Our mouse in the house

Posted by louisa on Thursday 19 January 2012 in house | 16 comments

We have a mouse in the house. Or rather a couple of mice who either hate each other or like each other very much according to the squeals we heard between the floorboards last night.

We live next to woodland and we first heard the scratching/squeaks when it suddenly got cold last weekend so we’re not exactly surprised when we have rodent guests. I’m calling them mice but they’re probably actually something else – we had a single vole-ish thing nibbling on our spare bags of chicken feed in the garage last year and we had a family of shrews living in the back of our woodpile the summer before last — living there, dying in our dining room courtesy of Carla-cat’s late developing hunting skills. Carla-cat was 12 then and in a fortnight racked up more hunting “triumphs” than the whole of the feline team had racked up in the previous decade put together — when we had four cats in the old house, their hunting “success” list was: a mouse, two birds, an already dead very frozen magpie, a chipolta sausage and a piece of KFC chicken.

The cats – just Boron (who is ninety-hundred years old & toothless but was once a semi-feral stray) and Carla now – are being less than effective regarding our current rodent-adjacent situation. They’ve had a couple of “ooh sniff sniff sniff” moments but don’t react at all when the sound of under-floorboard mouse fighting/sex echoes around our empty living room. Lily-dog – who is also ninety-hundred years old – raises her ear slightly but doesn’t bother opening her eyes from her blissfully slumber. A crack team, ready to leap into action at any minute.

But because of the cats & the Lily-dog, we’ll have to be careful about how we deal with the current situation – no poisons (in case the mice die somewhere they can be eaten/sucked on) or traditional traps where the cats/dog could get caught. We’ll try to get a humane mouse trap (essentially just a one way box) but I’ve heard more people complaining about those than have had success with them.

Have you had any unwanted rodent visitors to your house this winter? If so, how did you deal with them? What would you recommend? Can I use this as an excuse to get a new cat (or five) with teeth and energy? ;)