We have mice in our loft and I need to get rid of them...

Before you start going on about leaving the "poor things to themselves"
there are a number of very good reasons that they have to go - one
being that they keep chewing the electric cables!!

I filled a plastic dish with poisoned bait and placed it where I knew
they would find it (not far from where they had chewwed most of the
lagging off my cold water pipes) and left it for a couple of weeks.

I checked yesterday and at first couldn't find the dish! Then I
noticed a mound of fibreglass loft insulation and "bite-sized" (for a
mouse at least) bits of pipe lagging foam. This pile was about 4 or 5
inches high. Under this pile was the dish of bait - seemingly
untouched.

So, have the mice discovered the bait, realised that it is bad news and
hidden it to avoid any of thier group eating it?

On 22 Dec 2005 03:21:43 -0800, "Ascro" wrote:

| We have mice in our loft and I need to get rid of them...
|
| Before you start going on about leaving the "poor things to themselves"
| there are a number of very good reasons that they have to go - one
| being that they keep chewing the electric cables!!
|
| I filled a plastic dish with poisoned bait and placed it where I knew
| they would find it (not far from where they had chewwed most of the
| lagging off my cold water pipes) and left it for a couple of weeks.
|
| I checked yesterday and at first couldn't find the dish! Then I
| noticed a mound of fibreglass loft insulation and "bite-sized" (for a
| mouse at least) bits of pipe lagging foam. This pile was about 4 or 5
| inches high. Under this pile was the dish of bait - seemingly
| untouched.
|
| So, have the mice discovered the bait, realised that it is bad news and
| hidden it to avoid any of thier group eating it?

Try some bait with a different poison. There are several different
poisons available in retail packs.

Remember that mice stay by walls and other vertical surfaces, and like
to hide in small tunnels.
Put the bait in a small tunnel next to a wall, I have used a marge
tub with holes in each end, and the word *POISON* on top and sides.
B&Q have nice ones, Rentokill also has them.
--
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"Ascro" wrote in message
ups.com...
We have mice in our loft and I need to get rid of them...

Before you start going on about leaving the "poor things to
themselves"
there are a number of very good reasons that they have to go - one
being that they keep chewing the electric cables!!

I filled a plastic dish with poisoned bait and placed it where I knew
they would find it (not far from where they had chewwed most of the
lagging off my cold water pipes) and left it for a couple of weeks.

I checked yesterday and at first couldn't find the dish! Then I
noticed a mound of fibreglass loft insulation and "bite-sized" (for a
mouse at least) bits of pipe lagging foam. This pile was about 4 or 5
inches high. Under this pile was the dish of bait - seemingly
untouched.

So, have the mice discovered the bait, realised that it is bad news
and
hidden it to avoid any of thier group eating it?

We had mice recently and got them all with traps using raisins for bait.
I wouldn't put down poison - what happens when they die if you can't get
to them? I wouldn't like that stink!

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 11:54:41 GMT, "Ophelia" wrote:
|
| We had mice recently and got them all with traps using raisins for bait.
| I wouldn't put down poison - what happens when they die if you can't get
| to them? I wouldn't like that stink!

Surprisingly they do not IME stink, I have found several mummified
mice, and never noticed a stink from that area in the weeks before I
found them.

--
Dave Fawthrop hyphen Hyphenologist.co.uk Register your mobile phone
IMEI *free* on http://www.menduk.org/. Keep the username and password.
If it gets stolen report it your provider to get it blocked. To hopefully
get it back report on http://www.menduk.org/ or 08701 123 123.

In article ,
(Huge) writes:
I wouldn't put down poison - what happens when they die if you can't get
to them? I wouldn't like that stink!

Stink and flies. One of the traps I put in the loft vanished altogether and
I never found it. The smell and subsequent plague of bluebottles showed
that least it worked eventually.

There's a Monty Python and the Holy Grail image in my head now, trying to
work out how many bluebottles it takes to carry a loaded mousetrap.

"Other people are not your property."

Do you get these from what Bart Simpson writes on the blackboard?
--
SAm.

'Surprisingly they do not IME stink, I have found several mummified
mice, and never noticed a stink from that area in the weeks before I
found them.'

Hi,

That will actually depend on the size of the rodent concerned. If your
'mice' are House Mouse (Mus musculus), they will do relatively little harm,
and because of their small size, cause no little or no noticable odour on
decomposition.

The Long-tailed Field Mouse or Wood Mouse, (Apodemus sylvaticus) is somewhat
larger, and will cause significantly more damage... it sounds like your
shredding has most likely been caused by this species. The very similar, but
localised Yellow-necked Field Mouse (A. flavicollis), is a woodland animal,
a little larger still, and just as destructive. They will leave a smell for
a week or so, depending on the conditions therabouts.

Of course your 'mice' may, God forbid, may not be mice at all, but the Brown
Rat (Rattus norvegicus). Someone told me only yesterday, that the Brown rat
is so plentiful in the UK now that anyone is never more than ten feet away
from such a rat at any time! I do not / prefer not to believe that for a
minute... Whatever, anyone who has had the misfortune to endure the putrid
stench of a dead rat beneath the floorboards is unlikely to ever forget it.
Our family did when I was a child. I am fifty-one years of age now.

Next... (squeek!) your 'mice' may be neither mice, nor rats: the culprit
may be the far more exotic Edible Doormouse (Glis glis). Introduced by the
Romans, allgedly, and fattened in large jars for food, these cuddly
creatures are known to cause problems, mainly in the Midlands areas. They
are particularly partial to apples. If, in your loft your trays of Coxes
show signs of chewing, and you can't sleep at night for the noise above.
Glis may be to blame.

Finally, if after all that, this is any consolation, the infamous Black Rat
(Rattus rattus) - of Bubonic Plague fame, is all but extict in the UK now.
Consequently that thankfully rare, black-furred, pink footed, pest, is
very, very unlikely to be nasal flavour - of the cold winter months...

Season's greetings. (I enjoyed that!)

Dave Fawthrop wrote:

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 11:54:41 GMT, "Ophelia" wrote:
|
| We had mice recently and got them all with traps using raisins for bait.
| I wouldn't put down poison - what happens when they die if you can't get
| to them? I wouldn't like that stink!

Surprisingly they do not IME stink, I have found several mummified
mice, and never noticed a stink from that area in the weeks before I
found them.

Since it it the time for the panto...

OH YES THEY DO!

The landlady at my local got me to help her locate a bad smell when the
heating came back in the autumn.

She had been putting down poison for weeks.

The smell of this dead mouse has to be experienced to be believed. Even
I could not put my nose near it.

Dave

Ascro wrote:
We have mice in our loft and I need to get rid of them...

Before you start going on about leaving the "poor things to
themselves" there are a number of very good reasons that they have to
go - one being that they keep chewing the electric cables!!

I filled a plastic dish with poisoned bait and placed it where I knew
they would find it (not far from where they had chewwed most of the
lagging off my cold water pipes) and left it for a couple of weeks.

I checked yesterday and at first couldn't find the dish! Then I
noticed a mound of fibreglass loft insulation and "bite-sized" (for a
mouse at least) bits of pipe lagging foam. This pile was about 4 or 5
inches high. Under this pile was the dish of bait - seemingly
untouched.

So, have the mice discovered the bait, realised that it is bad news
and hidden it to avoid any of thier group eating it?

Of Mice & Men. :-)

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Dave Fawthrop wrote:

Put the bait in a small tunnel next to a wall, I have used a
marge tub with holes in each end, and the word *POISON* on top
and sides.

Surely that'll give the game away...? )

"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
Dave Fawthrop wrote:

Put the bait in a small tunnel next to a wall, I have used a
marge tub with holes in each end, and the word *POISON* on top
and sides.

Surely that'll give the game away...? )

LOL

Keith (Dorset) wrote:
Someone told me only yesterday,
that the Brown rat is so plentiful in the UK now that anyone is never
more than ten feet away from such a rat at any time!

Is that not on average ? Can imagine one person living in a waterfront
warehouse conversion thing where the walls are infested with rats whilst
someone living in the wilds of the highlands with no mains sewerage may
be miles from a rat, (though they may see water voles and other such
rodents all the time).
--
This post contains no hidden meanings, no implications and certainly no
hidden agendas so it should be taken at face value. The wrong words
may be used this is due to my limitations with the English language .

"soup" wrote in message
news
Keith (Dorset) wrote:
Someone told me only yesterday,
that the Brown rat is so plentiful in the UK now that anyone is never
more than ten feet away from such a rat at any time!

Is that not on average ? Can imagine one person living in a waterfront
warehouse conversion thing where the walls are infested with rats whilst
someone living in the wilds of the highlands with no mains sewerage may
be miles from a rat, (though they may see water voles and other such
rodents all the time).
--

Maybe - I didn't like to think about it that much. Too scarey!

Cheers, Keith

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 13:57:55 +0000 (UTC), Sam Nelson wrote:

There's a Monty Python and the Holy Grail image in my head now, trying to
work out how many bluebottles it takes to carry a loaded mousetrap.

Is that African or European bluebottles?

Back on topic: I've messed around with DIY mouse bait, traps etc. Best
way: phone the council - it may be free. Even if not, the stuff they
use is much better than anything you can buy over the counter, they
have "one dose" poison that takes a few hours, not days.

--
Nigel M

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:29:30 +0000 (UTC), Dave wrote:

The landlady at my local got me to help her locate a bad smell when the
heating came back in the autumn.

She had been putting down poison for weeks.

How did that make the heating come on? ;-)

The smell of this dead mouse has to be experienced to be believed.

I agree, dead mice can stink out a whole floor of a house. Neutradol
gel (or equivalent) works very well.

--
Nigel M

On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 13:27:53 +0000, Nigel Molesworth
wrote:


| Back on topic: I've messed around with DIY mouse bait, traps etc. Best
| way: phone the council - it may be free. Even if not, the stuff they
| use is much better than anything you can buy over the counter, they
| have "one dose" poison that takes a few hours, not days.

I disagree. I have had excellent results with mouse bait, for me it
has always worked, given a few weeks application, a few different
poisons (read the labels), and bunging up of holes with steel
wool/brillo pads (they do not like the taste) finished off with
filler.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Some of my Hobbies: VDU Glasses
http://tinyurl.com/c3lh, Wordlists http://tinyurl.com/c3lj, Celtic fonts
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On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:20:23 +0000, Dave Fawthrop wrote:

excellent results with mouse bait ...
... given a few weeks application

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say a "a few weeks" was 0. They may have
just died of old age.
--
Nigel M

On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:54:18 +0000, Nigel Molesworth
wrote:

| On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:20:23 +0000, Dave Fawthrop wrote:
|
| excellent results with mouse bait ...
| ... given a few weeks application
|
| On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say a "a few weeks" was 0. They may have
| just died of old age.

And got a litter of small mice, which they didn't :-)
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Some of my Hobbies: VDU Glasses
http://tinyurl.com/c3lh, Wordlists http://tinyurl.com/c3lj, Celtic fonts
http://tinyurl.com/c3ll, Killfile&Anti Troll FAQs http://tinyurl.com/c3lo
Tyke Dialect http://tinyurl.com/c3ls Curry Project, http://tinyurl.com/1q6

Nigel Molesworth wrote:

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:29:30 +0000 (UTC), Dave wrote:


The landlady at my local got me to help her locate a bad smell when the
heating came back in the autumn.

She had been putting down poison for weeks.


How did that make the heating come on? ;-)


The smell of this dead mouse has to be experienced to be believed.


I agree, dead mice can stink out a whole floor of a house. Neutradol
gel (or equivalent) works very well.

Thanks for that. I just might get another free pint :-)

Dave