Mice in my piano.....

[ranniks]

This is the third time in a month that those darmed mice have woken me up from my precious sleep.

How do I get rid of them? I want to get a cat, but I'm afraid the cat will bite me in my sleep. If I get a cat my parents won't let me keep it (I live with my parents), but maybe I can compromise with them: on day the cat stays in my room, at night in the living room.

Does the cat easily go to the potty? Because I don't want it to crap over my clothes/living room.

If not a cat, what can I do? Stupid mice.

[j_menz]

Cats, apparently, aren't very effective:

 

Seriously, go to the supermarket and get some mouse baits and stick them in the bottom of the case. Check every day or so for dead mice, otherwise they'll stink you out.

EDIT: Oh, and clean up your room!

[outin]

Kittens are usually toilet trained when they arrived unless feral.
And they don't bite you when you sleep unless you teach them to

But cats are also not commodities, if you get one it will require attention and care. So unless you really want one for it' s own sake, do what jmenz says.

[lousyplayer]

?? buy some mice poison, it's very effective

[starlady]

Kittens are usually toilet trained when they arrived unless feral.
And they don't bite you when you sleep unless you teach them to

But cats are also not commodities, if you get one it will require attention and care. So unless you really want one for it' s own sake, do what jmenz says.

Absolutely right!! If you've always wanted a cat, this is a good time to get one.  If not, bait or traps.  --s.

[hfmadopter]

I agree with Starlady and others, baits or traps. Baits are poison for the poster who said poison.

You could get a cat as a pet but there is absolutely no guaranty that you got yourself a mouser. Not all cats are so great at catching mice, especially house cats. Some catch them and then play and end up losing them, some don't bother at all and some are great at it.

What you do want to do though is rid your piano of the mice.  They are much more than annoying, they could ruin your instrument. Not to mention that if they are getting into the piano then they are getting there most likely via your living space.

[ranniks]

As suggested I have purchased traps. I've spent a little more on them and got 4 decent ones.

On the first day one trap killed a mice. Now I'm resetting my traps each night at 4 different spots; one in my upright, two near my bed and one near my closet. I've also tidied up my room.

Thank you all. I hate mice.......

[hfmadopter]

As suggested I have purchased traps. I've spent a little more on them and got 4 decent ones.

On the first day one trap killed a mice. Now I'm resetting my traps each night at 4 different spots; one in my upright, two near my bed and one near my closet. I've also tidied up my room.

Thank you all. I hate mice.......

Go get em !!

[timothy42b]

This hardly ever happens with a digital.

Just saying.

[j_menz]

I've also tidied up my room.

 

This hardly ever happens with a digital.

Just saying.

Mice with taste, or claustrophobia.

[Bob]

Unless you get computer mice in digital pianos....


Go with the traps.  If you do poison, they can eat it and crawl off and die somewhere.  Then they'll stink as the body decomposes and you have a dried up mouse body hidden somewhere in your place.  Traps are a quick death (usually) and you can throw the whole thing out.  Plus you get to see what's crawling around where you are.


Check for openings in the room where mice can get in.  Stick steel wool in there.  Mice can chew through steel wool.  If a mouse can get its head through something, it can squeeze the rest of its body through.

I wouldn't stick them in the piano.  You'll have to clean up mouse guts.  Sometimes they splatter....

[indianajo]

This hardly ever happens with a digital.

Just saying.

Sure happens with an analog.  Year before last, a mice made a nursery in the tab box of my organ in the country, and chewed a half dozen wires in two that were in her way.  A huge ball of seed fluff from the yard was in there instead.  
Last year I put a carbolic acid bottle with a wick in it in the tab box, and left a radio playing. Same thing happened in another octave.
Enzo of the Peavey repair shop tells me mice won't nest where there are moth balls.  I'm trying that this year.  Also stuffed some cut up tin cans in the holes where the wires enter the box.  
To catch mice use spring traps or daily checked cage traps in the room is my suggestion. Do not use poison, they die somewhere inaccessible and decompose.  They don't necessarily nest in winter where the food is, they are also looking for somewhere warm to raise a family.  My bathroom linen closet seems to be just the ticket, and they can eat Ivory soap if they are too lazy to run to the kitchen.  (Did I say mice were smart?  NOT!) They also eat leather straps in pianos, and chew up felt hammers to make a creche if they feel like it.  
I had one cat that was a great mouser and very warm on the arms in winter, but she was raised in a log by a garbage scavanging mother. She would bring me rodents for breakfast and leave them by the toaster, with an inquiring look that said "lightly browned with ketsup pleeze!!".   My last cat was male, unaltered,  tame and safe on furniture but useless  at catching anything to eat.  Cats go where previous animals have been, so cleanliness everywhere else but where the litterbox is paramount.  

[outin]

Thank you all. I hate mice.......

Mice are nice creatures, but maybe not in my piano...

I had one cat that was a great mouser and very warm on the arms in winter, but she was raised in a log by a garbage scavanging mother. She would bring me rodents for breakfast and leave them by the toaster, with an inquiring look that said "lightly browned with ketsup pleeze!!".   My last cat was male, unaltered,  tame and safe on furniture but useless  at catching anything to eat. 

Most of my cats have lived as household pets without access to rodents for generations, but what I have noticed is that when occasionally faced with a challenge, their wild side still does surface. They can catch a mouse (or a bird). Some of them will even eat the thing...

[j_menz]

They can catch a mouse ..... Some of them will even eat the thing...

Mmmmmnm, crunchy.



 

[outin]

Mmmmmnm, crunchy.



 

That too actually...one of them has a fetish with chords 

[hfmadopter]

That too actually...one of them has a fetish with chords 

We have one cat that likes cords and strings.

As to mice, they really like damper felt from the piano and will nest right inside the piano. Not cool, the buggers will whittle your dampers down to the wood backing blocks !

I guess it could be said that our basement is open enough to be considered well ventilated, so we get mice in down there. I use snap traps with wedges of cheese in them. Gets them every time.

[timothy42b]

Snap traps don't have to be baited, if you can set them against a wall.

Mice always travel tight along a wall if they can (see Kipling!).  If you set the snap trap aligned at a right angle to the wall with the trigger end nearest the wall it will usually catch them. 

[iansinclair]

I have two huge (20 and 16 pounds, all muscle) cats -- brother and sister, about 14 years (more or less) old.  Solid black, both of them -- I refer to them as my familiar spirits, and there are a number of folks who believe me.  They were wild when young, but about a decade ago I enticed them into the house and they've been there ever since.  They are beginning to accept humans... after a fashion... or at least me.

There are no mice in the house.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  Which is a good thing, as the place I live is also sort of a museum of mid to late 19th century life.  But it is entertaining (to me and them, not to the mouse) to watch them work with one.

[hfmadopter]

Snap traps don't have to be baited, if you can set them against a wall.

Mice always travel tight along a wall if they can (see Kipling!).  If you set the snap trap aligned at a right angle to the wall with the trigger end nearest the wall it will usually catch them. 

The bait draws their head in over the trap, when it snaps it always gets them right at the neckline. Flattens their neck against the backboard, instant death.

So far this fall only two mice have entered my death zone in the basement and went off to mouse heaven. But that's two that won't make it to my piano in the living room. I don't hate mice, I don't like mice in my cupboards or my piano or in my walls for that matter !

[Bob]

Use low fat cheese too so you don't raise their cholesterol before you break their neck.