mice in walls what to do?

[Winterinthecity]

I think, well 99.9% sure I have mice living in the walls of one of my bedrooms. It's my house and I think originally they came from the neighbours house a few years ago - they found the mice in an upstairs bedroom.

I've now blocked off two mouse holes - one in a sort of landing outside bathroom and near bedroom and one in bedroom but can still hear mice. This room is a 'spare room'.

I've looked up online what to do about killing (don't want to have to do this but will if need be) the mice - but it seems quite complex - drilling into walls and laying down poison and then the smell. Pest control looks like it could be quite expensive and I know a handyman who could do it for me.

Any ideas please?

Pestbye plugins - they've always worked for us. Also much better than having to use poison and put up with the smell of decaying mouse. These plugins emit a high frequency noise which makes the mice go away.

DaphneduM - I've had a plug in outside the mouse hole area but after it was blocked up (the mice used to come out into the bedroom until it was blocked up) and I don't think it did a blind bit of use.

Basically this is an old terraced house and the mice are living in the walls which look out and over a lean to which at the bottom has a toilet and sort of utility room area and then a garden - if that makes sense. Apparently the kids next door were taking food upstairs, leaving it next to a messy fireplace (one of those with cast iron fireguard and tiles round it) and also they left their garden doors open (from a newbuild extension which is kitchen/diner/kids TV room but with easy access to store cupboards full of food downstairs so mice got in very easily!

The plug in I had - no idea what it was as a neighbour bought them and gave them to us.

That's a shame, it does sound more difficult, as the mice have such a ready food source. We used to switch ours on in the autumn, and that deterred them from taking up residence. But we were very careful not to have food upstairs and it could be that our two cats were also a deterrent, I guess. Maybe you will have to resort to poison then. I feel your pain with this, one of the reasons we moved was because I said to my husband I was worried about the possible invasion every Autumn, but hand on heart I can say the plug-ins did work, we put several in the upstairs rooms and a couple of battery operated ones in the roof. We did warn our buyers about the mice and told them how to combat them! Like you, we had old stone walls so they could get in easily. I think it's still fairly easy to get the poison - maybe look on-line? I would try that before you go via the pest control route, which is expensive. Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Better to use traps instead of poison, mice are happy to go into them unlike rats. Then at least you know where they are ie not inside your walls festering

We had mice, although were initally told rats !

Sad to say we used poison firstly in various places outside and then in trays and blocks in the loft and spaces we heard them.

Took about three weeks

We also blocked all holes, anything bigger than a pencil width. Used steel wool and also peppermint oil.

Found one dead in airing cupboard and on dead on path.

I came on to mention about the 'pencil width', that mice presumably the young, can get through, but someone beat me to it. So yes, if blocking holes is possibly a solution you've got to block every nook and cranny.

We live quite rurally and had nice after the harvest, although the neighbour also had loads too so they could have come from next door. I think they still have them too.

We got pest control out and they’ve put bait stations down around the house. So mice are sporadic eaters so they take a little bit from lots of locations. So they might be eating the food upstairs from the kids but they will also have another food source. If you have a cat or dog, they aren’t a natural deterrent. In fact, our dog’s treats were stored in a plastic box but it had carry handles so holes mice could climb in (unbeknownst to us). It turns out mice are quite partial to dog treats and dentasticks. So put all open food in air tight containers. Empty your crumb tray on your toaster. Check nothing is open in cupboards. If they are coming in from the lean-to, you need to eliminate any food sources outside too. So spray weedkiller down the paving cracks, get rid of any overgrown vegetation. If you have planters move them further down the garden. We also got the high-frequency nice repellents. We picked ours up from Amazon, they were £15 for 2. As we had mice when we installed them (as you do) you might see an increase in activity as the mice will feel under attack. So you might actually see them as they disrupt their usual routine trying to escape the noise. The noise repellents aren’t an instant thing, they take about 3 weeks so you will need to consider something in the meantime, otherwise they’ll keep breeding. For blocking off walls, you need to be using steel wool as the little shits can just gnaw through wood and plaster.

We have three cats! They would sit & stare at the area where the mice were scratching

Helpful to know where to put bait but wished they had caught them

Noise repellents dont do anything, mice like sitting on them 😂

We had the mice in the wall problem once, had no idea how they were getting in as couldn’t see any holes but as yours is an old house I’m sure they’d always find a tiny hole to get through. As pp have said they can fit through a tiny gap.

Our mouse ended up chewing through an electrical cable so we paid for pest control as our efforts weren’t working. Oh and like pp we have a cat who would sit and stare at the wall where the mouse was. Must have been very frustrating for her - so near and yet so far.

Update on this - have rung a pest control contact (friend of family) who's coming out to put poison in the walls. I feel awful but I tapped on the walls and skirting boards last night and heard them there.

I did have a cat who sadly died last year but he used to go into the room and try to catch the mice. When a friend lived with me and stayed in that room about a year ago he would sit in her room by the radiator, thought it was warmth but he could obviously smell mice. He also used to smell mice downstairs in wooden bannisters/under stairs cupboard which I think were coming from kitchen into living room and then into hall etc... Now that area has blocked entrances/exits.