Sue, I've just caught up with this thread (nearest I've got is a little field mouse that wandered into the kitchen, let me pick it up, carry it out and let it go back into the field at the back of the house) BUT if you want the full know-how on how to catch a mole in your garden you should get hold of the Jasper Carrott monologue on the subject it's one of the funniest things I ever heard him do.

I once had a rat in my house. It really freaked me out. I think i killed it. It had a hole in the wall as a house. so one day me and my family members chased the rat into its hole and then we sealed it up real tight. i think it was air tight. the rat must've died. Poor little guy .

Awww...poor rat. If I ever found a mouse in my house (that rhymes, and I have found many on several occasions), I would keep it.

I doubt you would have kept it if it were from urban India. All therats that sneak into our houses have come via the sewer, and probably carry a lot of disease.

Very well said, Harish. It's fine and well not to want to kill animals but when it comes to the diseases and filth that rats and mice can carry you have to be sensible. As soon as a mouse is seen in my house, out come the traps.

Mice are really cute things. If i had one in my house i would try to keep it as a pet. Rats on the other hand scare me. I really hate rats. A dog once died because of a bandicoot bite. I was really angry.

Mice, Rats, Bubonic Plague.....(see it's pretty simple..)

Years ago, my (now deceased) grandmother was in the bathroom and a mouse ran in. Not knowing what to do and she could't exactly leave at that moment, thinking quickly, she took off her shirt and threw it on top of the mouse thus trapping it until she could pick up the shirt and carry the little creature outside. I remember thinking 'how creative', and years later the almost exact thing happened to me. So remember, a shirt makes an effectve trap while 'on the potty'.

I recall catching (killing) 13 rats within an hour with a spring trap and a piece of raw bacon for bait. Everytime I baited the trap and set it down near a well worn hole in the house a large rat would grab the bait. The rats kept getting smaller each time I reset the trap, until I got the last pup. They may be intelligent creatures but a bit of bacon will confuse their intellect every time.