Mice!!

[yonderfive]

There's no seal between the tiles and the walls in my bathroom, and just open floorboards under the bath, also the sink and toilet are not sealed at the back, pipes exposed etc.
We've had two mice suddenly appear on the landing and can only assume they've come from the bathroom.
Can anyone advise me what to do?
Or who would fix this for me? Is sealing even the term? I'd like it sorted ASAP as newborn in the house and quite paranoid! Don't know what service to call or what to do! Thanks

Your local council might have a pest control service. Depending if you own/rent/council house, they might charge. According to them, mice can become immune to the store bought mouse poison, whereas they are licensed to use a different one. You can obviously just buy traps online or in supermarkets too! I found the big cheese brand ones far easier to set than the older style wooden type.

We has issues year ago when living in a flat. We bought a huge roll of wire wool and used that to plug any hole, put around pipes, gas in skirting etc. They can fit through a hole the size of a pencil, so you need to block up everything!

Couldn't you get a tube of bathroom sealant to seal the parts in the bathroom? Otherwise, stuff wire wool into the gaps. Best of luck.

Check all around the outside of your property for missing pointing, holes that have been drilled for cables from TV aerial, Sky dish etc, get any holes filled with either cement or expanding foam spray. Cut any long grass down & put bait traps in outhouses, sheds etc. Make sure all food is sealed in plastic, pot, glass or tin containers, get rid of crumbs in toaster, make sure your kitchen bin is sealed. Then look for holes where central heating pipes come through the floor, pour poison pellets through the holes & seal with wire wool ( I used basics brillo pads) If you can find any holes anywhere do the same, I bought a drum of cheap rat & mouse poison pellets from my local convenience shop, cost less than £5, worked better than the rentokill stuff that cost nearly £20 from B & Q. I was mouse free within a week after doing all this.

Mouse ran out from behind our fridge and ran over my husbands foot - luckily still had shoes on! Have just brought a standard bait trap and set it with Nutella and ran out of the kitchen!
Hoping it gets caught soon as no one wants to go back into the kitchen!!

They can get through the absolute tiniest gap, the scalliwags. And will chew through wire wool – you need to stuff it in the gaps then caulk on top.

Or, as I do, pretend to yourself it is merely ONE mouse, and embrace him as a tiny pal. Live in denial. And in a crumbling terrace. Even when we get rid of them him, the neighbour’s don’t, so back they he comes.

Best thing we did was get a cat, worked when we lived in London and had a mouse problem. When the cat died we had moved to the countryside we developed a mouse problem in the winter in the kitchen, the house was too old and rambling to block up every hole, we got pest control in but they put down poison traps and I was worried that our dog would find a dead or dying mouse and eat it, so after many tries with things like humane traps ( in which the poor things starved to death which I was horrified by as I forgot to check them) I used old fashioned snap type traps with peanut butter. Quick death for mice, I slid them under the cooker and checked daily. It worked.
Please don’t use those sticky box type traps, really cruel.

Any ideas for mice/rats in loft? Bought a house and found lots of droppings in loft. Its a semi that has been empty for around a year.

If you rent it's your landlords problem. If you rent through LA phone them and they will sort it but if you go straight to your LL then phone them and they need to get a quote and sort it ASAP.

If you own, phone pest control they will lay bait.

We rent and sure I had a mouse in the kitchen so phoned LA who got pest control that day and said he found droppings in the loft and took the plinth of the kitchen cupboards and there was a massive hole in the wall. He filled the hole and replaced the plinth. He had 3 or 4 visits.

Dead, such a relief kids can sleep again and eat in the kitchen! Think ours was a rat, kept just triggering the mouse trap. Visited Homebase more times in the last 7 days than in the last 2 years!!

I got the shock trap from screwfix mostly because I have an absolute phobia about dead animals and this was a 3 sided box, which still terrified me i could cope with more than an exposed trap.
Had a kill on the first night one big rat. Pretty sure he was alone as no noise poop or signs of his friends. I would massively recommend it.

Remove access to food and water by storing items in tins, jars, containers.
Block up the holes where possible - Wire wool, pan scourers or fine mesh pushed into expanding foam. Postcrete is a quick drying easily mixed mortar that can easily block up external holes.
Set traps with peanut butter and check frequently during the day, renew bait every other day.
Poison bait boxes with blocks are ok but you might end up with dead rodents in the house structure with will smell. ( available in Screwfix and Toolstation)

I tried traps but caught a couple but others were able to luck the peanut butter bait without triggering the trap. Called in pest control who put poisoned bait I plastic boxes in behind the plinths in kitchen, closet with boiler, loft etc. Visited twice to check - poussin gone and no more mice. You have to understand their behaviour- if they are I your loft they are in your house and they wee everywhere.
I also got mesh for all the airbricks around the outside of my house.
I find cats no good - they bring in as many live ones as dead ones.