We've got mice getting into the lofts (plural, as we have a room above the garage) and also running through the cavity walls and ceilings. Unfortunately I think they've been going through the walls for months but we didn't put 2+2 together regarding the scuttling noise till we also discovered droppings and shortly afterwards heard squeaking!
Anyway, I laid traps a few days ago and they've caught diddly squat, so I was looking online and I've found the local council provides a free service for controlling mice. That sounds great in theory but I've got a couple of concerns:
(1) Will using the council mean that the house gets some kind of "black mark" that will come up when selling? We plan to sell in 3 to 4 years and don't want this to count against us. Just to be clear, we certainly won't hide any problems at sale-time, but what I don't want to happen is for the problem to be totally sorted but then it turns out we've shot ourselves in the foot by "publicising" it.
(2) Regarding entry points, it's very possible we're our own worst enemy because we have bushes next to the wall and some climbing roses and clematis - which we'd rather not get rid of. Does anyone have any experience of pest controllers' attitudes here? I can just imagine them tut-tutting and saying that if we don't remove them then there's nothing they can do. And again, if it's the council, might they consider us to be aggravating the problem? (Apologies if I'm being paranoid, just trying to do my homework before deciding course of action.)