No idea what section to put this one in. We've just found out we have a major mouse problem in our "shed" (actually it's more of a garden room, we spend a lot of time out there and so does Pongo). Opened a cupboard and HUGE piles of droppings poured out. Yuk. Pillows and hammock fabrics chewed to bits. Grrrr. And not a pleasant smell. I need to find a solution to this, but I don't want to do anything that would put Pongo at risk (so obviously anything poison-based is out of the question). Anyone else explored solutions for this sort of thing and come up with a best answer? (
Good old fashioned neck-breaking mouse trap. End off. That and blocking up any access points you can find. Think a few years back I was up to 27 on the mouse-killing tally. There were probably a load more but it kept things manageable. I become mercenary when they start to eat my breakfast cereal and the kids toys.
I would say a good ratting dog....but if Pongo is anything like Charlie then . Charlie did nothing but roll on his back asking for a tummy rub the time there was a mouse in the house - OH was chasing it round the room with a salad sieve (trying to catch it), and Charlie opened an eye, thought it looked like hard work, and rolled on his back with his paws in the air! Seriously, I just called rentokill - they were too expensive, so a local chap installed some snazzy traps with poison inside robust black boxes that were safe around dogs. They caught nothing, but we never saw any more mice, so. There we are.
You could buy humane mouse traps and take the mice you catch to a far distance, we took our mouse to the top of the garden and it kept coming back! So we took it about 1/4 mile away, haven't seen it since. Make sure there is no source of food in the garden room and you should clear them with the humane trap.
When we had this problem in our garage and the cats decided it was too much effort to catch the mice, we used the old fashioned mouse traps and put them inside some broken clay drain pipes so the cats weren't tempted to eat the peanut butter used as bait. It took a while to catch all the mice but did eventually get rid of them.
I recently cleared out a garage I rent for all my summer Playscheme equipment (sports equipment, parachutes, arts and crafts etc) and mice/rats had got in and I had to throw over half the equipment out. We paid a man in a van to come and dispose it all in the tip. We found 6 dead mice and 12 live ones. Luckily my OH helped me out that day and relocated them in a field nearby. The garage stunk and it was awful. The housing association we rent it from has been out to put poison down. I won't be taking Harley there until end July do it should be safe by then. Good luck removing the mice and all your stuff (disposable gloves are really useful when sorting it out!).
I'm not sure how humane live trapping and disposing in a far away area is. We know larger nuisance wildlife relocated may face a death sentence due to not knowing where food and water sources are, competition from like animals, threats from predators and cars. The OH did live trap and release back near our compost pile and I'm sure all those wee mousies made it right back to our garage.
Traps either humane or killer are the way to go. We have a wooden box type humane one, they can get in but can't get out, we've sometimes caught up to 4 at a time with that one.
I have a little video somewhere of a mouse escaping from a humane trap. I was stumped as to how they could remove the chocolate bait and escape - its easy when you see how. I gave up using them. The saying goes that you have to take them over a mile and over water.......
Little Nipper spring traps are the quickest and kindest option. Mars Bars (glued on) and peanut butter are the best bait. I'm unsure how humane it is to trap a mouse and take it miles for release.
Whisper "C-a-t " we're not allowed to say the c word in our house, especially if H is sleeping peacefully. I'd be careful of poison it could harm any local kittys if they eat the poisoned mice.
And owls and maybe other birds of prey. I've read of owls catching a mouse before it died and then the owl died. http://www.earthkind.com/blog/story-of-an-owl-killed-by-rat-poison
The neighbours have a cat. Alas not a mouse-catcher.... I shall get some good strong mouse-traps. Mousies beware.... Thank you all!
