There is a mouse in our house! no pun intended....?

Question

Hi all,

My fiance and I were sitting watching Harry Potter last night (woo!) When we heard this weird metal scratching sound. We thought it was the pipes acting up because the sound was coming from our kitchen, near our washer and dryer. We ignored the sound until I heard my fiance yell, "It's a mouse! I knew it!!" I looked up just in time to see a little black mouse crawl into where the burner on our stove is.

A couple questions:
Whats the best method to get this little bugger?
Is it safe to use our stove?
I've seen him twice now, both times being the same mouse. Is it likely that there are more? We live in an apartment complex of 8 apartments.

I really just don't know how to handle this. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Thanks everyone, we went out and bought one of those live traps so that we won't kill him (I've named him Norbert haha) and we will set him free in a field a couple miles away. If he dies there thats better than me knowing I killed him in my apartment. We also got expanding foam to fill in the holes so I think we will be good. Thank you for all your help and input!

Answer 1

We had a few mice and squirrels get inside, they were coming out from under my stove... Use Tomcat snap traps. they work great... and we have not had anymore... You can get them at any hardware store. Then check to see where on the outside of your house they are getting in. We had a small hole in the wood soffit on the back corner of our house. We sealed it up and they disappeared... Hope this helps

Answer 2

Many of the answers listed so far are well meaning but fall short of the best solution. Snapper traps only ever catch a few of any infetsation, leaving plenty of time for breeding. If you are capable of killing a mouse by hand then I would recommend specially produced glue boards. The mice walk on, become trapped and then require a hard tap on the base of the skull to kill them. If you cannot do this then you should use a second generation bait which does not cause secondary poisoning - and use safety stations please. Whilste a dead mouse may indeed smell, this should only last a few days and is far better than the smell gained from the build up of their urine. A dead mouse soon shrivels up - just like an old tea bag. You can get elctronic mouse traps that are about 85% effective. Getting a professional to have a look over the rpoblem is often free - if you just ask! Even treatments can be cheap - depending on the company.

Answer 3

i will give you a list of several mouse traps that will not kill or injure the mouse (poison isn't a good idea as the mouse could die some place hard to reach) i would recomend banging on the stove a bit before using it so that the lil bigger will run out of it and not get burned (burning fur does not smell plesent)

be sure to check any traps twice (or at lest once) a day as it does not take a mouse long to starve to death or a dead body to start smelling and attracting bugs
http://glass.typepad.com/journal/2005/09/how_to_catch_a_.html

http://www.humanemousetrap.info/

http://www.abundantearth.com/store/mousetrap1.html

http://www.amazon.com/Kness-101-Ketch-All-Live-Mouse/dp/B0006DR49Q

http://www.themousedepot.com/

Answer 4

You have a family of mice. Probably a dozen or more. You don't see the same one each time.

Set some mouse traps along the walls in hidden spots.

They may be small field mice. They look for warmth in winter.