To be scared of these unwanted visitors and how to get rid of them?

[Cellardoor23]

Long story short, my flat has been taken over by mice in the past week. I live in a top flat of a 3 story building. It hasn't been an uncommon occurance at this time of year (over the past few years)

However, this year seems to be particularly bad. I've tried to cover up as many gaps as possible and put traps down, but over the past week there hasn't been one night where I haven't seen one. At one point they were running over my sofa.

I've never been scared of them, but since last week my anxiety has been through the roof. I can't relax in my own home

Does anyone have any advice on what to do? Or how to get rid of them?

Make the environment inhospitable to them. I found that saturating metallic scrubbing pads with mouse bait / killer and then stuffing them tight into all gaps effective. I tried this tactic in my parents home years back, and it worked. Little bastards haven’t been back (the mice, I mean).

In a shared building, you might want to talk to your neighbours. Could they be nesting in a loft space?

We had two years of mice. We laid traps that caught them alive everytime (we weren't being humane, the traps would catch their feet or tails, so I'd end up carrying the poor things in a trap in a tray, going for a walk (screamy run;)) with them and releasing them far far away. We blocked up holes, took them out in basins, everything (fifteen in total over the two years). Was like hell. Get pest control or you'll get to where we were, where the mice weren't even afraid of us, they'd run through the sitting room when we were sitting in it and when I let one out too close to teh house he actually tried to run back towards me as I stood like a lunatic stamping my foot towards him to scare him away. Needless to say I now have a mouse phobia. Get help!!!!

If you can see them on your sofa and in your bed then you really need professionals in. They will lay down bait, come back and clear the bodies and also find out how they are getting in and advise how to block. It sounds like the flat downstairs has done this so they have now come to your flat for refuge.

Professionals will only do what you do, unless they have access to better poisons than you in the UK.
The bit about the battle and the war is absolutely true where I live.
Gaps: put poison in and fill with wire wool.
Poison: put it everywhere you safely can.
Traps: Big Cheese ones. Lots of them (6-8). Perpendicular to walls. Get someone to dong any live ones caught. 95% will be dead so don't worry until it happens.
Do it now OP!
I read on here once: If you have gaps and no crumbs in the cleanest house, you'll get mice. If you have no gaps and crumbs all over the floor, you won't get mice. It's true! My friend had mice in a new build where no-one had lived!
Get your supplies tomorrow and you can have this half under control in five days.

If you notice they're coming out of one hole, instead of blocking it you could use it as a poison hole or a trap position.
Then when there are less you could block it up. I have a hole like that at home.
Don't worry about them dying under the floor boards. A dead mouse doesn't smell for longer than a couple of days (rats are a different matter).

I know where a few of the gaps are. Recently found a new one where I didn't even know there was one until I saw a mouse. In the bathroom under the radiator. This was three days ago. I've put traps near the holes and around the skirting boards. Went up today and yesterday to see if any had been caught. Nothing.

I have caught three over the past week. I'm hoping that's them gone, but probably unlikely

I found glue traps really effective if you're willing to be less humane.

www.pest-expert.com/rat-glue-traps--rat-glue-boards-6-pack-18-p.asp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-NWv7ZL42AIVTr7tCh1mswwAEAQYASABEgKYBPD_BwE These are for rats but I put them under all the freestanding kitchen stuff and voila no more mice. It's also an annual problem for us as we're rural and they come in off the fields.

I had a mouse problem for while. Every 6 months for 2/3 years we'd get them. I am petrified of them! Called in the council, all they do though is put poison boxes and say see you 1-2 weeks to check if its being eaten. They then come every 2 weeks until its no longer being eaten anymore which to them means there is no longer a problem.That didn't do anything to get rid of them so had to keep calling in private pest contollers every time there was a problem..they can be quite expensive though.

The last time we had a problem was the worst. Called in pest control guy but was useless, just put poison. That same night i heard rusting in my room and squeaking as they ran alongside the wall that my bed is against. Called the pest control guy to come back and he told me to wait a few days for the mice to eat poison and everything will be fine. Next night I used the other bedroom and heard scratching and squeaking all night..opened my eyes to look around and saw a mouse run up the curtain! Followed by scratching noises all night. Called pest control guy again and he refused to come back for another week. Called another company, guy was fab! Went round my entire flat and blocked all the holes. Turns out there was a small but deep hole around my bedroom radiator pipe which went down under the floorboards. He stuffed it with steel wool and sealed it off.

Haven't seen or heard a single mouse since and that was a little over 3 years ago.

You could do all that yourself without pest control though. I was just too scared to do anything myself lol..just make sure you get a decent company. Some will charge you just to simply put poison down which you can do yourself...you need some one to go around which steel wool and a sealer to block everything..and you need to check holes often

Also, if your neighbours have them then that will just increase your chances of them coming back sooner. Last time I had it I asked neighbours on both sides of me and neighbour below (I live in a maisonette) and none of them had mice. They all have cats though so don't know if that's why lol.

Go around every room and 'audit' it. Check your bedroom; if you know there aren't any holes (check radiators) then you'll be able to sleep easier because you can shut the door and put heavy books along the bottom of the door. They won't get in if you make sure there's NO gap between the books. I've had to do that myself many times, because I'm quite phobic about them myself.

Any progress, OP? (I always get over invested in mice threads. I might have to ban myself from them.)

Can anyone tell me if the ones caught on the sticky traps are dead when you go back to the traps?

I used to put maltesers on the old metal spring traps, you could push them onto the prongs.

No they are not dead until they have been stuck there for long enough to starve

No, I wouldn't use them but that's not what you do. You monitor them all the time - hourly even? If you get one you fold it over and stamp on it to kill the mouse. You don't just leave them stuck on it. That's gross and I've never heard of anyone doing that. No one uses them that I know though. Traps and poison all the way.

Hiya, thanks again for everyone's help. I went back to the flat last night after staying at someone else's for a couple of days. One more mouse has been caught in one of the traps. So that's 4 I've caught so far.

I bought the Victor Electronic rat/mouse trap suggested on here and put it down next to the holes last night. Nothing as yet, although I chapped on my next door neighbor's to ask if they've had any mice and they said yes, they had one on Thursday night (put poison down) but nothing since then.

Haven't seen any mouse droppings, but then I never saw them before either.

Hope you get it sorted OP
Couple of years ago we had our house extended and completely renovated, 3 days after moving back in I was sitting in semi darkness on the floor of kitchen diner (waiting for furniture to be delivered)
Kids in bed husband at he’s brothers just around corner.
I saw a mouse strolling across kitchen floor.
screamed called hubby, himself and BIL dashed back (thinking it was human intruder) mouse had gone and they convinced me that I’d dreamt it as was half asleep.
Two nights later went downstairs for drink of water at 1.00 am as I opened kitchen door mouse literally skidded past me like Tom and jerry cartoon.
My screams woke DH kids plus NDN’s
Contractor returned and filled holes with mixture or wire wool and foam expander plus laid traps.
We found two mice in traps over next week then had really awful smell coming from under sink for about a week and nothing since🤞🏾🤞🏾
Sorry for rambling message but your post reminded me of how violated I felt by tiny mouse!
I’d just reiterate what others saying, you need to meticulously block all access holes then leave traps for any malingerers.
Good luck OP

After 2 weeks with nothing and I came down to one this morning.

I've just seen the biggest mouse. I hope it's not a baby rat I've never seen that big before. I'll be taking my own advice tomorrow and fixing our skirting at the weekend

I tried lots of things until I decided to use the snappy traps with chocolate or peanut butter in and killed the ones we had. Then I got the repellant plugs and have 3 plugged in around the house, I’ve not had a single mouse this year, so I assume it’s the plugs.

I was very reluctant to kill them initially by the way, but the spring traps do kill them instantly and there’s no blood or mess. The plugs then keep any out so I don’t have to kill any more.

I've had cats and mice at the same time.

The only really effective way of getting rid of mice is killing them, blocking up what you can and removing all foods.

I have always used "The Better Mousetraps" traps. Plastic, easy to set traps guaranteed to kill the little buggers with a bit of peanut butter or a nice sticky toffee sweet. I've caught a dozen mice in a single one day once. Didn't have any mice left within a few days.

Getting pest control in is a good idea but I dislike the idea of poison in case a predator eats the poisoned mouse.

I have also had a decomposing Rat under the floorboards and despite living on farms all my life, we have NEVER, EVER smelled anything so bad. We had to seal off a whole section of the house for a week.

I was reluctant too but that's long gone. I'm glad the plugs work for you but they don't seem to work at my office. I've seen mouse poo right next to and under them. They're probably different ones though.

I had mice this time last year.
I used the old fashioned spring traps as the quickest cleanest death. Nutella was the only bait that worked for me.
Got 25 of the little buggers.
Make sure you don't have anything they could eat lying around in cupboards put it all in plastic boxes or tins. Have a good clean around in case of crumbs in cupboards and clean surfaces you think they have walked on as they piss everywhere.
It could be worse, it could be rats

Husband caught one this morning - with his foot. Hoping that's the one I saw last night.

We get the occasional visitor ever since house 2 doors away had a mass infestation. We make sure absolutely no access to any food, not a single breadcrumb.
Any that come in don't hang around - we know if they are here cos our terrier goes crazy.