Think we have mice! Advice needed!

taggiesgirl

Help!

I think we have mice and would really like some advice please:

so far we have found 1 little bit of what we think is poo it is kind of tear drop shape and brown but when held to the light it looks almost greenish in colour
My loaf of bread was also left out and it did not appear to have been touched but I have an bag of carrots that i had left on the side all night and one of them looked like it had been eaten it was the top of the carrot the really hard bit that had gone but there were no 'dropped' bits of carrot anywhere??
I had a carrier bag full of crisps on the side that had a few small holes in but non of the crisp packets had holes in and this was right next to my fruit bowl and all of that looks fine (it was a sainsburys carrier and they are quite fine could have been like this already??)

I feel really sick because we have a small baby crawling and it makes me feel ill to think she may have been crawling and stuff where they have been, but we have not found anything on the floor etc..

Do mice do more that just one poo?? do you think i would have found more that one bit? and i heard that they poo where they eat is that true?? therefore would i have found poo near the eaten carrot?
also would they not have attempted to eat my bread?

Any help advice would be very gratefull

Sagaris

When I had them they would poo where there wasn't any food! They are quite fussy in what they eat too - well mine were, didn't like bread but would eat biscuits quite happily - I found I had them when I went to drag my dog away from the shelving unit in the kitchen - she was watching them eat their way though my Rich Tea biscuits!
I put poison down where the dog couldn't get to it, made sure every crumb was cleared away (although I was pretty fussy before the mice arrived) and made sure all food was put away in cupboards, containers, etc. I also checked for holes around pipes where they could have entered the house - apparently they can get through a hole as thick as your little finger!
I found a few bodies after the poison was put down, and had no problems since (more luck than anything else I think!)

squashy

They aren't pleasant but the old fashioned traps are the most effetive IMO (and MS!)

We used a bit of cracker with butter and jam as bait.

Dont bother with the humane traps they always escape!

Gingernutmeg

Traps do work, but the most effective way to get rid of mice is to get the pest control officer from your local council out. They'll put bait down, and they'll also show you the places where mice can get in. It's absolutely incredible what small spaces they can squeeze through, like the tiny bits of space left where washing machines drain out, for example.

You need to deal with the problem as mice are not nice to have around - all rodents urinate constantly and if they've been walking on your counters etc then it doesn't really bear thinking about. They also do carry disease, and with a small baby it's not a chance you need to take. Call out the pest control people (AFAIK it'll be about £30, I think) and in the meantime get some antibac spray and go over the kitchen, and don't leave any food out.

It's either that or get a cat

sarymclary

Hi,
I discovered we had mice only once they'd caused the entire downstairs of my house to flood after they chewed through the water feed hose to my dishwasher. I also had my youngest as just a crawling baby, so found it really unnerving to think about the hygiene issues.

We had humane traps in a previous house, but the mouse found it's way back in again after we released it. I was told by the hardware shop I bought the other traps from that once they know a way in, they'll come back. We had no idea how it had got in; our house was new and I had a pest control person come round who checked everywhere and put down bait boxes. There were no more mice, but there was no guarantee they'd not come back. There was a chance they were getting in through the tiny gaps between rooftiles and working their way around the cavity walls! :eek:

When we caught the culprit of the flood, it was the teensiest, tiniest little thing (albeit with it's brains now on the outside!), but I felt no remorse at it's demise after all the havoc and damage it had wreaked. This tiny little thing caused almost £10k of damage after all the carpets had been relaid and I'd had a new kitchen installed, which took weeks to get organised.

After that, I took no chances, and rehomed an adult female cat from the Cat's Protection League, who has the appropriate name of 'Mouser', although I call her Mrs Moobury, and she is true to her name, and has been a very effective catcher. The amount of bodies she's presented me with on the doorstep is proof enough that there are indeed plenty of mice around our neighbourhood.

I hadn't exactly wanted a pet, especially with young children around, but I have to say they love her to bits (even if she is a bit aloof), and I'm rather partial to her. 2 pouches of Felix a day has been cheaper than the damage the mouse caused, and she's been far less trouble.

chickalittle

apparently plugging any small holes with fine wire wool is an excellent way of preventing mice from coming through - or so I've been told. The same person also told me that if you have mice then the "good news" is you won't have rats ( god forbid!) as they don't like to live in the same home...so to speak...

chuckles1066

chickalittle wrote: »

apparently plugging any small holes with fine wire wool is an excellent way of preventing mice from coming through - or so I've been told. The same person also told me that if you have mice then the "good news" is you won't have rats ( god forbid!) as they don't like to live in the same home...so to speak...

Apparently (and I shudder at the thought) you are always within 12 feet of a rat.

Stephb1986_2

we discovered we have a mouse in our shed today its eaten slug pellets and bird food lol!

we did have them in the house once just look in your cupboards for poop and on your worktops, they like crisps as ours did lol its possible that he could of been near the bread but you would find holes in the bag so have a look, your best getting some mouse traps from a local diy shop set them with some chocolate on or carrots as it sounds like it likes them and put it on the worktop and you might find in the morning you have a dead mouse

i hope this helps

Stephb xx

Gingernutmeg

The rats/mice thing isn't true, according to the pest control bloke who used to inspect my mum's bakery. Apparently you can have both, but a rat infestation is more obvious because you see the 'smears' along the bottom of walls, where the rats will have an established 'run'.

tiamai_d

We found the best way to get rid of them (we lived backing onto fields and no matter how hard you tried, there was NO plugging all the holes in that house!) was mouse traps, baited with chocolate, fruit and nut was a favourite. And after you get one, leave the body for a few days, sounds nasty, but they hate the smell of their dead. After a few catches they get the message and leave.

Actually my Mum and Dad have not had any since one of their ferrets ran down a hole in the kitchen and didn't surface for a few days, double her weight with a huge fat belly. She had been in the wall cavity feasting! :rotfl:

andyrules

We had mice - house backed on to field.

We put down the 'snappy' traps every night until no more were being caught and assumed they had gone. If you have any older children make sure you get up first to dispose of bodies as it is not a pretty sight. They loved chocolate best and we tried a few types of bait.

We've not had them since.