Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Discussion of all things non-11 Plus related

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
scary mum
Posts: 8840
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by scary mum »

Our cat is an avid mouser but occasionally brings one into the house and loses it. We have had one living in a bit of the kitchen where pipes are boxed in. I have been able to smell mouse wee for a few weeks but no-one else in the family can smell it. I put some talc down last night and there are little paw prints in it. I think it is nipping out in the night to eat the cat's food.

My question is: do I try a humane mouse trap or do I go straight for the chopping off the head type? If I go for the more gruesome one, will the cat set it off? Your advice will be great fully received! And someone please tell me how to get rid of the stink of mouse wee.
scary mum
push-pull-mum
Posts: 737
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:52 pm

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by push-pull-mum »

Rentokil make very good re-useable humane traps - I think we got ours from Amazon (next day delivery :!: ). My mum told me 5% bleach in soda water for the smell - but I saturated everything in Febreze as well so I don't know which worked. :oops: I found that once I knew for certain the little blighter was gone I didn't notice the smell anymore so maybe some of it was psychological.

The time the cat caught a frog and dropped it down the back of the radiator was much worse .... shudder.
Last edited by push-pull-mum on Wed May 11, 2011 7:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sp
Posts: 379
Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: groombridge, e.sussex

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by sp »

Apparently mice like peanut butter more than cheese, so that's what to put in the trap!!
scarlett
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by scarlett »

We had a mouse residing in DS2 bedroom for a while...he was thrilled and thought he could tame it and then carry it around in his pocket...imagine his distress when DH decided to put a trap down and it was of the chopping off head variety ! DS2 heard it scamper out, a big slicing sound and then the mouse squealing for hours ( or so he said...the time scale changed depending who he was talking to )so I would definitely say go for an humane trap !

However you do get university material mice..... my Dad has been putting down huge traps for a mouse in his greenhouse for days and it manages to take the food and the slicer activates but the mouse always escapes....he must be called James to his friends......( as in Bond )

PP Mum...if you think a frog is bad...luckily we don't have cats but when we first moved to our old house that needed completely gutting we did have a " nest " of slugs in the kitchen :shock: :shock: :evil: Still it did deter any midnight snackers.
pheasantchick
Posts: 2439
Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:28 pm

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by pheasantchick »

We had a mouse in the house years ago. We tried unsuccessfully to catch it. Then we got the council around who put down bait, free of charge, and hey presto, the mouse was caught.
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by mike1880 »

Chocolate is the best bait - a small piece of Dairy Milk is ideal.

The trouble with the slicing variety of trap is that it can make a bit of a mess. Back when I was an impoverished student we caught one in the grill pan (it was one of those very old gas cookers with a high level grill, I can't remember what possessed us to put a trap in there - footprints in the grease probably, we were an all male household and tended to save up washing up for the week until astonishingly good natured girl friend turned up Friday night and cleared it :shock: :oops: ). It did a very messy decapitation job and resulted in a surprisingly large pool of blood in the bottom of the pan. We got a cat after that, but like all cats she hated being left out of things; the first time we had a party she brought home a mouse and literally disembowelled it in the middle of the dance space. It's not easy trying to simultaneously (1) scoop dead mouse off floor without dropping any more entrails or spreading them any further across the floor than they are already (2) fend off cat that's bitterly opposing attempt to deprive her of her victim and (3) fend off hysterical party goer trying to step on cat to stop her grabbing the mouse again.

Our current cat (who probably thinks her name is "Stupid Cat") has always, without fail, responded to every domestic crisis or excitement by adding a live mouse or bird to the situation. She once dropped a live sparrow in the kitchen just before an NCT coffee morning; it shot straight under the fridge freezer. I cleared off to work and left them to it :oops: . Adding weight to the saying that if you want something doing you should ask a busy woman, the pregnant women pinned the cat down, hauled the fridge freezer out of its niche and shooed the bird out in about five minutes flat. It would have taken me hours...

Thankfully, when she brings rats home she always kills them (she had three in one day once). Frogs are probably worst, they make the most horrible, unearthly noise when she catches them. Apparently the very worst thing a cat can bring home is a live weasel - the smell is unbelievable and they're extremely vicious. I don't think we've got any urban weasels here though.

Mike
Belinda
Posts: 1167
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:57 pm

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by Belinda »

Dead mouse smell in the house is awful and lasts for months. You think dried milk in the carpet is bad? Where's the wretching 'smilie'?

Vinegar - It's what I use when the kids spill a glass of milk over the carpet and don't tell me or clean it up. Obviously you can't put vinegar behind your boxed in pipes or wherever the mice are hiding but even leaving an open bowl of vinegar out overnight in said room will help.
um
Posts: 2378
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by um »

I agree with the chocolate, we had huge mice when living in South Korea and they wouldn't touch cheese but went straight for the chocolate, which I set in a basic trap and then chucked the dead mouse out in the morning...ah those were the days :lol:

Now we have no mice but plenty of slugs. We have put down every slug granule available and plugged up all the gaps we can see, but they still come.
They come out at night to lie all over the kitchen and dining room floor. Once my father in-law was staying when he came downstairs in the night and went into the kitchen with no socks on :oops: He hasn't visited since...
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by mike1880 »

Yeuch! Also when I was a student, some friends had a flat where the slugs used to crawl across the kitchen ceiling and fall off. It presumably led to a tendency to wear a hat indoors and a fanatical resolve never to leave things cooking on the hob without a lid.

Mike
scarlett
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

Re: Stupid cat=a mouse in the house

Post by scarlett »

Eeugh...pleeease..no more....I'm trying to eat my lunch here ! :roll:
Post Reply