A Mouse in the House

[Tracy A.]

Yesterday I heard some noise comming from the pantry, which really only means one thing... a mouse is in the house!

So I round up the troops, my trusty little hunters in tow and off the to the pantry we go.... guess what...

They're not interested! It seems it they can't dig their way to the prey they don't want to have anything to do with it!

They went back to sitting infront of the fireplace and ignored me! I swear they'll nap a mole scurrying to it's hole outside... but hunt a mouse in the house? apparently not.

This is where I might differ with other forum members, I use snapping traps if we have a critter in the house since I've had 'freed' mice find a way back in to the house.... we kept catching and releasing the same mouse over a period of a week last year......I had Steve set two traps last night, cheese was gone, no mouse in the traps.... I reset them this morning so maybe i'll have better luck.....ick I really dont' like having mice in the house it really freaks me out.

[abe's dad]

I use the same traps we live in an old house way out in the sticks so we get our share of mice. Use peanut butter as bait and work it down in the trigger so the mouse has to dig for it. seems to work better for me.

[Tracy A.]

I use the same traps we live in an old house way out in the sticks so we get our share of mice. Use peanut butter as bait and work it down in the trigger so the mouse has to dig for it. seems to work better for me.

I too used peanutbutter this morning! I even added a strip of duct tape the pantry door incase one of the boys heard the trap snap and tried to open the door...

[eastofeden]

Snap traps for me.....much more humane....

I tried the glue traps once and would never use again....after coming home and seeing what the poor mouse did to itself while trying to free itself from the glue....Never again...with the snap the mouse is dispatched very quickly and does not linger a long painful death.

[kayharley]

We HAD a mouse in our kitchen a few weeks ago. He was exploring a drawer that only had utensils in it, no food. At first I thought the little droppings were caraway or dill seeds but no, they were mouse poops!

There was no indication from any of my 3 Cairns that we had a predator.... no lurking nearby, no noses to the drawer.....could it be because we have gerbils and they accept them as housemates?

It was really hard using the snap trap and actually catching the poor little thing but I did what had to be done.

Off to watch "Stewart Little"

[sheila and Misty]

I just couldnt..I cant hurt anything. Ive actually caught them in buckets with bait and driven them to the woods and let the out -with a rag and food..I know crazy but hey the way I look at it. I wouldnt want a member of my family missing I tell my husband if you absolutely have to or our wires will be chewed then dont let me know anything about the whens wheres or hows of the killing. sometimes drastic messures must be taken. I understand but it wont be me doing it.

[mrskti]

Well, we've had to pay out thousands of dollars to have a truck wiring repaired and a tractor's wiring repaired because of mice....so, I will zap them, snap them, squash them, poison them and fling them....they are outta here!!!!

We had a chimpmunk get in the basement once during construction, after seeing it I ran and got my cats....boy were they dopes, I kid you not, the chipmunk actually ended up on top of one of the cats heads. My grandaughter and I laughed so hard we almost peed our pants. We ended up catching it in a bag...the cats were clueless. I think it would be different with the dogs. I hope i dont have to find out.

[kjwarnold]

In our previous house, we have a Super Mouse. That rodent could outsmart any trap to get the bait and got by our first Cairn, Willie, too. We tried for weeks to get it, using all kinds of traps. DH finally rigged up a snap-trap with a razor blade (kind of like a guillotine), but the little sneak got through that, too! Willie finally chased him through the house into the garage one day, where the mouse took refuge in an old stereo speaker. Since he was so daring and even lived through the guillotine, DH took pity on him and drove the mouse (in the speaker) to a local park. It took a while, but he finally got it out of the speaker and set him free. We still have the guillotine trap...

[pkcrossley]

your mouse problem sounds annoying, but i congratulate your cairn(s) on their evolved state. my cairn goes nuts when he realizes there is a mouse in the house, and he will dig or tear though anything in order to get it. there is not peace until the mouse is dispense with one way or another. one day he started pointing and panting and whining, swearing in his way that some enemy had somehow invaded that bottom drawer thing on the stove.i figured the mouse was really in the wall or behind the stove, and paid no attention. finally when my dog was clearly not going to give it up i said i would prove to him that there was nothing in the drawer --how could there be, when it was practically airtight and there was nothing in there but empty aluminum pans? i opened the drawer took out a pan, opened it, no mouse, took out a second, opened the lid, no mouse, took out the third, took off the lid --mouse, big eyes staring in terror. i put the lid back on and escorted the mouse outside.

my dog is never mistaken and never lies. when he says there's a mouse, there's a mouse. and no wall, door, furniture or large appliance deters him. this was one of the few i was able to save.

[Cairnmania]

I used to live in a very wooded area and my house was full of mice. In the autumn I swear hundreds of them would abandon the outdoors and come into the house for heat.

My experience:

Glue traps. Agree - they are horrible and cruel. Used them only once.

"Humane traps". - Connecticut mice must have all had weak hearts, because even though I checked every morning the mice in them were always dead.

Normal traps - the most humane IMO

Mouse poison - only used it in attic crawl spaces where the dogs could not go

Terriers as mousers. Count yourself lucky if you dogs do not try to get at the mice. In my former mouse-ridden house the walls in the garage had been scratched full of holes. The wallpaper and plasterboard in my kitchen scratched to bits. Why? Terriers attempting to make their way through walls to get at mice.

Now - I've had my Cairns bring mice INTO the house that they'd caught outside (already dead, fortunately). What they never managed to do is catch a mouse that had set up home in the house.

[Tracy A.]

Okay from what it sounds like I should be happy that the boys aren't in full prey drive....I'd hate to have walls to repair....

I found 2 mice in the traps when I got home last night, I reset the traps before bed and found two more this morning- In the past it was only ever a single mouse and now with the count at 4 i'm freaking out a bit and seeing visions of Mouse Land ( hantavirus version) in the attic dancing in my head- My plan: Walmart and more traps. New Attic vision- Trap Land

Edited to add: Went to Walmart at lunch and bought 17 more traps... and got 1 electronic battery trap that zaps the mouse. I figured that I could put that one in the garage since it won't harm the dogs and has a safty shut off feature on it.