We have a mouse!

wandajune6

I just saw it scurry out of our stepson's room.

I want it gone ASAP. We also have a curious dog.

Any tricks/recommendations for how to get rid of it without hurting Maury?

Rodents freak me out!

novella1186

There are lots of animal-friendly traps at the hardware store that will catch the mouse without hurting it. We've used them several times at my parents' house. Mice like peanut butter and birdseed/sunflower seeds. Good luck!

themuffinman16

All sorts of nope.  Have you put your house up for sale, yet?

emmaaa

When we moved into our current house, there were multiple mice. It is an old house, it was cold outside, and there weren't people living there to scare the mice out. So we got a cat and she does the dirty work.

lacqueredlover

Electric mouse trap.  You put some peanut butter inside, they crawl in, get zapped, that's the end of it.  Sorry but I'd rather kill a mouse than have it get stuck to a sticky trap and then have to deal with a mouse stuck to something to release it.

RebeccaB88

My cat is afraid of mice, so I have to do the dirty work. I just dealt with this in my house.  And I have no sympathy for rodents and don't do the humane, live animal traps.  I love animals, but not rodents. They're gross. And they do not belong in my house. They have poison you can put out that's enclosed in boxes, so the mice go into them, eat the poison, and scurry back to their nest and die elsewhere (like in my garage...smh...).  They're called Tomcat Mouse Bait Stations, or Tomcat Something Like That. I put them in places my cat couldn't get to, just in case, but they're supposed to be safe for other animals because they're enclosed. Just plastic, though, so I'd think they aren't impenetrable. They worked, though.  Regular old fashioned traps baited with peanut butter work pretty well too, if you or someone in the house isn't squeamish about disposing of them. My mom used to pay the neighbor's son a can of Skoal for every mouse he disposed of for her. 

jdluvr06

I have cats so this usually isn't a problem for me but I usually set out live traps if I see signs of one. My cats like to play with mouse before they kill it and that upsets me so I try to catch it before one of the cats does.

esstee33

My cats are absolutely useless at catching anything but Zs, so the few times I've had mice in the house, I just trap them and put them outside. I'm not about killing other living things if I can help it. 

RebeccaB88

esstee33 said:

My cats are absolutely useless at catching anything but Zs, so the few times I've had mice in the house, I just trap them and put them outside. I'm not about killing other living things if I can help it. 

Problem with this is, if you let them out anywhere near your house, they'll just come right back in. If you plug up their hole, they'll just make a new one. Been there.

theartistformerlyknownas

Fire.

wandajune6

I couldn't care less about the mice. I want them gone. I worry about Maury.

I just got back from Ace and bought 3 different types of pet-safe options: traps that don't kill them, poison, and something that claims to make a repellant noise. I might have gone a bit overboard.

I chatted with the sales guy who thought I was crazy but made an interesting suggestion: ferret shit. Apparently, it repels mice because they know ferrets are predators. He recommended putting it in the crawl space beneath the house. If this doesn't work, I might resort to that.

beethery

wandajune6 said:

I couldn't care less about the mice. I want them gone. I worry about Maury.

I just got back from Ace and bought 3 different types of pet-safe options: traps that don't kill them, poison, and something that claims to make a repellant noise. I might have gone a bit overboard.

I chatted with the sales guy who thought I was crazy but made an interesting suggestion: ferret shit. Apparently, it repels mice because they know ferrets are predators. He recommended putting it in the crawl space beneath the house. If this doesn't work, I might resort to that.

I am afraid to even ask this, but how are you going to procure ferret shit?

ahyatt87

You should also try to figure out where the mice are entering from. Otherwise, you'll have to keep dealing with them getting into your house. I live in an older townhouse that backs onto a field and we used to have a bad mice problem. DH and I did a thorough investigation of the exterior and bought expanding foam to fill all the holes. Once we did that, we just had to get rid of the mice inside the house. Boom, problem solved.

We bought the foam at Home Depot. Every fall we re-check and sometimes have 'top off' some of the holes, but it is much better than having mice in your home.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GREAT-STUFF-16-oz-Pestblock-Insulating-Foam-Sealant-11034540/203282346

This is what we used.

RebeccaB88

^^^^ The sealant is a good idea.  Steel wool stuffed into the holes works too.  But now I'm going to go get some of that sealant, and replace all the steel wool I have everywhere.

You'd think that having the scent of a cat around would repel the mice, but no dice there. Guess they knew I have a useless waste of fur disguised as a cat.

wandajune6

beethery said:

wandajune6 said:

I couldn't care less about the mice. I want them gone. I worry about Maury.

I just got back from Ace and bought 3 different types of pet-safe options: traps that don't kill them, poison, and something that claims to make a repellant noise. I might have gone a bit overboard.

I chatted with the sales guy who thought I was crazy but made an interesting suggestion: ferret shit. Apparently, it repels mice because they know ferrets are predators. He recommended putting it in the crawl space beneath the house. If this doesn't work, I might resort to that.

I am afraid to even ask this, but how are you going to procure ferret shit?

I was told to check with the local pet store. But it's got to get pretty bad around here for me to go looking for it. Ick!

I have sealant in the garage but I'm still looking for holes to seal. DH will have to help me with that later.

lovemyrunner

One problem with poison: mice will crawl off wherever they feel safest to die.  And then rot.  We had one crawl underneath the kitchen cabinets and die.  And it stunk to high heaven.  My dad then had to cut out the floor of the cabinets to get rid of the mouse and clean up the stench.  Plus, if they die somewhere that your pet can find them and eat them, the poison could still harm your pet. Traps and sealant are the way to go!

theartistformerlyknownas

lovemyrunner said:

One problem with poison: mice will crawl off wherever they feel safest to die.  And then rot.  We had one crawl underneath the kitchen cabinets and die.  And it stunk to high heaven.  My dad then had to cut out the floor of the cabinets to get rid of the mouse and clean up the stench.  Plus, if they die somewhere that your pet can find them and eat them, the poison could still harm your pet. Traps and sealant are the way to go!

Not if you use Blue Death. It kills by dehydrating from the inside out. No moisture, no rot. Plus they often leave to try and find water.

It is dangerous for pets though.

larrygaga

Step 1: Tame them

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Profit.

LadyMillil

I know more than I ever want to know about mice. Make sure you don't leave any food sitting out. This includes boxed stuff like cereal. Keep it all in the cupboards. Be diligent about dirty dishes being washed/put in dishwasher right away. Be obsessive about cleaning up crumbs. If you have found the mouse hole don't block it up until you get all the mice. If there are more mice they will just make another hole. Put the traps outside the hole and wait several days after the mouse is caught to make sure there aren't any more. Mice are social animals so there is likely more than one and mice are ridiculous breeders so you want to make sure you get them all.

MairePoppy

Load snap traps with peanut butter and place along the walls. Mice prefer running along the perimeter of a room vs open space. Place the traps on a piece of cardboard for easy cleanup. Hope it doesn't get messy. Maury will have to sleep in his crate tonight, so he doesn't get his tongue snapped : (   but you'll probably catch the mouse the first night.

The sticky traps are awful. The poison is too risky for Maury. The sound things don't work.

luckya23

I would use these if I could find them.

http://www.amazon.com/Tomcat-Spin-Trap-Mice-Mouse/dp/B001H1LSKM

blabla89

Get a couple mouse traps of your choice, set them out before you go to bed, and keep the dog in the bedroom with you overnight. Put them along walls and wherever you've seen evidence of them being there. Take them up first thing in the morning, and repeat as necessary. Also, make sure the dog food is sealed up because they'll be attracted to it.

raissyrais

Aww mice are so cute and most of the time harmless. Can you just catch it and release it somewhere? Now rats are different...burn the house down if it is!!!

ilovecake84

Old fashioned traps with peanut butter always work.

I had mice in university and this was my dad's recommendation (grew up on a farm, they always had mice). But he also tried to tell me that you should just pop open the trap and throw the sucker out. Then you can re-use the trap.

Thanks dad, I think I'll spend the dollar and buy a new one...

glitter2015

We had this problem last year.  We got the humane traps that are little plastic boxes that have a see-saw type mechanism in them so when the mouse walks in to get the peanut butter inside the see-saw moves and closes the opening of the box.  (Sorry I am a terrible explain-er!)  We would set them at night and then check if they were full in the morning...if they were, FI brought them to his work (hehe) and released them in the parking lot there so they wouldn't just run back in the house.  We now use Peppermint Oil (you can get it at a health food store)  apparently they don't like the smell, so far it has worked, fingers crossed!  The only warning about the peppermint oil is we have been known to go overboard and then our place smells like candy canes for a few days!    Good luck!

wandajune6

There are so many ideas! Thank you!

I currently have traps that are dog-friendly but placed in areas that Maury can't access. He sleeps crated every night anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.

My dad suggested peanut butter too but Maury's love of the stuff means that I worry about him getting near it. Fortunately, all of his food is kept in plastic bins that show no signs of mouse.

We haven't seen any since putting down the traps. While I'm sure they're not gone yet, I feel much better! Thanks!