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Mouse Infestation eek!


RyeBoy

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Unless you've got a modern home where you might be able to identify where they are coming in from and block it with wire wool, which is where a pest controller can help, you're better off just trying to kill them off. If you're in an old house, you may struggle to block all the floorboards/skirtings etc. If you do try to capture live, then you need to take them 2 miles away before you release.


I had an infestation about 18 months ago and tried the live traps with no success. Then I bought four or five traditional traps, baited them (putting it on with gloves and then replacing every couple of days) and put them perpendicular to the wall or surface (bait end next to the wall or upright) and waited for them to snap. I caught about 8 over a few weeks which amazed me. I'd thought there might be 2 or 3.


My mice were partial to nuts and dried fruit (hazelnuts or apricots on the bait spike) rather than chocolate or peanut butter as I'd also heard recommended. I did also get some poison (Pest-Stop blue pellets from Amazon) which I put in containers in places where it was harder to arm a trap in - some of that was also eaten. It apparently makes the mouse's blood less likely to clot so if they squeeze into small spaces, they are likely to get internal bleeding and die. Thankfully they didn't choose to die under my floorboards as no smell. Obviously, don't use the poison route if you have cats or regular feline visitors to your garden.


Good luck.

RyeBoy, they will probably leave your house once the weather is consistently warmer.


I think they come in to get warm during the cold weather ...... hence being in your boiler :)


Also, if you leave food out, or crumbs in the kitchen, they will be more likely to come in. I had them after one Christmas a few years back when they ate a whole round cheese I had left out (no room in the fridge) from the inside, just leaving the rind. And an apple ditto, just leaving the outer skin.


Very clever really :)

The mouse poison - at least the sort available in hardware stores - is virtually useless. The mice will nibble and spit out the blue poison coating and eat the grain inside. I had a sealed box of this stuff on a high shelf (to keep away from children) in the understairs cupboard; the mice actually targeted it and knocked the box down, chewing through both cardboard and plastic pouch to get to the stuff. Then they gave us four stars on TripAdvisor.

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