We have mice again. Did I tell you? yes: we have mice again. They're GROSS.
Anyway, the situation is worse this year than last, in that they've spread from the kitchen to the store-room (which will be hopefully cleared out this weekend in an effort to evict them). Anyway, checking the traps this afternoon, there was a particularly LARGE one belly-up in one of the reusable traps. I sort of squinted and reached down to pick it up (with the intention of dropping the mouse into the bin & resetting it), and it started wiggling in it quite wretchedly. After some several minutes of wretched discomfort (both mine and his/her's), I stepped down on the trap with my foot, heard something snap, and it stopped writhing about.
AAAAAAAH
(this was in addition to a baby mouse caught in a different trap that was thankfully dead by the time I got to it, and thus easily disposed of)
So how are they getting in? The only possible point of entry is the external vents spread around the house near the ground (for under-the-floorboards ventilation). If the house is old, the vents will usually be made of cast iron, and will have rusted away over the years so leaving holes big enough for the blighters to get through into the shelter of your floors. Check them all, and if necessary get them replaced with modern air bricks.
Unfortunately those already in will be breeding - they just have to be poisoned (having already replaced the vents to keep them in, and prevent others joining them). Generous droppings of attractive but lethal "food" (easily obtainable for the purpose) in known hot spots is required.
But the best remedy of all is this: get a cat! Mice usually disappear very quickly once a cat is on the prowl.
You just have to be cruel to be kind!
Baziron
