So I’ve had mice in and around my house for years- they’re in the loft, under the floor in the garden and in my garage. They don’t bother me at all and I’ve never tried to control them. In recent months however, they’re becoming more of a pest- eating my dogs food that I keep in the garage, biting holes in everything, and in the last couple of weeks I have the unmistakable smell of a rotting mouse wafting into my bathroom obviously under the floor somewhere. The time has come to remove my squatters. Humane traps would be my preferred method of eviction-does anyone have experience of this scenario?
You are what is commonly called ‘ infested’ bite the bullet and call the professionals in, it won’t go to plan otherwise!
Big bucket with a roller over it. Peanut butter on roller, lots on youtube.. Bucket can have water in it..
Mice are one of the easiest pests to eradicate….though perhaps not “ humanely” rats a bit more difficult ….ants the worst. As said above call in the terminators
Bring in a few proper working terriers like Jack Russells or have some cats to control the mouse and dog infestation.
Metal mouse proof containers for anything food-y. Stuff iron wool in any holes the little beggars might use. We use humane traps too, baited with chocolate, but because we’ve done the other measures, they seem to have decided our place isn’t a good source of food and they’ve gone elsewhere. Tbh I miss the odd mouse scampering across the living room. I couldn’t kill em, they’re just trying to get by, same as the rest of us
WE had a lot in our garage a couple of years ago as they came in from the field at the back - they started eating the upholstery in the MGA so it was war. I had tried humane traps in the shed but they were not really any good - caught a couple but they were not humane unless you got to them within an hour or so of capture. So back to the old spring traps. I set a couple at a time in the garage with chocolate as the bait (KitKat is the easiest as it cuts easily and in nice chunks and is easy to put on the spike in the trap.) I caught over 30 in the space of two weeks.
In November of 2021 I was catching 2 or 3 a day in humane traps. Half from inside the car. Drove them off 3 miles (apparently any less than that and they find their way back) to isolated locations. It was so ridiculous I eventually called in Pest Control. Apparently it is illegal (£5,000 fine) to transport them off your property as they are considered a pest. The professional then used poisoned bait and within 2 weeks there was no more problem. 22 years of living in the english countryside and i’d never experienced anything like it! This winter i’ve been in Australia…had a mouse in the house last week. Here that is a better problem than a snake though.
you need a snake to keep them under control carpet snakes are the go brown or taipan will keep you on your toes.
Mole Valley sell the real deal poison, the stuff from B&Q etc is ineffective rubbish. Rats will eat whole grain, mice prefer the broken grain stuff. Only poison if you know local cats don’t eat dying mice, same if you have birds of prey in the area. You should only humanely trap if you are willing to dispatch, as mentioned above, it’s illegal to dump pests elsewhere….I’ve caught people dumping live rats on my property trying to be ‘humane ’ utter morons. Appreciate some people won’t like this but if controlling your environment doesn’t prevent them, you have to kill them, humanely ballsing about then making them someone else’s problem or dumping them in the middle of nowhere isn’t humane at all.
I live in the countryside, just after harvest when the first frosts start to show, they come looking for shelter and to make nests. I use spring style traps in the garage, one full trap a day for several weeks can be the norm, some years
We also live in the sticks, we have three cats, they bring them in we keep all food in boxes, jars etc, there's nothing to eat Sent from my ART-L29 using Tapatalk
They can smell food from a long way off.i had mice in the loft ( 2 floors up ) they not only found there way up to the loft but they were eating honey from a bees nest. Peanut butter in spring traps sorted them out , luckily I caught them early.
Our does - the mice are a lot slower when poisoned so he catches them and plays with them for a while, sometimes he likes to eat their heads.
