So I'm sitting on the sofa, watching the Simpsons, when something dark and small and very fast darts across my line of vision, underneath the table. And later on, I'm in bed on my front, just dropping off to sleep, when I can feel something scrabbling about underneath the bedstead. Sit up and turn on the light, heart beating away. Eventually it darts out, seemingly aiming for my computer hard drive, darts back underneath again. Can just about cope with it in the living room, but the bedroom is your sanctuary.
There is mees in my house. I'll never sleep again.
Sitting up blogging (with feet up on the chair) because I don't want to get back in bed. I know they don't hurt you, but it is just wrong when you can feel little beasties scampering away below the bedstead.
(What can I do about mees? I don't want to co-habit with them, but can't bear mousetraps.)
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You can get traps that hold the mice, but don't break their lickle necks.
What about getting a cat? It's Nature's Way.
You can get sticky Scooby Doo style traps that stick their tiny little delicate pink feet to something resembling gluey sandpaper I think. Lure them with chocolate and watch them stick. And then release them back into the garden. Sounds like a Viz Top Tip doesn't it? Or I think you can get boxes which trap them that haven't got glue floors! Failing that - poison/snaptrap - ouch.
The house I lived in as a student was riddled with mees - I thought they were really cute and vetoed traps or poison and just tried to catch them whenever I saw them and release them outside (Mees: "cheers vi! Close one there...we're off back through our hole in the wall to resume chewing holes in the pile of washing on your floor, m'kay?"). Then I went to Mr Violet's for the weekend and came back to a strange lack of mees and a smell of some icky harmful chemical. We came downstairs one morning and ofund two of them half-dead and twiching and foaming at the mouth on the kitchen bench. Oh, the shrieking that ensued...
One mouse though - doesn't mean you have an infestation. I have caught two at Violet Towers over 4 years and seen nothing else of them, no scrabbling in the walls or little dotty presents of poo. I'm bit dubious about most traps, except the ones that just trap them, I've heard that some glue traps are a wee bit too sticky and the mouses either get their feet ripped off or starve to death so check them out carefully before you purchase! Go far away from your house to release them though, nearby park or something.
A good bet is to try to figure out where they're getting in and block up the holes - stuffing with paper doused in Raid, and then blocking with something solid and less chewable, works a treat. If you see one scurry across the floor, make a big loud noise and they may freeze in terror - then get some sort of container, cover mouse, shove bit of paper underneath, and totter off carefully to release it.
Gosh, I have a lot to say about mices don't I?? How odd.
Get a cat!
Or a humane trap. But do remember to empty it. My parents forgot, and ended up with an inhumane trap...
We had squirrels in the attic. The traps for those made me feel decidedly ill. On the plus side, the squirrel seems to bugger off so never got caught.
You could ask Great She Elephant for a loan of one of her cats, though you'd be wiping up a fair bit.
Tim's idea is the best so far. Rockmother's idea I've teied and it's absolutely gruesome. They're called Glue Sticks and anything that sticks to it sticks for good, the mice squeal away all night like crazy. One even managed to grip off (I can't still figure how) leaving a bit of itself on the strip and smears of mice-blood everywhere. They eventually die, it's absolute hell grabbing the strips and throwing them away as they scream and twinge, I've got the shivers right now. They're acrtually quite popular and one hears the screaming mice now and then as one walks past rubbish skips. It's where my line 'The stuck rat' comes from.
I'd get a cat, too.
I had mees in a place I lived in Tronto and solved the problem by moving out. Don't know if that's an option for you, though.
Whatever happened to that gorgeous flat you were pining for a while back?
Get some insulating foam sealant that will fill in gaps and cracks. The one I got is called Great Stuff, made by Dow. Fill in any holes that you find with that. It expands and hardens so that nothing can chew through it. Make a hell of a lot of noise about 10 minutes before you spray the holes full so the little meeses will be more satisfied to stay outside of your home. Also, you might do this in the daytime. Mice tend to be more active during the night. And then you can either wait to see if they come scurrying acress your bedroom floor again, to see if further action is necessary. Or, you can get a cat or trap them.
Good luck!
I have to say - I have never tried a glue trap myself and am further afraid to say I have in the past opted for the nuclear arsenal wipeoput method as opposed to any form of humane option. This was mainly due to waking up to see one looking at me with its beady eyes from the comfort of my own pillow about 2" from my face. Oh the screaming!
Oh no, Annie - the horror. I had a family of mice in bed base at college, I was really scared of them and had to keep hitting the mattress to scare them into silence. I solved the problem by moving. My full sympathy to you.
Rockmother, that reminds me of a pal of mine who woke up to find a cockroach wiggling its tentacles (if they have any) at her a millimetre from the end of her nose. She phoned me - I must have been the only man in her life at the time, and she decided that she needed a man's help - and I had to talk her through the murder. I think she got it down the sink in the end, which probably wouldn't have killed the bastard, actually.
Sorry, Annie, this is useless re. mice. Don't know if those high-pitched squeaking things are any good.
Humane mousetraps work fairly well. Although if you keep forgetting to check them and end up leaving the trapped mice to starve to death, probably not so much humane. Ahem...
I vote for a cat, unless you're like, allergic, or think they are evil or something. Or unless you don't particularly like the prospect of opening your front door in the morning and finding lovely "presents" of mouse innards on your doorstep.
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Humane traps pah-see post. Still awaiting succesful outcome. Isn't having a cat worse than actually having mice?
I've had this problem a few times. Hackney mice, though, are not as normal mice and - if you really want to get rid of them - you will need to slaughter them. Buy the 'little nipper' traps from the hardware shop on Stamford Hill (opposite that wedding dress shop) or the similar shop on Stoke Newington High Street (they run out of stock less often).
If you can't bear handling the corpses, set the trap on a few sheets of newspaper and you can wrap the whole lot up and dispose of it without hardly having to look.
Go down the humane route and you'll have crowds of rodents sitting round your table wearing white tie.
I really feel for you. Once found one in the bedroom, pre-the filling of every damn hole that would let them enter, and it shocked me so much that I had to leave the house at 2am to stay with a friend.
I am not as kind as you though, so as well as filling holes, I bought poison and mousetraps, and would rather see a dead mouse with a flat head than have it scrabbling around.
Count yourself lucky they are scuttling under your bed, I woke up last night because something was tickling my neck, I though it was my hair and brushed it away but then something with very cold tiny feet ran over my head and then heard a suspicious scrabbling noise coming from under my duvet, I put on the light and lo and behold there was a mouse in my bed! It was quite sweet though, I don't mind them apart from the whole no bladder control thing. Pretty much the same way as I feel about my Gran actually!!
Clair - I'm not really kind, just a wuss. You are brave. (I did go to Brighton for the weekend to escape them.)
Dinah - yikes!!! cold tiny feet ran over my head...My worst nightmare!
*runs away, screaming; stands on stool like the housekeeper in Tom & Jerry*
for anyone desperately interested in the mees: after that first visit, I never saw one again - maybe they were just popping in to say hello - but have plugged in the supersonic electronic mouse machine just in case.
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