Mice in the roofspace

[Jeremy Harris]

YouTube really brings out some very creative ways of killing things, doesn't it?

 

I once caught a mouse that was underneath some kitchen units by partially removing the kick board and making up a taped up cardboard adapter to take the vacuum cleaner hose.  One end of the hose was effectively sealed up to the void that the mouse was in, with all other escape routes blocked (he'd gone down a gap adjacent to the waste pipe in the base of the under sink unit), the other end was taped to a demijohn, propped up at about  45 deg angle, with a bit of chocolate in it.

 

We were both amazed at how quickly the mouse found the vacuum cleaner pipe and ran up inside it.  He practically leapt into the demijohn and couldn't climb the slippery sides.

Edited January 2, 2018 by JSHarris

[Declan52]

Chocolate on a mouse trap has never failed me. I spent days in my last house trying to find a cable that some mouse had chewed through. He was found fried beside where he had chewed through.

[Jeremy Harris]

  On 02/01/2018 at 19:24, Declan52 said:

Chocolate on a mouse trap has never failed me. I spent days in my last house trying to find a cable that some mouse had chewed through. He was found fried beside where he had chewed through.

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I think it's regional @Declan52.  I used chocolate for years, and the mice in Cornwall and in Scotland loved it, especially dark chocolate.  For some reason, mice down here in the South seem to much prefer peanut butter.  I've tried chocolate in the live traps and it just doesn't work here, whereas peanut butter gets them every time.

[Onoff]

  On 02/01/2018 at 19:27, JSHarris said:

 

 

I think it's regional @Declan52.  I used chocolate for years, and the mice in Cornwall and in Scotland loved it, especially dark chocolate.  For some reason, mice down here in the South seem to much prefer peanut butter.  I've tried chocolate in the live traps and it just doesn't work here, whereas peanut butter gets them every time.

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Presumably Scottish mice like their chocolate on a deep fried Mars Bar / Snickers / Toffee Crisp?

 

Never forget the first time I saw them all plus pizza on a menu in an Edinburgh chippy.

[dpmiller]

Heard a distinctive rustling in the attic a couple of nights back so set the traps with a fresh blob of PB on each, found a result this morning.

[nod]

  On 02/01/2018 at 16:32, Onoff said:

Catch and release? Yeah right! Unless it's into one of these:

 

 

 

 

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If there was a post of the day

I think you would have it?

[Hecateh]

I used to have 2 cats.  Heard a rustling behind me one day and looked round - both cats were fast asleep on the sofa - but the noise continued.  Looked to the cats food bowl to see a little dormouse tucking into the cat food.  

 

On a more serious not - it is starlings that get into my roof space.  Admittedly this house was built in 1951 but it was supposedly sealed a few years ago.  I have dead ones up there, and regularly hear them scrabbling about but I think most get out again

 

[Ferdinand]

  On 02/01/2018 at 11:34, Onoff said:

We have the faint whiff of  "dead rat" smell at the mo upstairs! 

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Finish that bathroom quickly, then....  ... and use it.

[Onoff]

  On 02/01/2018 at 20:54, Ferdinand said:

 

Finish that bathroom quickly, then....  ... and use it.

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Tbh taking SO long over the bathroom is deep seated. The rest of the house is so bad that to do a room generally means walls, back to brick/block, plasterboard down to sort, straighten, renew ceiling joists and floors replaced / dug down and built back up. To have a sanctuary, isolated to get cleaned up in from all this will be nice. 

[Onoff]

I reckon I'll be sleeping downstairs tonight and vacating our upstairs bedroom. Eau de rat / squirrel / bird or whatever has died is chucking up something chronic!

 

All the upstairs floors of the big dormer are glued joints / angular ring nailed T&G sheets. The dormer has 8"x2" floor joists but these sit about a foot above the downstairs ceiling joists that are infilled with 4" roll insulation. So there's a massive inaccessible "space" wherein God knows what resides!

[Onoff]

On the subject of vermin...

 

The youngest is into making miniature clay squirrels at the mo, this ones going in the oven shortly!

 

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by Onoff

[Weegaz]

Since my first post I have put up mice traps covered in strawberry sauce from the inside of a quality street and some in peanut butter. I have also put some Big Cheese sticky stuff on some cardboard strategically placed around the roof space.....nothing caught yet but still at night we hear them scratching and moving around.

 

It may be time to call in the experts.

[TerryE]

How about this:

 

[curlewhouse]

Those Goodnature traps are great but expensive. They've recently cleared a version for grey squirrel control (something my work involves a lot of) too. I'd definitely use traps in a house rather than poison as one dead mouse under the floor can somehow manage to create the stench as if you had an decomposing cow under there, not a tiny little mouse!   

I once took an electric cooker out of a house for a friend and when I opened the junction box in back of it found a long dried mouse stretched across the terminals. The space it had utilised to get though to get into there was unbelievably small.   My father is a retired electrician and he was rewiring a pub once and found in the loft that mice had eaten the entire insulation off some of the old fashioned cloth/rubber insulated wires. It had also perished with age most likely, but the copper also had teeth marks in it. In places the bare copper wires had been reduced to lying side by side along a joist and by sheer chance had not made contact (and this is the days before RCDs). there were a few old mouse skeletons too who presumably did! 

Edited January 17, 2018 by curlewhouse

[curlewhouse]

I'm not keen on the sticky pad type traps unless people are willing to check them very regular then humanely deal with the trapped mice/rats (which doesn't mean drowning!), but I just had to photograph these ones when I saw them. It's a bit blurred as the guy in the shop was watching me suspiciously as I got my phone out to photograph them (probably after I burst out laughing pointing them out to my daughter) so I had to snap it quickly in case he objected.  As you can see, its a curious sort of "rat" they feature    (Rattus GuineaPigus I believe)  

[Ed_MK]

I will tell you what worked well for me,....

at once on a good day i caught 4 mice in ALL 4 traps.

 

I found peanut butter messy ....so i tried dog treats !!

the Squishy ones ...cost about 99p in B&M..another advantage ,....they dont go off and mouldy like some bait

 

and rather than use the old wooden "nipper" i opted for the FINGER safe black plastic traps....they will last forever

east to set ...they dont "twonk" when you put them down ...and you push the "bait" into a little 
pot on top ...so nearly 100% of the time ...the mouse gets "clattered" without ever getting his gnashers on it

win Win

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PACK-REUSABLE-PLASTIC-MOUSE-TRAPS-MOUSETRAP-MICE-PEST-CONTROL-TRAP-UK-/183150737273?clk_rvr_id=1503803766667&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=twenga&utm_campaign=twenga&utm_param=eyJlcyI6MCwicyI6OTcyMDIzNywiY2kiOiIwMzI1YTI5ZTkxMGQzYzZlM2NkMjk4YWYxOGNmYzA3NiIsImkiOiIxODMxNTA3MzcyNzMiLCJ0cyI6MTUyNDEwODIyNCwidiI6Mywic28iOjE1MDAsImMiOjE4MTA0NX0%3D&rmvSB=true

 

as usual advice ...mice LOVE to stick to walls when they are running about ....so just put it next to a wall on the floor .....they will find it for SURE.
And dont think for one minute if you catch a few you got them all ...a nest can have a dozen in it ...

 

Listen ...I am no animal hater. And i didnt even like doing it But they made nests of my winter clothes in the garage, chewed rubber handles off my tools and made holes in plastic bags of compost ....

Edited April 19, 2018 by Ed_MK

[joe90]

I once got mice in a brand new motor caravan, luckily I caught them before they started on the upholstery and did some real damage that could be seen. I had to patch up some wiring where they ate the insulation. They got in through the vent in the floor under the Gas fridge which I covered with a metal mesh. I too am an animal lover but not the ones that attack me.

[Yzzy]

  On 02/01/2018 at 11:34, Onoff said:

 I dread to think how many skeletons and nests are in the inaccessible areas.

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We have SO many skeletons and decomposing pigeons in our refurb it's got to the point where I don't even flinch when I see them. Grab and bag....

 

This is a photo of what I found when I smashed up a wardrobe in one of the rooms... the wardrobe and a cupboard next to it created a V shaped space where over the last 4 years pigeons had flown in and got stuck.... a 3 foot tall Pyramid of death was the result... at the bottom powdered bones, then a layer of skeletons and on top fresh corpses.... NICE!

 

That's just one corner... urgh

 

[Onoff]

@Yzzy, when you find one of these you can get the skirt:

 

https://www.redbubble.com/people/redilion/works/12675737-i-believe-in-the-cockamouse?p=pencil-skirt

[Yzzy]

  On 29/04/2018 at 14:52, Onoff said:

@Yzzy, when you find one of these you can get the skirt:

 

https://www.redbubble.com/people/redilion/works/12675737-i-believe-in-the-cockamouse?p=pencil-skirt

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Well we had a mouse fall out of the ceiling yesterday, when I went to pick it up to release it it BIT ME.... the bastard!! I was freeing it and it bit me (luckily my gloves)... so it flew out the window, not intentionally, I just jumped at the vicious rodent  attack and was next to the window.... it landed on a broken wardrobe, looked up at me and ran off (I'm sure it flipped me off too)

[Nickfromwales]

  On 29/04/2018 at 14:44, Yzzy said:

 

We have SO many skeletons and decomposing pigeons in our refurb it's got to the point where I don't even flinch when I see them. Grab and bag....

 

This is a photo of what I found when I smashed up a wardrobe in one of the rooms... the wardrobe and a cupboard next to it created a V shaped space where over the last 4 years pigeons had flown in and got stuck.... a 3 foot tall Pyramid of death was the result... at the bottom powdered bones, then a layer of skeletons and on top fresh corpses.... NICE!

 

That's just one corner... urgh

 

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Admins..... wheres the 'puking my ring up' emoji ?

Jeeee-fackin-sus. Thats the shits. Good on you for getting stuck in, but thats something else. 

[joe90]

There is an upside to doing a new build ?

[jack]

  On 29/04/2018 at 14:44, Yzzy said:

We have SO many skeletons and decomposing pigeons in our refurb it's got to the point where I don't even flinch when I see them. Grab and bag....

 

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It's insane how adaptable humans are. Well done you for cracking on with it.

[Nickfromwales]

  On 30/04/2018 at 07:57, joe90 said:

There is an upside to doing a new build ?

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  On 29/04/2018 at 19:26, Nickfromwales said:

wheres the 'puking my ring up' emoji ?

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Cheers  lol. 

[Yzzy]

  On 30/04/2018 at 08:03, jack said:

 

It's insane how adaptable humans are. Well done you for cracking on with it.

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Back in the day I was a cop..... plenty of 'bluebottle' call outs to practice a strong stomach on