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Rural living

Looking to relocate to the countryside? Find advice in our Rural Living forum.

How many mice spotted outdoors is a 'mouse problem'?

5 replies

HeatherAndSand · 16/11/2020 14:45

We have always seen the odd solo mouse, at the back and front of the house, over the years. Once we thought we heard one inside a wall. None of this has worried me. It is perfectly natural that there will be mice about, (just as there are owls, badgers, foxes, hawks, deer, frogs and toads. Sadly no hedgehogs anymore). I have felt that we have an unwritten, and only spoken by me, agreement that they stay outside, and I have no problem with them sharing a bit of bird food in exchange! This year though, for the first time after decades here, we are seeing more. After dark at least 6 of the little blighters were running about outside. I realise our farming, brewery and stables friends sometimes have to deal with hundreds, but are we likely to be developing a mouse problem? If so, what to do, if anything, and will they inevitably end up over the threshold?

OP posts:
EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide · 16/11/2020 14:47

Get a Jack Russell, and a cat and you'll be fine!

User415373 · 16/11/2020 14:56

Get a cat!

Changethetoner · 16/11/2020 21:55

Can you hear them in your walls, or under floor? If yes, and the scuttling around is irritating you, then you maybe want to do something. I get my husband to set traps for them. We get about 4 catches a week. (he sets maybe 10traps, in the loft and the shed and the garage). We don't actually consider this level of mice a problem - more it is just the norm for rural living.

Sitdowncupoftea · 16/11/2020 23:28

I see rats regularly where I live as well as everything else. It depends on where you live. I'm surrounded by fields with two farms. Mice are a normal occurance or are you seeing shrews. We have more shrews than mice.

HeatherAndSand · 18/11/2020 09:38

Thanks pps. Large paws including feline already in residence - doing an honest day's work is obviously beneath them. Not sure we could cope with a JR(!), though I do hear and see from friends they and similar terriers make good ratters. Definitely mice, not shrews or rats - they were running around and feeding while I just stood there, so I got a very good look. We've only ever heard one in a wall, and that was a long time ago. They haven't worried me but I was wondering if I need to start to with the unusual - for us - increase in spotting them.

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