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Mice Scarers

Just seen a mouse in my flat have put traps down but none have caught any. I was thinking about pest scarers has anyone used them do the work or are thet a waste of money.
 I do have a pest controll company coming so he may find where they are coming from
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  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,006
    Can you borrow a cat?
  • kentaddick
    kentaddick Posts: 18,729
    Derek1952 said:
    Just seen a mouse in my flat have put traps down but none have caught any. I was thinking about pest scarers has anyone used them do the work or are thet a waste of money.
     I do have a pest controll company coming so he may find where they are coming from
    Have had the odd problem with mice, been using a plug that plays high pitched noises that you can't hear and put it on the medium setting and haven't seen a furry critter since or heard them in the walls
  • Huskaris
    Huskaris Posts: 9,849
    Derek1952 said:
    Just seen a mouse in my flat have put traps down but none have caught any. I was thinking about pest scarers has anyone used them do the work or are thet a waste of money.
     I do have a pest controll company coming so he may find where they are coming from
    Have had the odd problem with mice, been using a plug that plays high pitched noises that you can't hear and put it on the medium setting and haven't seen a furry critter since or heard them in the walls
    I can hear them. A lot of young people can hear them too. Terrible noise, not surprised the animals run away!
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    In my experience, they dont work mate. When I worked at Rentokil we had to go on visits to a rat farm (yeah one does exist) and the expert / owner basically trains pest control technicians in the behaviour and control of mice and rats. Anyway, he had a film going during a presentation he was giving, of a plug-in mouse scarer and, after about 20 minutes if the video starting, the mice were all over it and taking no notice. Although saying that, if you think you have the odd one coming in (referred to as a "casual intruder", in the game) a plug-in contraption could be just enough to send it somewhere else.

    The best and most effective way to deal with a mouse infestation imo is poison but, you have to be very careful of secondary poisoning, especially with wildlife such as owls (we were taught that a Jack Russell sized dog, would need to eat it's own body weight in poisoned dead mice / rats, for the dog show any signs. An owl though will probably cop it after eating 1 AND IT DOES HAPPEN which is the main reason I came away from pest control and especially using poisons)

    The most humane way to control mice again imo, is the conventional break back trap. It kills them instantly.

    To proof against mice and rats, stuff wirewool into any how and gaps, and cover air bricks with a 5mm x 5mm mesh. It's usually better to proof a house from the outside, rather than the inside skin of the walls, as they'll still be within the ropertycausing problems
  • Deffo borrow a cat. Leave your cupboards open and the cat in the room. It'll go through mice faster and more efficiently than any trap, poison or scarer. 
  • I had a mouse in my house once.  I called him Elvis because he was caught in a trap.
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    .....last bit of advice  - dont use Rentokil, use a local one man band, who has good references 
  • seth plum
    seth plum Posts: 53,448
    We had a few mice. Now the neighbours cat visits and lolls about in various places no mice since.
    Unless one is brought to us by the cat.
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    edited November 2020
    I've been called to jobs with more than one cat in residence and the place was humping with mice
  • seth plum
    seth plum Posts: 53,448
    Science Source - Spinifex Hopping Mice
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  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    ^^^ that's what mice were doing in front of the scarer in the video
  • LargeAddick
    LargeAddick Posts: 32,561
    seth plum said:
    Science Source - Spinifex Hopping Mice
    Look more like gerbils to me ...
  • kafka
    kafka Posts: 2,368
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
  • kafka said:
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
    Best option imo.
  • SantaClaus
    SantaClaus Posts: 7,653
    kafka said:
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
    Best option imo.
    For the owls.
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    kafka said:
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
    Best option imo.
    It's not really mate, because they usually suffer and die within a day or so 
  • I was expecting "mice scarers" to be a sexual euphemism that I'd never heard of
  • PopIcon
    PopIcon Posts: 5,970
    DONT EVER USE THE TAPE, THE ANIMALS SUFFER A HORRIFIC DEATH.
  • SoundAsa£
    SoundAsa£ Posts: 22,480
    edited November 2020
    There is one on the market that plays Des O’ Connor albums on a continuous loop.
    Use it in conjunction with the traps.......after a few hours they will invariably throw themselves onto them.
  • kafka said:
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
    Best option imo.
    For the owls.

    That’s the natural world though. If the mouse is taken by an owl so be it. Better than having its back broken and dumped in a bin.
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  • kafka said:
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
    Best option imo.
    It's not really mate, because they usually suffer and die within a day or so 

    Why? Has city life made them weak and sick?
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    kafka said:
    I’ve used humane traps that I ordered off Amazon. Worked a treat, and then set them free in the woods
    Best option imo.
    It's not really mate, because they usually suffer and die within a day or so 

    Why? Has city life made them weak and sick?
    Because they live in groups mate. You take a mouse out of that and stick it in tbe middle of a wood, it won't just take up residence and immediately make itself at home, or slot straight into another group. It will probably hide until it dies of exposure or gets predated on. 

    Sure those "humane" traps suggest letting the mouse free within 100 meters from where it was caught, so it can find it's way back to its group and where it was living, eg under Del's floorboards


     
  • Leave an old bin in the garage. I found about 5-6 dead in there the other week.
  • Poison traps from any DIY store, open it, place it somewhere you know they will get in it and eat the seed. Check in a couple of days and you should have a dead mouse just starting to smell rancid.  
  • ricky_otto
    ricky_otto Posts: 22,600
    PopIcon said:
    DONT EVER USE THE TAPE, THE ANIMALS SUFFER A HORRIFIC DEATH.
    I’ve seen the evidence in work - it’s not pleasant. 
  • charltonbob
    charltonbob Posts: 8,259
    PopIcon said:
    DONT EVER USE THE TAPE, THE ANIMALS SUFFER A HORRIFIC DEATH.
    They shouldn't break into the house then.
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    PopIcon said:
    DONT EVER USE THE TAPE, THE ANIMALS SUFFER A HORRIFIC DEATH.
    I’ve seen the evidence in work - it’s not pleasant. 
    I've used em and although they're very effective, they shouldn't need to be used if the problem is properly managed in the first place. At the time, I was looking after 3 patches (from Holland Park, all the way out to Ealing and across to Chiswick). One of the blokes I was covering for had sold a certain amount of sticky board treatments to a customer (because he werent very good at his job) and they wanted that they had paid for. Like all live capture treatment,s, you need to attend site within the time set out by the BPCA, but I'd always get on site before first light to minimise any suffering.

    On another job which was a well known pharmacy chain, on the same blokes patch, I was doing a routine inspection one day and found a load of sticky boards above a suspended ceiling, that had been left there for months and not dealt with. Disgusting behaviour and the geezer was told so 
  • If mice get caught in traps, surely the sensible thing is to just leave the dead mice in the garden for whatever scavenger needs a meal
  • soapy_jones
    soapy_jones Posts: 21,353

  • charltonbob
    charltonbob Posts: 8,259
    edited November 2020

    Make sure mice have absolutely no access to food. My Mum was in hospital for 6 weeks & when she went home the place was running alive with them. I put traps, poison & plug in scarers out & they didn't touch them & they weren't scared. One day my brain started working & I checked my Mums larder where she kept biscuits, chocolates, cereal & loads of other stuff & it was obviously mouse take away heaven. I completely cleared & cleaned the larder & kitchen & called the Councils pest control. He confirmed what others have said on here, the scarers don't really work, they might help but you need to keep moving them about but he said he would never bother using them. He put poison in every room but they didn't touch it but after a while they did start eating some that I had put down but only in certain locations. They might finish one tray but wouldn't touch another that was close by, fussy buggers but when I refilled the empty trays they ate from them. Found a few dead ones but the Pest Control guy said you may never see any dead as they often return to the nest & die there. 

    Another thing the pest control guy told me is that mice carry more germs than rats & as they constantly piss as they walk I would make sure that you constantly disinfect surfaces.