Anyone got any experience of stopping mice getting in. Catching them and evicting them is easy, but stopping them entering a slightly draft 1930s semi is harder. Any tips? Is it likely to be air bricks they are coming through or should i be looking for something else. Seems to be when the weather changes we get an influx, ie. In the last few weeks.

Mice can squeeze through all manner of small holes. Older properties do seem to have large holes in the air bricks and so covering them over with a fine steel mesh can help to rule out that possibility.

Other areas to look at are anywhere that pipes and cables enter a property. These are always weak spots in a homes defenses. It can be hard to pin down exactly where mice are getting in some times but I would advise checking under the kitchen cupboards, in the loft and looking around the outside of the house for any small holes that look like they have been the site of some recent activity (ie small bits of mortar or soil splayed out from them and evidence of things being chewed). The droppings mice leave behind will help identify the most frequently used areas.

Also, don’t catch mice in non-lethal traps and then set them free. They will only come back. Get some lethal traps and kill them. Only way to get rid in my experience (and I deal with rats and mice for a living).

Mesh over air bricks may also stop wasps moving in, a neighbour used it for that.

I found a gap that a mouse was using under the cill of a replacement PVC door.

I used to get them in my house

Peppermint oil on some cotton wool pads under the kitchen units and in the corner of the rooms and I haven’t seen one for a year

Not sure if the winter will make them more determined to get in, but it has seemed to work so far

Cheers for that tip jools. My Mum is having mice dramas at the moment, so I’ll pass that on to her 🙂

Wow, this is the 6th story of mice (including us!) i’ve heard in the last week or so!! Ours are cunning little things and have managed to swerve traps and poisons so far…better get the big guns out….>Environmental Health!

Big Dave, any tips??

got mice for the first time ever this year. Making a right racket at night under the floor boards.
Your local council should offer services. Ours was £30 for initial visit plus 3 re-visits by a council pest controller. Figured that was a bargain as at the time I feared the worst (rats).

I’ve had mouse problems in the garage which over the past couple of years.

Humane traps are good for catching them but useless at stopping them as you have to drive the little buggers a hell of a long way away to stop them returning.

I ended up (much to my daughters dismay) with snap traps, bit blocks and sonic scare devices. It stopped them for a while but they are back at the moment.
The snap traps are the best IMO as they kill them quickly and you get a sense that you are winning the battle. Not so pleasant to deal with.

I don’t like bait blocks as they can die inside and the smell is awful when they do.

We have two cats – mice end up disembowelled on our living room carpet.

Catching them and evicting them is easy,

Catching them and evicting them is pointless, they’ll just come straight back in again. Speaking as a card-carrying tree-hugging yoghurt-knitter, you need to kill them I’m afraid. Get some proper snappy traps and a jar of peanut butter.

Humane mouse trap baited with bacon/peanut butter (triptrap?) and then drown them. Put the trap on a bit of newspaper to catch the pee.

Use a biro pen to poke into every hole around the outside of the building you can find, if the pen goes in put wire wool into the hole and seal with expanding foam.

Under doorsils can be hard to check, but a favourite access point for mice. Open the gas/leccy meter and see if everything is sealed up.

The old fashioned mouse traps baited with bacon rind are good – means the mouse has to pull the bait “SNAP”, the newer traps coated with bait are awful, have seen them licked clean before now.

Find where the mice are running, they normally get “roads” they feel safe in, along skirting boards around the back of appliances etc, you’ll spot them from the pooh (small black/brown rice looking stuff). Put the traps perpendicular to the run.

Keep cleaning the pooh up, once it stops you know that your infestation has stopped. When the weather turns lots of mice will look for warmer spots with food. So keep cleaning up after kids, getting pet food squared away once eaten etc etc.

Wire wool was the best thing in any gap i found. As said anything pen/pencil sized they fit through. I glued the wire eool in place though, as if its just stuck in they can push it out eventually.

“I can help.”

Mice, well one particular mouse anyway, are not in my good books at the moment.

I left a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer bar in my brand new Camelback when I put it away in the cupboard under the stairs, and apparently mice like them too, and since mice can’t work zips (to my knowledge) the bugger chewed a hole in the bottom of the bag to get to it.

I’m still not sure whether I’m more annoyed about the ruining of a new bag or the loss of the Caramel Wafer though.

Wow, this is the 6th story of mice (including us!) i’ve heard in the last week or so!! Ours are cunning little things and have managed to swerve traps and poisons so far…better get the big guns out….>Environmental Health!

Big Dave, any tips??

Sorry Ferris Bueller, been busy dealing with, well rats and mice mostly in the last couple of days.

I would advise persevering with the traps and maybe changing what you are baiting them with; peanut butter, chocolate spread, butterscotch. Try anything rich in energy and slightly oily. There are some special mouse attractants available as well.

One thing to consider is that mice are foragers and tend to eat from multiple food sources on one run. You need to use multiple bait points/ traps spaced no more than 2 metres apart to exploit their way of feeding. Also buy decent quality traps. Victor Traps are very good and I’d recommend their Power Kill model. I use similar traps and they work every time.

Its also important to try finding where they are getting in. If it isn’t immediately obvious (it often isn’t with mice) try sprinkling something like powdered paint (or any other coloured powder that they are unlikely to want to eat) on the surfaces where you are finding droppings. As a professional pest controller I can get hold of specialist fluorescent tracking powder but the paint is probably your next best option. A UV black light torch may also help to highlight their trail of urine splashes.

What sort of poison are you using? Mice are particularly fond of canary seed based bait if you can find any. If you get really stuck you could always contact a pro if your council won’t provide a service (not all do these days). Try and use somebody local to you and ask to see their BASIS PROMPT card. It isn’t essential to have one (yet) but will show that they take their job seriously. For a local pest controller I would reckon that you shouldn’t pay more than £80 – £100 for a decent multiple visit service. You may also get some simple proofing work included with the price. A pro will have all the necessary toys to deal with the situation.

Humane mouse trap baited with bacon/peanut butter (triptrap?) and then drown them

No, no and no again. Its inhumane and actually illegal to drown rodents as a means of dispatching them. Yes I may kill things for a living but I try to pay them some respect. I have sometimes come across a few customers who have tried using their own live capture humane traps and have forgotten to check them on a daily basis which rather makes the whole process less than humane as the mice starve and dehydrate to death. Yes I do tell these people off.