Pest Controller Coming Round Today - experiences?

[ScaredOfMice]

Hi

Feeling really anxious

I have signs of mice in my house - have found a few droppings sites. Also heard noises - this has been for a couple of weeks. House is pretty cluttered. Am working with a declutterer at the moment to minimise that.

Suffer with OCD - feeling very anxious.

I have had an electronic trap down for nearly 2 weeks and haven't caught a thing.

I've called pest control and an officer is coming today to lay bait.

I'm really scared about poison being in the house and how dangerous it is/how easy it is for accidental poisoning or contamination of possessions - I have lots of papers in bags at the moment on the floor (no way to get off the floor right now). I work with elderly and vulnerable people through freelance work that I do and worry about bringing things contaminated with poison to work unwittingly (am also scared of taking germs from mice to work unwittingly...)

Spoke to pest control officer on the phone. He says there's no risk to humans from the poison - but then I'm reading different things online and I can't help doubting it - even though he's from the Council and experienced.

Anyone been through this. What do I need to expect?

Thanks

Don’t worry! When I had pest control round before they just put down poison in places the mice would go and looked eg behind the fridge in the kitchen (lots of droppings there). There’s no risk to humans at all but you may get a dead mouse smell. It’s highly improbable poison will get transferred to papers but could you move them somewhere just in case?

They may advise you on blocking areas where they get in or a handyman could do this for you. Mice are more common in houses/flats now.

My Mum had them around when she had rats. The chap was really nice, put traps down and returned every few days to check them, also for evidence of any new droppings, movement of lagging in loft (they'd clearly been up there). Not sure what's normal, but he charged a one off fee, so whether you needed two checks or ten, it was all included. Also, he worked out how they were coming in and advised how to stop them.

Pest control is a skilled job & very tightly controlled to prevent poisoning the non-target species.

They'll likely either put down traps, or grain bait or block bait, both of which are bright blue & very obvious.
If he finds a hole, they MAY fill with a poisonous filler but its like hard foam filler.
It would be very difficult to accidentally transfer or ingest any of those.

However, I suspect the first thing he will say is you need to clean up. If he's any good he will want to access the wall/floor junctions to look for possible ingress points & lay bait and he can't do that if there's stuff everywhere.

If your house provides lots of hiding places & nesting opportunities you do need to try & get it sorted ASAP OP. I understand you have stuff going on but you really don't need a mouse infestation on top.

I'm borrowing a ton of money from my Mum so a professional declutterer can help me - I've had a couple of sessions with her and have more booked - which I'm finding very anxiety provoking.

I bought some plastic crates for some of my stuff but have filled them and need to get more - it's costing more money than I can really afford.

Is it silly to worry about poison being tracked through the house on pest controller's shoes/clothes?

I've told him that the house is v cluttered and he said he could still work with me - but maybe he'll say different when he gets here...