mice in the kitchen

[t78]

hi all,

am currently battling against some field mice that I think have taken up residency in the cavity wall of our kitchen.

there is "evidence" behind the plinths and in the open backed kitchen units.


it looks like when the kitchen was fitted, they failed to block the old waste pipe so there was a 2" hole straight through the wall. I found "bedding" in there when I investigated and have filled in the outside hole with plenty of expanding foam.

so hopefully I am just dealing with the mice that are inside the wall now.

we have been using the humane traps fairly successfully and have removed 9 or 10 so far. I've taken them about a mile away before releasing.


I'm just wondering if there is anything more we can do or just continue to remove them and eventually they will be gone? don't want to use poison and end up with dead mice rotting away behind the kitchen units!


alternatively I wondered about filling in the hole on the inside of the wall and in theory sealing them in?


any help or advice is most welcome...

 

[Burnerman]

Just keep on with what you are doing really.....especially if you put a baited trap down that will catch and kill them - you don't want any to remain at all.
Block up the access hole with sand / cement mix to make it more permanent.
John

 

[Bosswhite]

Sounds like you live in a rural area, so during the winter the mice want to come indoors for food and warmth, (who can blame them)
now spring is on its way they wont be bothered to come indoors, block up what holes you can, but be assured they will find somewhere else to get in next winter.
We have the same problem during the winter they get in our place through the wall mounted vent for the central heating, they obviously wait until the heating switches off at night and cools down then get through the boiler somehow.

 

[foxhole]

You don't need to be rural to get mice, lots around this time of year, they have a flexible backbone and can squeeze thru gaps as small as the diameter of a pencil so even the small holes need filling.

 

[scbk]

Don't bother with live capture, you need to kill the things! Plastic snap traps seem to be the best.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

we have been using the humane traps fairly successfully and have removed 9 or 10 so far. I've taken them about a mile away before releasing.

You should have done your research properly - that is not a humane way to treat them. It's actually positively inhumane. When you release it it will try and find its way back, and likely get eaten by a predator, or die from lack of food and water. If they really are fieldmice or woodmice, then if you've blocked up their entry then just release them outside.

If they are housemice kill them.

 

[KenGMac]

I have found that a good bait to use in a humane trap is -- Peanut butter -- no idea why? possibly the scent?

Drawback is the trap is messy to clean and then re-bait

I release about 50.M distant

Over time it does eventually work.

I have found that when using Poison, which is effective, there is no de-composition smell at all, depends on how good the under floor ventilation is I suppose?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I release about 50.M distant

50 miles, or 50 metres?

Over time it does eventually work.

Is that "work" as in gets rid of your mice in the house, or "work" as in does not kill or stress them, and does not lead to them dying prematurely at or near the release site?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Aww...

Cute?

 

[Dextraneous]

Get a cat. Simple and efficient and long lasting solution.

 

[Bosswhite]

Get a cat. Simple and efficient and long lasting solution.

Tabby Cats are supposed to be the best mousers

 

[KenGMac]

Must admit, I have some Hens in the rear yard, you would not believe how fast a Hen is when it sees a mouse.

The Hens keep the rear yard fairly clear but in late Autumn we tend to have a few mouse visitors in the house. We use humane traps and release as previously posted above.

I once worked in a Brewery, where there were lots of mice and their nastier big friends, Rats the Brewery kept, or better described tolerated a load of very, very Feral cats, we used to joke that you could probably get closer to the rats than the cats, and it would be safer, did not fancy being mauled by a large heavily coated Feral cat.

I went out to the yard one evening and the security lights came on, there was a Hen at one end of the run and a Rat at the other, I assume that a Hen will not take on a Rat? The rats all three were dispatched with the use of poison carefully positioned in the yard.

 

[scbk]

We have a tabby cat who is completely useless at catching mice!! Apparently the smell of a cat means the mice breed less though.

Oh and our hens have absolutely no interest in mice either, a few days ago I found a mouse nest in the run!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I once worked in a Brewery, where there were lots of mice and their nastier big friends, Rats the Brewery kept, or better described tolerated a load of very, very Feral cats,

Edited because https links don't work. GNW

 

[KenGMac]

scbk, Hi again.

Interesting concept it would appear that some cats will tend to be Mousers, but some are just not interested, I have heard of some stories about a cat sitting watching a Mouse that was less than 100.MM away, and did nothing about it.

It would appear that Hens appear to adopt the same approach.

Back to the original post, I have been told by quite a few people that using Peanut Butter is a really good bait both in Humane and the other types of traps, worth a shot?