I get house mice and native 'mice'. When I read up on them it turns out
the native sorts actually hunt the house mice! All very handy, but I
can't have them living in the walls either. I catch them all in 'humane'
traps and let them go in waste land or bush land if they are obviously
not mice. I really hate killing critters. The rats were a different
matter. I got a traditional spring trap and killed them. They were
definately rats and bold enough to run through a room with people in it.
I figured they carry too many diseases to just be let loose somewhere.
Probably the mice do too, but they are less likely to survive where
there is snakes and owls and other birds off prey.

Sometimes I borrow my daughters cat - she might catch a mouse, but often
the mice just move out when the cat smell becomes too much for them. It
didn't work during the worst of the drought.

jules

YMC wrote:
Rats! Sometime back I saw that there were mice in my compost bin. I don't
put food scraps there except vegetables - but it must be nice and warm
inside during Winter time.

One of them got into the house. I was watching the History channel yesterday
when I heard something rattling away at the toaster. I paid no attention to
it. When I went to make some toast - out popped a small little mouse.

It ran into a small hole inside a cupboard wall. (Meaning its not in the
cupboard but somewhere in its interior gaps.)

I got one of the old fashion traps and one of the new modern plastic
eco-friendly ones which doesn't kill the animal.

I thought of borrowing my friend's cat for the weekend. Its quite good at
catching mice apparently. But I don't know how
effective that would be.

Would it help?? I know its an odd question to ask.



At the moment its just one. I hope. Occasionally I leave the doors open when
I do my cooking - must have got in that way.