Mice

[DracoJesi]

So I've got a mouse problem, he hasn't really gotten into anything, s/he just leaves a mess. I don't need this mouse chewing through wires or causing trouble. i don't want to hurt it either.

I haven't actually seen this mouse and have no idea were it's at right now.

Are there any suggestion on how to go about catching it without harming it.

[TeamTwig]

I think mice are adorable, and could never bring myself to harm one. That being said, I understand where you're coming from. They are chewers, and rodent chewing causes a lot of house fires each year. Not to mention their feces can carry diseases.

We had a mouse in our house about a year ago, and I used a glue board trap to catch it. It worked like a charm, and the mouse was relocated, alive.
You can get the glue board traps at wal-mart. They're a piece of cardboard with glue gel on the top. You place a little blob of peanut butter in the middle of the board, and when the mouse goes for the peanut butter, he gets stuck to the board and is trapped there.

To get the mouse off the board, pour a little olive oil on it's feet (or whatever's stuck to the board) and it will break the bond with the glue, releasing the mouse.

There are also the "tip traps" that are live traps, but those didn't work for us. The glue boards were great.

Good luck! :)

[EntwinedScylla]

There are live traps. Just make sure it says "Live catch trap" and not just "You don't see the dead mouse" kind.

That said, if you release it it's just going to come back in through whatever hole it used in the first place, or go to another house and do the same thing.

[Corvis Canis Latrans]

I think mice are adorable, and could never bring myself to harm one. That being said, I understand where you're coming from. They are chewers, and rodent chewing causes a lot of house fires each year. Not to mention their feces can carry diseases.

We had a mouse in our house about a year ago, and I used a glue board trap to catch it. It worked like a charm, and the mouse was relocated, alive.
You can get the glue board traps at wal-mart. They're a piece of cardboard with glue gel on the top. You place a little blob of peanut butter in the middle of the board, and when the mouse goes for the peanut butter, he gets stuck to the board and is trapped there.

To get the mouse off the board, pour a little olive oil on it's feet (or whatever's stuck to the board) and it will break the bond with the glue, releasing the mouse.

There are also the "tip traps" that are live traps, but those didn't work for us. The glue boards were great.

Good luck! :)


Just wanted to add to this...in general these things work well, but definitely do the following:

A. Get the board trap. If it's just paper traps the mouse can suffocate getting it wrapped around itself, or be impossible to disentangle.

B. Only put it out when you are home to hear if a mouse gets stuck to it. Otherwise you might check it to find a mouse who has partially or completely gnawed off its leg in an attempt to escape.

[Cindlady2]

I hate the glue boards. They can be cruel. A mose can get stuck and panic until the body gets stuck and they go into shock. I'd rather do them in with a clean, quick kill, or a live trap.

[Élistariel]

I get mice left and right in this silly old house.
Here's what I do to catch and free them.

Glue traps. I free them with WD-40 since I don't usually have olive oil. I don't know how that effects them afterwards, but it frees them. I should probably follow blasted them with that with pouring some water, but I don't usually think that far ahead...

A plastic box thing called the mice cube. It works wonderfully. Now that I think about it, I left one out by the woods a few days ago... (I left a stick in there to prop the door open since the little mouse wouldn't go out and it was raining and I had to leave.) I had totally forgotten it till now.

[Shanti]

Wd40...pioson, slowly!! They have to clean it off themselves by licking!!!

Um realistically mice are not good and often where there is one there are more.

Where are you going to release it? Near where it can infest someone elses home? Not good to pass your problem over.
In the country? Ok, the owls and such will appreciate it! :smile:

All the worry of not hurting it, they are over populated thanks to people, and dangerous since they can carry disease and burn down your home easily!!!
They multiply in extremely high numbers for a natural reason, they are preyed on!
Prey on the mice before they do harm for you!

A fast kill is better than harming an animal with glue traps as been mentioned.
An old snap trap is usually the fastest way as most of the time it gets their head or neck.
Or a cat and let it be the predator!!!

If you have to get it and its friends alive, please release it very far from any other buildings!! Let the owls have it in the country.

[Ravens_Tears]

Well put Shanti! As cute as they might be, they can carry hantavirus and other things. Growing up on a farm, where they can be quite a nuisance, I learned two things... Always keep food in glass or plastic containers and it's good to have a kitty :) When mice smell a cat they don't usually even bother trying to get in.

[Cindlady2]

I have 3 cats and they do their best to keep the place mouse free however we do have to put traps (snap traps) in some areas. They learnd that there are places the cats just can't get to!

[alwaysfallingup]

We always let Navi (our cat) handle the mice..she's good at it and enjoys it. But, as a preventative measure, we put hedge apples (the fruits of the osage orange tree) in the basement. My mom swears they repel mice and puts them under her house, too.

[Élistariel]

Hmm... I wonder if putting wads of cat hair in strategic locations would help keep the mice away...
I can't have a cat here, but my grandparents have a longhaired one and they live a short walk through the woods.-Said cat has wandered over here, but not as far as my actual house.

[Corvis Canis Latrans]

Hmm... I wonder if putting wads of cat hair in strategic locations would help keep the mice away...
I can't have a cat here, but my grandparents have a longhaired one and they live a short walk through the woods.-Said cat has wandered over here, but not as far as my actual house.

One of the reasons landlords often don't allow pets is that once an animal has lived there it isn't possible to clean a house to the point that anyone with a severe allergy could be a tenant there.

I don't know if putting cat hair around would work, it's an interesting thought, but if you do put it out I'd suggest putting something underneath it, like a lid or something, to minimize the dander coming into contact with anything in the house.

That said, my parents have had anywhere from two to four cats in the last several years (fur everywhere), and the mice only disappeared after the most recent stray was adopted.

I do know that outdoors the best way to deter rodents isn't the fur, but the used kitty litter.

Good luck

CCL

[WitchJezebel]

I use the box snap traps and glue traps. I'll dispatch a glued mouse quickly but I won't tolerate them in the house. For all their cuteness they're destructive and carry diseases; I've no problem killing them.

[Astara Seague]

My kitty takes care of any that dare wander inside
but as others say I think they can smell the cat, before my hubby and I married he had tons of them in here, but when I moved in with my cats we havent had a problem with them for a very long time
Kitty litter is an interesting idea and definatly worth a try :uhhuhuh:

[hazel_eyes]

I know this is an old thread but I just had to say something. If you really want to get rid of this mouse w/o harming it go to the store and buy peppermint oil. Make sure it says 100% essential oil. Put a drop or two at every crack and crevice where the mice can get in. This includes if you have any cables or pipes coming out of the floor because believe it or not they can crawl up the impossibly small spaces between the cable/pipe and the edge of the hole. Mice and many insects are detered by peppermint oil and it will leave quickly. If you replace the oil around the cracks and holes once every six months mice will stay far away. Its really not that expensive to buy peppermint oil either. I payed about $6 dollars for my .5oz bottle three years ago and I still have about 1/3 of it left. I use it for everything to. I also should also tell you I live on a farm and have had mouse problems for ages but since I heard about this I have only seen one and it wasn't even inside, it was on my front porch. :hahugh:

[dandalion]

I lived in an older home and had a mouse but it didnt turn out to be just one mouse but a whole gaggle of them. We had a fireplace with a heat-a-lator with vents under the hearth. While watching TV one night I saw the mouse peak out from the vent and pointed it out to my husband. He got the bright idea of getting his bb gun and thought he was going to shoot it. So he sat there for a good hour with his gun waiting for this mouse to pop back out. Once it did he shot at it but missed, the bb then bounced off the brick of the fireplace and hit me in the leg.

It was on - who could catch/kill the mouse first. We tried glue boards as well, I watched this mouse peak out of the vent, sniff and see the glue board that was right infront of the vent so he had no where to go, you would think. NOOOO this mouse CLINGS to the brick and does the whole spiderman crawl on the brink to the end of the glue board, jumps on the floor and takes off. My husband tried to use snap traps with peanut butter, but he was so light he was able to eat the peanut butter and not set off the traps. At this point I felt like we were in a badly made Disney movie... but alas I was the one that killed it. I chased this thing all over the house but I did finally get it. I wont into too much detail (dont want to upset anyone) but it did die fast.

Once I got the 'leader' the rest was fairly easy to take care of. Glue boards did the trick and a stray kittie that showed up on my doorstep. Its been five years and two moves since then and I still have my champion mouser!