Mice in the garage!

[smudge]

My husband discovered that mice visited our garage/utility room in the night. They've bitten through the clear plastic bird food containers with lids & tucked into the peanuts, etc., leaving them stewn all over the worktop & floor.

He's reluctantly bringing home a couple of mouse traps & a Mars bar later, to help get rid of them (they love Mars bars!).

We don't want another cat as we love to feed & watch the birds in the garden - undisturbed.

Although we don't really want to kill the mice, what other options do we have? (Apart from not keeping bird food in there).

[smudge]

*strewn!

[noxlumos]

You can use a humane trap and go and deposit them in the countryside miles away from you. You can prevent them returning by use of an ultrasonic device which emits a sound (out of our range of hearing but within mice and rat's). You just plug it in and forget it. No sweet little dead mice and nice clean conscinece. Worked in our workshops/garages:)

[smudge]

Thank you noxlumos - sounds like a much better idea - I'll mention your suggestion to my husband tonight.

Can't bare the thought of 'Mice on Death Row!

[gessoo]

I use the humane traps, smudge, and then take them to the other side of the garden and release them. However, I did catch a huge mouse once who filled up the whole trap and was almost dead through suffocation before I found him! Fortunately he recovered. Glad you're a softee too!

[CT]

Gessoo. I'd take them a lot farther than the other side of the garden. (unless you have a huge garden). People are always saying on here that mice are excellent at finding their way back to your house.

[gessoo]

We do have a huge garden CT! And loads of fields all round us, hence loads of mice. (and Rabbits, and Moles and, unfortunately, rats from the farm! - the joys of rural life). You are right though if you have an average size garden you should take them further away.

[smudge]

Thank you gessoo & CT for your earlier replies (been out all afternoon).

My husband just walked in the door & said to our little Granddaughter (aged 3), "Here you are Izzy go & give these to Nanny". I opened the brown paper bag to find two mouse traps - I didn't have the heart to tell her what was inside - she'd never forgive us!

We've both decided to wait until tomorrow to buy some humane traps. We just can't face finding little dead mice in the morning!

[HARLEY GIRL]

I had the same problem in my garage. My husband bought these little trays with a tape or glue like stuff on the surface, we put some peanut butter on it to draw the mice. And they're little feet got stuck to the tape. I know it sounds bad, but it's realy not. The mice were fine, they lived ( in the woods) instead of my garage.And we bought a ultra sonic device like Noxlumos mentioned, and we have not had problems since. Hope this helps.

[smudge]

Thank you for the info Harley Girl - ah, poor little mice being stuck by their feet! I think we'll end up buying the Ultrasonic device tomorrow - sounds a much kinder way of dealing with the playful little rascals!!

[Clanad]

If I may offer a suggestion... firstly, I think you're being overly sensitive to the demise of the mice. They are vermin, carry fleas, disease and are certainly not on any endangered species list I know of. Having said that, you can eliminate the problem by eliminating its source, which , in this case, is the bird feed. I too, feed birds and have had mice and even chipmunks in the garage because of the availability of a ready source of food. I found 5 gallon metal containers that have a snap on lid. They are quite inexpensive at DIY stores, (you were going anyway for traps) or often they can be found for free. The ones I use were originally lard cans from restaurants. They are painted so they dont rust and I'd defy any critter, even squirrels, to get the top off. Aut viam inveniam aut faciam...

[smudge]

Thank you Clanad - You are right of course, I probably am being over sensitive, seeing that mice are after all vermin, along with squirrels, etc.

I'd already thought about changing the containers, but you can still get spills when filling the bird feeders (inside if it's raining), etc.

My husband feels the same as you, but he won't kill them unless I give him the nod!

[Robinia]

I'm probably going to get a leg smacking for chatting smudge but this reminded me of a funny story
A friend of mine caught a mouse in his house in a humane trap & took it miles away to a lovely parkland and released it along with a tiny packed lunch. I was a bit concerned as to whether a town mouse would take to becoming a country mouse but he said it would be fine. Shortly after I gave him a white sugar mouse with a note tied to it - Found, Cold & Frozen on *** Park.

I'm a soft old Biddy too..... :-)

[smudge]

Nice one Robinia!

We've got a couple of toy boxes in our house for the Grandchildren & inside them are a few grey/black/white rubber mice with long tails - I couldn't even bare to accidentally tread on them!

[WendyS]

I'm an absolute softie like you but please deal with the problem quickly as mice breed very quickly and remember my cautionary tale. I also felt sorry for our little "winter visitors" who were also stealing our store of bird food in the gararge. Then one day, while driving down the motorway to work I switched on my car fan and streams of shredded paper, nuts and bits of black plastic bag were blown out. Shortly afterwards I started experiencing electrical problems. Put the car in for service. Mechanics discovered mice were nesting in my bonnet where it was nice & warm. I had to have the dashboard ripped out to repair the wiring and collected a bill for �150. The garage thought it was hilarious but I didn't, especially when we discovered three different mice nests hidden away behind all the stuff stored in our garage. They may only be tiny creatures but they can do a lot of damage.

[smudge]

Thank you for your reply Wendy - what an awful thing to happen to you!

I do hope the little blighters haven't already done the same in our car engines or garage - we'll have to do a thorough search just in case!