How to deal with mice in the roof in Canberra?

wildturkeycanoe said :

If you live in a new house with plastic water pipes, I’ve heard some “credible” advice not to put baits in the roof, as the mice [rats] will get thirsty and chew through the pipes. This has apparently caused some problems in newer homes – ie. water damage to carpets and walls.
I put up some big rat traps at the man hole and all I’ve caught is tiny mice. Gotta say though, Nutella does the trick, as do left over bits of Easter eggs.

I am a pest controller and have never heard of this happening Its true that the baits work by making the Rodents thirsty with the idea that they will leave the roof void looking for water, so not to have them dying in the roof void.But if you have any water leaks in roof or water in you gutters they may use the moisture from there.Remember a mice only needs 1ml of water a day. I have baited plenty of roofs over the years and have probably only been called about 6 times about dead animal smell coming from the roof void. I have been called plenty of times to get rid of a dead animal from a roof that turns out to be a possum because the home owner has baited the roof themselves without identifing what is making the noises.It cost way more to remove a dead possum from a roof or a wall cavity then it does getting pest control to do the job for you in the begining.

Not a fan of poison.

We use the heavy duty white and red rat traps baited with peanut butter which usually do the job quickly and effectively. But in the last couple of weeks we’ve had a bad run and I’ve had to kill numerous maimed mice, so I’m trialling box traps and a ‘kill’ bucket with a block of wood to quickly dispatch them.

Best to use a box-style trap, not the snap-traps, they’re horrible. And then release mouse near whichever neighbour you like the least. Happy mouse, less-happy neighbour. win.

A magpie appeared on my deck railing they other day, with the lower half of a mouse in his beak. The other mags were trying to get it off him.

I found hot cross bun or sweet bread in a traditional trap the best and quickest. If this doesn’t suit, starve your cat for a couple of days then let them loose in the roof, if you don’t have a cat, borrow one or catch a feral. If you want to go green, buy a python, plenty of native species around that would enjoy a nice warm roof to live in. On the other hand you could be thankful there are mice in the roof, if there weren’t mice you would probably have a snake problem – probably brown or black.

I can’t kill them, so I use a trap where they can get in but not out, and let them go outside. I know they’re a menace and non-native and all (a bit like most of us), but they are also sentient creatures who I can’t help but admire, living on our rubbish. Spreading poison around seems a bit over the top, too.

It’s important not to forget you have one of these traps, or the mouse would starve to death.

Just this morning, I awoke to a tiny screeching coming from the kitchen. Wandering in I discovered a mouse in a trap I had set before I went to sleep, the little fella had been caught across the lower body, was still alive & in pain. I dispatched the poor little creature quickly to end it’s agony. The trap was a traditional wood one, previously I had used a grey plastic variety and the same thing happen, I had to finish off the creature. I guess there is merit to the saying ‘build a better mousetrap’. From here on in, to save my fragile eggshell mind from the trauma of seeing these little guys suffer, I will be using a humane trap & releasing them into parliament house, where some other bloodthirsty predator can dispatch them.

bait the s*** out of them & get a professional to do it because you’ve obviously never done it before and if you get up in your roof cavity you’re likely to injure/kill yourself

Regarding whether its a mouse or a possum – I like the age old policy of:

If it sounds like a rat, its probably a mouse. If it sounds like a possum its probably a rat. If it sounds like a human its probably a possum. And if it sounds like an elephant its probably a human.

If you live in a new house with plastic water pipes, I’ve heard some “credible” advice not to put baits in the roof, as the mice [rats] will get thirsty and chew through the pipes. This has apparently caused some problems in newer homes – ie. water damage to carpets and walls.
I put up some big rat traps at the man hole and all I’ve caught is tiny mice. Gotta say though, Nutella does the trick, as do left over bits of Easter eggs.

Peanut butter? Meh, my mice turned their noses up at it. A piece of Kit-Kat was irresistible, however. And of course, once you have opened the packet …

Agree with Gerry-Built about the likelihood and behaviour of possums. Although his description was a bit conservative. He neglected to mention the pungent odour of possum-piss, which, once smelled, is rarely forgotten. Especially as it takes a very long time to fade.

Lefty said :

http://www.selleys.com.au/rat-poison/mouse-bait/killer-18g

I use this and appar the rats and mice eat it – it makes them thirsty, so they leave to look for water and die – leaving your home rodent free.

It works…….no mice traps to empty (and forgetting to)…..

+1
If I hear mice in the roof I chuck this stuff around the roof space. Have never had a decaying stinky mouse body. They leave.

http://www.selleys.com.au/rat-poison/mouse-bait/killer-18g

I use this and appar the rats and mice eat it – it makes them thirsty, so they leave to look for water and die – leaving your home rodent free.

It works…….no mice traps to empty (and forgetting to)…..

looks like more bait is the way to got or mouse traps, no-one has use professionals, I guess they just use the same technique?

Holden Caulfield said :

Oh, you sure it’s mice and not possums?

Oh – you’d know if it was possums!!! You’d swear the Russians had set up a sentry post in the roof, and had been caught by ASIO agents; with the accompanying struggle – from the amount of ruckus they create, simply moving around your roof cavity…

astrojax said :

move?

yeah go somewhere north like QLD where they have warm weather
… and cyclones, cane toads & jellyfish.

My moggy has not done too bad this year bringing home 15+ mice. (no native birds or endangered wildlife that we hear so much about)

move?

The Frots said :

We found setting fire to the roof of the house fairly effective.

So you worked in the Govt’s roof insulation scheme then??
Unfortunately that has been cancelled meaning other ways of removing mice are now needed….

JohnK said :

We used the humane live-catch type of mouse traps, about $2 from Bunnings, which are great for releasing the mice into your noisy next-door neighbour’s yard.

I thought about doing this, but then I checked the RSPCA’s view on this which is that most of the mice caught eventually die of stress anyway, so you’re just prolonging the process.

I use traps as I want to know for sure that they’re dead and don’t like the thought of dead things decomposing behind the stove or dishwasher. The old-fashioned wood and metal ones work well on the bigger mice, but to catch the youngsters (or the undernourished) those grey plastic ones work much better. You may have trouble finding them as a friend was told there’s a mouse plague in Canberra at the moment.

Use peanut butter as bait for both types of trap.

I have to warn you, I trapped 13 of them last year and at least half of them weren’t quite dead when they got stuck in the trap. Keep a heavy spanner nearby…

Good luck.

We found setting fire to the roof of the house fairly effective.

Agree with #2, buy/borrow a cat, put it in the roof for a few hours (on a cool day of course). If it is a possum, the cat will not go near it and you’ll hear a lot of possum hissing and have a bigger problem trying to be rid of, or keeping the creature quiet, if it is mice, the cat will get fat and be happy.

JohnK said :

We used the humane live-catch type of mouse traps, about $2 from Bunnings, which are great for releasing the mice into your noisy next-door neighbour’s yard.

You’re either being sarcastic or foolish. Which is it?

JohnK said :

We used the humane live-catch type of mouse traps, about $2 from Bunnings.

what a crock of s***…. the @#$%en greenies are taking over the world

Just place mouse traps on beams the roof space through the access door, and check them every day until all the mice have been caught. Catching all the mice might take a few weeks.

We used the humane live-catch type of mouse traps, about $2 from Bunnings, which are great for releasing the mice into your noisy next-door neighbour’s yard. But ordinary mouse traps work pretty well. Avoid poisons and baits unless you like rotting carcasses in inaccessible places.

The problem with baiting is that you end up with dead mouse carcasses littered throughout your roof space. Build a repeating water-trap and place it close to the man-hole, and every week or so you just go up and grab the bucket, and pour the whole thing into your compost bin or the bin. Very successful at my house. Bait the trap with peanut butter. Google “repeating water mouse trap”.

Well, our cat, who, apparently, is a major threat to the native wildlife of all the world, indeed modern civilisation as we know it, seems to do a pretty good job of ignoring the birds and catching mice and rats instead. Perhaps he could pay you a visit and present you with a trophy or two. Just don’t get upset if the trophies are already missing their heads.

Oh, you sure it’s mice and not possums?

Baits seemed to have worked for me. I initially tried just baiting the main problem area, but they just took up residence at the other end of the roof. So I got lots of the “throw packs” and spread them all through the roof about 2m apart – it took a week or two to have an effect.