Mice making me anxious and can't sleep

[PandaAtTheZoo]

Found out we have mice about 11 days ago. Put down some traps and caught 3 in my downstairs toilet/ laundry room. Called the council pest control and they came round for a small fee and put down some bait station boxes last Thursday. Also told us to put mesh over ventilation bricks once the mice have gone. No more mice found in traps and no dead mouse smell. Thought that might be it until I went into the downstairs toilet and saw a live mouse standing between my two snap mice traps. Have they become trap shy? Council pest control not returning until Thursday. I feel very very anxious and losing sleep. Feel like I might burst out crying. Any advice? Thanks

As others have said get a private pest control person in.
We've just got rid of rat infestation. We had issues with the pipes under our drive (holes and drains not being capped off properly) they were coming up from the sewers, up through the cavity walls and into the loft. We could hear them running around and gnawing.
It was truly awful.
The pest control guy was amazing but did say until you find out how they are getting in you will never get rid of them. Not sure if that applies to mice as well.
I feel your pain it's bloody horrible.

Oh and yes to snap traps.

The reality is if a cat is a hunter he's likes to bring mice into your home as presents.

Some cats will see off a mouse and some will just sleep while mice are dancing across your front room floor!

Don't get a cat unless you were going to get one anyway.

Glue traps are awful things, even professional pest controllers will only use as an absolute last resort. It didn't ask to be born a mouse, so just kill it humanely, don't torture it.
Most likely behind your machine, where its warm. They won't get inside the drum. Stick with snap backs a bit longer. Peanut butter is a good bait if you aren't having much luck with chocolate.

MrsPelligrino it’s not true??!!! Why Why would you tell me this!

We had them a couple of years ago. We are in a terraced house and have converted our loft however we still had a cupboard with the original loft floor and the neighbours’ walls. We had them between the floors. There was no sign of them in the house, just the noise of them running. We had two different pest controllers. First one was useless and second one gave good advice and said we could implement it ourselves. I think it’s all been mentioned above.

• snap traps with peanut butter. Worked initially and then ignored.
• blocks of poison, ignored as far as we could see. We even pulled out the spotlights in the ceiling and pushed blocks of poison into the space between floors.
• steel wool. Pushed it into every single hole, opening, crack. Put it around radiator pipes, and gaps in cupboards.
• expanding foam in cupboard under stairs as well as hard metal mesh around the gas pipe where it entered house in same cupboard
• mesh over air bricks

We went on holiday for two weeks and before we went, we put down glue traps and opened the sachets of bait and placed on a paper plate either side of the loft cupboard where we’d previously caught mice with snap traps. When we returned, glue traps untouched and both plates of bait empty. No smell of dying mice. No a sign of them since. We were desperate and opening the sachets of bait and putting on a plate was the only thing that worked. Our loft cupboard had several snap traps and little blocks of poison - all were ignored. You really have my sympathy.

Oh bless you. We share our house with mice every winter. Countryside life! I hear them scurrying about in the loft when I'm in bed, and my daughter had a mouse visitor in her room not so long ago! It's so normal here, we deal with it however we can.

Many homes have cats just for the purpose of catching mice. Could you get a mouse-catching cat to make yourself feel better?

Could you get a mouse-catching cat to make yourself feel better?
How do you know a cat is going to be a good mouser though ?

I think glue traps are absolutely barbaric. Also the traps that break an animal's back. There is no such thing as a humane trap. However, I also don't want to listen to rodents running around in my walls and chewing wires. The last time I needed to get rid of mice I used a bin, steps, and a kitchenroll cardboard tube with peanut butter smeared inside it. The mouse climbed up the steps to reach the peanut butter, the cardbord tube made him fall into the bin and then my husband drove him a couple of miles out to the countryside. (Although I'm sure he'd have been happier staying with us ).

Hi I'm a professional Pest controller try this site for proofing bits they also sell disinfectants for cleaning up after Rodents www.pestfix.co.uk/rodent-control.asp Air bricks are a common way for mice to get in so it is worth fitting the mesh but if you are in a terrace there is a good chance there are gaps between the houses in floor voids or roof spaces. Have you checked the loft? It is possible they are up there and using the soil stack to travel down to the toilet.
As you said it's a laundry room, has there ever been a vented tumble dryer--I've seen a few places where dryer vents have been the route in.
Sticky boards should only be an absolute last resort once you have tried everything else.
I have been out to plenty of houses with cats so that's no guarantee.
I have seen videos of testing of ultrasonic devices-the mice were climbing all over them. I live next to a railway never notice the trains going past. If you have one of them plugged in all the time mice will get used to it. I'm also very suspicious of a box that produces a sound you can't hear I suspect some are no more than a little light.
Humane mouse traps in my opinion not much more humane than sticky boards the mouse is going to be absolutely terrified in a tiny box for hours to then be dumped in the middle of nowhere where it will likely die anyway.
The council have put poison down anyway and it's possible the mouse you saw by the toilet has already eaten some, how many more visits have you got from them?

I got private pest control people to come, and they put the mesh over every hole in the place. Totally solved the problem instantly. They did put a few traps down but not sure if any mice were in them. Was brilliant and I can relax again!

Bait snap traps with peanut butter and place them in a bucket trap.

Sonichurdle thanks. My bedroom is in the loft and I haven't heard anything and can't find any droppings. No tumble dryer but 2 years ago the plumbing was rearranged so we could get a washing machine in there (radiator and things moved) so a few holes with that.
This is only mouse siting since council put poison down. Checked again and think its leg was trapped in the trap. Had to get my husband to hit it to put it out of its misery. I feel really bad for it, definitely could not use the sticky traps after this has happened. How do I dispose of the body if it might have eaten poison from bait station? Will dettol clean and disinfectant the area the mouse has died and pooped in?

To dispose bag it up and put in your general waste. Make sure you wear gloves when handling and cleaning. Detol should be fine in the toilet/laundry room. The disinfectants in pest fix are designed to be sprayed from a hand held sprayer so you can mist it over a wide area - also handy if they have been on carpets and soft furnishings.

Woke early this morning thinking my dog was walking around ...he was asleep heard gnawing and rustling convinced mice are in our bedroom !

We came back from holiday in November to find we had had mice, you wouldn't believe the chunks that they had eaten out of the Christmas cakes, we have lived here over 40 years and it's the first time we have had a problem. Rentokil quoted £440 and the council £106. We went for the council he has been 3 times and we think we have got rid touch wood. I haven't been sleeping very well either and it was made worse with visitors over Christmas

The council pest control guy came round yesterday. Checked the 4 bait boxes and they had taken none of it. He put them in the same places and said he would return in 2 weeks. He was here 5 minutes. Bit useless so far and had to pay a fee of 70 pounds first time he came. Another dead mouse in one of my snap traps this morning. Thats 5 now. Last 2 I'm sure are smaller than previous ones. Could they be baby mice from a nest inside my house?
Every sound I hear now I think is that mice and Im half terrified whenever I go into the room to do washing

@pandaatthezoo exactly the same as us. They wouldn’t take the bait. Pest control useless, did three visits and one of those visits was literally moving the trap about 5cn to the left.

Sorry pressed send to soon. Please do what I said before and pollyfilla the holes so you can work out the entry point, you Can’t live like this

Yes they could be juvenile mice if they are a lot smaller, if you are only catching juvenile mice now that is a good sign but if you haven't sealed the entry point from the outside more could get in. With the internal holes it depends what type of house you have. Normally it is best to leave the internal holes open - you know where they are coming out and have the traps in place to deal with them if you seal them up they will look for another route out and that could be anywhere. Having said that if you are in a flat or a terraced house and they could be getting in from the neighbours and you have no way to effectively seal the outside of the building then seal the internal holes and hope their new route out isn't into your house. With baits mice are like people they all have different tastes there are many different formulations--blocks, grains, pastes etc. and sometimes need to try a few before finding what they like. One thing is they must be eating something-mice need to eat about 3g per day, they don't need to drink if the food is moist enough. Is there any food in this room? Or is there any way they could be getting to food in the kitchen - spillages under units, bins, behind the fridge etc.

Eww, even I hate baby mice. They chew things. And they don't skirt around rooms they just run all over. Easier to catch in snap traps though.

Could you have a nest under your floor somewhere? Listen out for 'chirping'. Perhaps near a radiator. Often in late afternoon.

Could have told you pest control are useless op. They did the same for me. All of five minutes to put some little boxes down and when they came back the next week they'd caught nothing.

Best stick to the snap traps. Put them between the doors like I said before.

Good luck.

Pizzaaddict thanks for replies. We sealed a hole outside with mesh and filler. Just need to add mesh to ventilation bricks. Think they have a nest inside the house somewhere in downstairs toilet where we store washing machine. Need to take sink out to get washing machine to look behind it. Thought the pest control guy would have camera equipment or something to look or something.

Sonichurdle
Thanks for replies. I live in a terrace house (3 together) built maybe 15 years ago. I'm not sure how they are getting food as I'm sure they are somewhere behind washing machine in my downstairs toilet. To get out of the room they need to go past the trap (the area I have caught 5 so far). I put steal wool under door to stop them getting out. No droppings in kitchen found. I have alot of woodlice in house (found lots of dead ones in my house all the time). Could they be eating them?

Rather that going out the door they may travel through floor voids if you have wooden floor or through the wall cavity even up into the ceilings and could be coming out into the kitchen behind the units without leaving much evidence where you would see it. I have heard of mice eating insects so the woodlice is a possibility--they are a bit messy when they eat and would probably leave bits behind but this could be within the wall cavity. With the woodlice they like damp conditions so a dehumidifier may help with them.

Also you can get inspection cameras from Amazon for about £8 that plug into your phone might be worth taking a look with one of those before removing the sink.

I'm in Edinburgh, and sometimes hear mice moving around inside the walls. They're very common in the city's older properties. It's a bit horrific really, but I'm used to it now And having a cat helps, although I do have to pick up the odd stomach, tail or head.