# Blocking mice?



## MusicMan (3 Feb 2021)

We are getting a lot of mice entering the house at night. I can't find where they get in from outside, but I can find a number of holes round radiator pipes etc in the rooms they enter.

An ideal material to block these randomly-shaped gaps would be something cloth-like that could be stuffed into the holes then would go hard. Anyone come across anything like this, preferably without too much mess?

Keith


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## NikNak (3 Feb 2021)

Something like this maybe...



https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DVWHMFB



not quite what you're after but i'm sure it could be 'modified'..?


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## artie (3 Feb 2021)

Is it even possible to seal a house so tight a mouse can't get in?
I don't think so.


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## Spectric (3 Feb 2021)

I would suggest getting a cat, cure the problem at source rather than try and block them.


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## MusicMan (3 Feb 2021)

We did have cats, which is why this is a fairly recent problem. But at our stage of life (80+) we do't want to take on any more pets.


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## Doug71 (3 Feb 2021)

Spectric said:


> I would suggest getting a cat, cure the problem at source rather than try and block them.



I found the opposite, the only time I got mice in the house was when the cats brought them in!

A year or two ago I panelled out my kitchen, 4' high T&G all the way round on battens, looks great. A few days after I had finished it my 2 cats started just sitting there staring at a certain spot of the panelling, this went on for about 3 days. I had my suspicions what the problem could be so got out the multi master and cut a hole in my nice new panelling and yes a cute little mouse jumped out which the cats promptly disposed of. No idea how it got in there.


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## marcros (3 Feb 2021)

What about expanding foam? Then trim flush when set.


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## porker (3 Feb 2021)

On the expanding foam theme. Push in wire wool and expanding foam over that. I know rats don't like chewing the wire wool. Used it to keep glis glis (look them up) out of my house.


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## Mead Camans (3 Feb 2021)

I think wire wool can be used to plug mouse-sized gaps.


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## Trainee neophyte (3 Feb 2021)

A hole big enough for a pencil is big enough for a mouse, allegedly. I am overrun with cats, and mice, and sometimes rats. The most effective solution is poison. I would worry that expanding foam would just make a warm, snuggly mouse house - perfect nesting material.


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## Nick Laguna UK (3 Feb 2021)

We heard noises in the loft last December and got two humane traps - baited with biscuits / peanut butter - possibly could be worth a go also as well as trying to block holes although I read you can't block every hole?
Caught 5 within 9 days and had none since.
I let one go 30 miles away near where I work and I swear he looked back at me before running off as if to say "where the sodding hell am I?"


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## marcros (3 Feb 2021)

porker said:


> On the expanding foam theme. Push in wire wool and expanding foam over that. I know rats don't like chewing the wire wool. Used it to keep glis glis (look them up) out of my house.



Couldn't you eat those?


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## Woody2Shoes (3 Feb 2021)

Trainee neophyte said:


> A hole big enough for a pencil is big enough for a mouse, allegedly. I am overrun with cats, and mice, and sometimes rats. The most effective solution is poison. I would worry that expanding foam would just make a warm, snuggly mouse house - perfect nesting material.


Traps are much better than poison because:
1) you know you've got a result;
2) you're much less likely to kill something else that's beneficial directly or indirectly (owls, pets etc.).


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## Woody2Shoes (3 Feb 2021)

MusicMan said:


> We are getting a lot of mice entering the house at night. I can't find where they get in from outside, but I can find a number of holes round radiator pipes etc in the rooms they enter.
> 
> An ideal material to block these randomly-shaped gaps would be something cloth-like that could be stuffed into the holes then would go hard. Anyone come across anything like this, preferably without too much mess?
> 
> Keith


Don't forget that they can get in through some airbricks and can climb vertically up walls and into openings under eaves etc.


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## Richard_C (3 Feb 2021)

You might be thinking of plaster of Paris bandages, sold under brand names like mod roc. Used by modellers for things like railway landscapes. Would sort out the small gaps but that might not cure the problem.

If you live in the country you might be getting field mice escaping the winter cold. I sometimes get one or two in the garage/workshop but they disappear in spring.


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## Trainee neophyte (3 Feb 2021)

Woody2Shoes said:


> Traps are much better than poison because:
> 1) you know you've got a result;
> 2) you're much less likely to kill something else that's beneficial directly or indirectly (owls, pets etc.).


I definitely agree. Unfortunately traps don't last. They also often don't fit into the spaces I have mouse infestations (gap between shed roof and insulation for example). If I wasn't waging a permanent war of attrition then traps would be the way forward - I can recommend the battery powered electrocution things, but every rat you kill dribbles urine into the trap, and eventually it stops working. At £30 each, it soon mounts up.

Poison is agressive, environmentally unfriendly, leaves smelly dead animals in wall spaces and is pretty indiscriminate. It also works, and has the minimum amount of labour input. Wherever you have chickens, you have rats and mice (although chickens like eating mice, which helps).

As a final reason not to use poison, the dye can cause alarming colour changes to pig fat - bright, bright blue. For the non squeamish, here is an example: (warning: dead animal inside view) https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kE8WO6cOuPE/maxresdefault.jpg

After all that, I still use poison because it is the most effective solution to the problem. For me, at least.


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## MusicMan (3 Feb 2021)

We are using humane traps and catch two or three every night. Probably not taking them far enough away. We do not want to use killer traps or poison.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The wire wool+foam, and plaster bandages/pads look very practical.

Keith


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## Ttrees (3 Feb 2021)

The raptors love them, had this guy come around a few months ago when they started coming in.
Came back again last week for some discount roast beef that was too far gone for the doggos.


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## Jonzjob (3 Feb 2021)

Spring trap?



Or, you could take the batterys out if it's a USB mouse?

OK, I'll get my hat


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## sammy.se (3 Feb 2021)

+1 to wire wool. I'll sometimes cover/mix the wire wool in caulk to stop it coming out.


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## Old.bodger (3 Feb 2021)

Yes stainless steel wire wool. They don’t like chewing that, with or without foam. Obviously be careful if electrics pass through any of the holes, but then foam is also not a good idea as some types react with the insulation. I use the wire wool trick in all under ground ducts after a major attack on fibre optic cables.


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## stuckinthemud (3 Feb 2021)

If using live traps, drop the mice off along way away, we had mice which I released a half mile off, came straight back, caught and released them 3 miles away, problem solved. Mind, my wife insisted on lethal traps when a mouse came calling this winter...


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## Woody2Shoes (3 Feb 2021)

Trainee neophyte said:


> I definitely agree. Unfortunately traps don't last. They also often don't fit into the spaces I have mouse infestations (gap between shed roof and insulation for example). If I wasn't waging a permanent war of attrition then traps would be the way forward - I can recommend the battery powered electrocution things, but every rat you kill dribbles urine into the trap, and eventually it stops working. At £30 each, it soon mounts up.
> 
> Poison is agressive, environmentally unfriendly, leaves smelly dead animals in wall spaces and is pretty indiscriminate. It also works, and has the minimum amount of labour input. Wherever you have chickens, you have rats and mice (although chickens like eating mice, which helps).
> 
> ...


I haven't yet found an electric one that is rainproof and doesn't eat batteries - it's a shame because they basically do work well in principle. I haven't found a prob with the urine - maybe stainless steel would be an upgrade from galvanized.


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## Blackswanwood (3 Feb 2021)

I may be wrong but I’m not sure just blocking the holes they get into rooms through Is a viable solution.

A mouse can collapse it’s body to the extent that it get get through any hole as small as the diameter of it’s skull. If they are getting in through the perimeter and cannot then get through a hole they have been using to get into a room they won’t go away ... they will just find another hole or gap into the same or another room.

I would simply despatch them to Mouse Heaven with traditional traps. House Mice carry 35 diseases that can transfer from animals to humans and one mouse can produce 2,000 progeny in a year.


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## Trainee neophyte (3 Feb 2021)

Woody2Shoes said:


> I haven't yet found an electric one that is rainproof and doesn't eat batteries - it's a shame because they basically do work well in principle. I haven't found a prob with the urine - maybe stainless steel would be an upgrade from galvanized.


I used rechargeable batteries, and I don't have rain for 7 months of the year. Rat urine is more than enough to make things gooey enough to fail, provided you catch enough rats...


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## Woody2Shoes (3 Feb 2021)

Trainee neophyte said:


> I used rechargeable batteries, and I don't have rain for 7 months of the year. Rat urine is more than enough to make things gooey enough to fail, provided you catch enough rats...


I think these gadgets are really cool, but expensive








Humane Rat Traps from Goodnature Traps UK


A24 Rat Traps are humane and automatically reset 24 times, reducing the number of visits required to keep them working indoors or outside




goodnaturetraps.co.uk




Last time we had an infestation of rats I thought I might make my own, run off a pressure vessel filled from a compressor - I haven't got round to it yet!


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## julianf (3 Feb 2021)

We get rats, not nice, and use those fen mk 4 traps. They're like man traps, not traditional snap things.

I don't much like killing things at all and have no issue or fear or rats, so long at theyre not in the house chewing up stuff.

Much as poison seems tempting, I've never had the heart to use it. Its one thing to kill somthing but another to do to it what poison does... Plus we have dogs (yeah, rubbish ratters) and I don't want to poison them.

We have the traps permanently set outside in dedicated tunnels and out of reach of other wild life.


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## Arutha (4 Feb 2021)

The most effective way to avoid mice is to cut the grass closest to the house in the end of the summer.


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## glenfield2 (4 Feb 2021)

Ttrees said:


> The raptors love them, had this guy come around a few months ago when they started coming in.
> Came back again last week for some discount roast beef that was too far gone for the doggos.



And if this buzzard happened upon a poisoned rat or mouse .... one less buzzard  .
Don’t use poison, use traps and wire wool. And I’m speaking as someone who discovered a leaking plastic water pipe in my kitchen caused by a nibbling mouse!!


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## Trainee neophyte (4 Feb 2021)

This guy obviously has a problem - an entire chanel devoted to mousetraps: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCYbru-MPO1xjes4FVn61JUQ


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## Rorschach (4 Feb 2021)

If you are not willing to kill them then you are not going to solve the problem. Mice communicate, once one has made a path into your property they will keep coming until you kill off enough them to break that chain. Sealing a house against them isn't impossible but can be very difficult as others have pointed out they need only a tiny gap to squeeze through.


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## Bristol_Rob (4 Feb 2021)

We had some rat prevention installed and they rolled up chicken wire, shoved it in the gaps and the filled everything with expanding foam.

So far so good


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## Trainee neophyte (4 Feb 2021)

I encourage (well, I don't discourage, which is almost the same thing) snakes in our chicken coops. The snakes do eat the chicken eggs, but also do good work on the rodents. Unfortunately you occasionally lose a nest of chicks, too, but I see it as a fair price to pay. 







These eggs hatched the following day, so I wasn't too upset with shooing the snake away. The local name translates as "tree-hugger", and they can grow to more than 6", but not poisonous, so nothing to worry about. Except when you put your hand in to collect eggs and you find one of these.


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## Robbo60 (4 Feb 2021)

I had a problem with electric tripping out so got electrician friend out - mouse in fuse board, fried. They get in cavity wall. I put traps under kick boards in kitchen and get a few. We've got fields all around us.
Agree with wire wool and foam also.


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## Lazurus (4 Feb 2021)

Whilst it sounds like a fairy story a friend of mine had mouse issues in an old suffolk thatched cottage, beleive it or not he used very strong double sided tape on areas like beams where a trap was not viable and he caught and disposed of several dozen over a winter. When he got up the little critters were solidly stuck to the tape, remove dispose and replace tape.


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## Danieljw (4 Feb 2021)

A mouse can deform and reform its skeletal structure instantly, needing a hole no bigger than the tip of your little finger to get into your house.
They are also opportunistic, if there is a hole they will investigate but not necessarily dig one.
They leave urine trails for other mice to follow, so once they get in the problem grows.
I live in a forest and had a big mouse problem, traps arent a solution in the house. 
Course wire wool pushed in the hole and then over filled with expanding foam works a treat.
Eventually, as part of the project , I re pointed the exterior of my stone walls and have no mice in the house now.


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## Mark Karacsonyi (4 Feb 2021)

Can’t you call the local council. I think all provide pest extermination services for free. I know ours was free when they removed a hornets nest.


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## Phil Russell (4 Feb 2021)

Try to identify where they get in. The lady next door had problems and we concluded that entry was via air bricks close to ground level. I fixed perforated zinc over the bricks and it seemed to work.
We had problems as well.. mice in the roof. I would regularly catch them. The entry point (pretty certain) was via a very large bush (Philadelphus, mock orange) the branches of which grew against the side of the house up to eaves level. The bush was severely cut back and, hopefully, the problem is resolved.

Good luck., Phil


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## okeydokey (4 Feb 2021)

I don't think the mice are entering the house at night as the original post suggested, they are there all the time. Mice are nocturnal and sleep during the day. From my recent experience I suspect they are sleeping in nests somewhere, possibly your attic or under the floor and come out when its dark. I discovered "mine" (in the bedroom ceiling) when I heard scrabbling noises when in bed surprisingly noisy! Then a couple of days later one decided to come out of the fireplace and run around the perimeter of the room -they run around perimeters of rooms. I tried the plastic humane traps but they weren't very successful. So bought 8 of the original wooden spring traps and found that 1cm cubes of mars bars are the best bait, any chocolate will do but something sticky that will stay stuck in position, don't waste your time with cheese They are a bit tricky put down without them triggering but you get the hang of it. 
So put 4 each side of the attic again a wall - then consistently for about a week got 2 or 3 each day, gave up counting at 20, obviously reduced the number of traps and ended up using a couple and in due course no more mice. The chocolate looses it smellability to attract after a day or so and needs replacing. I used pointed pliers to open/release the body from the trap and shook the mouse body loose at the end of the garden - they disappeared so something must have eaten them.


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## TomGW (4 Feb 2021)

My daughter had a mouse problem after moving into a 10 year old house. I eventually found the ‘source’ and resolved the issue. The mice were using the mains cable duct to enter the external electric meter box and from there into the wall cavity. I sealed the end of the duct, around the cable, with silicone liberally stuffed with a handful of 50mm wood screws, pointed end first. Now 5 years later, not another single mouse.


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## Glitch (4 Feb 2021)

We've had mice on and off for years. 
Definitely recommend steel wool. I plugged a gap where water and waste pipe come through the wall.
Mesh over air bricks also worth installing.

Tried retail poison and different traps and I know it's controversial but glue traps work best.


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## Gant (4 Feb 2021)

We heard rats in our attic, and called in the council. The gentleman put down poison, and the problem went away. Then the smell started. We had just put a new floor down in our front room, and we were not about to rip it up, but that’s where the rotting carcass lay. We suffered 6 weeks of stink, we couldn’t use the room, and then a plague of huge houseflies. 

What we learned: 
Rats and mice crawl up wall cavities and down-pipes. 
Don’t use poison, use traps


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## Rorschach (4 Feb 2021)

Gant said:


> We heard rats in our attic, and called in the council. The gentleman put down poison, and the problem went away. Then the smell started. We had just put a new floor down in our front room, and we were not about to rip it up, but that’s where the rotting carcass lay. We suffered 6 weeks of stink, we couldn’t use the room, and then a plague of huge houseflies.
> 
> What we learned:
> Rats and mice crawl up wall cavities and down-pipes.
> Don’t use poison, use traps



Poison is great for outside but not inside a house, the council chap should have known that.


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## MusicMan (4 Feb 2021)

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've ordered steel wool and expanding foam, and though I can't find any obvious external holes or air bricks I shall get the lower level of the house walls repointed (it is render above about 12" above the soil).

There is no grass nearby but there is a fruit tree on one side of the house. I'll investigate to see if there is access to the eaves from there.


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## johnny (4 Feb 2021)

Trainee neophyte said:


> A hole big enough for a pencil is big enough for a mouse, allegedly. I am overrun with cats, and mice, and sometimes rats. The most effective solution is poison. I would worry that expanding foam would just make a warm, snuggly mouse house - perfect nesting material.



I hope that your suggestion of using poison doesn't extend to cats !??? if it does that would be extremely offensive to most Brits who are a nation of animal lovers by and large. perhaps you might wish clarify your statement lest you leave a wrong impression of yourself on this forum


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## Trainee neophyte (4 Feb 2021)

johnny said:


> I hope that your suggestion of using poison doesn't extend to cats !??? if it does that would be extremely offensive to most Brits who are a nation of animal lovers by and large. perhaps you might wish clarify your statement lest you leave a wrong impression of yourself on this forum


Ah, yes. I can see how I may have misworded that. Cats are not intentionally poised, and I actually try really hard to make sure that they don't find poisoned rodents, despite the fact that they are rubbish at catching mice and rats. Snakes, lizards, baby tortoises, endless insects are all murdered enthusiastically by the cats but they seem to have some sort of rapprochement with the rodents. Still, we have owls who eat cats, so the cycle of life turns on. Never a dull moment here.


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## D_W (4 Feb 2021)

Source elimination here, closing and then poisoning of the mice (or trapping). The rubber hits the road on this stuff on larger farms (mice and rats - especially when rats become a problem) and poison is the only thing that works in that case. 

Typical here on a diversified farm for the older folks to be scared of all snakes, kill all the saw and then keep 50 or so unhealthy cats outside on the property with the runs and gooey eyes, etc. I thought the cats were almost as bad as the rats at that point, and no pile of sawdust wasn't filled with surprise (cat) turds.

Rounds of poison are generally done in that case. We had a few mice in the house (attic - I guess they went up the walls) when I moved to where I am (no outdoor cats around - in our 100 house section of the neighborhood I have only once in a while seen a single gray and white cat - people don't have outdoor cats here). I poisoned them - 15 years later, I haven't seen them back. Same for the birds - rarely see any large birds in the middle of the dense housing other than crows. Hawks are too timid and stay in the outlying areas and parks.


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## D_W (4 Feb 2021)

(or maybe we just poisoned all of the neighborhood hawks and owls!!)


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## Ttrees (4 Feb 2021)

An interesting fact about raptors (I thought)...from an Irish raptor website,
was that they have no interest in killing anything after they have had their dinner,
and will happily share a space with a pigeon without even looking at them.

So as long as you have enough mice, they won't go for anything else which you might like to have around.
I hope this is true, well 'our'  buzzard, happily shares the same trees with the magpies, maybe I should have said that the opposite way round.

Don't really see any other 'companion' birds doing so, although the brave robins and sketchy blackbirds don't seem to care.
Haven't seen a finch or bluetit in some time though.


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## tdsoldgit (4 Feb 2021)

We had a couple of mice a day in our humane traps even though we left the mice miles away. (Not every day, but annoyingly often). But more kept coming.
So I got some stainless wire mesh and 'no nails' glue and attached the mesh to the air bricks. I've not seen a sign of them since.









Rodent Airbrick RatMesh Stainless Steel Mesh Rolls (16 LPI x 0.4mm Wire) ECONOMY | eBay


This is the industry standard grade of stainless steel. - 0.4mm wire thickness. We operate out of a very large factory in Warrington. We have very accurate guillotines, cutting, slitting and bending machines.



www.ebay.co.uk





Good luck.


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## Titan_uk (4 Feb 2021)

MusicMan said:


> Thanks for all the suggestions. I've ordered steel wool and expanding foam, and though I can't find any obvious external holes or air bricks I shall get the lower level of the house walls repointed (it is render above about 12" above the soil).
> 
> There is no grass nearby but there is a fruit tree on one side of the house. I'll investigate to see if there is access to the eaves from there.



like others have said hard to keep them out.. make sure there's no nests in your attic first or you'll be trapping them in. Then you'll need to investigate any air hole bricks under the eaves .. they probably aren't tarzaning from a tree, they will probably be simply walking up your wall to where a hole about a 1.5 x a 1p pence is so make sure any mesh size is less than that also and bear in mind it's entirely possible they've snuggled down inside your cavity wall if you have one.


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## Woody2Shoes (4 Feb 2021)

Rorschach said:


> Poison is great for outside but not inside a house, the council chap should have known that.


It's suboptimal for outside too.


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## Woody2Shoes (4 Feb 2021)

The thing you really don't want in your attic is squirrels (damhikt)...


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## Rorschach (4 Feb 2021)

Woody2Shoes said:


> It's suboptimal for outside too.



Well yes, but it's a lot better than trapping generally, and is easy for anyone to do themselves.


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## Oraclebhoy (5 Feb 2021)

Rorschach said:


> If you are not willing to kill them then you are not going to solve the problem. Mice communicate, once one has made a path into your property they will keep coming until you kill off enough them to break that chain. Sealing a house against them isn't impossible but can be very difficult as others have pointed out they need only a tiny gap to squeeze through.


A chap I worked with bought some catch and release traps. He was releasing the mice he was catching in the field at the bottom of his garden, After a month of doing this he started to mark the mice with some lipstick on its back. Sure enough it was the same bunch coming back after he released them away from the house.
He changed the traps to the other kind.
No more issues


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## OBr (5 Feb 2021)

Use copper mesh from Amazon to block holes. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VIIX4OC/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_imm_awdb_G1N89YA997Q88SPXRY36
You can also use uv fluorescent powder to find where ingress occurs.


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## pgrbff (5 Feb 2021)

marcros said:


> Couldn't you eat those?


We have those too. Despite being an absolute menace they are protected in Italy.


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## pgrbff (5 Feb 2021)

Lazurus said:


> Whilst it sounds like a fairy story a friend of mine had mouse issues in an old suffolk thatched cottage, beleive it or not he used very strong double sided tape on areas like beams where a trap was not viable and he caught and disposed of several dozen over a winter. When he got up the little critters were solidly stuck to the tape, remove dispose and replace tape.


You can buy tubes of non setting glue to put on pieces of card or board. Not a nice way to go.


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## Oraclebhoy (5 Feb 2021)

I constantly have four mice traps down in the garage as we get them coming from the surrounding fields.
We occasionally get rats cutting across our back garden, they seem to go between houses either side of us. Our neighbour had an air rifle set up next to the backdoor to take shots at them as the walked from our fence to his other neighbours fence.
Never liked rats, made the mistake of cornering one when I was working in a warehouse, only way for it to escape was to run and jump towards me. I ducked . Spent weeks using poison and collecting the bodies. Not a fun job.


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## JAW911 (5 Feb 2021)

We have a very old house with no way to have blocked mice from entering. So four or five years ago I bought three or four of those plug-in pest deterrent devices and set them around the house, with one in a cupboard which always gad droppings appearing. The nightly scratching in the attic continued for perhaps two weeks and then no mice anywhere in the house since. Also incidentally almost no spiders either, as advertised.


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## porker (5 Feb 2021)

pgrbff said:


> We have those too. Despite being an absolute menace they are protected in Italy.


Glis glis are also protected here in the UK. You have to pay a licenced pest controller who has to use one of about 3 approved traps (one being the fen trap) and they have to be killed not relocated. They are only in a smallish part of southern England as they escaped years ago from a private collection. Sort of a cross between a mouse and a squirrel


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## niemeyjt (5 Feb 2021)

As others mention, decaying rodents have a smell of their own!

So if you use a trap near a void, make sure you tie the trap to something secure with string. That way, the death throes of a trapped mouse won't take the trap into the void where it may become inaccessible . . . and smelly.


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## marcros (5 Feb 2021)

I wonder whether there is some form of essential oil that may deter them too. Not sure which, I am sure that some research will tell you but a drop or two of something like teatree oil might support other strategies. 

Don't use lemongrass oil, that one may attract swarms of bees!


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## Rorschach (5 Feb 2021)

marcros said:


> I wonder whether there is some form of essential oil that may deter them too. Not sure which, I am sure that some research will tell you but a drop or two of something like teatree oil might support other strategies.
> 
> Don't use lemongrass oil, that one may attract swarms of bees!



Check out Shawn Woods youtube channel, he tests mousetraps of all kinds as well as deterrents etc.


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## Just4Fun (5 Feb 2021)

JAW911 said:


> So four or five years ago I bought three or four of those plug-in pest deterrent devices and set them around the house, with one in a cupboard which always gad droppings appearing. The nightly scratching in the attic continued for perhaps two weeks and then no mice anywhere in the house since.


@JAW911 : Do you happen to have a link to the devices you used? I have tried a number of them and not found them to be effective.

For those who use poison, do you use the type of poison that is supposed to make the mice thirsty so they go outside in search of water? If so, does that work?


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## Just4Fun (5 Feb 2021)

marcros said:


> I wonder whether there is some form of essential oil that may deter them too.


I have read that mice do not like mint. I do not know if that is true.


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## Krome10 (5 Feb 2021)

johnny said:


> most Brits who are a nation of animal lovers by and large.



By and not large imo, as so many aisles in supermarkets show. The amount of times I've heard someone say "I love animals more than people" while tucking into a meat / cheese / etc sandwich is mind blowing. Sticking it in a can / freezer / carton / polystyrene tray somehow detaches people from the fact it was once living. It's bonkers. 

As for the actual topic, another +1 for wire wool. I took a punt on a hole I suspected they were coming through, but in reality thought I didn't stand a chance of solving the problem so quickly. But it did! Since then I did notice a stoat run from one side to the other in the loft. Not sure who was most surprised!


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## johnny (5 Feb 2021)

Trainee neophyte said:


> Ah, yes. I can see how I may have misworded that. Cats are not intentionally poised, and I actually try really hard to make sure that they don't find poisoned rodents, despite the fact that they are rubbish at catching mice and rats. Snakes, lizards, baby tortoises, endless insects are all murdered enthusiastically by the cats but they seem to have some sort of rapprochement with the rodents. Still, we have owls who eat cats, so the cycle of life turns on. Never a dull moment here.


yes its a pity that we don't have the natural animal eco system here in the UK anymore . If you pull something out of the food chain you can bet that it will end up being a 'Key' species which will upset the whole chain eventually. European Eagle Owls is one that comes to mind...gorgeous birds.
We have reintroduced Kites, Eagles, Beavers, and a few other Native species but hopefully they won't go so far as bringing back Brown Bears and Wolves lol.

I am surprised that cats don't catch and eat mice over there. Our cats are always bringing in live mice voles and shrews and baby rats and our Tom cat always eats them usually just leaving the tail ....yuk


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## johnny (5 Feb 2021)

Krome10 said:


> By and not large imo, as so many aisles in supermarkets show. The amount of times I've heard someone say "I love animals more than people" while tucking into a meat / cheese / etc sandwich is mind blowing. Sticking it in a can / freezer / carton / polystyrene tray somehow detaches people from the fact it was once living. It's bonkers.
> 
> As for the actual topic, another +1 for wire wool. I took a punt on a hole I suspected they were coming through, but in reality thought I didn't stand a chance of solving the problem so quickly. But it did! Since then I did notice a stoat run from one side to the other in the loft. Not sure who was most surprised!


it is bonkers isn't it. I am guilty of subconsciously divorcing myself from the real source of my food . You have a Stoat !? wow.. would you consider hiring it out ?


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## Krome10 (5 Feb 2021)

johnny said:


> You have a Stoat !? wow.. would you consider hiring it out ?



That depends on whether you intend to put it down your trousers


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## johnny (5 Feb 2021)

Krome10 said:


> That depends on whether you intend to put it down your trousers


noooo thats Ferrets ...Stoats are probably pound for pound the most savage hunter in the animal kingdom. They can take down prey like rabbits 20x their own size . Their bite is like a demented jack hammer so fast its like a blur ...ask me how I know !


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## Krome10 (5 Feb 2021)

Krome10 said:


> That depends on whether you intend to put it down your trousers





johnny said:


> ...ask me how I know !



You didn't??! 

Seriously though, I feel bad now for nonchalantly and interchangeably thinking of ferrets and stoats in the same breath. That's some terrible type casting and bordering on discrimination! 



johnny said:


> ...ask me how I know !



Come on then, you can't not tell us now...


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## Just4Fun (5 Feb 2021)

johnny said:


> hopefully they won't go so far as bringing back Brown Bears and Wolves lol


Scientists back reintroducing wolves to Scotland


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## Rorschach (5 Feb 2021)

Just4Fun said:


> Scientists back reintroducing wolves to Scotland



Sounds great in principle but it will last up until the day one person gets mauled/killed by a wolf, then they will all be shot.


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## Just4Fun (5 Feb 2021)

There are supposedly wolves in our area but I have never seen one outside of zoo. I did see what I thought was a wolf. It came up on our decking to the front door, which was a bit worrying. It turned out to be someone's hunting dog but I couldn't tell the difference and would not want to tangle with either.

There are also bears and I have never seen one of those, but I have seen evidence of them being close, as in tracks across our garden and our neighbour's bee hive being demolished by a bear trying to get the honey.

I have seen lynx, but only once.

With all these things it is nice to see them - so long as it is at a distance and I am within reach of safety. I don't want to encounter large animals close by when I am out for a walk.


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## Glitch (5 Feb 2021)

We have lynx here in London.


Quite common. They do stink though.


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## johnny (5 Feb 2021)

Krome10 said:


> You didn't??!
> 
> Seriously though, I feel bad now for nonchalantly and interchangeably thinking of ferrets and stoats in the same breath. That's some terrible type casting and bordering on discrimination!
> 
> ...


when I was a kid I caught a Stoat and I held it up in my hand and in the space of a blink of an eye it bit me about 20 times around my thumb and forefinger. It was still biting me when I tried to shake it off my hand !....


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## johnny (5 Feb 2021)

Just4Fun said:


> With all these things it is nice to see them - so long as it is at a distance and I am within reach of safety. I don't want to encounter large animals close by when I am out for a walk.


Exactly !... nice to see Mountain lions and Bears from the safety of your log cabin .People have been knocked off their bicycles dragged into the bushes and eaten by Mountain Lions in California. Puts a whole new dimension on '...just going for a ride on my bike '....


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## Creekhash (5 Feb 2021)

Hi . This is my first posting . Regarding JWC 911 comments we also live in a very old farmhouse , surrounded by orchards . We use Lentek PR40 plug in Pest devices and have no mice in the house


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## ColinH2O (5 Feb 2021)

I find a 12 bore equally effective against both mice and rats!


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## Bm101 (5 Feb 2021)

Creekhash said:


> Hi . This is my first posting . Regarding JWC 911 comments we also live in a very old farmhouse , surrounded by orchards . We use Lentek PR40 plug in Pest devices and have no mice in the house View attachment 102784


Hello and welcome. Not disparaging in any sense, do you have pets, dogs? Just wondering if the audio range would bother other animals. Looks like a good solution.
Also, pssst ... Got any cider for sale? 

On the wire wool solution, for those situations where it is viable, copper mesh might be better. You can ram it into small crevices etc and if exposed is weatherproof. 

We have two maine coons, (cat breed, the Mrs' cats, not mine) famously good hunters. The male is just a small dog that sleeps all day and follows me down to the shed. Top lad, cr*p cat. The female is an obsessed killer. 2 or 3 mice a day at times. (We have woods behind the house.) Also sadly, shrews. (Rivers also). But also brings live prey into the house in a misguided effort to turn dog cat into killer cat. She drops them in front of him and he'll do stuff like sit on them. Really. Useless Pri*k. In all honesty, never had so many rodents in the house since we had cats. I found a pisse* off looking starling in the toilet once. I'm not even kidding.





He was alright in the end. Dried him out with a hair dryer.
Few wood pigeons the cat caught got stripped of feathers and met with a more grisly end at the end of my strictly legal air rifle I bought off my mate Alan when I was 15 for twenty notes and some skateboard wheels. Tasted fine although not hung.
Edited for last comment: Personally I like the cats but I'd far rather have the birds back in the garden.


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## artie (5 Feb 2021)

ColinH2O said:


> I find a 12 bore equally effective against both mice and rats!


I have in the past dispatched a few rats with a 12 bore but it's overkill. As for mice I would never have dreamed of it.

I have seen .22 shot shells which can be fired from a rifle inside a barn but have not used them other than to fire at a cardboard box to assess potential damage.


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## JAW911 (5 Feb 2021)

We have dogs and they happily sit/sleep in one of the rooms with one of the electronic deterrent devices. I bought them on Amazon and will see if there is a current link. It has a random frequency which apparently is vital as otherwise they get used to it and ignore it.


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## CornishWoodworker (6 Feb 2021)

I catch and release at least a mile from house


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## Rorschach (6 Feb 2021)

CornishWoodworker said:


> I catch and release at least a mile from house



It would be more humane to kill them in a trap. Releasing far from their territory almost certainly causes a slow stressful death.


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## Phill05 (6 Feb 2021)

I remember when I were a lad and worked on a farm the boss showed me how to get rid of the mice in the feed room he would slowly move a bag of feed and quick as a flash go under with his other hand and make a grab for what was there and come out squeezing them dead and say that's how you do it lad, I did it for a while then one day took my ferret and shut him in he did far better than any of us until boss went in one day and come running out screaming with ferret hanging on tight to his thumb guess who got a telling off (not politely)


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## Creekhash (6 Feb 2021)

We do not have any pets , so not sure if the audio device's affect any other animals in the house .


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## Krome10 (7 Feb 2021)

Rorschach said:


> It would be more humane to kill them in a trap. Releasing far from their territory almost certainly causes a slow stressful death.



How come? Do they try to get home and fail? Or? 

We once considered humane traps but then figured that if you catch a mother and take it away the babies will die. I've no idea what the life cycle of mice is, for how long babies are reliant on their mothers, etc. So that might be complete b0ll0cks! In the end, the wire wool in the hole fixed it for us so I never bothered or needed to look into it further...


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## Rorschach (7 Feb 2021)

Krome10 said:


> How come? Do they try to get home and fail? Or?
> 
> We once considered humane traps but then figured that if you catch a mother and take it away the babies will die. I've no idea what the life cycle of mice is, for how long babies are reliant on their mothers, etc. So that might be complete b0ll0cks! In the end, the wire wool in the hole fixed it for us so I never bothered or needed to look into it further...



If not taken far enough away from "home" they just come back so the problem isn't solved. If you take them far enough away that they can't come back the stress caused by being in an unknown location basically causes them to die a much nastier death. This of course doesn't even include the stress from being trapped in the first place, possibly for hours before being found, transported and released. 

Prevention is better than cure in my opinion, stop them getting into the house in the first place is always the best policy, but once they are in, a humane killing trap is the best solution.


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## Krome10 (7 Feb 2021)

Thanks for explaining.



Rorschach said:


> Prevention is better than cure in my opinion, stop them getting into the house in the first place is always the best policy



Totally agree. It worked for us and we found the entry point quite quickly. I guess for others it might be more difficult to find, but then isn't that half the "fun"?


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## JAW911 (7 Feb 2021)

The devices I have are no longer available on Amazon but I did have a look and there are many listed there if you search there for ‘electronic pest deterrent’. Important to find one with random/variable frequency.


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## llangatwgnedd (7 Feb 2021)

Stainless Steel Scouring Pads Pushed in to the gaps.


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## ossieosborne (9 Feb 2021)

You still can't beat "Little Nippers" baited with peanut butter or sultanas/raisins


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## AJS2018 (10 Feb 2021)

stuckinthemud said:


> If using live traps, drop the mice off along way away, we had mice which I released a half mile off, came straight back, caught and released them 3 miles away, problem solved.


How did you know it was the same mouse? They all look the same to me...


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## artie (10 Feb 2021)

AJS2018 said:


> How did you know it was the same mouse? They all look the same to me...


It's like people on the train, you get to recognise then after a while


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## stuckinthemud (10 Feb 2021)

Funny thing, some mice like getting into traps, I supported some environment students who were surveying a woodland embankment. They trapped/marked/released mice over a few weeks and found certain mice kept coming back, warm safe room with tasty snacks supplied....


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## Droogs (10 Feb 2021)

I keep reading this thread as block of mince and it piques my interest everytime, until i realise not meat involved per say


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## mikej460 (10 Feb 2021)

Bm101 said:


> Hello and welcome. Not disparaging in any sense, do you have pets, dogs? Just wondering if the audio range would bother other animals. Looks like a good solution.
> Also, pssst ... Got any cider for sale?
> 
> On the wire wool solution, for those situations where it is viable, copper mesh might be better. You can ram it into small crevices etc and if exposed is weatherproof.
> ...


Well I'm with you there only we have 8 of 'em! All Maine Coons but only two are allowed out, one like your female a born killer of anything with a pulse (the record is nine field voles in a day), the other brings in live stuff but not only mice, we've had a squirrel, magpie, various amphibians and a water rail! The others have a large run and bring in worms, frogs, shrews and the odd careless sparrow that ventures into their lair.


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## Nick Laguna UK (11 Feb 2021)

Rorschach said:


> If you take them far enough away that they can't come back the stress caused by being in an unknown location basically causes them to die a much nastier death. This of course doesn't even include the stress from being trapped in the first place, possibly for hours before being found, transported and released.


Really? - I hope not. The ones I caught keep me updated on micebook - they loved their initial biscuits and peanut butter - and are now enjoying their new adventures in Leicester - several have since taken up new hobbies.
Seriously I didn't want to kill them - giving them at least a chance was fair I think. If they end up as fox/hawk food then that's down to them, but yup what a story for them to tell the grandkids.. if they do make it


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## Terrytpot (11 Feb 2021)

My father's caravan interior was pretty much destroyed by mice who managed to get in via the sink drain hose we think. Mathias has had frequent visits from them from his previous rural existence and did quite a decent job of showing what they can get up to..


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## Just4Fun (19 Mar 2021)

Just4Fun said:


> There are supposedly wolves in our area but I have never seen one outside of zoo.


Uh-oh. Strange tracks appeared in the snow in our front garden overnight. I am unreliably informed (by my son, who at least claims to know something about this) that they could be wolf or wolverine. My wife has seen a wolverine here and neighbours have said there are wolves around so either is a possibility. Hard to make a positive ID because the tracks are not too clear, but son says it looks like whatever it was has been chasing a fox. If it is big enough and vicious enough to hunt foxes it is not something I want to encounter in my garden.


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