BREEDING MICE! RANT!

Plastic bins will only slow them down, they will eventually chew through ther plastic bin the get the food. We have a plastic bird seed bin that they chewed a hole through on a coupld days. They also chewed through the plastic airvent in the roof of our shed to get to the bird seed.

I have a number of traditional mouse traps set about the shed and the garage (using peanut butter) but I also have warfarin bait, which works very well.

Move to the town David, no mice here.

We just have huge rats some of which ate through my shed floor to get to the rabbit and bird food.

Hi David,

I liberated 3 this morning some distance from the house having used a trap that can take up to 10 (more I reckon). The trap had been left overnight between the 2 Suzukis both of which had been having some nibbling under the bonnet of the soft insulation. These are 2015 cars which we bought with 5 years worth of savings so I'm not amused. I bait the trap with chocolate covered peanuts which they can't resist. We also have battery powered sonic alarms on sticky back velcro under both bonnets and I think these help (not a total solution) but at this time of year you need to check and replace the batteries a couple of times each month - I use rechargeables and do it every week.

The MG is in a garage with a door I modified that seems to keep them out but I run a plug-in sonic alarm 24/7 anyway - fingers crossed! I'll put a trap in the garage as well to see if I collect anything.

We've had a lot of issues in the house over the years. I recommend a plug in EMP device. It will send a pulse around your wiring and at least keep them away from that (we nearly had a fire a few years ago when some wiring was stripped - very effective though at killing mice as there were at least 10 electrocuted - we've also fitted ELBs and RCD since then). We've recently had some under the plinths in the kitchen - when I removed the kickboards several of the plastic legs for the units were eaten through. I've sealed all the holes and the plinths are now supported by wedges. I caught 7 I think in the kitchen over 2 nights.

This is the time of year when they are looking to come in. Like you I'm reluctant to use poison - we live in Red Kite country and they live on dead animals.

Best of luck.

Richard

I've lived in this house for over 25 years, the only times we've had a real problem is when either the other half of the semi or the other house next to us is empty between owners, over the years I've found bodies, evidence of nesting, droppings in loft insulation, chewed cables.

We've had a pair of cats for just over 3 years and now the main problem is them bring them in, normally dead but sometimes they are live and when the cats get bored guess who has to catch the poor petrified mice.

yes weve had mouse problems at my mates engineering works...........we tried the humane aproach by having small boxes around....only ever caught one.But by the damage and poo about the others had a higher iq and left the trap alone.............packaging distroyed and,poo where the rings of coffee cups had marked the table......yes we are messy blighters while eating......that pastry on sausage rolls goes everywhere....and the packaging from robs 21 inch pizza must be heaven...i had some vending packs of hot chocolate and i can only say they flippin enjoyed them.............jim who is now 85 years old said they have to live somewhere but enough is enough and its time to show them whos boss.....ive got something at home that will do the trick.............on returning after several hours i expected him to have a 12 bore shotgun in the boot.or a cd with that agadoo song from the 1980s to bore the pants off them........to my surprise he pulled out 2 small plugs............ive got them at home and they do work he said has he plugged them in.........there ultrasonic reppellers he said ......the office come canteen is 12ft square and he plugged in 2...one in each corner.................behind his back i used the word bullshit........because the food continued to fall..........bits of pot noodle and the like......crumbs to us but a family meal for them.............hand on heart ive seen no traces of mice ...but im still wondering if they will return when the snows fall.....because i think this is the time when desperation sets in...............we will see


at home ive got 2 cats they no longer go out has the nieghbourhood is simmular to beirut......so ive built a run with a catflap .......no mice spotted

I think if we could breed cats that catch rats and mice but leave the birds alone, that would be a winner. :yesnod:

The amount of damage mice and rats do is incredible, and they seem to be permanently incontinent! They appear to like chewing plastic and especially anything expensive! :rant:

We had one but the amount of s**t I thought there must be 3-5 . Court the little bugger taking pot purrie ? for a nest? It was living in the cover for the water pipes half way up the wall found that out 2 months after when we got the kitchen done

Heres some images of the effective mouse repellers in my mates machine shop.

I work for a school district and we have 50+ large buildings surrounded by playing fields. Mice and rats are an ongoing problem.
We don't use poison as the critters tend to go inside a wall or crawlspace to die and make a rotting stink that bothers the teachers. We use kill traps and try to
do away with as many as possible. The exterminators we use say that you can get rid of rat populations but the mice will always be there,
you just have to try to keep them under control. Another problem we have is rabbits. People drop off unwanted pets in the parks and they burrow everywhere
leaving dangerous holes. In some parts of our works yard you have to be careful to avoid the swathes of rabbit poo. On the positive side, we have a pair of large bald eagles that perch on a cell phone tower just over the fence and they are quite fond of a rabbit dinner!
At home we have a very fast small dog that keeps the rats and mice away.

my grandfather was the local ratcatcher........years before the days of rentokil and the like......it wasnt uncommon to see animal traps hanging in the out building and jack russels killing rats ,.........................ferrets were also among our family line up.........Rabbits were always on the table in the form of a stew....lobby has we call it here..and has a kid i learnt to count by counting the buckshot i lined up around my stew bowl........so it was second nature has i came of age to catch rabbits of my own..........having permission from a local nunnery that was plagued with rabbits undermining gravestones ...........we lay down the nets and placed a ferret down the rabbit holes waiting for a rabbit to bolt............we normally left after catching 2 or 3 because to be honest after youve ate roast rabbit,stewed rabbit,curried rabbit,kentucky fried rabbit you start getting paranoid when looking in the mirror thinking your 2 front teeth are on the large side...(whats up doc?)............what we didnt eat were given to pensioners in the local pub ...........i borrowed a rat trap from my father when i got a house with a job on a farm........my girlfriend at the time petrified on going out at night as rats were outnumbering the stars in the sky....................on entering the cage the rat took the bait and has it tugged to remove it from the hook.....the spring loaded door snapped shut................it cant be that easy i thought...........The first night i got the trap i baited it with toast and marmite..........placing it by the bin bags.....no whelie bins then....i went inside to watch tv.......no sooner had i sat down i heard the snap of the trap....easy to hear in a old cottage with thin wooden doors and thin glass windows........oh no i thought ive got to be brave in front of my girlfriend........because the truth was im bloody scared of the things......after the first one down ,iwent back inside my heart was beating has i pictured my encounter with that screaming wild rat in the cage.......not expecting to catch another that night i sat down to relax.....snap goes the trap.......how wrong i was and ill tell you now after 6 i got very peed off with going near the trap....so i left it closed and went back in the house to tell of my bravery and reasure her they would not bother her again..........im sure this is one of the reasons she left me and moved back to the town ranting about rats and mice................oh well you cant win them all.


pictured below is a example of the rat trap i used