House Mice & Traps

[cashmax]

Seem to have lots of house mice in our loft. I don't normally mind them, but there is lots of stuff up there and not only are they damaging things, it can get very noisy at night.

Being a softie, I don't want to kill them, so I bought some humane traps which work ok, but its a pain to get up there and check them all the time. Some of the traps are self setting, so can technically catch multiple mice, but still, they need checking every few hours.

I was wondering if I made an escape route for them, using PVC piping, that went across the loft and down the side of the house, if folks think they would use it & what diameter of pipe I could try, I was thinking 22-25mm?

If that worked, I could set the traps and just leave them and the mice would just end up locking themselves out and migrating to the woodshed outside. All I would have to do is add more bait now and then.

[Nightmare]

Sounds like a great idea to me - if they can’t get out the way they came in they’re not just gonna sit there and starve so escape route would be perfect .

25mm pipe will easily fit a mouse I think so all good there

Only issue i can think of is you’ll basically be creating a slide-based theme park attraction for mice. There may be unintended consequences

[Panamax]

Unless you put a clear "exit" sign on the pipe I think you'll find they interpret it as a nice, new entrance.

[TheInternet]

cashmax said:

I don't want to kill them

Let's revisit this in a few weeks.