MICE (dear God I hope that it's mice)

[OldEnglishSheepDog]

On Friday night I was woken up by a scratching noise above my head so on Saturday morning I ordered a humane mouse trap thinking it really wasn't a big deal. This afternoon all the upstairs lights went out.

We have been up in the roof and found a pile of droppings and insulation that has been ripped and moved. I am also starting to wonder about the peculiar smell that has been present in my son's built in wardrobe since we moved in three months ago.

My problem is that all the advice is to fill in all the possible access points and that sounds impossible! Our house has a million holes - we can't possibly fill them all. I also need to establish how to protect the wires. And whether or not it's worth contacting a proper pest controller.

Thoughts?

I used fast action mouse killer traps.(Amazon) They are a baited box and according to reviews and then my own experience the mouse dies so quickly that it is still in the trap.

As unpleasant as it may seem, that was our experience when we had a soiltary mouse in our loft. (We left it for ages first and it did loads of damage!!!)

It ded in the trap and I threw the whole thing away.

Oh no...we have a similar problem in property in London though no lights have gone out yet! Me and h are seperated so kids and I live far away however I take the kids back there once or twice a month. Last time I found droppings on the spare bed in spare room. No kidding!! They had actually been in the bed! There are also lots of holes. It is a nightmare. I hate going back there now. However just been back this weekend and I didn't hear anything. He s got some new US repellents a different type. Wire wool and taping up any gaps might help but if they are chewing wires I'd get some professional help as it can be so dangerous. That was my worst fear.

Stuff holes with tin foil, get poison put down, wait for the dreadful smell that will tell you they are dead... and repeat next year unfortunately as they come in every winter

How big were the droppings OP? It´s very easy to tell the difference between mice and rats in my very bitter recent experience.

I wouldn´t take this lightly at all though, whatever they are. I would call environmental health and do every last thing they told me to. If I had been able to do so, (I wasn´t in the country at the time and did not know) it would have been a hell of a lot cheaper for me, financially and emotionally.

Throw whatever time and money you have at it now.

I have had mice and rats in my old farmhouse that I used to live in.
With mice it sounds like scratching, with rats it sounds like someone is in the roof. They make incredible amount of noise.

The PP who said the droppings are also a clue is absolutely right. The mice droppings are small like grains of rice, rats droppings are 3 times the size.

Hello all - right it was definitely a mouse. I know because my humane trap caught it. Looked quite cute actually! It has been released some distance from the house. I opted for the humane trap because it turned out that it had been falsely accused and the lights had gone out because of a dodgy circuit breaker. I couldn't rip its head off after that.

I'm going to put the trap back shortly - should I clean it out first (it's got lots of droppings from the previous occupant) or might the smell help to attract any little friends?