# Hello please could you help me.



## Bob-P- (Oct 18, 2017)

Hello everyone,

I found your forum through Google and I fully appreciate you may think my question should not be placed on this forum as it is linked to house mice not fancy / domesticated mice. But I thought as you guys love mice and have forgotten more than I know about them you could hopefully share your knowledge and give me some much needed help and advice on what you think is the best thing I should do.

I am a vegan and love all animals and often rescue injured birds so using in humane / kill traps and poison is not an option.

Basically I am presently sharing my house with house mice. My house is 3 stories and one mouse has been spotted on each level and droppings found on all three levels.
I have never spotted more than one mouse at a time and don't find many droppings so I am pretty sure I don't have an infestation, probably (hopefully ) a small family of house mice.

I don't have a cat but I do have a clean house with no food available as it is stored in mouse proof cupboards and containers. I have blocked up holes with wire wool, but my house is very old and big so finding and blocking up all holes is a huge undertaking for me. Plus I know these little guys can squeeze through the tiniest of holes and cracks !!

Even though there is limited food available for them my house does obviously provide warmth and shelter for them as it is approaching winter time.

I read on the internet that mice don't like the smell of peppermint oil and it is even sold as a mouse repellent product. So I bought 500ml of peppermint oil and placed it liberally on cotton wool balls then placed them around all the areas I found droppings.
My house smelt like a Polo Mint factory (lol)!!

I also found their nest in my boiler cupboard and put a lot of peppermint oil in there too for good measure. Unfortunately it hasn't really worked and I did find some new droppings on the cotton wool balls so they are probably having a good old laugh at my expense (lol)!!!

As I said further up using in humane / kill traps and poison is not an option.

I saw a very kind man on YouTube use humane "Trip Traps" to catch the mice in his garage and then added each one to a mouse cage until he had about 4 mice than he released them all together in a near by wooded area.

I like this idea as if they are a family you are not separating them all up and not releasing just one by itself at a time all their own. Worse case you do split the family but they are not all on their lonesome out there.

However due to the size of my house I could have more than one family living in my house? I therefore might put two dominant males together by accident who might fight? Not Good.

My other concern is from looking online I understand that wild mice (non house mouse) may out compete them and the house mice could die in their new less than perfect environment.

Could you please share your thoughts on the below:

Is catching and releasing in the wild cruel as they will starve to death?

If it is o.k to catch and release am I best to catch a few and release together as mentioned above or is catching and releasing one at a time o.k do you think? Is it cruel?

Should I catch and keep them as pets? But I have no previous experience keeping mice and I would have to get them sexed and sterilized? This way they would all die of old age and not reproduce. Plus they would be well fed and live a confined but happy comfortable lives.

I really am lost and not sure what I should do here, please do help me if you can.

Thank you so much for reading my post and for any help you may be able to pass my way.

Take care.
Bob.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

so much to cover.Are you in the UK?If so there are two sorts of mice that are commonly encountered, house mice and field mice.Both are wild but house mice prefer to co-exist alongside humans.Field mice won't out-compete them,they are the less vigorous species. I think you could easily accommodate female house mice in a semi-natural decent sized enclosure.Personally, I think neutering wild males would be excessively traumatic and result in high mortality.I wouldn't do it but it is a matter of individual ethics.Mice need three things to thrive.Cover,food and somewhere to raise their young.Those things are found around people rather than in fields so you would need to think about that before releasing.The very best thing to do would be to deprive them of those things in your house and surroundings so that they move on.Where is the food coming from?A neighbor,a bird table?How are they getting back and forth from the food supply,does your brickwork need repointing?Can you leave their preferred nesting areas exposed and remove material to make nests with?Deprivation of the key elements is a must for someone as sensitive towards animals as you.


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