How not to kill the mouse in my house?

There are various types of mouse traps that can capture a mouse alive without killing it. The Buddhist way is to capture and release it safely somewhere outside. It would be unreasonable to expect a mouse to respect your wishes.

You have to plan 2 plans:

Short term plan

1. Catch it by cage.
2. Do big cleaning to your home.
3. Clean your home, everyday.
4. Put a smelly bin faraway from your home. << This is very important step.
5. Deodorize food smell as soon as you can every time, by put it in refrigerator, or clean it. << This is very important step.
6. Use smelly substance to make them scare. In the case of ants, I use camphor bags. I put them in every close-doors furniture. Also, sometime when I go out of my home, I sprinkle the camphor around my home, too.
7. Etc.

Long term plan

1. Choose no smell home, far from bin.
2. In the termite case, your home should build without termite's foods, such as wood, paper, etc.
3. Etc.

I also had this problem. The way I catched the mouse was using Humane Mouse Traps, which only catch mice but do not kill them. Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUm6hDFiy8 for instance.

PS.: This made me laugh.

"The mouse does not seem to understand that it is not alone in the house and that it causes distress."

If you want to stop all these foolish mousy pranks. Do what we did and get yourself a manx.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_cat

or just get a Havahart trap

http://www.amazon.com/Havahart-1020-Animal-Two-Door-Mouse/dp/B0000DINGG

I am constantly at the mercy of field mice. They invade my cave and eat my potatoes and bread. Normally I can catch them by the tail and take them out to the trash can where the city hauls them off to the public dump where they live in peace.

But, that said, I have one mouse I cant catch. One mouse who has eluded my grasp for 2 seasons. He evades all my little puzzles and traps designed to snag him. I have even had him in my hands twice and he got away. I have named him Prof. Moriarty.

We coexist. I leave him some crumbs and he doesnt disturb me as much. namaste.

You might want to check out those Ultrasonic/Electromagnetic Pest Repellents available at Lowe's or Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Aspectek-Home-Sentinel-5-in-1-Indoor-Ultrasonic-and-Electromagnetic-Pest-Repellent-HR211/205038495

Catch and release!

You can make a simple trap with a paper towel roll, some leftover food, and a bucket.

There are lots of clever, simple, humane traps. In general you should just catch it and release it far away.

Mice are intensely territorial, it's hard to get them to walk away from their turf. Luckily they are also short lived. We often have little mice come in for a bite, and I try to block their entrances though not always successfully.

Once I had a Bandicoot the size of a small cat occupy the house. We live in a large old house with a garden that houses them, but they rarely come indoors. Since this guy had marked his territory in the stairwell and other places within the house with urine and faeces I knew there was no getting him out. He was too smart for traps, even if I could find a trap large enough for him. Besides if released within a few kilometres they have excellent sense of direction and will return.

Being longer lived than mice he wasn't going to die one day soon, and he was chewing wires, hissing & threatening when encountered and likely carrying disease.

Large, aggressive bandicoot rats erect their guard hairs on their backs and emit grunts when disturbed. If caged with other bandicoots, it is likely to fight to death within a few hours. Usually, they occupy the outskirts of human dwellings such as compounds and gardens and are commonly found near garbage bins. Their burrowing habits cause great damage to grounds and flooring, as they can also tunnel through brick and masonry. Their characteristic large burrows give away their presence. They are not fastidious eaters, feeding on household refuse, grain, and vegetables, and are very serious pests in poultry farms. They are also a carrier for many diseases

I agonised with the decision to kill him for a little while and decided, we could either abandon the house to this guy and his friends, or he should be removed before he brought in more friends from outside.

My father was going to poison it, but I beat him to it, wanting to take on the karma. I felt deep sorrow the next day handling the carcass, I came down with intense racking stomach pains the same night for no specific reason for several hours, and instinctively felt I was the bandicoot eating the poison. I observed this experience mindfully and with equanimity as my karma working itself out. I sent a lot of metta to the bandicoot.

There's no correct answer. My actions were the best I could manage with the wisdom and compassion I had at hand, I still don't see a more acceptable course of action, but perhaps tomorrow I will be wiser and know better. In any case, it was a killing done mindfully and deliberately, and I live with the consequence.

In the past, I had some success with a no kill mouse trap like this one. It allows you to catch the mouse and release it in an appropriate area outside.

Now we share our home with 2 dogs and a cat. Mice don't seem to want to be here.

"Without wisdom, effort, restraint of the senses, without giving up everything, I see no well-being for beings."

-- The Buddha (SN 2.17)

You can't have your cake and eat it too, unfortunately. The truth is the truth whether it is convenient or not. In this case, there are some fairly important truths that you have to consider when trying to decide what to do.

First is the truth that being a nuisance is a far lesser evil than murder in cold-blood... the mouse has the moral higher ground over the mouse-trapper.

Second is the truth that you don't want to be murdered yourself; knowing this, how can you contemplate it for a fellow being?

All tremble at violence; life is dear to all.
Putting oneself in the place of another,
one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

-- The Buddha (Dhp. 130)

Third is the truth that killing makes you a killer; it changes the direction of your life in a significant way that will have potentially far-reaching consequences, far beyond feeling a little guilty for a little while. There are karmically significant mind-states involved in killing that may not be evident to you until you actually kill. Once you've begun to kill, you start to desensitize yourself to killing; it gets easier and easier, and your mind becomes further and further sullied.

Fourth is the truth that the reason you can't sleep has little to do with the mouse and much to do with your own state of mind. In fact, lack of sleep itself isn't really the problem either; if your mind is clear, you can stay awake all night and not suffer harmful consequences.

My advice is first, to come to terms with your mind's reaction to noise that keeps you from finding peace; reminding yourself "hearing, hearing" is a good way to keep yourself objective and alert.

“In that case, Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus: In what is seen there will be only what is seen, in what is heard there will be only what is heard, in what is sensed there will be only what is sensed, in what is cognized there will be only what is cognized. In this way, Bāhiya, you should train yourself.

And since for you, Bāhiya, in what is seen there will be only what is seen, in what is heard there will be only what is heard, in what is sensed there will be only what is sensed, in what is cognized there will be only what is cognized, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not come to be because that; and since, Bāhiya, you will not come to be because that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be in regards to that; and since, Bāhiya, you will not be in regards to that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be here or hereafter or in between the two - just this is the end of suffering.”

-- The Buddha (Ud. 10)

Second, consider whether it is your duty as a householder to take care of the mouse, or whether you can just as well leave it be. Unless it is destroying insulation or wiring, I don't think there is a compelling reason to remove a mouse; a rat, maybe... Either way, there are many ways of relocating a mouse humanly.

In regards to cats, if you in any way encourage a cat to catch and kill a mouse, well, it's not categorically different from killing it yourself...