A mouse in the house

Or it got behind the oven and you crushed it against the wall?

@kl
this

Savage

Thought that the mouse poison either thins the blood (warfarin in humans) or cause them to die via dehydration.

Apparently there is a commercial cinnamon smell chemical that is used to rid places of the smell of rotting meat once it gets in to the walls. No idea how true it is.

Warfarin kills rats by an interesting method - it thins the blood so much that the females bleed out when giving birth. Seeing as rats breed like, um, rabbits, all the females die off leaving the males with no-one to breed with. Rats only live for around two years, but even so it’s more of a long-term solution.
My dad took to shooting them with a .22 from my bedroom window. This was in Walthamstow in the 60’s.

interesting

Bratkartoffeln immer matschig!

You live in Toon Town?

I thought an anvil or grand piano was usual weapon of choice up them ends.

I run the management company for our block. We have a policy that mice are a matter for the residents of the flats, not for the management company. We live in a Victorian pub conversion: they will always be in the building. Whether they venture into the flats is a matter of what is in the flat, starting with food left out. We had a rat infestation a while back, but again that was caused by one of the residents leaving food offerings on a shrine in his living room. He said that at one point he saw five rats in there all at once. We got an exterminator in for that, as the noise of the rats charging through the voids of the building at night to get to this newly-discovered food source was deafening, but I'm convinced the only effective thing he did was to stop up their ingress hole and persuade the bloke to leave non-food offerings (a packet of fags, I shit you not) on his shrine. He put a ton of poison down, and the rats ate it and got sick – we saw a few wandering around looking poorly – but a massive sewer runs under our road so they will be quickly replaced.

You have to crush them, with ovens.

The mice just draw a new mouse hole in the wall and dissappear

a precariously positioned boulder right at the top of a big cliff is the best way to dispatch a mouse, what could possibly go wrong

That’s chickens my Wiley friend.

We’ve already established that mice are best dealt with using the Chalfie method of crushing to death using your oven.

A Dutch oven?

When it’s a little mouse with clogs on, yes.

Update - dogs arrived last night. The hunter dog spent the entire night chasing every noise he heard, barking at things behind walls, scarpering after any movement he saw. I'd propped the door slightly open so the ratfucks could get out. Pretty sure the boat is almost clear of vermin and any remaining are in terror of their lives. Tonight they die.

The remedial pup sat on his cushion, and occasionally got up to see what was going on.

I inherited a massive mouse problem when we moved into our house. At my most successful I caught 9 of them in two days. Probably caught 30 in total.

I've solved the problem, much to everyone's surprise considering the scope of the infestation. Haven't seen a mouse in a year. Therefore I feel qualified to offer my advice.

There are three principals and all must be met to be successful.

1. You have to catch them. Use more than one type of trap (modern baited kill traps AND a non-baited multi catch such as the Kness Ketch-All-Mousetrap)

2. You must clean your home like a neurotic. Take trash out every night, full or not.

3. You must find and seal all entry points. There's no way around this. I crawled around my foundation with a flashlight. Anything I could fit a pencil in I filled in with Cooper wool and then caulk.

We live in a Victorian pub conversion: they will always be in the building.

I doubt that that's a foregone conclusion. You can make a Victorian house perfectly mouse- and rat-proof. Obviously, it may be expensive, and they may get in again by making a new access in the future, but it will take them a lot of time.

He said that at one point he saw five rats in there all at once. We got an exterminator in for that

I think it's just disgusting to stop the rats from worshipping there.

You must find and seal all entry points. There's no way around this. I crawled around my foundation with a flashlight. Anything I could fit a pencil in I filled in with Cooper wool and then caulk.

This is what you should do first, of course, if you can (many people can't).

How expensive is expensive? A company called superproof has quoted me £500? I have a bedroom in the loft so obviously I would like to block all entry points but might be beyond my skills to get to all corners in the attic and on the roof.

How long is a piece of string? I'm afraid I have no idea what the market is like for this sort of work, but £500 doesn't seem excessive to me if it really solves the problem.

True, I like that they address the root cause rather than just treating the symptoms. I’ll try doing it myself first, and if needed get someone to have a look

That sounds like a load of money to me.

We renovated our house when we moved in, so I know it pretty well, bit didn't mouse proof when it was in bits.

I've since removed all the kitchen appliances twice to block all the holes, and covered the external air bricks with mesh.

There were droppings in the first floor bedrooms and behind the toilet in the bathroom (1st floor) so I stuffed wire wool round the water supply pipes.

The only bit they are allowed to roam is the cupboard under the stairs which I've done my best to mouse proof. There are glue traps in there which occasionally catch a mouse. We are the end house of a terrace of four, so I'm pretty sure they can travel freely beneath the houses

Tl:dr - give it a go yourself and leave no hole unplugged or uncovered

Just incase anyone is tempted to leave Warfrin down for the mice, chances are they're resistant to it. Cambridge university run a service that test dead mice for their resistance to anti coagulants that they use to advise pest controllers what particular poison is effective in which area. Although this doesn't mean anything if you can't get the mice to eat the bait.

Yeah I’ve heard this - the LA pest guys might be able to tell you what the local population are resistant to.