Help! We have a mouse in our apartment!

[MittensKittens]

So, I have a mouse in my apartment! I have been hearing weird noises "in the wall" for a few weeks now. I had no idea what it was, but since it is not rare to hear neighbors' noises, I thought it might be a neighbor's building noises (my neighbor two floors down is renovating). Then I heard more noises underneath a cupboard in the living room yesterday night. All of a sudden, it dawned on me that it could be a mouse. So I finally got motivated to look around the part where I heard "noises in the wall" After taking half the room apart, LOL, I found mouse droppings! So there really is a mouse - or let's hope it's just one.

We live in an apartment block, in a very nice apartment (well, I think so :)) which was completely renovated. Some of the other apartments are great too, while some are still in their original, not so great, condition. I thought mice mainly turned up in houses and not so much in apartment buildings? Especially normal, hygienic, well-built ones? It could be that someone's pet mouse escaped and is now eating its way though my walls of course :). No matter how it got there, I now want to get rid of it. Anyone been there, done that? I guess I will by some mouse traps.

[ChristyMarie]

I'd call your building management. There's no way  it is just one mouse, ya know?  And there's like a 1% chance it is confined to your apartment.  I'm guessing they will have to address the issue in the entire building.

We had mice last year (I'm sure my freak out thread is around here somewhere) but neither myself nor DH wanted anything to do with them so we hired someone.  They came in, set traps and found where they were getting in.  They fixed the hole and set traps which they checked every 2 days until there were no more mice found.  Got rid of them in about 8 days.

And clean houses/apartments get mice too - my  house is clean.  In fact, my mouse guy even commented on how clean the basement was.  Yet, there they were - mouse droppings and all.  They like to come in where it is warm and it just takes a tiny hole for them to come in and take up residency.  For us it was because we had an a/c unit replaced and the new one left a slight gap where it went into the house.  Easy mouse access.  There's always some little area a mouse can find.

Meanwhile, I'd set traps around your place and check all your food, all the back corners and make sure to get any mouse droppings cleaned up.

[MittensKittens]

Thanks for the reply. We live in Europe, and there's no apartment building management - just random residents :). I have to say that I am kind of embarrassed about having a mouse (mice?) in the apartment, like it is a sign of bad housekeeping or something. I have been doing some minor decorating work recently (repainting and plastering in some rooms) so maybe that is why the mouse/mice came out suddenly. There's evidence of mouse activity in two rooms. I'm buying traps today :). Glad to hear that you got rid of them in about a week - I hope I can do that too. I'll check the a/c opening too, that's a good idea.

[mamadelbosque]

Just go buy some mouse traps and set them. :shrug Mice are, IMHO a fact of life. We have them occasionally, catch them and then are mouse free for a time, till a new set finds its way inside. :shrug

[cschick]

Around here, mice are kind of a fact of life, and even more common in multi-family dwellings than in your standard house. (Because in an apartment, even if you've got all your food in mouse-proof storage and clean up all your crumbs, your neighbors probably don't).

Set some traps, and you hopefully will catch them. Our recent mousies have been pretty smart though. Took about 6 months and multiple types of traps to catch them all.

[amma_mama]

A house guest was the lucky one to discover our first mouse, who we think came down the chimney. We managed to trap him in a humane trap and set him free in the adjacent woods (and then made a trip to the hardwarde store to purchase caps for our chimney).

[Marsupialmom]

Mice, happen.  You might clean your apartment well but other people don't.  Or they come along for the ride.  Or out from the field. 

[prothyraia]

We live out in the sticks, in a not-super-well-built house, and in the fall/early winter the only way we can keep on top of the mice is to have a cat (we've had a few over the years, and a vole, that would get the food out of traps without setting them off, grrr...).

If this is more of an unusual problem for you, I'd get some traps and also let your landlord know.  There's no way it's just your apartment; they'll have to deal with it throughout the whole building.

[bluebackpacks]

Originally Posted by MittensKittens 

 (my neighbor two floors down is renovating). 

This can cause perfectly settled mice to search for a new home... in this case, yours!

[cschick]

Originally Posted by amma_mama 

A house guest was the lucky one to discover our first mouse, who we think came down the chimney. We managed to trap him in a humane trap and set him free in the adjacent woods (and then made a trip to the hardwarde store to purchase caps for our chimney).

At least it wasn't a squirrel! Three or four times during my childhood, we had squirrels come down the chimney.

[WindyCityMom]

If you're easily ick-ed out don't read my post.  

If you love mice, don't read my post.

Get a good ol' fashioned snap trap.  Put it on top of something plastic, (like saran wrap, even, or a grocery store bag) so you can easily dispose of the trap once it's over and done with.  Blood tends to ooze so you don't want that flat on your floor.  I learned my lesson.

You could get a cat ;)

[MittensKittens]

Well, I just had a close encounter with the mouse. A couple of days ago I found its nest, which was tiny and looked like it had space for exactly one mouse. I disposed of it. The next day, it made its way to the printer, where it took bits of paper out of the corners of the sheets that were sitting in there, and dragged them to the hollow space in the bottom (!). I found mouse droppings there, too. Just now, I heard it making a load of noise in the kitchen, so I listened for a while and then went to take a look.

I opened the drawer where I keep grocery bags. It was in there! When it saw me, it froze and looked right at me. Then, it looked around and decided to take a run for it - but didn't know where. So it ran back and forth long the side of the drawer a few times, and then decided to jump off the edge. It ran into the bathroom, under the washing machine. I went in there and closed the door, then moved the machine forward a bit. Under there, there were mouse droppings too. It had obviously already been there. I am pretty sure it is still in the bathroom. For now, I placed a trap with some peanut butter under the washing machine, and you can never be sure, but I think it has no way out of the bathroom. I hope that the trap will catch it during the night. It will probably get hungry and want a snack sometime, no?

It's a cute little thing though, I feel quite sorry for it. Good point about the blood, WindyCity! I should have thought about that before. It's better to clean up some blood once, than mouse droppings all around the place, all the time, though! Send me mouse-trapping vibes!  :)

[prothyraia]

I hate to break it to you, but a typical inside door is not going to stop it- they can squeeze right underneath them (even though it looks impossible).

It could still go for the peanut butter though!

Originally Posted by MittensKittens 

For now, I placed a trap with some peanut butter under the washing machine, and you can never be sure, but I think it has no way out of the bathroom. I hope that the trap will catch it during the night. It will probably get hungry and want a snack sometime, no?

[MittensKittens]

This morning, the peanut chunks had been taken out of the peanut butter on the trap, but the trap had not gone off! I hope we'll have better luck tonight.

[prothyraia]

Try putting the trap in a narrow place the mouse is likely to walk/run through. 

[MittensKittens]

Once again, the contents were "stolen" from my traps last night, but they did not go off. We live in a smallish apartment and there aren't many places I could place traps where the kids can't get to. That's the main challenge (apart from the fact the traps do not seem to be working). Last night was undisturbed by loud mouse-noises but it's obviously still around. Any suggestions? I really don't want to use poison for various reasons, and the traps I got were the only ones available here. There is also a special mouse glue, but I think that is horrible. The mouse sticks to the glue, and then it stays alive. It tries to free itself, possibly by eating its own paws off. When you find it, you still have to kill it. Because it is permanently stuck to the glue, you can't free it.

[ChristyMarie]

My guess is you are either not setting the traps right or using too much peanut butter.  Try setting the trap and poking it with a long spoon or something to see if it goes off.  Once you figure out just how to set them, smear a bit of peanut butter on there - not enough for the mouse to take samples of.

Or, you have one very clever mouse.  ;-)

[MittensKittens]

Originally Posted by ChristyMarie 

My guess is you are either not setting the traps right or using too much peanut butter.  Try setting the trap and poking it with a long spoon or something to see if it goes off.  Once you figure out just how to set them, smear a bit of peanut butter on there - not enough for the mouse to take samples of.

Or, you have one very clever mouse.  ;-)

I did "test" the traps, and they go off when you put a spoon in, with hardly any pressure at all. I will try with less peanut butter.

[DuckDuckGoose]

We have mice in our walls in the winter and we bought these little plugins. I'm not sure what they are called or exactly how they work but apparently they send out this frequency that is bothersome to rodents. Its supposed to drive them out of your house.  Apparently it worked for us.  But then a few days later we brought a hamster home, and oops we had to unplug them!! lol    Its worth a try, you may be able to find them online.

[prothyraia]

This was going to be my next suggestion. 

We got one, plugged it in the kitchen, and the vole we had here just decided to move into the bedroom. NOT an improvement.  So, get a few to cover the whole house, and they should move into your neighbor's apartment.

We got a cat. :)

Edited to add: Although I'm not entirely sure why you're opposed to killing it- it's in your home, and all it's going to do after you let it go is find somewhere to make more mice that will then try to find a way into your home.
 

Originally Posted by DuckDuckGoose 

We have mice in our walls in the winter and we bought these little plugins. I'm not sure what they are called or exactly how they work but apparently they send out this frequency that is bothersome to rodents. Its supposed to drive them out of your house.  Apparently it worked for us.  But then a few days later we brought a hamster home, and oops we had to unplug them!! lol    Its worth a try, you may be able to find them online.