Mouse in rented house

common sense brigade

Ok so moved into a charming rented cottage in the country 6 months ago. The house is on half an acre of trees and backs out onto fields. We fell for it with our hearts and not our heads! After an atrocious winter the freshly painted rooms began to turn brown with damp. We cope by washing the walls and in fairness we should have had better sense. Its an old house bound to have damp. So anyway everything was fine enough until two weeks ago we discovered a mouse in our bedroom. Now im a very tidy person and dont leave mess or food out. Im very houseproud. Mice freak me out. I cried and cried then copped on and went and bought humane traps. One week later they had not worked and after spending a week sleeping on the sofa and working full time and with a baby I decided right ok no more going to put down normal traps and poison in the attic and in the room and the plug in yokes and the sticky mats. One week later he is still alive and can be heard at night time. its making me sick.
To cap it all my landlady and hubby are lovely people, real country gent and lady. And the husband was just recently diagnosed with cancer. So I really really don’t want to upset them anymore than I have to. I rang Rentokil and its 250 euro and no way I can afford it.
I know im stupid for taking a gaff like this in the first place but really don’t know what I can do. I have a dog so getting a cat is something I am not sure of. Any advice appreciated. do country houses require a cat as many people are telling me?

antocann

mix some pison with peanut butter , leave it around the house out of reach from the kids , and wait and see , mice love peanut butter :rolleyes:

also if u can try put some under the floor boards ect

tara73

jesus, it is really only a mouse. what is so frightening about a mouse?
ok, they go to the food if it's lying somewhere open, but that's all,they are completeley harmless, no diseases or anything spread from them.

and tbh, you shouldn't live in the countryside if a little mouse is disturbing you so much.

to solve the issue, buy several mousetraps, put in nutella, they love this stuff. sooner or later they will go in there, sometimes it takes a few days.
put every other food out of reach. always close entrance doors completely, never leave them open.
try to figure out if there's another possibility how they enter your house and eliminate that.

common sense brigade

jesus, it is really only a mouse. what is so frightening about a mouse?
ok, they go to the food if it's lying somewhere open, but that's all,they are completeley harmless, no diseases or anything spread from them.

well you see thats not actually true as mice are linked to be a cause to ashtma in children. and there droppings can give off harmful chemicals that cause breathing difficulties in adults too. also they can cause electrical fires from chewing through cables. so as you can see im just trying to take this seriously. many people do not like the idea of mice peeing and pooing all over their houses,. in cupboards or on clothes. I stated before i know we made a mistake in moving to the house but at the moment until our lease runs out we need to tough it out. I was really just looking for advice and should we go down the route of getting a cat? any one with actual real constructive advice really appreciated

squonk

I've had success in the past with those traps that are prebated. They have a little thing in them that gives off an odour that attracts the mouse.

I've also used peanut butter to great success.

Leave the trap somewhere like a corner or in the back of a press. They can take a while to catch sometimes.

I really wouldn't recommend poison. If the mouse is mobile you'd never know where he'd end up dying and the stench would be worse than the mouse itself. The downside of the traps is though that you've got to bin the dead mouse. It's better in the long run though.

D3PO

common sense brigade wrote: »

Ok so moved into a charming rented cottage in the country 6 months ago. The house is on half an acre of trees and backs out onto fields.

Given the description of the place, with fields, woodland etc around the property its pretty logical to expect that you may find fieldmice encroching on the house occasionaly. If you havent caught the mouse yet then you need to lay more traps. I found in the past frying a little bit of bacon and using that as bait works a charm.

common sense brigade wrote: »

Its an old house bound to have damp.

Being an old house is not a reason to accept damp. Any house can get a damp proff course done to it. Nobody should have to put up with damp weather the place is 1 year or 100 years old.

common sense brigade

Being an old house is not a reason to accept damp. Any house can get a damp proff course done to it. Nobody should have to put up with damp weather the place is 1 year or 100 years old.

I agree with you but guess i feel like i should have expected damp as most people are telling me old houses have damp. the house was freshly painted on arrival no sign or smell of damp. within one month the bathroom and our bedroom had turned black brown with goo running down the walls. i washed the walls and now the warmer weather is arising the problem is not too bad but still not great. my lease will be up in August so i am definitely leaving then for a modern house and before the winter hits. we have tried peanut butter but no success as of yet

the_syco

common sense brigade wrote: »

the house was freshly painted on arrival

I'm seeing this as a tell-tale sign of the landlord knowing about the dampness. Look into getting a dehumidifier. Get a main powered one - some of them an be pretty silent (a low hum). Don't get a cheap one. This will help get rid of the dampness. Dampness can effect your health. When we first got one for the attic, we were getting a few litres of water every few days. See if the landlord will cover the cost of the dehumidifier as they were aware of the dampness before you moved in (why else would they cover it up with a new paint job).

=-=

As for the mice, get the old fashioned neck breaking traps. A nice lump of cheese. Leave one under the sink, as that's one place they often get in. Leave a few around the place, with maybe a list of where you leave them so its easier to check them all.

dollydishmop

the_syco wrote: »

As for the mice, get the old fashioned neck breaking traps. A nice lump of cheese. Leave one under the sink, as that's one place they often get in. Leave a few around the place, with maybe a list of where you leave them so its easier to check them all.

Disney didn't always get it right, and cheese very rarely works to catch mice.

Chocolate, peanut butter and/or bacon (raw or cooked) are much, much more successful

Darlughda

FFS. Just get a kitty from an animal rescue that has the potential to be a good mouser! Introduce the cat to the dog see how they get on/

the_syco

dollydishmop wrote: »

Disney didn't always get it right, and cheese very rarely works to catch mice.

I've had to reset the cheese on the trap many times. Must be just the ones in the field next to my house are less choosy :P

dollydishmop wrote: »

Chocolate, peanut butter and/or bacon (raw or cooked) are much, much more successful

Cheese lasts 9 months. How long do the others last?

meg3178

Having visiting field mice when you're living in the country is common. Bait the traps with cooked bacon or peanut butter and place at the edges of the rooms, behind washing machine/dryer and at the back of the cupboard the sink is housed in.
You could get a cat or else some of the rodent plug in repellers.
The slightest feel of warmth and smell of cooking will bring them in and I hate to say it, but you probably have more than one.
Talk to your landlord, he will be happier to know you've tried to get rid of them and may cover the cost, as mice can do a lot of damage to wiring etc and this will cost him more in the long run.