Mice: how do I know if it's an infestation?

[yakamoza]

Spotted a mouse in our house the other day. Bought some traps and caught 5. After that, it all stopped. I can't figure out how and where they could have managed to get into the house. If anyone had any experience with mice or even just knows something about them, I'd be grateful if you could advise me how I can find out if there are more, where do I look for them and how I can figure out how they got in!

We have a wisteria plant next to the house, so I thought maybe they got in that way, i.e. run up the plant, into the loft through some gaps and then into the house. I placed some traps in the loft but nothing there. I can't see any obvious gaps downstairs or elsewhere upstairs. It's a mystery to me but then I've never had them before, so really haven't a clue what I am doing or what I am supposed to be doing!

Please help!

Plug any gaps at floor level with wire wool. Usually in older properties mice are under floorboards.

We had a mouse recently (possibly more, but for my own peace of mind I'm going to say just the one!). We called in a pest controller and he inspected everything and told us where they might get in. We were getting our new kitchen fitted at the time so he also inspected that and reminded the joiners and builders where (and with what) to fill in gaps around pipes and plug holes in cabinets, etc. He actually didn't find the hole where it got in, we found that a few days later and felt really silly, it was where the covering had fallen off a hole where an old fireplace had been.

Anyway, what I learnt was:

• you'd probably know if there was an infestation as you'd see signs, especially mouse poo.
• if there's no mouse poo in the loft it's probably not there.
• check everywhere you keep food. After our mouse or mice were gone, we did still find a couple of hopefully historic mouse sites, e.g. where there'd once been a packet of fancy hot chocolate stored; a nibbled dog food sack in the cupboard under the stairs, etc. In all cases accompanied by a scattering of mouse poo.
• the little buggers poo everywhere.
• if there really weren't many and they were coming in from outside, they probably got in somewhere near where you trapped them.
• seriously they poo everywhere. There was mouse poo in my toaster crumb tray.

Concentrate not just on catching them but in particular to reducing a food source - tiny crumbs etc - as they’ll keep coming back

If its not a case of you live in the country and one from a field wandered in, its already an infestation.
You caught 5, there will be more. They breed very quickly, what you've caught is likely the babies of one litter who have just aged to the point of leaving the nest, but not mum or dad, and they can breed right after birth, with gestation being about 4 weeks.
I had a mouse problem seeing them daily for over 2 years. They can collapse their skeletons and fit through gaps the size of a pencil width. For us, they were getting in through a rotten floorboard that the edge had disintegrated, so pushing up the edge of the carpet where it met the wall.
We eventually had a big fuck off rat come in, and since we couldn't afford to hire anyone, my 62 year old dad replaced 2 joists and re floorboarded a 3 metre square section of fllor, and injured himself significantly doing it.
You need to sort it out ASAP as they will start setting up nests in your house and spread from the one initial room to the whole house.
The room you have found them in needs very carefully inspecting, any hole in the wall for cables? any floorboard gaps? They mosften come up through a floor, or down from an attic. 5 definitely won't have come in via climbing a plant by an open window.

The room you have found them in needs very carefully inspecting, any hole in the wall for cables? any floorboard gaps?

@AlmostAJillSandwich I do live in a countryside and there is a field behind our house but I am now in a panic that we could have an infestation!

I found two in the airing cupboard, two in the bedrooms and one in the kitchen. I also spotted some random seeds of something they've clearly been eating but I haven't a clue what they are or where they came from as it's nothing that we have in the house!

I spotted some gaps in the airing cupboard, which is why I thought they may have come in through the loft. We sealed those. Didn't catch anything in the loft.

I still haven't a clue where they came from. I can't see any poo anywhere. Actually not even anywhere near where we caught them, which is really quite odd.

Did you look under the kitchen cabinets/behind the plinth? To be honest, I'd probably get a pest controller to check the house. My local council do it for about £80 but the guy I had was £60 per callout.

I would just keep the traps out. If there is no poo anywhere there are not any mice coming in. We occasionally get mice in the house when the weather is really cold and food outside scarce - if you are rural this is probably what happened.

If you have an infestation you wouldn't be wondering, it would be clear.

I'm in an apartment in a huge Victorian house chopped into apartments (in the US). We had mice about nine months ago. If you see or catch one, you can be sure there are many more.

Signs:
Poo - like caraway seeds.
Cat spent hours watching the space under the oven, day and night.
Little scratching sounds when all was quiet
Visual sighting of mice (!!!!)

Context:
Nearby public building demolition.
Downstairs neighbour moved out.

Remedy:
Traps, traps, traps... we caught five mice.
Bunged up all gaps with steel wool - even gaps as small as the width of a pencil. This took ages, as I went through the apartment with a flashlight and looked in every single kitchen cupboard and into the furthest reaches of built-in closets.
Soaked cotton balls with peppermint extract and left them everywhere.

The landlord called in a pest control company to seal the building exterior.
The pest control man pulled out my oven and discovered a big, rough hole in the wall behind it that had clearly been made with a sledgehammer, with the wiring/ electrical box and gas supply pipes coming through it. He sealed this with a metal patch, with room to let the wiring and gas pipe through, with steel wool stuffed around the pipe/ wiring.

No mice have been seen or heard since.

Sounds like an infestation.

What did the seeds that you found look like? Sure they weren't poo?