Mouse war! A DDD epic.

Ian.B

Dudu wrote:

Wrath Rob wrote:

mice are so small that they dry out really quickly and so don't smell when dead.

That wasn't what happened when I had one in a very grotty bedsit in Ladbroke Grove in 1971.

I can still smell it now. And it wrote off a pair of shoes by dying against one so that the things eating the mouse moved on to the shoes.

I agree with that - the stench of rotting mouse really will drive you out of the house

Ian.B

How to get rid of a dead mouse smell: http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6721679_rid-smell-dead-mice.html
Instruction 1 involves taking a power saw to your walls. Says it all.
LiT, you are clearly very fortunate.
I've got a dead mouse in a flowerpot at the bottom of the garden at the moment. Interested parties can come and have a sniff.

secretsam

Ian.B wrote:

Dudu wrote:

Wrath Rob wrote:

mice are so small that they dry out really quickly and so don't smell when dead.

That wasn't what happened when I had one in a very grotty bedsit in Ladbroke Grove in 1971.

I can still smell it now. And it wrote off a pair of shoes by dying against one so that the things eating the mouse moved on to the shoes.

I agree with that - the stench of rotting mouse really will drive you out of the house

I raise you the smell of a dead rat. In our old 1930s terraced house, we had rats running around in the loft - they could run the length of the terrace - and so we laid some poison (with the help of the local environmental services!). Rats duly scoffed poison and one duly died, only we couldn't locate the b**tard up there to get rid of the body.

A few days later, we noticed 2 things: 1 a bit of a pong in the 3rd bedroom and 2 a lot of bluebottles.

A few days later still, the pong was now f*cking unbearable and the bluebottles ditto - thousands of the bu99ers.

DDD - seriously, MTFU, you absolute pansy. It's a mouse. Trap it (humanley if possible), show it to the kids (if any) and then release it AT LEAST A MILE AWAY (or else it will walk back). Then find where it got in and block the hole.

And you can get sonic mouse scaring things, we've got one in the garage now after our latest Mouse D-Day. FFS don't let them settle and breed or you'll never have any cheese...

greg66_tri_v2.0

One day, DDD, you'll be able to watch this film and smile.

But not yet.

secretsam

lost_in_thought wrote:

All the dead mice I've found have been crispy and delicious, fried with a dash of Worcester Sauce

WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

lost_in_thought

SecretSam wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

All the dead mice I've found have been crispy and delicious, fried with a dash of Worcester Sauce

WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Hey, at least I don't put them in sandwiches like some people

Headhuunter

I had a mouse in my 4th floor flat in Islington. I was watching TV when it wandered nanchalantly across the living room floor. Laid the spring traps with chocolate but it continuously and successfully ate the chocolate without springing the trap. I probably successfully raised its cholesterol count but not much else.

In the end I called Islington council and they came and sorted it for free. The guy just laid poison in a disposable trap thing and came back a few days later and it had eaten the bait. He told me that there would be no smell as mice are so small they literally just dry out and it seemed true. Never saw the mouse again or smelled anything.

The guy said that the most common "modern" mice (apparently not indigenous to this country) are so light weight and tiny they can run up verticle brick walls and at this time of year they are looking for somewhere warm to settle for winter. I was in a 4th floor flat and because it was so high up I used to leave the windows open all day even when I wasn't there but the mouse man reckoned that one of these small mice could easily run up a 4 storey brick building and get in through a window.

We had a rat in our current flat back in 2007, that was a different story. Much bigger, could hear it running about around under the floorboards at night and see its dirty footprints on the kitchen surfaces and floor... Eurgh...

DonDaddyD

If its a rat, I would call the exterminator. Or Terminator from the future. I would also not be in the flat with it.

Dreadful creatures, so disease ridden that one bite or scratch demands you go to a hospital and I think its something like 16 injections in the belly. Long snout and hairless tail, vile.

This mouse was certainly small, but smaller than the ones we caught in Norbury, which when I think about it were huge.

I'm gonna get those sonic mouse plug things. But I really want to witness the epic destruction Lucifer promises. It's bad enough I'm petrified of them, that I can't catch them as well makes me even less of the hunter gatherer....

Headhuunter

If it was a rat it would have been more than a small black dot in the corner of your eye, unless it was a young one, rats are pretty big. Also the fact that you can't find it's faeces may mean that it has only just arrived at your place. Mice and rats are basicaly incontinent and sh1t and pee as they walk. Look along edges of walls, they tend to stick to the edges of things rather than walking across the middle of open floors, wherever possible. Also look under bookshelves or low furniture where they can nest or behind sofas and armchairs. I found that the one I had in Islington had made a nest under the low bottom shelf of a bookshelf, the bottom shelf was only about 2 inches off the ground and it had chewed paper and stuff and made camp there, it had also p1ssed and sh@t there and I had to scrub the bottom of the shelves and the floor underneath with disinfectant a few times before the smell went.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Headhuunter wrote:

If it was a rat it would have been more than a small black dot in the corner of your eye, unless it was a young one, rats are pretty big. Also the fact that you can't find it's faeces may mean that it has only just arrived at your place. Mice and rats are basicaly incontinent and sh1t and pee as they walk. Look along edges of walls, they tend to stick to the edges of things rather than walking across the middle of open floors, wherever possible. Also look under bookshelves or low furniture where they can nest or behind sofas and armchairs. I found that the one I had in Islington had made a nest under the low bottom shelf of a bookshelf, the bottom shelf was only about 2 inches off the ground and it had chewed paper and stuff and made camp there, it had also p1ssed and sh@t there and I had to scrub the bottom of the shelves and the floor underneath with disinfectant a few times before the smell went.

Reading this brings home to me that DDD only really has one sensible option open to him.

Nuke the entire house from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

HoHoHoBlueGiant

I feel DDD's pain.

November 24th last year (yes, I can still remember the date), laid in bed about midnight and I could hear a strange scratching noise. I went downstairs and I could here the noise in the roof of our bay window. It stopped.....and then started making the noise in the ceiling right above my head ! Faarrrrk !

I didn't sleep for 3 nights just listening, their was a bonus though, I lost 1/2 stone in weight :oops:

On searching round the house for entrey points, I noticed that the gutter had come away from the bay window leaving a gap under the tiles, I guess whatever it was had come in that way. So I spent the weekend fixing this and also covering the air vents around the base of the house with wire mesh. If you can fit a pencil into a gap, it's big enough for a mouse to get in !

I also bought a 2 sonic and electronic repellers (the sonic one's are not supposed to be very effective, get the one's that send stuff through your electrical wiring too), the day I plugged these in, the night sounds stopped.

Best traps are from B and Q. Beige plastic half dome type things, pre baited. Got 2 of the buggers over 2 nights with the traps on the outside window sill.

Almost a year on and I can't help just listening for a few minutes before I go to sleep each night :oops:

I know, I know, MTFU

lost_in_thought

Rats, in my house in Essex anyway, are about the size of two fists placed end to end. A mouse, in both houses, is about the size of 2 thumbs.

If it was a rat you'd probably have had to leave the country.

jonginge

Greg66 wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

If it was a rat it would have been more than a small black dot in the corner of your eye, unless it was a young one, rats are pretty big. Also the fact that you can't find it's faeces may mean that it has only just arrived at your place. Mice and rats are basicaly incontinent and sh1t and pee as they walk. Look along edges of walls, they tend to stick to the edges of things rather than walking across the middle of open floors, wherever possible. Also look under bookshelves or low furniture where they can nest or behind sofas and armchairs. I found that the one I had in Islington had made a nest under the low bottom shelf of a bookshelf, the bottom shelf was only about 2 inches off the ground and it had chewed paper and stuff and made camp there, it had also p1ssed and sh@t there and I had to scrub the bottom of the shelves and the floor underneath with disinfectant a few times before the smell went.

Reading this brings home to me that DDD only really has one sensible option open to him.

Nuke the entire house from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

DDD later on today:

Wrath Rob

DonDaddyD wrote:

I'm gonna get those sonic mouse plug things

Waste
Of
Money

We tried it, they paid no attention to it until I unplugged one and threw it at the little bugger. Save your cash and call in the council.

Headhuunter

Wrath Rob wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

I'm gonna get those sonic mouse plug things

Waste
Of
Money

We tried it, they paid no attention to it until I unplugged one and threw it at the little bugger. Save your cash and call in the council.

People seem to have differing results with these, I've heard some people say they are fantastic and others say they don't work

BlackandBlue

Ian.B wrote:

How to get rid of a dead mouse smell: http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6721679_rid-smell-dead-mice.html
Instruction 1 involves taking a power saw to your walls. Says it all.
LiT, you are clearly very fortunate.
I've got a dead mouse in a flowerpot at the bottom of the garden at the moment. Interested parties can come and have a sniff.

Oh great. I was going to post enquiring about dead mice smells. I had heard they don't smell and so assumed I may be dealing with a dead rat. We have had mice and I have seen a rat run across my living room too. There's no mistaking one for the other.

That article is from a US site - perhaps US mice are bigger than UK mice?

My dead whatever-it-is is in a very inaccessible location. I was going to ask how long before the smell would subside...

Sounds like I may need to invest in a power saw...

Good luck DDD.

itboffin

So much gay in one thread, I had no idea it was possible

MonkeyMonster

itboffin wrote:

So much gay in one thread, I had no idea it was possible

Pot calling kettle black, veet boy

Wrath Rob

Nail, head, hit

lost_in_thought

BlackandBlue wrote:

Ian.B wrote:

How to get rid of a dead mouse smell: http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6721679_rid-smell-dead-mice.html
Instruction 1 involves taking a power saw to your walls. Says it all.
LiT, you are clearly very fortunate.
I've got a dead mouse in a flowerpot at the bottom of the garden at the moment. Interested parties can come and have a sniff.

Oh great. I was going to post enquiring about dead mice smells. I had heard they don't smell and so assumed I may be dealing with a dead rat. We have had mice and I have seen a rat run across my living room too. There's no mistaking one for the other.

That article is from a US site - perhaps US mice are bigger than UK mice?

My dead whatever-it-is is in a very inaccessible location. I was going to ask how long before the smell would subside...

Sounds like I may need to invest in a power saw...

Good luck DDD.

Even if it's a rat, it will subside eventually. We used to have them die in the walls fairly regularly in Essex before we employed the rat man for his monthly visits, and never cut any holes in our walls.

I can only imagine that it may be the facts that the houses I live in are rather old and usually pretty cold that could make a difference...

itboffin

Whilst on the subject of mice, did anyone see Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall mouse-buster nutters? FFS I wanted to raise an angry mob (me) get in my car, drive down there and slap that mental-case across the face, perhaps with a dead mouse :twisted:

Bloody hippies :twisted:

hatbeard

When I had a mouse running amok in my flat I caught it in quite possibly the most nefarious way ever.

I noticed it had been climbing up on the breakfast table in the kitchen (as evidenced by the droppings and half chewed loaf of bread my flatmate had left out) so I knew it was capable of getting up there somehow.

I then found out that mice apparently go nuts for jam of all things.

So I took the bin bag out of my swing top bin and left the lid off the top, then I cut a carrier bag along the side and laid it carefully across the top of the bin. I then put a big dollop of jam in the middle and moved the bin so it was just far away from the table that the mouse would have to make a small jump to get to it. I then retired to bed for the evening with a sense of anticipation of the trap being sprung previously known only to wile e. coyote.

first thing in the morning I went into the kitchen and immediately saw the bin bag was sloping down slightly into the bin. I checked and indeed down in the bottom there it was.

I transferred it to a homemade carrying device, took it a very long way away and released it into a park.

Mice 0 - Hatbeard 1

now I have one of those sub-sonic deterrents in the kitchen and haven't had any further problems.

rjsterry

I'm not convinced 'relocation' is that much more humane, especially if they are dumped in the middle of a park or out in the countryside - slow death from starvation/eaten by predator vs. a swift blow to the back of the neck from some spring-loaded wire. If you're worried about the little bleeders' welfare in the first place, that is.

Being the son of two vets, I've seen plenty of animals helped on their way with a dose of strong barbiturates - just make sure your cat or dog doesn't fish them out of the bin/dig them up later for a snack.

hatbeard

to be fair the relocation was more for my benefit than the mouses.

once I'd caught it I just couldn't stomach killing it myself and I knew if I released it anywhere near the house it could find it's way back again.

I also like to think that it now travels london sharing the tale of the ingenious human that trapped him and warning other mice to avoid the townhouses of greenwich.

dhope

hatbeard wrote:

to be fair the relocation was more for my benefit than the mouses.

once I'd caught it I just couldn't stomach killing it myself and I knew if I released it anywhere near the house it could find it's way back again.

I also like to think that it now travels london sharing the tale of the ingenious human that trapped him and warning other mice to avoid the townhouses of greenwich.

Ah, you're round my way. Used to be in the Ashburnham Triangle, now further up toward Maze Hill.

godihatehills

so my two cats are vicious little buggers they bring in live mice, shrews and rabbits all the time, sometimes they'll have had a bit of a game with them first, maybe skinned their legs or something then they leave them for me to finish off.
Thats why its good to have a labrador, very little to clean up after hes had a go .
if they are in good shape most are caught and released- by hand I might add- why all this fuss over a couple of rodents I dont understand.

neiltb

big jessie.

godihatehills

neiltb wrote:

big jessie.

indeed in CA you guys get to worry about owls big enough to carry off your cat, cats big enough to eat your dog and Bears to kill any else left standing hell even the racoons are hard as nails
.....and we worried about Mice? we killed and ate all the interesting stuff in this country long ago
- My brother had the right idea and moved to NZ now he gets to play with good stuff:

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/5745572/

dhope

godihatehills wrote:

neiltb wrote:

big jessie.

indeed in CA you guys get to worry about owls big enough to carry off your cat, cats big enough to eat your dog and Bears to kill any else left standing hell even the racoons are hard as nails
.....and we worried about Mice? we killed and ate all the interesting stuff in this country long ago
- My brother had the right idea and moved to NZ now he gets to play with good stuff:

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/5745572/

London mice are much more savvy than your standard Canadian variety, we often see them riding bears into combat with another riding shotgun

godihatehills

sorry my bad CA in this context meant Canada - mice out there eat Lumberjacks