Getting Rid of Mice?

Help!

I've got mice in my house. As I write this I can hear them behind my bedroom skirting boards and my built in cupboard. It's keeping me awake, I have a phobia of waking up with one crawling on me!

We've got mouse traps situated down stairs, but we've only caught one, they seem to be able to get the bait off without the trap going off!

How can I get rid of them and keep them away? I'm fed up of clearing poo from the kitchen and lounge floors and I know they can get on my kitchen work tops, OH left a piece of pie crust on a plate next the sink one night and in the morning it was behind my kettle, a couple of feet away from the plate!

Thanks in advance!

The only way I`ve found is to be scrupulous about not leaving food out. Because my back door is usually open the mice come in that way and the houses each side have mice as well - I`ve seen the runs. But since I`ve been putting food away in containers we rarely get mice.
I don`t use poison - I don`t like it.
The last time I saw a mouse it was sitting on my cooker. I screamed for my son and he came in to the rescue.
He and the mouse peered at each other, then he went and got a piece of cheese, dropped it near the mouse who picked it up and scampered off. Then he blocked the hole it went through. A novel approach but efffective.

Do you not own terriers? Or a cat?

I've always said if I had mice or rats I would get a terrier or a cat, my parents neighbours had a mice problem - they got a cat and the problem went within weeks..

Edited to say - the cat did nothing to the mice - the presence of it just didn't seem to appeal to the mice. However the presence of a cat didn't help my sister and her mice invasion.. Sometimes it works sometimes it don't..

Wild animals like an easy life. Pie crust left on a plate makes for an easy life! As ClaireandDaisy says, be super vigilant about not leaving food about. If you have a recycling caddy for food, make sure it's locked, sweep up crumbs on the side, put food in above-counter cupboards rather than below-counter ones if possible - even watch your bottled drinks as they can chew away at the bottles as the sweet smell entices them.
As well as removing any potential food sources, make life as difficult as possible. As well as food, they need water, so don't leave any glasses or mugs with drink in, wipe up spilt water on sides, even perhaps consider changing the dog's water bowl to one with tall sides so they can't drink from that. Make your garden unattractive to mice - cut back overgrown bushes so they don't have safe, sheltered routes - they don't like running out in the open. Try to block any holes - gaps around pipes in the toilet/bathroom can be a culprit, for example.
If you make your house unattractive to them then they'll move on to a house that has more resources available to them,a nd no need for traps and poison. The latter tends to be ineffective longterm anyway, as long as your house is attractive to mice - which it will be, with food left around - you will get other mice coming along after you kill this lot, and another lot after that, and so on.

Dont leave any food, crumbs, even anything wrapped in foil, clingfilm, bags of dog food a bread bin or anything on the worktops, fridge or freezer tops. Don't eat upstairs, dont leave dishes lying around unwashed. Try & keep crumbs off the floor etc..
Mice can get through any hole no matter how small. I had terrible problems with mice at my last house as I lived opposite a huge field. I remember being on the phone to the OH one night & seeing something out of the corner of my eye...a mouse running up the curtain. I used traps with a chocolate button in it & a tiny piece of choccy button beside it. In one week I caught 7. Then blocked up , filled in every single hole I could find It was a mission! Good luck xx

I think a pinhole might be too small But yeah - if they can fit their skull through it then they can pretty much contort the rest of their body through it. So picture a teeny mouse head and bear that in mind when looking for gaps.

We have had mice in the past too - they seem to only come in, in really wet weather up here. I hate doing it, but we bought a few little nipper traps and caught them that way.

I hate killing anything, but the problem with mice is that 1) they are incontinent, so will wee all over the place eewww and 2) if you leave them be, before you know it you have half a dozen, then a dozen etc

You have terriers though, so you could bring them in the house to do the job?

Get a Sonic plug in pest repeller. Best £27 i ever spent. (ive seen them cheaper online). We have fields behind & sea in front. Year after year we were plagued. Its harmless to cats & dogs but does affect rodent
Pets

It has high pitched noise they cant stand - they may come in but the sound soon drives them out. Get the repellers in places that sell hardware & online

Things mice have eaten in my home [in no particular order]:

Candles / soap / the plastic lid of a jar I kept LO's tiny biscuits in / the plastic lid of a special cereal container which held bran flakes / a cardboard carton that contained 12 x 1 litre tetrapaks of tomato juice and the corners of every single tetrapak / the sleeve of a dress that was in the bottom of the linen basket / the back of a new kitchen base unit, within one week of it having been made for me [there is no food kept in that cupboard, just small kitchen electrical items] / two face flannels / any tissues they find / the polythene round a pack of 48 loo rolls that was kept on the top of my wardrobe, plus edges of most of them / the bottom edges of the zxcvb etc keys on a keyboard / edges of books / potatoes, onions, garlic, butternut squash etc and all vegetables that used to be kept in a vegetable rack / all fruit that used to be kept in a fruit bowl [all vegetables and fruit are now stored in the refrigerator] / the shells of eggs that used to be kept out but are now kept in the refrigerator / the edges of a rug...

...and those are just a few of the things that mice have chombled since I have lived on this Moshav. And yes, I did have a cat once but she just ignored the mice. She would sit and watch them as if they were there just for her visual entertainment!

I do not keep any food out, although I used to keep the vegetables and fruit out until I realised they were being systematically chombled, and all plastic containers and containers with plastic lids that contain food are now kept in [hopefully] mouse-proof cupboards.

Mice? I have mice and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it!

Since the pie crust incident, everything is washed up as soon as it's used, the sides are wiped down, the floor hoovered and mopped! My kitchens never been so clean!

All my food is in upper cupboards, in containers were necessary!

My front garden is severly over grown, but I'm waiting fort dad and grandad coming up to help me!