My house has a mouse (mice) or a rat or something, we (my family) think we got one, and there could potentially (according to my parents) be another. So I need help on a some things
1. How do I keep my parents (mom especially ) from freaking out and becoming paranoid.
2. Whats the most effective method of killing/getting-rid-of  rodents? What types of traps, etc.
3. Do you think that isolating a mouse in a closet with a trap (plastic box with poisonous bait in it) and then having to wait three days is a little overboard? 'cause that's exactly what my parents are doing.
4. Best way to prevent these issues from happening again?
So yeah.... That's about it. This is probably in the wrong thread but there isn't  a forum section titled "Mice and other Rodents" so I'm putting it here.

1. There is really no way I can think of about preventing your mom from freaking except getting rid of the mouse problem.
2. Traps are the best way to get rid of the mice, the important think is getting more traps then you think you need. The last thing you want is to give the mice a chance to breed in your home. Check the traps twice a day, remove the dead mouse as soon as possible and put another trap in its place. (just in case there are more than one.)
2.5 Try getting rid of anything that mice like that would be easy for them to get. Example mice like to eat grains, fruits and seeds. So if you have cereal boxed on the ground, or a bag of seeds, the mice will go to the bigger source of food before even considering going to the trap.
3. Placing traps in a closet is the best bet. You should also consider placing them under furniture, or any small areas that the mice would hide.
4. Hiring an exterminator, They will be able to find the location in which the mouse has entered your home and be able to seal it up for you, if you can't afford one, I guess trying to find the entry point yourself and sealing it up before you a have a repeat problem.
 

 Quick question Mangepic, what led you guys to believe that you might have a rodent in your house? Did they find droppings? A nest or found signs of chewing and gnawing on your walls or food boxes? If so, than there's a way to tell if you have mice or rats. Usually the mice droppings are small like a rice grain while the droppings from a rat are larger, length of a bean. 





   I understand how your parents feel, nobody want's a rodent inside there house but getting freaked out and paranoid isn't going to help the situation, just get the traps as soon as possible and do your best to calm your mom down. Plastic box with poison bait in it? Idk... Look when it comes to rodents in your house, nothing's overboard lol, if the mice or rat takes the bait that's great but if it doesn't than try some other method.There's plenty of traps out there like poison, regular rat traps, t-rex rat traps, electric traps, humane traps. They all work but each one gives different results and it depends what kind of rodent your dealing with. I myself only used Glue traps, humane traps and Electric traps. The humane traps captures the rodent alive and you release it later. My friend used it and it gave him some results but when I used it, I got nothing. I've also heard that the humane traps take a while to capture a rodent ( i guess it depends on the area and what rodent your capturing )and the prices for those very's because there's different sizes.





   Glue traps aren't that expensive , they run about 2 dollars to 5 dollars, depending on the brand. I've captured a few at home but when I tried at work.... I only captured 3 out of 15 rats lol. Also if you do decide to get glue traps be sure you guys can handle seeing a live rodent on the glue trap because when you try to throw it away, they tend to scream and sometimes bleed. Now the electric traps.... I've had better results with those! I've heard in some online reviews that they don't work and they capture nothing, but for me, I've captured 12 rats from work and 6 at home, that's a total of 18 rats in under a week. There's different models and be sure you get the right one because they have the rat and mice model and some are reusable. My electric rat trap costed me about 45 bucks but in the end it was worth it cause it got rid of my infestations. Also the rodent is already dead,  so it's not that difficult throwing the corpse away unlike the glue traps lol.





  Best way to prevent that problem to happening again is make sure you have no trash, junk or food laying outside because it attracts rodents, also you guys need to check outside if there's any holes from your walls to your roof and cover them up because that is where the rodent's most likely got in. Or if you don't want to deal with all that simply call a license exterminator to expect your home. Good luck.

Pebric, that is horrible advice recommending glue traps.

They are incredibly inhumane traps that cause prolonged suffering. Rodents are known to chew their legs off on those traps. And by the sounds of it you seem to be leaving them to die of starvation rather than putting them out of their misery. Do you think it's a good idea making an animal scream and bleed? That's unnecessary animal cruelty. I can't believe you would recommend throwing a living animal that's in pain into the garbage.

If you want to kill these animals, or any animal if you need to, then do it quickly and painlessly. Don't make it suffer. That's why I wouldn't recommend glue traps. They're banned in many countries for a reason. And if I had to use a glue trap, I would most certainly put the animal out of its misery first before throwing it away.

   Ryan with all due respect, I am just telling Mangepic of what it was like for me using the traps, you know my experience with them. I've never fully recommended him to just use glue traps only, I gave him choices, the downside and pro side of them, the prices for each one and the results I got from each. Yes I've used Glue traps before and trust me I didn't like it what so ever because of the rodents screaming and suffering by trying to eat itself free, I even warned Mangepic about that you know the downside of using them. I even explain to him that for me the Electronic rat traps gave me the best results and it humanely shocks and kills the rodents in seconds meaning it doesn't suffer long unlike the glue traps.


  Listen Ryan, one thing you need to understand at the time I used these traps, we had a very bad infestation thanks to the disgusting neighbors we had next door to us. They use to collect so much trash and they left tons of trash outside of there home for years which resulted in a large colony of rats which spread to my house and a few other neighbors. We hired an exterminator and they recommended us glue traps cause they'll the cheapest. I didn't want to use them, but I was at a point now that I was fed up, paranoid and pissed off of having rodents running around the house, pooping, biting and gnawing thrue the walls and my food so I used them glue traps at first. Sure they got a few but I didn't like it at all and went on to humane traps than after Victor Electronic traps. After all that we got the city involve and they came over and forced our filthy neighbors to clean out there entire house and fumigate. Took many weeks but the infestation was over. And last,  I don't know where your from Ryan, but here in Los Angeles California many people do not care about humanely killing a rodent, everyone uses glue or poison cause of the low cost to purchase them, but I in the other hand prefer to waste a 35-45 dollar trap to kill them humanely but that's just me. Other than that good luck Mangepic.

That's fine, but what I took issue with was how you dispose of the animals you caught. You either didn't mention that or you left the impression you just left them on the trap like that. You'll find that many people, regardless of where they are from, do not use glue traps because of their cruel nature. Snap traps are also cost-effective, even moreso than glue traps so there's no reason to use them. I am going to assume not everyone in LA is a monster, because some people are actually considerate and not sadistic.

Well actually we caught the mouse in one of those cliche mouse traps, and it was still alive ;-;
My parents wanted to put in the backyard, wait for it to die, then throw it away... 
I had too kill it 'cause parents wouldn't and it's was already badly hurt.
I am definitely gonna ask my parents to use capture and release traps or ones with poison bait next time.
I completely agree that the mouse (rodent) shouldn't have to suffer more than it has too. 

-accidental double post. Sorry.-

You did the right thing. Wtf are your parents thinking? I would have given them a piece of my mind... sternly.

Sure they might be afraid of mice but that was cold. Injuring a creature and throwing it out, waiting to die... beyond comprehension and barbaric to the extreme.

Mangepic : I'm glad that you were able to solve your mouse problem. Is there any indications of any more mice?

You should get a cat. No more mice, and you have a cat! :3

Edit:
I had to remove that cat emote... that was horrifyingly glitched.

Vanelan : XD I love that solution, but I'm not sure I'd trust my parents with a cat... Or any other pets for that matter. Sometimes I wonder, 'how did I make it past the age of 4?'  lol just kidding... hopefully.

It seems like you are responsible enough to have a cat. :3

To answer your questions.

1. You can't prevent a freakout,mice are nasty little critters and a lot of people are afraid of them.
2. I would say poison and mouse traps. (There may be others,that is why you use poison to get the others.)
3. There is no such thing as overkill on this. Mice are filthy scavengers.
4. Keep things clean and check around the house for any entry points. Also hire an exterminator for added peace of mind.