Mice in Winter

[La Doretie]

Hi,

Does anyone know, are we more likely to get mice in the house in the winter?  Have been here 2 months now, and have not had one inside yet.  Am I being lulled into a false sense of security?

Any other "winter" pest problems I should know about???

Thanks,

Liz

 

[Weedon]

In my experience its a big Yes to the first 2 ?s. We haven't experienced any other beasties though so you might just have to contend with trying to keep out the mice.

It depends on what sort of house you have though.  If its an old stone built property in the country (like ours) where the mortar?? has reverted to earth its difficult to keep the blighters from entering the walls and in turn coming into the rooms so I block up as many obvious points of entry on the exterior and its a constant vigil to look for little holes etc. inside the house.

I put down plastic containers with poison inside them so the dogs can't get access to it. I also have trap containers which catch the pests and then I despatch!!!! them ( I don't like the killing type which makes them wriggle as they expire).  The problem with the poison is that when they die they don't always end up in a convenient spot so the smell could be the first indication of success?  You can get so called electronic sonar devices that plug in to a wall socket and is supposed to protect up to 30 square metres but if my experience is anything to go by you can give them a miss because all the mice seem to do is boogie to the flashing light.

You could get a cat (should be end of problem) or a good mouse catching dog (like us).

Having just read this it sounds like a battle zone but its not as bad as it sounds really.

All of this is based on my own experience but if you have a proper house? with real bricks and things you should'nt have many problems.

Happy hunting

Weedon(53)

[La Doretie]

Thanks for the reply.

Mice that Boogie - think I will get an electronic device just to see this!!

Our house is fairly "Hole free" so as you say, hopefully we wont have too many problems.  We have just aquired a stray dog, so we shall see if he is of the mouse hunting variety.  I have a feeling that he will just run the other way!

Thanks for the advice.

Liz

 

[Patf]

We bought some poison which seems to be rice impregnated with something nasty.The mice think it's delicious and when I wrapped the packet and put it away for the summer they still chewed through all the layers to get to it. The main thing is not to leave food out uncovered, though the mouse we had often managed to get into the rubbish bin. Pat.

[0Helen]

I found that warm air and cooking smells were attracting the little blighters to run in under the kitchen door in the winter.  The solution was a good hard oak threshfoot fitted by my husband on both outside doors.  We still found the odd dead mouse on each visit. I had to throw away my best walking shoes as one was suppurating inside and I could not bear to ever wear them again!!!!  After finding that the pump on my dishwasher had been destroyed by the same beastie that stripped the sorbo rubber from the bike rack, chewed through a tent and ate a whole black plastic bin liner, which caused it to expire on the kitchen floor, we stppered up every hole we could find and keep poison in every room.  We have not seen one for a while [or the droppings]

The thing that I hate the most is that they do not have bladders [like rats] and so trail a stream of urine everywhere they go. Disgusting!!!!!!

[Dick Smith]

"The thing that I hate the most is that they do not have bladders [like rats] and so trail a stream of urine everywhere they go. Disgusting!!!!!!"

Or sphincters...

[La Doretie]

Well, the bu..ers must have heard me gloating that we had not seen a mouse yet!!!  Had our first in the house yesterday.  It was sitting on my 3 year olds rug - next to his big cuddly elephant (much to Harry's amusement!!).

Husband spent the next hour catching it! 

A cat may be in order I think!

 

Liz

[Em]

I'm sure you are right and they are fair weather creatures, venturing inside more during winter.

Ours have become extremely active in the last 10 days, due I suppose to the chilly nights.

In fact as I speak they are scurrying above my head, as they seem to be lodged between the floorboards of our ancient house.

I haven't seen any sign of them in any rooms, but my cat is just waiting for an opportunity!

I am sort of resigned to the fact that we are all to share lodgings again this winter.

Em

[Franglais24]

A fortnight ago I was minding my own business in the kitchen and one blighter ran across the top of the stove and into and up the uncovered telephone point which is next to a socket in which there's an ultrasonic deterrant!

A small piece of cadbury's fruit and nut on a traditional mouse trap did the job within hours. Reset the trap, and next morning there was one of his chums, fallen for the same ruse. I'm just glad I don't usually get up first in the morning!

It seems the place they really like is under the kitchen sink, where we usually keep the paper kitchen towel.

F24.

[Kaf]

We have two cats, ultrasonic deterrant and mouse traps. We also have mice! At the moment, one of the cats is sitting on top of the cooker because the last mouse we saw came up onto the worktop from behind it. He says he's waiting for the mice, I think it's because he's warming his bottom on the stove (it does have a glass top).

Moral; I guess mice are an occupational hazard in a stone longère in the country.

Regards to all

Karen

[Dick Smith]

Julie swears by nougat, sticky enough to be certain! And she got 25 in the summer (as she proudly tells everyone - the woman is starting to worry me).

[Alexis]

We had a little mouse in the kitchen for ages.  Loads of fun for the nine cats.  Anyway, much to our (and her's) surprise Lulu caught it.

This morning there are mice droppings on the top of the cooker ....

[Dog]

We have the doormice with big bushy tails that look like threequarter size squirrels, luckily they seem to know we are not killers and they spend their time eating fermenting grapes and are totally pi**ed and we can touch them without them worrying. I have a plan to rehouse them, some place other than my roof as they get up before 10am and annoy my bedtime.