Mice-phobes beware...

Cute. Yeah. So were the rats that caused the black death.

Kill it.

If you do live trap it, drive at least past your neighbor's house before you release it, or it will just come back in.

I've had a mouse in my office for over a year. He routinely ate all the peanut butter off the traps, the bird seed, and the sunflower seeds. I breathe wrong on the trap and it goes off. I don't know how he escaped it so many times. Then one day I pick up my work boots, and out falls about a cup of sunflower seeds he stole from my stash. He deserved to live.

There are traps you can get that won't harm them. It's a little box where you put a peanut or something inside, and when they crawl in, the trap door slides shut behind them. Drive it somewhere far away, release it. Voila! No more mouse problem.

There are also audio deterrents you can buy. It emits a signal too high for people to pick up on, but drives away rodents. I had mice in my garage, got one of those, and haven't seen one since.

I couldn't stand the thought of killing them. This was a nicer alternative.

Multi-catch live trap here. Easiest to use and clean for re-use.

Where there's one, there's many! And if they're foraging in the house (kitchen), there's probably a nest in the wall.

Yep, you will have to drive a distance to release and hope to not reacquaint!

I have about 2 dozen barn kittens ready for a home that I could send your way to take care of it for you. How many do I put you down for?

Seven words:

HantaVirus--Kill It--no second kill bait

After our super-duper mouser kitty cat died, we did this:

ether said:

There are also audio deterrents you can buy. It emits a signal too high for people to pick up on, but drives away rodents. I had mice in my garage, got one of those, and haven't seen one since.

I couldn't stand the thought of killing them. This was a nicer alternative.

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They're ultrasonic, and there are several different kinds. We put one on each floor and one in the garage. Never saw another mouse in the house.

There are also natural repellents, like spearmint.

Oh, and I used a live trap once but the poor little guy was so darn scared it didn't seem fair.

(And I'm firmly in the mice-are-super-cute court. )

If you are in a hantavirus area don't mess around and make sure you stay the hell away from any droppings.

If you live catch it take it at least 10 miles away before releasing.

awww, they're so cute, so I know how you feel - we had some coconut fibre (for hanging baskets etc) in our garage once, and we found a nest of babies inside. It was really sad actually, since the mother was so upset and hysterical, moving each baby to a new home one by one once she realised they'd been found.

My mum said she was on a walk once, and they stopped to take a rest near a big fallen log. They were sitting pretty still, and about ten field mice came out and started playing, running up the log, and then sliding down one of the twigs like it was a slide.

They're lovely animals, although you really do not want them in your home

Kill the little fucker. Do it now before it has a chance to breed. You'll thank me later for saving you more trouble than that little fucker is worth.

Reasons not to kill the mouse:

1. Squee!
2. It's so cute!

Reasons TO kill the mouse:

1. Hantavirus
2. Salmonella
3. Lyme Disease
4. Droppings in and around food prep areas
5. Super fast reproduction. Female mice have a three week gestation, producing 4 to 16 pups per litter. She can have 7 to 8 litters every year. If you see one mouse now, you can be sure if you don't do something about it you'll have hundreds in no time.

How cute will she be when she's joined by hundreds of her offspring, crawling all over the counters where you prepare your food?

I'm also in the "mice are cute" camp, but I don't let them live in my house. If you absolutely can't bring yourself to kill it, then at least get a live trap and take it far away to release it, then have someone inspect the foundation of your house for holes where more mice can get in.

backslashbaby said:

So how do you entice a mouse to move out of its own accord, lol? Or other suggestions? Maybe talk of jantavirus (sp?)? Dunno, but they are cute little buggers, dammit!

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Mice are not lone dwellers. Where you see one, there are several that you can't see. They will sneak around your house at night, chew into your food packaging, poop and urinate on your countertops, and generally just be an unsanitary addition to your environment.

I do know someone who got Hanta virus and almost died. It left him susceptible to pneumonia, too, which he was again hospitalized for this year.

Don't be fooled by cuteness.

We have several outdoor and stray cats that I feed. They are the healthiest strays I know, though technically some of them aren't strays I guess. Anyway, since I have had them around, the mice stay away due to the natural predator/prey relationship. It makes me feel so much better than poisons or traps.

Before that, the funkiest incident I had with a mouse was the time I was less than sober and went to get some munchies out of the pantry. I opened the door, it flies off the shelf, bounces off my chest, hits the floor and scurries away. I sat there for like two minutes thinking WTF?

tjwriter said:

Before that, the funkiest incident I had with a mouse was the time I was less than sober and went to get some munchies out of the pantry. I opened the door, it flies off the shelf, bounces off my chest, hits the floor and scurries away. I sat there for like two minutes thinking WTF?

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Ha! I can beat that. I grew up on a farm, and some mice got into some spilled feed once. I was standing out there watching my parents cleaning up the feed, and a mouse ran up the INSIDE of my pant leg. I was four years old at the time. It's still my most vivid childhood memory.

Ugh! My stepdaughter would so want to keep it. She loves all animals/insects/rodents. Yuck. Fortunately, we don't have mice. She did want to collect the ants we had for an ant farm though.

There was a cute little mouse who would hang out on the window sill of my first floor apartment. I called him Basil. My kid decided it was a girl and renamed it Isabella. Then we realized there were two, Basil and Isabella. Then I started hearing scratching inside my walls. Then I checked and found a hole in the corner of my window frame. Then it became a little fucker that must die.

Me, I'm fond of the traps that kill them.

Live traps are useless. We tried one at a construction site after the fucker busted in and started eating my cookies, but it got in, ate the bait, and left.

Landlord put down poison on the weekend. Now, I have visions of rotting carcasses behind my walls.

Angie said:

Ha! I can beat that. I grew up on a farm, and some mice got into some spilled feed once. I was standing out there watching my parents cleaning up the feed, and a mouse ran up the INSIDE of my pant leg. I was four years old at the time. It's still my most vivid childhood memory.

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That is hysterical!

jennontheisland said:

Landlord put down poison on the weekend. Now, I have visions of rotting carcasses behind my walls.

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Ugh, pray they don't die behind your walls. There is no stench in the world worse than that of a three-day-dead mouse.

tjwriter said:

That is hysterical!

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I certainly was, until my mom finally pulled the waistband of my pants away from my belly and the mouse ran right out the top. *snort*

jennontheisland said:

Live traps are useless.

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QFT. At my old house I tried one of those glue traps. Mr. Mouse got one foot stuck in it and was running around the kitchen, dragging the thing. Before I could catch him he went under the fridge. The trap flipped sideways against the fridge and he used the leverage to free himself.

My favorite "livetrap" escapade happened to a boatbuilder. He felt sorry for the mice in his boatshop. (Same guy who later ended up with Hanta, BTW.) He caught one in a live trap, carried it far out into neighboring field and set it free. Then watched as it scurried straight back to the shop.

Live traps are for bleeding hearts and suckers.