He's a bold little fellow! You might want to call in an exterminator. They can get it through the smallest opening, and someone with experience in "mouse thought" might be able to identify the point of entry quickly.

I'm not a mouse expert, but to me that looks like a deer mouse; they can carry more than their fair share of the usual rodent diseases. Either way, you'll want to get rid of her and her family ASAP. Since you can tell it's in the stove, get some of those sticky traps and put them right up against the edge where it's crawling in and out. Sticky traps are gross because they catch the animal alive, but they're effective, and you don't end up with gory mouse blood on your food prep surfaces. (just a panic stricken, trapped live mouse to dispose of) After three days, you will have caught anything that is not a "pinkie". (Blind, naked baby mouse still in the nest) Hopefully, there's not a nest in there, or within a week you'll have nasty stinking dead baby mice.

Does the 220 cord run through the floor or the wall? You could pull the stove out from the wall, and pack the hole around the cord with steel wool. Also look under the sink; you might find a gap around a water pipe where they're gaining access; pack that space with steel wool too.

If, after killing the adult(s), you have an unpleasent odor coming from the stove, you'll have to unplug the stove, pop off the knobs and take the front off the control panel. In the last picture, isn't that a screw just to the right of the mouse? That's probably how you get the front off. If you don't want to void a warranty, or are unsure about damaging the electronics, you could call a repairman to open it up, but cleaning out the mouse nest and any carcasses will probably be your job. :^/

You may want to post this same thread on the Home Disasters forum. This has been a topic of discussion in the past, and I'm sure you will get tons of advice on where they are coming from, and how to resolve the situation.

OOPS, Duh. I thought I was on the kitchen forum and told you to post on this forum. DUH! I must be half asleep here!

LOL time2sell - I also posted to the appliances forum to see how to get the front off the top of the appliance. DH and I caught two since last night.

Traps insure that the carcass can be retrieved and disposed for decay away from your house. Clear the range of all food, bait the traps with peanut butter. Place them on top of the range. Good luck. Poisons usually result in carcass decay in hidden places in your house.

I was successful in ridding my house of mice by using snap traps, which are very efficient. I suppose if you're catching a mouse or two a day with live traps it's all good, too.

However, you need to figure out where the mice are entering the house and get that plugged up or they'll just keep coming.

A cat is a good deterrent :) Even if your cat is not a mouser, it'll make mice think twice about moving in (unless your house is huge with lots of places for them to run circles around the cat).

Bait snap traps with raisins. They work when the mice are too clever for peanut butter.

We caught one two days ago and two last night. Peanut butter in the traps. Thank you all for the advice.

I know what you're going through there. Judicious and prolific use of traps (and securing ALL food and food scraps) will make sure that these guys don't become 'prolific' anymore than they have.

You can eliminate them all...just takes time. Took me about six weeks.

And boy!...are they smart! My crew actually determined exactly where to drill through the ceiling drywall to jump into an open backed kitchen cabinet! How they discovered which joist run to travel down and exactly where the open back was and exactly where to site their hole, I'll never know. A great engineering feat for a creature with a brain the size of an almond nut! Animals are smarter than we realize.

Yikes. I got up one morning when we first moved into this 180 year old house 30 years ago and found a little mouse with its little paws up on the cat dish, munching away. Cute if it wasn't so gross. Over the years as we worked on the house, many entrances have been plugged up, but every once in a while I'll move a piece of furniture and find a little pile of dry cat food, and I know 'I' didn't put it there! We also now have 2 cats and we haven't actually SEEN any mice or droppings, except in the attic. Good luck to you.
(If your pictures were drawn by Disney, they actually would be cute!) Keep us posted!

Exterminators will use poison which causes them to bleed to death. If your dog or cat eats one of these dead rodents it can kill them. My exterminator didn't know this, but I was smart enough to tell him.

(I read a sad story about a dog who died this way. It wasn't pleasant.)

clg7067, rat poison will NOT kill a dog or a cat if they eat a single dead rodent or even a few rodents for that matter. if they eat the actual poison, yes it can. but a dead rodent will only make a healthy animal sick. this is why every exterminator i know will NOT use poison in a house with animals unless it goes somewhere they absolutely cannot get into. they don't want the liability for the vet bill from a sick animal anymore than the headache from killing one.

if your exterminator did not know the stuff he was using was dangerous, he should have his license revoked.

Have you pulled the stove out to see where they are coming from. There is probably a hole behind the stove that they are coming from. Look for over size holes around the gas pipe and electrical cable.

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the in the story I heard the dog ate the poison itself. Come to think of it it wasn't very clear in the story. Anyway, sure wouldn't want my dogs to get sick, either!

I fail to see how those pix could be considered 'cute'. Oh, yuck! I've fought mice in several rent houses before buying my current home. It's older, too, but I do not willing share my home with mice!

When literally over-run in the last rental, I went ... in desparation... to a feed store. If you have no pets in the house (therefore, no water dishes), there is a wax based poison that works GREAT. I will not use the sticky traps (don't want to listen to squeals, I think it's cruel). And I don't want them set loose just to return. With the wax based product I used, the mice go outside the house to search for water. When they die, they are not in your house to create smells. The feed store where I bought the product this last time said this is what they use IN THE STORE! so you know it's GOOOODDD!! :-)

After getting no help from siblings re: traps reset to rid my mom's home of mice, I put out this product. For the first time in YEARS she hasn't seen the nasty things.

Maybe this will help; Good luck!!!

It's cruel to listen to squeals? How about cruel to cause them?

While I'm all for treating animals humanely, rodents are a serious health hazard; when it's them or me and my family, it's no contest who wins. I know that food processors (of food for humans, not animal feed dealers) and hospitals use sticky traps, not posions. The reason is simple: no one wants a staggering, dying rodent to fall in a bin of wheat and end up being ground into flour, nor do they want a decomposing carcass in the ventilation system for a hospital room. A sticky trap catches and holds the animal and keeps it from contaminating anything else.

You might be catching the same mice over and over. Even if you release them away from the house they could be finding their way back.

We had mice last year and we tried live traps, glue traps, and snap traps. We caught a couple in the live traps but we still had mice. Then we used D-Con. In a few days we had no mice and there was never any smell, either.

Don't be fooled by the claims of those baits. The mice don't just go looking for water die instantly. They die slowly wherever they are. Often that is inside the walls or attic.

Is it possible that the nest and family of critters came in the new stove & they are not getting into your house room the outside?

That was my thought at first, too, rivergirl, but it sounds like there are too many. How old is the stove?