Pest repellers alternative

[Purdy71]

I've just moved into a house that has had a history of mice infestation. It's an old house in a rural area that needs a bit of a refurb, so I can't guarantee the mice won't come back. The previous owner has put plug-in sonic repellers around the house, but I'm wondering if there is a hard-wired solution that I could consider. I've googled but haven't come up with anything.

So (a) does such a thing exist where I don't use up loads of sockets on plug-ins, and/or (b) have I discovered a gap in the market?

TIA.

 

[Rockingit]

You hear totally contradictory stories always on cats and repellers

Some say they're great and others say they're useless

We've two cats and a very big dog. Cat 1 is old and lazy and has very few teeth left anyway to go hunting and the dog has far too strong a shepherding instinct and will invite them in for tea and cake. Cat 2 is 7kg of prime mouse catcher except recently his kill/eat/new pet ratio is definitely questionable - I had to chase one around the kitchen this morning that he'd just brought inside unharmed for fun. Trouble is, where we're so flooded at the moment rodents are everywhere as they've lost all their normal nests and burrows under water. I don't actually mind mice and voles in the (very old) house, they've enough right to live as the rest of us, it's just the calamity that goes around them!

 

[nicebutdim]

I've got a load of steel wool to shove in gaps as I find them!

Great stuff which they won't chew through.

I've tried everything over the years, but never managed to keep the buggers out of the old place my parents live in. These days it's poison and traps. Not exactly humane, but very effective and I'm more concerned with not letting them eat new cables than with the rights of mice.

 

[brianmoooore]

You hear totally contradictory stories always on cats and repellers

Some say they're great and others say they're useless

Cats are great at the job, as long as they're motivated! All the food they want, constantly available, and a nice warm spot on the sofa by the radiator, and you get a useless cat.
Our current cat had lessons for life when, at 6 months old, he escaped from a cat carrier outside of the vet's, and legged it. Facebook found him five weeks later, about six miles away, and when we picked him up, he was covered in fleas and ticks, but wasn't in the least bit undernourished. The skills he learnt then have served him well in the years since.
He gets fed, but doesn't eat it with much enthusiasm and he gets to come in on the sofa for a few hours most evenings, but the rest of the time we rarely see him. All we find of his victims are tails (including a squirrel tail last year) and piles of feathers.

 

[littlespark]

Our childhood cat was the offspring of a farm rat catcher. School holidays, so every lorry that went into the farm included the drivers children, and every lorry that left the farm came away with a kitten.

The cat always had a fear of car engine noises.... probably from being chased around a moving lorry cab by a 5 and 7 year old as dad was trying to drive, and not step on it.

Our neighbours would 'borrow' him every now and then when they had a mouse problem.

 

[brianmoooore]

I've got a load of steel wool to shove in gaps as I find them!

Dug out the floor of our kitchen about six years ago to re lay it, incorporating such modern features as a damp proof membrane and insulation.
This exposed a clay drainpipe in the corner, about 50mm internal diameter, which had been originally installed to drain away all the blood from the unfortunate sheep and pigs that had met their end hanging from a iron hook in the middle of the ceiling in the distant past.
A day later my wife discovered rat droppings and nibbled food inside the larder next to the kitchen, so we realised that it must have come in from the main drain outside, via the blood pipe, and exited by the same route.
The oversite concrete was laid later that day, which nearly covered the pipe, but we made sure to push some concrete into the pipe as well. The rat wasn't have any of that, and by the next morning he'd dug through the setting concrete and had raided the larder again.
A couple of stones that nearly filled the pipe, some broken glass, and more concrete put a stop to that.

 

[Marvo]

On the odd occasion we get a mouse I just use the traditional type mouse traps with peanut butter as bait but the cheap nasty ones you buy at the supermarket never work very well until you adjust them to a hair trigger by tweaking them with a pair of long nose pliers.

 

[ferg]

This idiot will find and kill any rodents she can get her jaws on.... her favourite hobby seems to be digging for moles.........

 

[Marvo]

Those boots look a bit small for her.....

 

[ferg]

Those boots look a bit small for her.....

Apparently they aren't her style so I've been using them instead.

 

[littlespark]

Someone got a Ninja air fryer for christmas

 

[ferg]

Someone got a Ninja air fryer for christmas

I'd rather tackle the dog as a mole than deal with the aftermath of buying Mrs Ferg an air fryer for Christmas!

 

[nicebutdim]

On the odd occasion we get a mouse I just use the traditional type mouse traps with peanut butter as bait but the cheap nasty ones you buy at the supermarket never work very well until you adjust them to a hair trigger by tweaking them with a pair of long nose pliers.

For a long time I resisted innovation where mouse traps were concerned, but now exclusively use the plastic traps which are simply squeezed to reset.

Mice tend to move furtively, so set traps close to any likely points of ingress at right angles to wall/skirting board. You'd be amazed how many are caught while simply 'passing through'.

 

[littlespark]

what exactly does fried air taste of anyway?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Last mouse nest we found was lined with chewed wire wool.

 

[pc1966]

On the odd occasion we get a mouse I just use the traditional type mouse traps with peanut butter

At our work we have a couple of anti-vandal cabins in the arseend of nowhere so rodents are a risk. We got the "advanced mouse trap" as we figured they might not be dumb mice, but so far only one caught.

We do our best to make sure no obvious entry points, but the caught one was in a cabin with a cable coming up through the floor and the covering card had been knocked away. Personally I much prefer traps to poison as a quicker / more humane end to the mouse, and no risk of a bigger animal eating one with the poison inside.