What bait to use for a mouse trap.

Many years ago when I'd moved into a new 1st floor flat on my own, I saw a mouse in the kitchen. I couldn't stand the thought of it going off and dying somewhere in the flat so wasn't keen on poison and didn't want to find it in a trap, dead. I found a product called Scram which you put out and they hate the smell. I emptied all cupboards and drawers and left little foil dishes around. Never saw a mouse again. Now though when we had a mouse in the garage we used a sonic plug,-in. No more mice.

I would shut the cat into the kitchen and let it get on with it.

I've just removed a dead blackbird from the front lawn, having realised when Storm came in up to the ears in blood that he had caught something, as he was obviously unhurt.

Here the mice are all too fly to go into a trap!

When I had cats, I had to be careful where I put my feet when I came down in the morning, having once trodden on a disembowelled shrew. A mole was there one morning, completely unmarked - I thought it had died of fright!

We always used to stick a Rolo on the spike in the trap. Always worked and very convenient and unmessy.

If our chalet is not rented out to anglers we live at our lake. There is a cat flap for our Burmese, Rocky. He often brings in his little 'friends' to play with. Some he puts down and then watches them run for cover but some he eats. If we can, we corner the live ones and release back outside. They can be mice, rats or voles. We came home from shopping one day to hear a piping noise and there was a baby coot lying on the floor. Must have been dragged in through the cat flap and then abandoned. Enormous feet on it. My DH put it back in the lake where it joined it's siblings.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYiwxM_RVEI

sued yes my blues(jake and elwood) were sooo cuddly.the maine coon was a hunter to the core.he rid the yard of 2 poisonious snakes and the ndn had wood rats in his garden shed(they ate the wiring and other parts of his ford truck engine)told him to leave the shed door open.tut-the unkommon left 7 bodies in the road over the next 5 days.found him chasing off a raccoon one night.and he
would not let me outside after dark with out escorting me.i miss him.
have his grandson now with a bit of manx mixed in.this boy and his tiny calico sister and staffie sister hunt, but no follow thru.they all just sit next to the frog,toad,lizard,spider til i scoop them up and out the door.
shysal i love him. i hear "stray cat strut" in my head

I once placed traps, a couple with cheese and a couple with mars bar.
The mars bar disappeared but the cheese stayed.
No mice got caught in the traps, however.

Our amah came running into the sitting room one day shouting, missie, missie there’s a mouse on the kitchen as big as a cat.
‘Nonsense’ said mum and went to look. They both came out of the kitchen and securely closed the door. We then sat in a row watching the kitchen door nervously till dad arrived to deal with it.
I am afraid to say that I don’t think he behaved as well as Notagranny! I don’t think he used peanut butter either.

Lovely story Nota granny, you must be a lovely lady.

Awww Nottagranny44, what a lovely story with a fab ending! Bless You :-)

My brother and SIL heard rustling in their roof a few years ago, presumed it was mice and put a humane trap in the loft. Days passed and still nothing was captured. Brother set up an infrared camera to see what was going on and found it was an enormous rat! Pic is after they borrowed a large trap in which they eventually cornered the beast. Humane trap is still there and you can gauge the size from that.

Hope the traps not one of those nasties that kill.

Many years ago (1950) we lived in an old flat and I went into the kitchen in the night to make my baby a bottle and found a mouse curled up under the kettle on the gas stove. Got a cat and he cleared the flat of mice but decided he liked the sport so much he went to the underneath flat and brought them up from there. He did kill them. We used to sit and watch the “sport”.no TV in those days.

When we moved into present home....a barn conversion near other buildings yet to be converted therefore full of 'wild life' we heard rustling in roof space and whilst some of it was down to nesting birds, we felt that mice were probably about (thankfully not worse). We tracked down a sonic device that you leave on for several weeks and it really irritates small rodents to the extent they cannot settle and will move away. It does work, just takes a few weeks. When another barn was moved into we loaned them the device.

Our Molly cat often brought in wood mice and let them go. Once my husband managed to corner the mouse and it ran up his trouser leg. There he was, in the front garden, with his trousers off. He waved them around a few times and the mouse ran away. I was rolling on the floor laughing and got into trouble for not helping. Goodness knows what the neighbours thought!
We also had a spate of wood mice that were completely blind. Molly had an easy time catching them. It must have been a mutation according to the boffins that I contacted. (We had a few jokes about cutting off tails with carving knives to contend with.)

Peppermint oil, in the kitchen, they hate it, leave the back door open to allow it to make a run for it.

Oh no, traps are horrible you can get humane traps then just release it back into its own environment

My MIL's ginger coat dragged a mole in through the cat flap one afternoon!

We had success when the DC were small with poking a long tube of clingfilm - other end in a bucket - into the corner where the mouse was, then kicking up a racket behind, causing mouse to run into tube and fall out into bucket when tube picked up.
First trialled on escaped baby hamster hiding up behind the fridge

You should all thank your stars that you got mice, (apart from the lady who got a snake along wth other things). I once got a huge rat, which got in somehow from the house next door which was empty. I got in from shopping one day and when i went into the kitchen I found droppings all over the place, and a jar of jam which i had left on a work surface, with a loose lid, had evidently been invaded by the rat, and that was spread all over. I got the rodent man from the council to come to put rat poison down, and I told him that I thought the rat had scuttled up inside the lining of my cooker, he said no, but later I heard it squealing as the oven heated up and it popped out. I have never moved as fast in all my life. For the next few days i had to rattle the door handle before i could go into the kitchen. I had 3 dogs and one of them caught and killed it after 5 days. After a few days the dog started to get sore eyes, so I was looking at him to see what was wrong, and I noticed a nasty smell around his mouth area. Off to the vets with him, and the vet found he had been bitten quite a few times on his lip area, and had developed an infection, he was rubbing the area with his paws, and had transferred the infection to his eyes. Had to have injections and tablets, but was soon ok.

One of mine regularly brings live mice in - he either plays with them till they're dead (assuming as they're there when we get up) or we get up and he's glued to a spot where he's let one escape waiting for it to reappear. Often he's got bored by then and leaves us to deal with it - daft thing then suddenly 'remembers' later in the day and goes back on duty wondering where his toy has gone

Hope you can access your kitchen again kitty, any luck overnight? Used to get mice in my bedroom as a child. My father chased them with anything close to hand, so tennis racquet, hockey stick, broom, while I sat and yelled. Still can’t tolerate rodents of any kind.

A mouse with a sweet tooth is now on the loose so we had better beware!!!
Try the cheese because it has never failed here.............but then perhaps Welsh mice have different taste buds!!!

Just an update - the chocolate had gone but the trap remained unused. So, off to the garden centre for more traps.

Thanks for your picture sal - the one of the box - not the other one.