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Do not read this over your breakfast

(18 Posts)
Willow500 Wed 07-Dec-16 13:00:45

One of my cats is a deadly mouse hunter and I've periodically come down to find half eaten remains or even just the blood to let me know he's done his duty. However occasionally one will get away - if it's in the passage between the house and garage and I can find it I'll catch it in the spider trap and set it free to fight another day but if he's brought it in the house he has to sit guard until it emerges to meet it's fate grin

callgirl1 Tue 06-Dec-16 23:50:12

We haven`t seen any mice indoors since we went back to having cats, in 2012, except forb one occasion a few months ago, when Mia brought one in and let it loose. Took me a couple of hours to actually get hold of it and transport it out to the river bank, to Mia`s disgust. Before we got a cat again, we tried the humane traps that you put food in, but to no avail.

TriciaF Tue 06-Dec-16 20:04:19

Same here MOnica and Welshwife.
I think we've got some creatures bigger than mice. There are several(including rats shock)
Last week we had a leak of water in the living room from the bathroom upstairs. Something had chewed some holes in the drain-waste pipe from the shower. And this morning found that something had managed to open the lid on the plastic meusli container and pooed in there. Wee'd also no doubt - had to chuck it all out.

Welshwife Tue 06-Dec-16 19:41:17

I use the poison now too Monica ever since we arrived to find mice had been in my linen cupboard and gnawed through a couple of things but pee'd over so much I had to wash and iron everything again! I have the plug in things but found they do not always work so have the little munchkin delights about in places they sometimes get into.

M0nica Tue 06-Dec-16 19:24:47

We have mice in our house in France, where we are now. They have chewed holes in several towels, a bar of soap and a table napkin. They scamper everywhere leaving their trail of droppings and I had to scrub both bathrooms down, and change the bedclothes on two beds

I put down mice poison without compunction.

f77ms Tue 06-Dec-16 19:24:11

I use humane traps and find them the best option for me (and the mice) I just put them out into the garden and they scarper .

Tizliz Tue 06-Dec-16 18:51:12

Every winter into our garage they come and seem to like the car wiring. So they have to go, it is too expensive otherwise. 5 this year before they gave up.

Jalima Tue 06-Dec-16 18:43:21

But at least it wasn't me killing them, it was their fellow creatures.

Although I am quite happy to set an inhumane trap for a rat.

thatbags Tue 06-Dec-16 18:26:36

Wham bam mouse traps are the most humane option available, I agree, nelliem.

thatbags Tue 06-Dec-16 18:25:32

Mice transported to territory a mile or so away will be killed by the resident mice. They are territorial animals. Not really a humane option.

Nelliemoser Tue 06-Dec-16 18:24:07

We had mice burrowing up through the floor of my "Wendy House" (aka a potting shed.) I love my wendy house and there is no mercy for any creatures that try to eat it.
In the end we set wham bang mousetraps and over about three weeks collected about 10. It's about time I set some again. They did not know what hit them.
A little more humane than the treatment meeted out by a family cat.

Jalima Tue 06-Dec-16 17:52:53

DH took ours about a mile away into the deepest, darkest countryside but I think they had homing devices attached to them.

Luckygirl Tue 06-Dec-16 17:45:37

My OH was really fed up with our mice and threatened them all with death and destruction. The children were upset and persuaded him to use the humane traps, which he duly did one frosty night. The next morning there was a trapped mouse - hooray - result! He then had to decide what to do with it. I said he would need to take it a long way away so it did not return. "What out there?", says he "But it will get cold paws!" Hmmm.

Antonia Tue 06-Dec-16 15:30:18

We bought plug in repellents some months ago and so far, not a mouse in sight. Apparently they make the mice think there is an imminent earthquake and they take themselves off sharpish. I do wish someone would tell me just how anyone knows what the mice are thinking. Did they have to fill in a questionnaire perhaps?

hildajenniJ Tue 06-Dec-16 15:23:17

My husband swears he can hear mice scampering around in the crawl spaces that run along either side of the house. When we retrieved the Christmas decorations from one side however, there were no signs of any mice.

Izabella Tue 06-Dec-16 14:23:34

Purrs sees to that sort of thing, but at the moment she is indicating it is too cold to go out! ?

DaphneBroon Tue 06-Dec-16 10:01:35

OK I won't.

thatbags Tue 06-Dec-16 09:34:06

This morning I've decided that Pooh Sticks bowel tests and chucking dead mice (humanely caught) into the field as crow food are on a par when it comes to yuck factor.

The mouse traps (humane because the mice don't suspect a thing and then they are dead) came out the other day because MrBags decided to take as personal insults the fact that a mouse had chewed his headphones and peed on his iPad. Another one came in last night (baby, it's cold out there! ?). Whap! went the trap.

If anyone is anti killer-but-humane, mouse traps, I suggest they come and live on the Boggy Brae for a winter.