had happened. 

PS Rat Traps are twice the size and far stickier but don’t accidentally tread on one otherwise you might as well throw your shoes away 

Brie

Matty91 said:

I might try the gluetraps, how did you "dispose" of them. Is it just a blunt instrument to the head?

I used the gluetraps quite successfully at work a number of years back.  I had spring loaded ones too but my colleagues thought they were horrible.  So the gluetraps were used and the instructions were that while the mouse was still alive you should transport it to some place is could be released.   And to un-glue it you needed to pour warm water over it.  Which i did.  Which made the mouse wriggle.  More water, more wriggling. And more water and suddenly no wriggling as I'd drowned the mouse.  Oops. 

Matty91

Thanks for all the responses

Horrible as it is, i would have to "dispatch" it somehow on a glue trap. As disruptive as they are, I would not want it to suffer a long, painful ending stuck in glue for days.

Strange I'm saying that as neither the snap traps or poison are very dignified endings!

Upzeecreek

Where are you in the country?? Not Gliss gliss are they? 

Matty91

Upzeecreek said:

Where are you in the country?? Not Gliss gliss are they? 

based in Bristol area & had to look up what that is (!) but pretty sure its field mice 

Rosa_Damascena

Upzeecreek said:

Where are you in the country?? Not Gliss gliss are they? 

By that, do you mean dormouse? The ancient Romans used to stuff them and eat them IIRC.

So if you wanted to be really MSE you could make a meal of them I suppose

Rosesgirl

I think glue traps are just horrendous I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole . Since my neighbors built a massive extension 5 years ago I've had an intermittent problem with mice very badly in my house mouse traps work a treat and basically I just leave traps down at all times so if they come back I'll soon find out . I find it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack trying to figure where their entrance points are as again I'm in a mid terrace and my neighbor built such a large extension beside me he's basically made his house an end of terrace with a massive gable wall extension and I'm stuck behind it .

twopenny

I got rid of mine by disinfecting and spraying with some strong smelling stuff.

It was dog flee spray as it happens because that's what I had to hand. Wherever they had chewed plus the boards and some insulation. Where they had piddled/scent marked I used disinfectent. Jeyes fluid would do both.

But if they've been at the insulation you really need to take it up and check the wires underneath. I doubt they've chewed those, it's mostly what they can use for bedding and they will make the bed under the insulation.

I would give it a quick spray beginning of each winter as they came in to avoid the cold or continuous rain. I can only think they got into the wall cavity and made their way up. Think I read that somewhere.

But once sprayed they didn't come back. The strong smell deters them.