I killled a mouse

When we suspected we had mice in our garage last summer (where we store bird food and children's outdoor games along with all the usual gardening and DIY paraphernalia) we emptied the whole thing out onto the lawn and did a thorough clean and disinfected all the shelves and children's toys. No live mice that we could see but plenty of droppings and chewed items. I bought one of those plug in thingies which is supposed to deter mice through soundwaves and, touch wood, it seems to have worked. We've also had a new UPVC door and window put it at the back to replace the original wooden one which had lots of gaps around the frame and at the bottom where I suspect the mice got in.

The garage is also used in the winter for my tortoise to hibernate. My big fear isn't really mice, although they do carry some nasty diseases and viruses, but rats. I've heard of several cases where hibernating tortoises have had their shells and limbs gnawed away by rats and have subsequently died. I'd have no hesitation in employing whatever measures it took to prevent that happening if I suspected there was a rat in the garage!

Please don't feel guilty - I'm sure you didn't deliberately intend to cause any suffering.

LR10

I wish I hadn't posted now, I am just so sad about the poor little mouse, and the posts have made me feel even more guilty. I buried it for exactly the reason that I didn't want the poison to damage any other animal.

I wouldn't worry about it. You did what you thought was best. When it comes to vermin like rats, mice and so on, some posters have very strong views about what should be done with them. You did what was right in your view.

LR10

I wish I hadn't posted now, I am just so sad about the poor little mouse, and the posts have made me feel even more guilty. I buried it for exactly the reason that I didn't want the poison to damage any other animal.

Don’t worry it sounds as if you were upset as you thought the poison would kill it quickly, but they do linger unfortunately with poison.
A mousetrap that kills instantly is the best idea for mice in the house.
If they’re outside I leave them alone.

I wish I hadn't posted now, I am just so sad about the poor little mouse, and the posts have made me feel even more guilty. I buried it for exactly the reason that I didn't want the poison to damage any other animal.

LR10

There has been a mouse in the plastic store I keep the bird food in outside the kitchen door. I bought mouse poison on line and have been putting it down for over a week. It kept disappearing so I kept putting more, thinking the poison wasn't going to work and I'd wasted my money. Last night I opened the kitchen door to see a dear little brown mouse just huddled on the patio, completely still but not dead. This morning it was dead and I feel so guilty for making the poor little thing suffer. Why didn't I just get a mouse trap - I would hate that too but at least it's quick. I buried it in the garden so the poison wouldn't affect any other animal that might eat it, but I'm so sad today

If it had been eaten by an owl or cat you'd probably have killed that too.

I like mice...I had a pet white mouse when I was at school

MiniMoon

I don't kill mice if the cat brings in live ones. I have humane mouse traps. I take them and release them as far from the house as possible.
I dislike poison. I once read about a family of owls killed by poisoned rodents.

My cat does that too. He delivers them to my bedroom, usually around 3 or 4 am, makes sure he has woken me then drops them and saunters off, job done. I am quite good at catching mice, but humane traps with peanut butter work well, usually about 24hrs later.
I agree that poison shouldn’t be used. It causes horrible suffering.
I feel I am not sufficiently grateful for my cat’s efforts.

These days I am ultra-sensitive to harming any wildlife - much more so than when I was young. I was extremely upset when I once cut a toad in half with the strimmer and now I always try to make a lot of noise and rustling before using it. I even find myself apologising to worms when I accidentally kill 'em when digging. As for mice - I agree with BlueBelle, I think they are lovely and would never knowingly kill one.

I had mice in the shed in my allotment so set up a trap. Caught one and put its little body out for a bird to eat. Went very quickly.
What shook me was how quickly I became desensitised to this .

I always try a humane trap first but if it doesn’t work use a spring trap. However I stored one of the humane traps in the garage and months later found that I must have left some peanut butter in one of them and a poor mouse had crawled in and starved. I can’t risk having a mouse in my house because I’m away for several weeks at a time sometimes. I would rather use a spring trap than risk using poison that would be a horrible death for the mouse and might also result in another creature dying. But I can’t even begin to say how dreadful I feel about the mouse that died in the humane trap .

I so agree Whitewave ….poison is awful, so are those medieval traps please use a humane trap and then let it go free to live its little life

I actually love mice obviously not in my house but I think they are dear little things I did kill one completely by accident and it upset me so much.
It’s the only time I ve had a mouse in the house and I knew I had one and had been trying to lure it out. One night, as I was sitting watching TV, I suddenly saw it out the corner of my eye scurrying towards the door, I reached over and shoved the door to stop it escaping to the rest of the house, then I could contain it in one room catch it and put it outside, Much to my horror as I shoved the door shut, that was the very second it was escaping through the door which hit it hard and killed it instantly. I was so upset I was crying and kept imagining it had a little family waiting to be fed. It really did upset me a lot

The animal suffers terribly. Please don’t use poison.

We once found two dead rats on our drive that looked like someone had poisoned them. There are cats, foxes, sparrow hawks, owls and red kites round here that could all have eaten them.

I once killed a mouse inadvertently by shutting it in a bedroom that we rarely used to go in. I went in one day and the room smelled bad but I couldn't work out what the smell was. As soon as I had a day off work I ransacked the room, cleaning every inch of every drawer, shelf and cupboard. There was only the floor left to hoover and as I closed the wardrobe doors I found a very flat mouse under them. It looked like Jerry after Tom had flattened him with a hammer, arms and legs sticking out. Very sad but we were totally unaware it was in there.

I don't kill mice if the cat brings in live ones. I have humane mouse traps. I take them and release them as far from the house as possible.
I dislike poison. I once read about a family of owls killed by poisoned rodents.