get that mouse but not my babe!

[PiePie]

so we have had an ongoing issue with mice since we moved into this apt. 3.5 years ago. i hadn't seen one since dd was a newbie but last night i saw one again. dd spends lots of time exploring on the floor and so i must purge the critter!! however, dd is mobile and so i can't have something that would hurt her to eat or stick her hand in. suggestions??

[potatofairy]

ingenious device for catching counter mice:

get a paper towel tube,
schmear some peanut butter on the inside of one end,
set the tube on the counter so the pb end hangs off,
and put a trashcan underneath to catch the miskers.

if they get in your oven, you can put a trap in there if
your daughter can't get in... we've caught a few in there.

as for traps on the floor, can you hide them behind furniture?
(haha i got the idea from my dad, i found one under his piano
when i cleaned his house!)

good luck with your rodent issue. i hope you have dumber mice
than i. i saw one today poking around in my cast iron pan on the stove
and when he spotted me he escaped down the burner hole leaving
a trail of little pellets behind him! (my mom calls them meeces feces)

[Leiahs]

We had a mouse last year, and I read about a way to catch it, and tried it while we went on a long weekend vacation. It worked for us.

We cleaned up the kitchen super well (that's where the mouse liked to hang out the most), and got a used & empty toilet paper roll. We stuck some cheese inside the roll, about halfway, and then balanced in on the edge of the counter. Underneath the counter and roll with cheese, we put a tall garbage can. The mouse goes into the roll to get the cheese, unbalances it, and falls down into the garbage can. It needs to be tall enough that it can't jump out.

The mouse was still in there, alive, when we got home. How you get rid of it after that is up to you. We were kind of at a loss (didn't really think about that part), and I hope this wasn't too inhumane, but we ended up pouring rubbing alcohol into the bottom, and it died from inhaling the fumes. I think I also read that you could fill the can with enough water that it will end up drowning.

[annettemarie]

Moving to natural home care

[pumpkin]

We used something called "Mice Cube" last year.

Now, we never caught a mouse so I can't say how well they work, but I don't think we actually had any to catch. We found the cat with a mouse. We think she caught it within minutes of it entering the house. No idea how it got in. So we set traps because we were worried there might be more. We had no more evidence of mice so I think it was just a fluke.

[Minerva]

How about getting a cat? The couple of times a mouse has gotten in, our cats caught them right off. Then we pitch the remains back outside into the garden.

[Lady Lilya]

OIL OF SPEARMINT!

Seriously.

When my parents bought their summer house in the country more than 20 years ago, they had a mouse problem. The locals said to put out little saucers of oil of spearmint here and there in the house. The mice can't stand the smell.

Now my father has built an extension on the house, but it is still an empty shell with no rooms. So, he is using it for storage. When I pack things to be stored there, I buy one of those packages of 10 packs of gum, in spearmint flavor, and put a few sticks here and there in my bags, along with little cedar balls to keep away moths, as a precaution.

Re: cats
In my experience, it depends on the cat. Some cats will catch mice OUTSIDE and then bring them in the house to contain them while playing with them. Then some of those mice will escape and find a nice place to live in the house.