A mouse in the house

The rodenticide will still need to be laid by a Pest Controller though as they're not available to the general public. There's also another product called contact gel/foam thats a potent poison that can be applied where mice access but humans do not, and it works by sticking to their fur, then when they clean themselves they get poisoned. Electronic traps work well, but once they've gone off they need resetting and any other mice will climb over the dead mouse to eat the bait.

It's a big house, 8 flats all told. We're having some work done in Spring that might go some way to closing up a few holes, but closing up holes isn't a central part of the brief. I don't mind knowing the odd rat is wandering around anyway. I'm happy to share the place to some extent.

Well, think about it like this--once they're in the house, they'll keep gnawing away at it--it's what rodents do. Wood is very easy for them to get through, and they'll keep causing damage in that way. It's much better to keep them out of the house by reinforcing it at the bottom with stuff they can't get through so easily.

They can get through plasterboard, and will happily use expanding foam as bedding material too.

mice also make a lot of noise eating expanding foam which is not great for a good night's sleep.

I am on the second floor of a house on a canal in central Amsterdam. They are a constant problem. You get rid of them for a few weeks/maybe months, but they just go away and plan.

My cat has been catching a few mice this week. We’ve caught her catching mice outside and bringing them indoors to play with, usually in the bedroom, but this morning we woke to find a hole chewed in the bread bag and droppings all over the kitchen worktop. The cat was fast asleep on our bed for most of the night.
So today we head out and buy a bread bin and some traps. Happily we’re having a new kitchen fitted in a couple of weeks so when the old one has been ripped out we can go around and seal up any holes we find. In the meantime Dizzy will be stationed in the kitchen to earn her keep a bit more.

today we head out and buy a bread bin and some traps. Happily we’re having a new kitchen fitted in a couple of weeks

Yeah, a bit overkill.

I laid a couple of traps last night but the wee bastard had been all over the worktops and shat everywhere again. No food left out though.

Would a mouse take cat food though? There’s always biscuits and remains of wet food in her bowl, could that be an issue?

Mice eat anything. Including bars of soap and even salt sachets in my experience.

But in direct answer to your question, we've had mice eating our cat food before.

Saw a mouse yesterday for the first time since spring, set a trap and just got a call from the wife this morning to say job done. It's that time of year, it gets cold outside and in they come.

Hmm. My cat is not going to be pleased if we have to hide her biccies at night.

Greater incentive for them to eat the mice.

We have them in the office now. Hilarity Ensues

So I’m six weeks in a century+ old house which needs fixing up, previously unoccupied for possibly 12 months during house selling period.

I have expanded foam down where the skirting boards have been removed along with the shite laminate flooring.. Whilst I love to idea of bare floorboards, its too drafty..

I’ve got 12mm ply sheet substrate down for future parquet. GF says she can hear chewing of foam filler in dead of night.. I said let’s either get a cat or put down rodent traps with peanut butter, she is terrified of the night time noises, could be she won’t move in after all.. Le Sigh..

We had them in the office in my first ever job. The boss’ wife would bulk buy biscuits and store them in the kitchen cupboard and mice soon found their way in to this unlimited food source.

I used to be one of the first into the office and came in one morning to discover two live mice in a plastic bin left on my desk by the cleaner, with a note saying she couldn’t kill them so could I sort it out.

You’d have thought so, but it’s only the last two weeks that’s she’s actually made a half-hearted attempt to eat them. I’ve been woken by crunching sounds, which isn’t nice.

https://youtu.be/uAcniOCKtug

that noise they make with expanded foam really sucks.

I live in a Canal House in the centre of Amsterdam. It is now mainly wire-wool

That's some impressive catching by the cleaner.

Whatever you do don't google 'How to Euthanaze mice".

Yep wire wool ive tons of that stuff. We live about a mile from Beckton Sewerage Works and not far from Greenway (covered sewer main) cycle route.. no doubt the rodent population is pretty high at my ends.

wire wool inside the expanding foam ftw!

I left for work one day, back in the mouse infested days, at 5am. I came downstaira and made a coffee and a mouse and I gazed at each other for around 30 seconds. I then saod goodbye and set off on my commute.

That made me want to fill the holes a bit more

takeaways are far more likely to generate rodent populations than sewers or sewage works!

Of course, and we have more chicken shops per square mile here in East Ham / Echo Six than the rest of London combined

Gawd, if my GF sees a rodent in our house, I won’t hear the end of it..

Goddamnit, we've got mice in our ceiling. I have acces via one spot so put in some poison (already one bag eaten) and today I was able to fit in a trap.

GF already wants to call "a company" but I can't imagine they'll do more than what I've done...