Mice. We have mice.

[spinbaby]

We have mice. Cute, adorable baby mice. Apparently, they're living in the basement in my husband's big pile of "useful stuff." The cats keep bringing them upstairs to play with and rarely seem to kill them except by accident. You'd think that somewhere some predatory instinct would kick in and at least one of the five cats would learn to efficiently kill and eat the things, but apparently they're too full of Fancy Feast to care. I keep having to scoop up teeny mice to take them outside. Any reasonably humane suggestions?

[charlie and algernon]

1. idk, but if you figure out how to get cats to act like cats let me know

I don't have mice, but I do have these giant crickets that hang out in my apartment. My cat seems to have no interest in actually killing them. She'll follow them around, but seems perfectly content just to attempt to lightly bop them on the head, lol. Leaving me to chase the blasted crickets around the apartment. :eyes:

[TZ]

3. Consider yourself lucky

My sister's cat used to take crickets and eat them EXCEPT FOR THE BACK LEGS...Cricket legs everywhere....

[woo me with science]

20. Back legs are too crunchy. nt

[raccoon]

2. Your cats need a good talking-to. LOL.

Or get another cat with predatory instincts.

[Bertha Venation]

4. Get humane traps.

I know another DUer is trapping mice this way.

Good luck! :)

[spinbaby]

5. Where does one get them?

At the pet store? Are they like teeny little box traps?

[MajorChode]

8. Your local animal control may have them for loan

Some do, some don't.

I think I remember seeing them at Home Depot one time. If you can't find them there, you can get them on Amazon.

[regnaD kciN]

28. Ace, Lowe's, or Home Depot...

First check out the Havahart website to figure out the right size you need, then call around and see if anyone has them. Make sure you identify it by serial number - if you just say "one that will catch a mouse," don't be surprised, when you show up, if they point you to the only model they carry, one sized to handle raccoons.

I had a deer mouse in the garage (and possibly in the crawlspace). Baiting the trap with part of a peanut butter sandwich netted me one mouse in a couple of days. Released it in a meadow a few miles down the road. (Deer mice are pretty adaptable, and can survive in that habitat.)

[SIMPLYB1980]

31. Make one cheap and easy.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/699142/howto_make_a_humane_mouse_trap/

[mopinko]

6. be humane to yourself.

snuff the little bastards. and humane to them. likely they are going to die, either from starvation, or from infected cat bites.
but seriously, they are cute and all, but they can do some serious damage to your property. other animals protect their homes.....

[spinbaby]

9. But they're cute

Absolutely adorable. If the cats killed them, that would be in the natural order of things, but I can't bring myself to do the deed.

[mopinko]

10. flush them

drowning is natural.

seriously, i have had this dilemma. i hated to even trap them. the first time i tried poisoning them, i killed a cat.
but they really caused a lot of damage to the foundation of my house, to say nothing of the stuff they have fouled. i have no mercy anymore.

[Kali]

15. humane traps AKA catch-and-release, are anything but

the real name should be fool yourself traps

nothing humane about dumping animals in unfamiliar habitat

[MajorChode]

22. We're talking about mice here, right?

There will still be mice here millions of years after humans have gone the way of the dinosaurs. You just have to be mindful of where you are dumping them and move them right away. Near abandoned structures are the best place. They have exactly zero chance if you catch them in a spring trap where they often die a slow lingering death, and it's worse if you poison which also manages to kill unsuspecting predators that happen to eat them.

[Kali]

23. I find snap traps to be fast and efficient 90% of the time. The newer black plastic

ones with a strong spring and easy set trigger are really good. Like you said: they are plentiful, no harm disposing of the ones you encounter in your dwellings.

[MajorChode]

25. Although I do have a problem with poison, I have nothing against kill traps

Some people prefer to use the no-kill traps and I can certainly respect that. If used properly it does give the mouse a fighting chance, unlike most other alternatives.

[dembotoz]

7. tis the season

[Captain Hilts]

11. Sometimes cats just don't care about mice. nt

[LynneSin]

12. Stop feeding your cats for a week - then they'll eat the mice

:hide:

[Arkansas Granny]

21. Who cares if they eat the mice or not as long as they kill them. My cat

never eats the mice she kills, but she brings them to me. I don't know if she's showing off or if she thinks I might be hungry. Either way, I live in a mouse-free home.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Get sonic mouse repellers and they will go away.

[CBHagman]

17. Which brand works best?

I've heard the jury's still out as to whether those work.

That said, I have a few up in my apartment! Haven't caught and/or seen evidence of a mouse lately, but it's not as though they're going to march through performing "76 Trombones" or something.

[MajorChode]

26. Studies show they are effective at driving mice out, but they probably will return

There's lots of reference links here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_pest_control#Effects_on_Pests

[CBHagman]

27. Thanks!

I hadn't thought about their ability simply to adapt to the sound.:-( Then again, they don't announce their presence very often.

[Paper Roses]

14. Check out th link below. Love the name: Mouseguests

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9083566

[CBHagman]

16. Yeah, I was thinking of that thread too.

http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Mouse-Trap-Humane-Mousetrap/dp/B000YFA7HW



I bought both covered traps (the sort that kill mice instantly) and some humane ones (not like the one above) from my local hardware store, baited the lot of them, and thus far have dispatched exactly one mouse. I felt bad about that, but they do carry disease and cause damage, and moreover it's not as though mice in the wild are going to have a long and wonderful life. There are predators and other dangers everywhere.

None of my cheap little peanut butter-baited humane traps has attracted a single mouse.

I did go ahead and buy peppermint oil, which I've heard is a repellant, and now my apartment smells of the stuff. In addition I got some sonic devices that are supposed to repel the critters as well, but I don't know whether that has worked, though no mouse has announced his/her presence lately.

Frankly the only reason I knew they were in the house was that I heard one munching items stored in a closet and saw it run out when I started clearing things away.

Exterminators occasionally come to treat our building and put down glue traps, but I'm refusing to use those now after having them in place for years and catching precisely one mouse in all that time. I don't like glue traps anyway; you either have to kill the mouse yourself or detach it, and I feel uncomfortable with both options.

The mice have been known to conduct their assaults from a single closet, and I've had maintenance close off mouse holes in there on more than one occasion. But obviously they can slip in quite easily through relatively small holes, and it's not as though I can guarantee that my neighbors and I have mouseproof homes, though several cats live on this floor.

[Kali]

24. add a chocolate chip to the peanut butter

- makes it irresistible.

[datasuspect]

18. surface to air missiles

[AlienGirl]

19. Know anyone with a ferret?

Take some strips of cloth, rub 'em on the ferret, get the cloth good and stinking of weasel. Then put the pieces of cloth in places mice go. They'll clear out--weasel scent scares them in a way that cat scent doesn't. Rat scent also works; if you keep a pet rat mice will stay away.

Or you can let a ferret run around your house for a while: that works and is fun, if you like playing with ferrets!

Tucker

[Deep13]

29. spring traps

Quick and painless.

If you bring them outside, they will just come right back in. Once in, they will multiply.

[SIMPLYB1980]

30. Got them to, my dog is a mouser though

so they don't last long. Have some non lethal traps, but Bella usually gets to them first. I don't mind them being in the barn, but I could do without them running around the pantry.