You get a bucket with a lid, cut a hole in the top big enough for a mouse to get in. Place bait (cheese?) in the bucket and the mouse will go down into the hole and won't be able to get out.


edit- or something like this

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple--No-Kill--Mouse-Trap/

Kind of a pain, but I'd rather drive him miles away and let him go than kill him.

Set the jar on its side with the remaining nuts at the bottom. Wait and listen. Then snap on the lid, take him out, and just leave the jar there with the lid off. It will eat the rest of the nuts and go on its way.

We don't have that problem here. We've got cats. Mice live about two hours, tops.

was wrong with him, we don't set out poison or anything. However, where I live, disease is a real issue--hantavirus, plague, tularemia. I get nervous when I see a critter dying out in the open, might have something infectious I don't want. We found him dead this morning, and my husband sprayed him down with flea killer and got him on a shovel and tossed him way out away from houses. Good luck--and if you have to kill him, that's OK (although I'd feel really bad too), because it IS a potential health issue and you don't want it breeding in your house.

I found out about a cheap live mouse trap I can get at the hardware store, so I'm going to get one and use that today. He seems to be liking hanging out in this room somewhere behind my desk unless something scares him to somewhere else in the room. I realize I have to drive him several miles away to let him go, but I'd rather do that than kill him. I don't know why but I just can't bring myself to kill him. Maybe if I didn't see him it wouldn't matter so much, but when I got a good look at him hovering behind the door when I was trying to catch him he's just so cute. I'd just rather he was cute somewhere other than in my house.

To keep mice out of the house, I put a few handfuls of cheerios out in the wood chips surrounding my house. As long as I have been giving them food and shelter outside, (and keeping cats inside) I've never had one in the house.

to figure out where the mouse gained access to the house and fix the hole. I would check around plumbing and heating vents as well as chimneys. About 35 years ago I had a mouse (or maybe more) under the kitchen sink. I set out poison (sorry critters) and then found a likely entrance. I filled it with steel wool and then covered it with wallboard and caulked it. Haven't had a mouse in the house since.

When the weather's nice I keep it open for the dog to go in and out when he wants to and for the fresh air. I wouldn't have thought a mouse could get passed him though or even want to try. Several nights ago it got quite cold, and I did forget to go shut the door, so he probably came in then, and it was that time that I first noticed the rustling noises and the dog was poking into corners like he was looking for something. It only seems that when the weather gets cold that they have any interest in getting into homes.

In any case, as I mentioned in another post downthread I think he may have left yesterday. I had the door propped open again since the weather turned quite warm and saw him bolt toward the doorway when I walked in the kitchen. I just can't be sure if he went out the door or under the dishwasher that's right there since I automatically looked for the dog because I was afraid he'd go after the little bugger and eat him (eeeeeeeewwwwwwww!). Since then I haven't heard any of the rustling sounds, the dog is no longer poking into corners like he's looking for something, I've not seen him (he's a darn bold little bugger), and I haven't caught anything in the traps.

I'll keep checking the traps though and watch how the dog is behaving now that I know it was the mouse he was looking for with all his poking around he's been doing the last few days, and eventually I'll either see him, hear him, trap him or figure he hit the road.

As far as holes go though, I sealed the place up last spring because of getting bugs from the gross people next door that live like pigs, but I'll look around again and see if I can find a hole or something. I'm just pretty sure he came in through the open back door that night it got cold and I forgot to shut it.

One time a mouse was running around in our office. All the guys were screeching and up on their desks, no joke. So another girl and I found a big box, one of us held it while the other one shooed the little guy in, then we took it out back near the woods and let him go. That's an option... Good luck!

Pretty ingenious little contraptions, and really inexpensive, too. So far he's not gone in them, but I think he might have run out the back door yesterday just as I was going out to get the traps and do some other errands. I had forgotten that I had to block the door to this room, and when I started using the printer which is in the corner that he seems to want to spend his time I think he freaked out and split. Then when I went leave the house I saw him dash through the kitchen to the back door that I had propped wide open so the dog could come in on his own when he was done his bizness. I just didn't actually see him go out the door because I automatically looked for the dog because I didn't want him to go after the little guy and eat him.

So I'm not sure if he's still here or not... since I thought I saw him bolt out the back door yesterday there's been no more telltale rustling sounds or sightings (he's a darn bold little guy), and the dog is no longer showing an interest in examining certain areas like he had been (I just didn't realize it was a mouse he was trying to find when he was doing that before).

I'm still checking the traps though in case he or one of his friends is still here. The weather suddenly turned quite warm yesterday though including the nights, so maybe he wanted to be back outside again.

Thanks to much for the offer of your trap though. That's so nice of you!

That's so funny about your male coworkers freaking out about the mouse! I'd never let them live it down.

Around here, a dead rodent is a good rodent.