I am infested with mice

Just came home and found 2 baby mice playing in one of my flourscent light fixtures. I can hear them in the floor boards between the 2 floors. I cleaned out in under stairway on weekend but can still smell them. How can I get rid of them without endangering Benjamin. I am terrified of mouse bait. Will they drag it only to their nests or will they go put it in Benjamins food dishes to store:?. Maybe that is a stupid parinoid question, but one of my worries. I have 6 traps set right now, under stove, stairway, behind my bed upstairs where Benjamin cannot reach, and hanging in an ice cream bucket from the light fixture ( took cover off ). Will get Len to remove fixture tonight and see if we can fit a trap inside the floor board by making the electrical cord opening bigger. My house looks like the killing fields. I hate killing little mice, but don't know what else to do.

I suggest a cat. Then Benjamin can have a friend too!

Years ago, I lived in an apartment with mice. I got those sticky traps and put a little piece of peanut butter cracker in the center of each before placing it where I knew the mice would go. I didn't put down any sort of poison out of concern for my baby. Within the month, we'd caught about ten of them and never heard or saw them again.

:yeahthat: They are called glue boards and they work great. Even put some in an inverted milk crate with bricks on top so the bunnies couldn't get to them. They also take care of rats most of the time.

Thanks, will try the glue boards inside milk cartons. As for the cat, my grandson who lives with us has one. He is large, fat and lazy ( cat, not my grandson ). He is the absolute definition of "Frady Cat". lol I think I could chase a mouse better than he. Thanks for the input.

For my part, I do not think glue boards are nice at all. They are restricted over here, and will be banned by 2015, because they are considered cruel. I know most people think of wild rodents as pests, but I don't, and even if I did, I still believe they deserve to be treated humanely. They have to live too, you know. Why not try to find a live humane trap? Mice often escape the cheap ones, but a really good one will be invaluable. Just fine somewhere away from houses where you can release what you catch.

Good luck!

I would say the snap traps are better if you're going to end up killing them anyways. Glue traps are just cruel

I don't see a problem with kill traps but glue boards are cruel. We had a mouse once and we used a glue board. We caught the mouse and it was stuck alive. When Jason went to remove it (with a glove) its feet were torn off and it screamed. So please don't use glue boards. We had a standard poodle growing up and she destroyed mice,rats,raccoons,squirrels,possiums and my pet hampster You might wanna see if you can get a bunny sitter so you can use mouse bait.

Good to know about the glue boards, will look into something else. I think my sister used a bucket and ruler to make trap and then released them out in the park.

Mice are a seasonal problem out here in the country - once it starts to get cold, they move in. I used to put out DeCon, but the mice took the pellets and stuffed my coffee maker full of it. That was bad enough, but I could clean it out - I don't want to risk Natasha's life if they chose to move the pellets somewhere she could get at them. So, no pelleted mouse bait.

This year was particularly bad - I even saw some mice, which I usually don't, and they left droppings everywhere. Yuch. I tried snap traps upstairs, and they worked fine. The local Agway had large solid bait I put in the basement, which was too big for them to carry upstairs. After I got about eight or ten mice in the traps, and some of the solid bait disappeared, the problem went away.

Just make sure you check the traps frequently - I forgot one, and it didn't take too long before the dead mouse made my computer room unlivable (and it had to be during a cold snap when I couldn't leave the windows open).

When I had mice problems I got one of those garbage cans with the lids that swing open and close (just make sure it is deep) then I set up a way for the mice to climb up to this long ruler with a treat on the end. When the mouse climbed up to the ruler and ran along the ruler to get the treat the ruler would fall over and the mouse would fall through the flap and could not jump back out. (I had a hamster at the time who could run free around my living so I was concerned about poisons and deadly traps to.)

I even put some bedding and treats at the bottom of the can.

One night I caught three, I guess the first used the ruler the other two just jumped in to see what was going on and got stuck to.

The spinning can:






Run a wire through a beer or soda can and suspend it over a bucket of water. A stick or ruler is placed so he can climb up the bucket and peanut butter is put on the can to entice the mouse. When he gets to the can it spins like a log in water and he falls. Of course the mouse drowns in this scenario but you can leave the bucket empty but you’ll need to release him after he is caught.

Glue boards are the most cruel way to catch rodents. If it isn't a bunny it still should be treated humanely. Better catch them in a live trap and release them several miles away from your home. They have good homing instincts.
The other alternative is a trap that instantly kills them mechanically (the most common traps)

I don't want to end up being the pied piper with 1000 mice following me out of the house. I like the above trap, we have a park next door so could try it without the water. If I am going to kill them it has to be fast and humane. I had heard that glue strips were cruel once before from my sister, that is why she started to trap them live. They also have little live traps at the hardware store. Her mice ( how she was able to identify them is beyond me ) came back from a good 1/2 mile away. I think she just ended up with some new ones.

Just get a standard poodle. They kill mice and they look good doing it. It might not be mice though, could be something more slender that has a problem with your chubby bunny. :brownbunny

gmas rabbit wrote:

Good to know about the glue boards, will look into something else. I think my sister used a bucket and ruler to make trap and then released them out in the park.

Click to expand...

Yes we did that once too, It seemed to work well!
Just don't use glue boards!!

Anaira wrote:

For my part, I do not think glue boards are nice at all. They are restricted over here, and will be banned by 2015, because they are considered cruel. I know most people think of wild rodents as pests, but I don't, and even if I did, I still believe they deserve to be treated humanely. They have to live too, you know. Why not try to find a live humane trap? Mice often escape the cheap ones, but a really good one will be invaluable. Just fine somewhere away from houses where you can release what you catch.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Agreed. Honestly my parents did it once. When I found a mouse still alive on one of those traps... Yea I cried for two days. Poison... I found the little mouse half dead...