Mouse in chimney cavity

[xgrifterx 10]

please let me know your ideas on how to get to a mouse that has made its way into a cavity in the chimney breast. we simply cannot get to it to remove it.

 

2 weeks ago heard scratching in the cavity of the chimney breast above the 'fireplace', and the lil'booger is still there and doing the entire families heads in with the constant noise in the evenings and nightime.

 

fireplace area is sealed up - just a rectangular shape with granite hearth on the bottom. the mouse is on the other side of the layer of plasterboard that acts as the roof to the fireplace. the only way out of here is via the chimney, 2 storeys up. that chimney is blocked by an old fashioned cowl/flap that is broken and immovable.

 

is the simple answer to drill a hole in the plasterboard and shove some 'food' up there for it?

or, do we brave the roof, somehow get the flap/cowel open and shove 'food' for the mouse down?

 

i just don't want to ruin the fireplace (feshly decorated!) - how long can they survive in there? or as the other half wants to know, how long will it take to chew through the plasterboard and appear in the lounge???!!!

 

cheers

 

xgx

[Remember me 10]

Are you sure its a mouse and not a bird thats got in? I had the same problem but it was a bird and it took about three weeks until it died. I thought it was a mouse but when the builder opened up the chimney about six months later the dead bird was still there.

[Mick Sage 10]

If you heard it two weeks ago the odds are its already helping itself to your larder, think about it there aren't that many mice parachuting down chimneys!

[xgrifterx 10]

tunrs out mice are excellent vertical climbers - could have got in anywhere inc under house, roof space, via a loose roof tile and sneaked in via a hole the size of a pen somewhere along the chimney. it amazed me to find out quite how much destruction they can wreak in things like grain silos - my 3 storey gaff is the least of their worries.

 

discounted a bird as the cowl/flap at top of chilmney is broken and shut solid - we'd be talking worlds strongest bird to shift it as my roofer mate cant make it budge.but saying that the sonic repeller thing isnt working as its still there making noise...

 

so either way i drill into fireplace or wait til it dies or wait til it gnaws through and trap it....meanwhile the noise really grates. give me full of kids screaming anyday , i can cope with that noise but this, youch, nope.

 

wish me luck. any tips though? does peppermint drive mice away?

 

xgx

[magsie 10]

We have same thing, mouse escaped from cat and went into chimney through the smallest of holes. I put down a humane trap with choc chip cereal and peanut butter and the first night in he went. This has worked several times when the cats have brought mice in. Set the trap before going to bed, and in the morning there's a 'stuffed' mouse ready to be set free outside! No tears.