One day, I went down to our basement to do some laundry and noticed a very large puddle on the floor. By the time we figured out the leak (more like a waterfall) was coming from the drainage pipe to the dishwasher, the cascading water had shorted out a few outlets and light switches in the basement. It also ruined two area rugs. The cause? Mice had chewed through the plastic pipe. We had to pay a plumber and an electrician to fix the damage, plus buy new rugs.
After that, we switched from humane traps to poison in the drop-ceiling of the basement. The poison (I forget what it was called) made the mice thirsty before they died so they’d go outside and not die inside and smell up the house. We never had odors from dead mice, and haven’t had a mouse problem since.
I know they are cute, but besides not being potty-trained they multiply quickly and can cause quite a bit of damage by chewing. If you don’t want to use poison, use the traditional style of mousetrap. They seem to work best and kill the mice quickly. You can even buy covered traps so you don’t have to look at the corpse. Seriously, a mouse problem isn’t something to ignore.
The humane traps work really well, but you do have to transport the mice very far. Like, get into your car and drive a long way off before you release them. If that’s something you are willing to do on a daily basis until all the mice have been relocated, go for it.