Mouse problem eek!

We seem to have a major mouse infestation in the sheds!
There's no food in the wood shed or hubbys workshop & shed but they've certainly set up home, Kevs put ready bated mouse traps in all the sheds so far he's caught six mice in four days! My cat has only caught one mouse in the same period of time! I've spoken to him about it but he doesn't seem to bothered, curling up in front of the fire is more his thing!!! In his prime sometimes he would bring in up to six mice a night! (Mainly during harvest)
I hope we soon get on top of the problem I don't like killing the mice but at the same time I can't have them in the sheds because they do so much damage.

 

Difficult to remove all food sources from a shed as mice will eat anything. I also hate killing them but good traps do dispatch them quickly and effectively. Hopefully an improvement in the weather will move them back outside soon. Good luck.

 

How frustrating for you!
I see mice scurrying across my patio sometimes. My neighbour one side keeps his bird feeder on his patio ( ) and the neighbour the other side has decked all of her patio area (mice haven!). So, my patio is the M1 for their supermarket trips!
Good luck with your traps

 

at least your cat is trying. Sometimes the cat just can't have access to the mouse enough to catch it. We had them in our attic for a little bit, my cats don't go up there, so we had to lay out traps. The other day, one came in the kitchen, (dumb mouse) 2 of my boys tagged teamed the poor thing. One did garb it by the neck. I immediately opened the front door and said "outside", so he ran outside with it. What happened then, is a mystery. But it was outside that is all I cared about.

 

May be long tailed field mice we had 2 this year eating bird food and living in shed. Mouse trap such a shame but they do a lot of damage, sun bed cusion for one.

 

If they're not causing damage then they're not a problem. When they got up on my greenhouse staging and chewed up the matting in my propagators last autumn that was my fault for stacking stuff against it and providing access to it. They can do what they will in my allotment sheds because I never store anything that can be damaged in them (they love kneeling pads).

But definitely not tolerated in my sheds at home or greenhouse when there's seeds to be eaten and seed trays/pots to be dug out, same in polytunnels and coldframes at the plot, then I set traps and leave the corpses out for the local Red Kites because if I'm going to kill them I don't want them to be wasted.

If there's pets/other animals about a trap can be set in a box so nothing else will be harmed. I'll only ever put poison out indoors and then only if the pesky things have got upstairs, before they cause serious damage. Cheap peanut butter is the best bait, I keep a small plant label in the jar to transfer the bait to the trap.

 

I hate them and have looaads. I have to through the trap out too with long grab tongs. Can't bear to get that close. I buy the cheapest and they still catch them. 3 cats next door help a lot. Nutella for both house and field mice yuck. Just gotta get rid of the mole.

 

Lucky to live in a quiet, non traffic area, in our houses circled around. Noticed that a new family had moved into a house two doors up. Then when walking one day noticed that one of my cat boys was in their field behind their house. To not have any issue with them calling some animal control ---or who knows what----I walked up to their door, knocked on it, and introduced myself. Let them know I have cats that may wander up this far to their property. In fact--continued to tell them one is right now in your field. FIRST thing out the bitches mouth was, "Oh we hate cats". Next thing out of my mouth in a very controlled fashion, was, "Well the one there is my best mouser, and he's catching your field mouse for you". Second thing out of the Bitches mouth was "OK, that is good we hate mice". Well, it now been about 4 years since that moment and I could not tell you what that women looks like. And my cat, he has since gotten older, and likes to more nap all day in the garden room than to roam two houses up.

 

I was told that just the smell of a cat around will deter them, you could try putting something with cat urine on it in the shed, presuming you can get puss to oblige of course. Fortunately I have never seen any mice here yet, but I have now lost my cat so time will tell, tricky one with mice and killing them, one little mouse looks oh so cute, but hordes of them are horrific. I just hope I am never faced with this problem.

 

"smell of the cat" nope, don't think that is true. I have at least 3 at anytime sleeping in the garden room. And one day a stupid mouse was inside the room.

 

Thanks for all your replies my forum pals.
Wow @Scrungee you have some really great kit there , we've caught two more today, I hate killing them but they are a blinking nuisance. We never use poison, I worry about my hens getting it & we also have a lot of owls around here, I'd never forgive myself if an owl ate a poisoned mouse because of me!
@'M' I can never understand decking like you say it's a heaven for rodents, I'd never have it.
My neighbour was attracting rats a few years ago, she left food out for the birds on the ground before she went to bed!
I love the Nutella & cheap peanut butter tips, we always use chocolate they like that too. I hope we've now got to the bottom of the problem

 

I have them round the bird feeders, I just made this, but I don't put water in the bottom, I take them to the fields and let them go.

 

Martin are those fields a good distance away? Mice will find their way back if they are within five miles of your home and may be more.

 

Six cats, at least one mouse per cat per day, but they bring them in to the house and let the damned things go! That's the down side of having a cat door. And keeping them well-fed
We have mice in the chicken hut too but €1 wooden spring traps hidden where the chickens can't get to them are keeping things under control there, as the chickens do if they spot a live mouse......they're amazingly agressive with rodents and baby snakes!

 

thankful for that, my cats play them to death outside.