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Ick!!!!

ValkyrieRaven88

ValkyrieRaven88

New Member
I have a problem and I don't know what to do about it. For days I'd been hearing scuffling noises in my room, which is getting messy, that sounded like someone was walking over the papers on the floor. These noises always ceased as soon as I turned my head.

Naturally, I assumed that it was maybe the papers falling or shifing, or that I was imagining it. But just now I heard the noise, and witnessed something small dragging a cracker it stole from the plate I was eating off of under the nightstand!!!!

It has become clear that I have a mouse in my room, and how it got here, I have no idea. I mean, I have four cats!!! Four! We've never had mice in the house before!

The cats no longer come in my room, but I don't know how a mouse could get in here. My door is never open longer than it takes me to step inside, and the windows are always closed. I don't want my mom to know, because she will blame it on my messy room. And let's face it--that's the cause. But I don't want to get yelled at.

So I guess what I'm asking is...is there any way to get rid of a mouse without having to use poison? I know about mouse traps, but that sounds so inhumane, and I'd rather not use that unless as a last resort. Is there any way to trap the mouse and release it outside? If I clean my room and make sure that I don't eat food in there again, will the mouse give up and leave or will it stick around? Should I let the cat kill it, and can I even do that without worrying about the cat getting diseases and blood all over the place? Please help!
 
Val, be glad you know an old man who lives in the country. You need to put a small trash can in your room and put in a trash bag. Bait it with your usual messy room stuff for several nights. Mousy will get in every night and crawl out on the bag. After you're sure he's doing this, put the bait in the can without the bag. He'll jump in and be unable to jump out. Transport him to a nice place for mice.

Take care,

JohnB
 
Thank you so much. Most of the activity goes on while I'm in bed, and I have such a trash can in my room, though it's rather full. I will try that. Perhaps a combination of tactics from both of you, which I greatly appreciate.
 
They sell humane traps at the hardware store. However, you should think about the weather (since you were worried about inhumane traps). I'm not sure where you are, but it is getting cold where I am. I'm going to assume it is also cold there. If you trap a mouse and let him go outside he won't have time to build a home and store food like he has been doing in your house. He'll die, or if you don't drop him off far far away, he'll just go back into your house the same way he got in before. I have mice in my house too, but we're waiting until warmer weather to get rid of them.

The reality is that your house has mice. Your messy bedroom may be why the mice are bothering you all of a sudden, but it isn't the ultimate problem. They've probably been in your house for years.
 
We used to have them, but we have four cats. Two of those like to kill things when they get outside. We live near a field, so that's where the mice used to come from. But anyway, I've never noticed it before, and my room has been plenty messy over the years.

I imagine I can drive it off somewhere on a trip to get ice cream or something, and drop it off in the country area. It won't walk back to my house from there, though it may eventually become someone else's problem.

I wouldn't really mind the mouse if I wasn't afraid he had a disease or that he was going to bite me while I'm asleep. Ick. I'm shivering just thinking about it...but these ideas work better than humane traps because I don't have to explain why I bought one to my mom.
 
LOL. I never feed my cats live animals. Well, not intentionally, anyway.

There WAS this one time when I was little that I had a hamster. This hamster got loose one day, and we were all over the house looking for it. We eventually found said hamster on the ground in our play room, squealing. The cat sitting there watching it intently appeared to have chewed a hole in its side.

We saved the poor thing and took it to the vet, because my mom was too queasy to kill it herself. But the vet, as it turns out, was training someone and agreed to try to save the hamster for free, showing the trainee how it was done.

The vet diagnosed the hamster with a broken leg and broken rib, and thought it would be okay. But unfortunately, it did wind up having to be euthanized when things took a turn for the worse. Now the whole affair is a bit funny, but believe you me, it wasn't at the time.
 
Involuntary shudders run up and down my back. You haven't seen the mess my cats make when they kill something. Then they drag the mutilated carcass and drop it lovingly on my pillow, or some other place where I will stumble upon it. I read somewhere that they do that so we will be proud of their hunting skills or something. I'd be proud of their hunting skills if they were chasing paper balls. I'd prefer my pillow untouched by dead baby bunnies. :(
 
to me, it's better than having a live rat running around....you'll have to clean up only once, instead of worrying about it. And what if your Mom happens to come in for something and spots it? Or it gets into other parts of the house?
 
I don't know...I haven't heard it in a long time. Maybe it's already dead, or in another part of the house.

I'm so cleaning my room after work today...
 
don't worry, it's not dead!!
but if it's in another part of the house....you can feign ignorance that way....:D
 
let me just say that the most humane thing for the environment is to trap it (it will die a quick and easy death). within a year, all of the descendants of a pair of rats and/or mice can equal over 17,000. i am not kidding. they breed something awful and are a hazard to your health and to your surrounding environment.

mice can look cute and they make terrific little characters in illustrated movies, but in real life they are destructive, foul, and carry an array of horrible diseases, including the plague.

i wouldn't do poison, as it may be burrowed in a wall and then go there to die and you would have a trapped dead mouse in your walls - stinky and hazardous!

i would either do a regular click and kill trap or put a bit of poison on the middle of a sticky mouse trap. the mouse will eat the bait and be stuck there and die quickly. the most humane and quickest death, though, is the trap. or just let your cat in the room!
 
Most cats are not good mousers. They have to be taught how to catch mice by their mother, and they have to have the personality for it.

It's common for mice to move indoors in the fall. Your house probably has a small hole somewhere that allowed them inside the house. If you can find the hole, you can patch it with steel wool and caulk. Be glad it's just mice and not squirrels or bats.

Don't use poison. It will kill your cats, if they eat it. If a mouse eats poison bait, your house will smell of dead animal for months.

Spring traps are icky, but it's a very quick death. Some people bait the traps (but don't set them) for a few days so that the mice lose their caution. When you catch a mouse in a spring trap, you need to dispose of it quickly and reset the trap. Mice don't live alone, so you probably have two or three mice living in your house, and you can catch them one after another if you're quick about resetting the trap. It makes a fairly loud noise when the trap is sprung.

Glue traps are a slow death, but you don't have to touch the mouse at all.

If you do a catch and release, drive a long ways away from your house to release the mouse because they have a strong homing instinct.

Chocolate and peanut butter and oats are all good mice baits. And I'm sure you know that chocolate is very bad for cats, so put the mouse trap somewhere that the cats can't get near.
 
Naah, these instructions are too long.

Here's what you do to attract the mice: when it's time for bed, turn off the lights, and make noises like a slab of cheese.

ds
 
I'm a bit odd when it comes to mice, I suppose. We've got a family of them living in my house, and it's never once bothered me. I just name them when I see them. I find mice and rats to be cute. I love all things that are alive with only two exceptions: cockroaches and humans. If you're not a roach, I love you to death, unless you're an annoying person.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd just leave it be until warmer weather, like Hastings said. Why kill it? It's not as though it's doing you or your family any harm, and everything has its own right to live. Plus, I sorta have this nudging belief that people have taken the world from its previous owners. We should at least have the decency to not whack little rodents left, right, and centre just because they don't fall into the realm of cute.

Point being, please don't kill the poor thing. Wait at least until spring to get rid of it. That trashcan thing sounds like a good idea.
 
Unfortunately for us, we've also had the little critters move in from neighboring fields. I was sitting in my room one night (reading of course! and which is not too messy, at least not as bad as Valkyrie's!) when I saw a grey blob streak from behind my dresser and out into the hall. I must admit, I screamed like a little girl. :eek: We did not do anything, and almost every night, I would watch him scurry from his hiding spot behind my dresser (which I moved and cannot find where he'd been at :confused: ) and into the hallway, into the bathroom and other rooms.

Finally, I convinced my parents to buy some traps, as we do not own any precious kitties or knew of any humane ways to rid of the little pests without making them suffer a long drawn-out death. We placed them around the house, and the next day, while my parents had left me home alone for the night, it had sprung, crushing the poor thing's neck. I couldn't even take him out of the trap. I put it outside, far out of the reach of any midnight prowlers! Three more were caught within the week, but no new ones have surfaced, so I hope that we have rid of them for good.
 
It's only one so far, and I haven't seen it since I started this thread. But I don't want to kill it, and I don't want to just let it run around. I opt to catch it and release it.

And ds...LOL. That's all I can say.
 
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