Please no babies...

A question about : Please no babies...

This is most definitely not a pet question, but it is about animals.

Small furry ones, squatting in my flat. From the first night I moved in, Mousey made his presence clear. Being a reasonable woman, I told the him that squatting is illegal and he was being given fair warning to leave. About two days - until the humane trape and sonic thingy were delivered.

He ignored me, and spent the next few weeks ignoring me, running around in front of me while I was watching tv, not even pretending to be scared of me.

A couple of weeks ago he finally found the lure of peanut butter too much and made his way into the humane trap, and from there to a park a few miles away.

As soon as I got back from giving him a lift, I heard a mouse. Now, either Mousey was supermouse, or he'd invited a friend - Mousey 2 - to stay for Christmas.

Mousey 2 is shyer than Mousey, I haven't seen him yet, just heard him. Tonight has been the final straw. I found his droppings on the kitchen counter right below where the sonic scarer is plugged in.

Both Mouseys liked eating cardboard boxes (there's still plenty around as I've not finished unpacking yet).

Now I'm worried that there are a few Mouslets somewhere, why else would they be eating the cardboard? Or maybe they're not eating it, but carrying it away. They've both shown they can eat through plastic food wrappers, so why aren't they going for the cereal that's out in boxes?

So, does anyone have any ideas how I can tell if there's a nest anywhere, and how on earth I can get rid of Mousey 2? I'm really reaching the end of my tether now and I'm starting to think of getting a traditional mousetrap or poison.

I tried making a humane trap out of a small box propped up with a ruler dipped in peanut butter, two of their favourite foods, but with no luck.

Any more suggestions?

Sorry if this is the wrong place, and for the long post, I thought the background was important. I don't want to hurt it, but enough's enough now.

Best answers:

• Rats tend to be solo explorers around houses. They pop up, run around and go again to where it's safe and dark.
  Mice show up mob handed and are happy to live in your walls, under your floorboards and any other which where you can't find easily.
  Chances are you've got mice not just a second mousey.
• If you have seen one mouse . . . then you are definately infested with many. many mice's !
  You are never more than 5 ft away from a rodent . . . at any time in your life, did you know that ?
  The easiest thing to do would be to contact your landlord for advice, in such a way as to hint that any rent that they thought might be forthcoming . . . probably won't be untill the mice are sorted . . .
  But this is MSE.
  I'm fairly sure that that the teens we employ to populate the board will have a fair few suggestions ready & waiting on their iPhones.
• They may be carrying nesting materials and food away - my meece were nesting under the bathroom floor boards but they used the pipe work to move round the house so the droppings were turning up all over the place.
  I resorted to traditional mousetraps in the end because even after pest man came out and put poison down they kept reappearing. Some of the mousetraps are a permanent fixture as I seem to get new tenants whenever it gets cold.
  Everyone always says to block up any small possible entry holes, but in an old house that's never going to happen.
• I'm sorry, but you'll have to resort to a more permanent solution than your current humane traps. Mice pee constantly, leaving a scent trail for others. They can chew through electric wire (fire hazard) and plastic plumbing (flood hazard), and they carry diseases that affect humans.
  Hardware stores sell bait traps that keep bait safely away from kids/pets. The bait boxes are better than loose bait because you can throw them into inaccessible corners and they are effective for a long time. It means curtains for the mice, but, I'm afraid, it's you or them.
  If you use sprung traps as well, set them perpendicular to the wall / edges of boxes etc. Much more effective than parallel to the wall or out in an exposed position.
• First off well done on being so calm, I grew up with gerbils / hamsters but a mouse running across my kitchen freaked me right out!!
  In flats it is worse, you have to rely on your neighbors be responsible too and if they are anything like mine, they wont be!
  I got a chap in to fill all my holes (ooh er missus) it was guaranteed for a year and cost me about Ј200 at London prices.
  At the same time he put poison down luckily I never found a dead one, thank God!
  Unless you plan on being a taxi driver for the next 6 months for Mickey(s) and lots of Minnie(s) then you need to terminate them!
• Thanks everyone.
  Oh dear.
  Apart from a small overlap I've only heard one at a time, but I guess that doesn't mean much.
  I know where (aaargh) they are nesting. There's a chimney breast in my living room (yet no space for a fire, or chimney on the roof...) and I can hear them in there. I've no idea how they're getting in there, but they've been here longer than I have.
  I guess that if I've got them then they'll be in the entire block (four flats, two up two down). So even if I get rid, they'll still be coming in from upstairs and next door.
  I'm not keen on poison because I don't want rotting mouseys in the walls making the place smell. So I guess it'll have to be traditional traps.
  Elsien, I think they are using the pipes because I hear the radiator rattling before one pops up in the bedroom.
  Babbawah, I knew that about rodents (actually I thought it was just rats and mice were extra on top). As long as they stay in sewers and pipes etc that's fine, but running across the kitchen tops is going too far.
  I'm in a council flat so can't go to the Landlord as it's nothing to do with them. They'll deal with rats but not mice.
• Oops, Hedgehog and Phree your replies weren't there when I started my last post.
  I don't have kids or pets so keeping them safe isn't a problem.
  I'm not calm, I'm suffering from moderate depression and just haven't been able to face dealing with it all.
  I'm not sure how I'd stand with having the holes filled, I'll ask my housing advice worker if I'd get in trouble with the council for it.
• I know you're supposed to look for the bodies if you've used poison (so as to prevent the body being eaten by another animal), but, thankfully, mice are small and their bodies dry out quickly so the smell goes quickly.
  Try traps now as fits your preference, and use the bait boxes as a long-term way of stopping each first opportunist - stop the first one(s) each time and they're not there to breed more.
• I'm in a council block too, but I rent privately.
  It is amazing how many of my neighbors that I spoke who were "yeah I saw something and there is a hole in me cornflakes box was it a mouse???" even though our housing association provide free vermin (including mice) control, no one would call!!
  Worth a phone call surely?
• So this your new place?
  I'd call a proper pest controller: as well as treatment they will give advice. The problem does get worse in cold weather.
  And if there's a problem throughout the block, then ask your support worker why it's not a council problem!
• Thanks Hedgehog, I'll have a browse of different traps.
  Pthree, in tower blocks the council do deal with mice as it's their fault that they're getting in through the rubbish chutes, and because they can do serious damage in a tower block. Otherwise it's nothing to do with them, or at least that was the case when I was on my tenants and residents association and I doubt that in the last five years they've started offering more services.
  Savvy_Sue, yes it's the new place. The council didn't care when I pointed out the poo and blood stains (it's an ex crack den) over the floor and radiators etc, so I doubt they'll be bothered about a few mice. I don't know if there's a problem in the whole block, I'm just guessing. I'll get Rentokill in to have a look.
• Any chance of getting a cat or two?
  I am in a block of flats and had about 5 individuals trying to move in with me over the past 7 years - and I am in a 1st floor flat.
  They were tiny field mice, one was presented to me by my very proud cat, minus the head and guts out on the kitchen counter one morning.
  The other 4 I managed to catch before cats got them and release back into the fields.
  If yours is a council place, rather then talk to neighbours who should do what when they travel between the flats - get the council to sort this out.
  Or get permission to keep a cat. Or two
• No chance of getting a cat, I can barely look after myself let alone another creature.
  Although I have been tempted to buy a cage and keep one of the mice to get into those parcels that are impossible to get into. Here mousey mousey, a nice new bit of cardboard for you to chew... yep, that's enough now.
  I'll try talking to the council, but I doubt I'd get anywhere. When I had my new tenancy visit and pointed out the big brown streak on the bathroom floor from the toilet to the door he just shrugged and said I should buy a carpet. And in my last place they left me for two years with no washing facilities, five years with no heating, and a similar time with black mould all over the walls due to the damp and no heating. I really can't see them falling over themselves to deal with a few mice.
• Found the info on the council website. They'll deal with mice for Ј81. I'll see how much Rentokil come in at, and maybe try buying traps and poison myself first.
  At least it's not bedbugs - they cost nearly Ј200!
• If you are not working (are you?) won't they do it for free?
• I'm not working and I'm currently on means tested benefits, but I still have to pay. There are some exemptions - owner occupiers don't have to pay to have rats dealt with, and pensioners on Guarantee Credit don't have to pay for wasps or bees. Other than that everyone has to pay.
  Although it does cover as many visits as necessary to get rid of them fully.
  It does all seem a bit odd and random.
  https://www.leeds.gov.uk/docs/2014-15...%20charges.pdf
• Why is free loaders in the swear filter?
• Ames, whatever you do, do not with-hold your rent because of the mice!
  The 2 things are entirely separate in law.