neighbours called pest control- who pays?

[tallulah]

My DH was woken up yesterday by the pest controller. Apparently next door found ONE mouse in their house & called him out! He seems to think that this mouse came from OUR water pipe... we don't have a mouse problem because we have 4 cats, & we haven't found any dead mice indoors either..
Personally I think the mouse they found came in from the garden. We are in a semi-rural area with lots of fields, so more than likely it is a field mouse.
Anyway, the pest man said that if it is in our pipe (& I don't know what they plan to do next because I wasn't here & DH was still 1/2 asleep) then WE have to pay to have it checked & sorted out!
As we don't have a problem & our neighbours called the pest controller out, (without speaking to us first, I might add) does anyone know if we are justified in refusing to pay? DH thinks it's covered on our plumbing insurance but I'm not so sure, & there's bound to be an excess. I said that we should just refuse to have the work done but DH says that the water board are entitled to just do it & send us a bill.
I don't want to seem mean but we are already struggling financially & we just can't afford any additional expenses. TBH I'm not even prepared to go 50/50 with the neighbours... Had they spoken to us first it would have been a different matter. ONE mouse is hardly a problem for the pest controller.
Can anyone help on this one?

Having spent too much of my life working with wild mice I may be able to help.

Firstly if you are semi-rural I agree with you it is most likely a field mouse (they are larger and have bulging eyes).

As for the mouse being on your water pipe- I wouldn't really call that mouse territory- they don't like getting wet! Mice tend to live in old walls- especially of barns with a lot of food around. Not old water pipes!

You do not have to get a pest controller for one mouse- tell the man to go away. If you had a mouse infestation you would see them. In places I visted with lots of mice they were running up my trousers (literally). You would at least see them climbing walls.

Also if you did have a mouse infestation you could treat it yourself. They are not hard to get rid of like rats- put poison down (next to a wall where they run) and hey would be gone within 2 days.

Neighbours sound mad- don't think water boards start digging up pipes for one mouse! I'd tell them all to go away! Pest control man sounds like he's trying to drum up business- I'd report him to someone- not sure who though!

sorry not water pipes- didn't mean old!

I agree with Jimjams - we're in a rural area and get mice regularly at this time of year. It's just a fact of life, nothing to get het up about. Can't see how they could prove it came from your property and frankly, if you wanted to keep tons of mice in your house, unless environmental health steps in, that's your choice. Buy them a mousetrap.

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DH tells me the pest man is coming back on Thursday, which will be amusing because only the children will be in/awake.. (it's OK- all but 1 teens & eldest is 17.. we aren't neglecting babies!) We're both agreed we aren't paying for this, and I'm grateful for your support. It's nice to read that I'm not being unreasonable! I couldn't see why they didn't just put a trap down in the first place.

Your neighbours are mad.

How bizarre! How on earth can they prove 'their' mouse came from your house?? DNA testing or something? I agree that it most probably has just wandered in from the surrounding area and I wouldn't pay a penny to your neighbour.

I do think having a cat makes a difference. We live in the country and our next door neighbours used to live in our house (yeah, weird, I know!)and they apparently had frequent mouse infestations. Yet since we moved in with our two cats and a dog, the only mice we've ever seen are the ones the pets have brought in themsleves - usually headless!

We live in a street with a pub backing onto us and a large playing field, my new nieighbours saw a rat yesterday and is going to call out enviromental health. I am sure that it proberbly came from the pubs bins or the field (that they are currently redoing) and we won't actually be able to do anything about it.
My cat has brought us about 7 mice or baby rats since we moved here about 3 years ago but I just thought it was from the field, and I have never seen a rat running around.
What can we do??

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Oh.........The previous neighbours used to dump their rubbish behind the fence. Lots of cardboard and stuff...suppose it could have come from there. There is no where is my garden for rats to nest. We cleared the garden when we moved here. I have a compost heap but thats it. And i am sure my cat would have brought in more vemen in if they were nesting nearby LOL

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not that unusual to see the occasional rat. Rat infestations have always been very clear when I've seen them- for example mattresses with great big holes taken out of them for the rats to climb into. Usually see dead rats lying around. Rats are attracted to rubbish so I reckon a passing rat just went to the pub bins. Food=rats.

Rats may nest in compost but not all that likely. When we used to open up these massive hay storage things in Scotland we used to get a lot of mice but not many rats.

I think people go a bit over the top with rats. I used to see them all the time in Japan (the drains were generally open- becuase otherwise they couldn't cope wth rain during the rainy season) and no-one really batted an eyelid. Sure a rats nest needs sorting but sounds like the neighbours are panicking a bit.

This has just reminded me of the time I was talking to a Scottish farmer asking if he had any mice. He said he'd poisoned them- I said "ooh you shouldn't do that because the rats will move in". He said something like "haven't got any rats around here" and opened a little grain storage box to show me. On top of all the grain there was a HUGE rat.

I felt quite sorry for him- poor guy was visibly shaken!

Like I said I have never seen any running around. My cat has brought us a few as pressies but no more than he used to bring us in our old house. I think she is panicking too