Mouse advice needed

[Barney16]

I live rurally and I'm used to wildlife and have occasionally seen a field mouse in the house. Used traps all fine but recently it's relentless and they are in my kitchen. Mouse droppings on one side of the kitchen so I can visualise their run if that's the right word but I can't find where they are getting in. Trapping them all the time but still they keep on coming. My kitchen is spotless, but it's starting to seriously get on my nerves. I'm cleaning and cleaning. No sign of them anywhere else in the house. So I'm guessing they are getting in from outside, kitchen is in an extension but I can't find their way in. Any advice before I completely loose it, shall I put poison down?

They wee constantly, and it’s how they communicate with their little mouse friends.
The best thing to disrupt that network is peppermint oil. They bloody hate it.
Dot it around the places that you think they’re getting in, and then (if possible) seal up any gaps.

Best of luck!🤞

You have to pull everything out, away from walls and fill any holes/cracks with caulking and spackle over; check baseboard heaters/radiators and insert copper mesh and cover; same with pipes into walls; check door frames inside and out. Ensure all cupboard stored food is in plastic bins. Clean out all closets and storage, put everything into plastic bins and fix holes/cracks to remove nesting/warm/shelter places. Must do same all rooms, all levels of your home.Check furniture, pull out cushions, flip you chairs/sofa to check for any tears/holes (had mouse in a sofa, so speaking from experience).

Use sticky traps with peanut butter in the centre. Took us 6 mos to get rid of mice completely. Used pest control company as well (hence advice above),

You cannot leave any area unturned, cleaned, repaired, baited.

We had a revolving door of them for weeks until DH discovered an area of our house foundation that wasn’t totally sealed. Got out the cement and filled it and and that did it. God it was heavenly to be rid of them!

I was basically providing them with a meal and taxi home every time they came in with my humane traps😂

Get a cat! Seriously though, please don’t put poison down or use sticky traps. If poisoned they will go somewhere possibly in the house to die then you’ll have a horrible smell as they rot. If they escape and die outside a bird of prey, magpie, crow etc will eat them and they too will get poisoned. Sticky traps are so inhumane and cause untold suffering to the mouse. If you use traps please use humane ones or better still get a professional pest control company.

From experience, I advise checking behind the cooker. I replaced gas with an electric freestanding cooker and there was a small gap around the defunct gas pipe which mice were using.

Please do not use sticky traps, they are inhumane.

Check sink area as often external outlet pipes will have small holes. Same with fridge of you have water connected. They can get in super small gaps

Get a cat. Girl cats are usually the best hunters. Lots of rescue cats need homes .

However it sounds, get a cat. Mice avoid houses with cats, I saw this on my very eyes. Not to mention if there’s a mouse brave enough to enter the house, the cat will sort her out

Thanks for the advice. Been to the shop and couldn't bring myself to buy poison. Came away with lots of wire wool for gaps and more traps-humane, I'm going to get DP to pull the cooker out, how small a gap can they get through, I'm guessing tiny?

I was told pencil width is sufficient for them. Took us 6 months to find and seal every hole and cover air bricks with wire mesh.

A hole the size of a pencil is quite daunting. I'm going to be engaged in mouse wars for ever.

My sister wrote them a little letter, asking them to leave. She told me it really worked. Apparently folk used to do it all the time in centuries past, and leave the letters in wall cavities. She was delighted with herself.

Her husband then took me to one side and quietly told me he’d poisoned them.

Get pest control in. Mice are filthy.

that’s the size of the holes in our air bricks. Had to cover them with mesh as apparently they are a common entry point. Sorry!