What to do - mice

[squeakiness]

We live semi rurally.
During the summer time we had field mice in the house, they don't smell and we didn't notice until we were doing a deep clean, moved some furniture and found droppings, they had babies and it was a bit of a nightmare.
We had a pest control company come out and he managed to get rid of them completely over a few visits.
He had a good look around the property and couldn't find any obvious entry points, we live in a mid terrace and he said if they're coming through from one of the neighbouring properties/ if one of the neighbours has them they will probably come back as such is life when properties are connected like that.

At the time I mentioned it to a couple of neighbours as I let them know we had a few field mice in the house and were getting someone to deal with it and asked if they've seen anything but they all said they didn't. There's been no signs for over 3 months now, I moved the big heavy toybox in the playroom today to have a pre Christmas clean and found new droppings they are definitely new as I moved the toybox out a few times since we got rid of them in the summertime and there's been no signs until today.

Do I call pest control again? Do I try to deal with it myself? If so how?
Hopefully this is just the beginning as there wasn't much there but I want to curb it before it gets any worse.
Is this something I will never be rid of now we've had them once?

There doesn't need to be obvious entry points I'm afraid. They can fit through the tiniest gaps. Go round and block and gaps in skirting etc that are more than a pencil width thick with steel wool. It'll take ages, but they can't get through it.

I had mice once, it was horrible. At the time, I was the proud owner of an exceptionally fat, lazy cat. He killed one, and the rest all moved out! Could you borrow someone’s cat? The one I have now is a complete psycho although bringing in live frogs is her forte

I do miss my cat for mousing. Mice are a nightmare as they seem to leak into your home through any draught gap.
Try Pest Reject sonic deterents OP. (got mine from Amazon) Just plug 2 or 3 in around the house.
Once I had plugged mine in my mice moved out of the house but into my old Passat where they have now eaten my diesel pipes and wiring instead. £100s to sort so will have to scrap it. Thankfully I got a couple of battery powered deterents for my good car as I can't afford for them to eat that one aswell.

Dealing with mice can be a nightmare. We had a problem where they kept coming in from the neighbouring flats. We tried all the products under the sun, including the plug in deterrents, but nothing worked. The last straw was when I woke up in the night to find one starring down at me from the bedside table.

Only thing that worked was getting a cat. He never caught any, but his scent alone seemed to put them off.

I live semi rural as well. I use a peppermint room spray at night (including the cupboard under the stairs). Not sure if it is coincidence or if it actually works but I haven't seen any evidence of mice since I started using it.

Get a cat - problem solved.

Yep cat! My cats seem to catch a mouse or a rat most days. It's amazing how many of the little blighters there are around

We use traps - as have a few in garage.

Get a cat.

I'm fed up of mice coming in from nextdoor. Terraced house and nextdoor has been empty for 2 years. They are getting it ready to sell so any activity during the day means they disturb the mice and they run into our house. I'm hoping once the house is lived in they'll bugger off.
Somebody said they hate the smell of tea tree oil so I'll try that.

Cat. Moved into a flat with mice once, and the resident mice took one look at my massive stripy cat and moved out. And in my current cottage, my black cat keeps the house and outbuildings mouse-free. Plus, you get a nice purry cat to sit with you on winter evenings!

Yeah, our neighbour refuses to deal with his mice problem. We have a cat. Hope you like cars 😁

Cars=cats obviously...

I don’t think having them once means you always will.

I saw one about 3 years ago.

Got the plug in deterrents, nothing for 3 years.

Last week, saw one again, and found droppings.

Used the 24 hour fast acting poison traps - killed 2 the next day. No more droppings since.

Can’t get a cat due to allergic husband!

I love the idea of a cat but we have a DC and already have a small dog and don't know if they'd get on...
Also with the house being quite small for us I really don't want to be dealing with cat hair everywhere (our Ddog doesn't malt).

Aghhhh I hate this