Mice or not?

tony glenn

We heard some mice-type noises above our bedroom for a few nights. I went up and searched the attic as best I could....but couldn't find even the slightest trace of any visitors. No droppings at all, no damage or chew marks anywhere...in fact, nothing to indicate anything had been there. It's a fairly new house, so the attic is clean and dry, it would be easy enough to see droppings on the timber, plasterboard and insulation, and I really searched hard. I then put down two mouse traps and two rat traps. Modern fancy traps with recommended bait. No noise overnight, and all the traps untouched today.
We're semi-detached and the neighbour is going to check her side tomorrow, and put down traps and check for signs.
So two questions. Do rodents ever visit a house and then feck off? Also, can they climb up to the roof inside drainpipes? We can't see any other way in.
My wife thinks it might have been birds.. surely not?

pixbyjohn

Leave the traps in the attic, if there is anything there it would be a mouse rather than a rat I would think. The other good spot for a mouse trap is on the floor in the hot press. Mice will want food so won't hang around in the attic and starve:P
Mice & rats can climb through the house without too much trouble, usually following pipe and cable runs.
As the temperature has dropped in the past week mice will pay a visit to your warm home.
Peanut butter as bait is great also.

DBB

Thread moved from Animals + Pets as discussion of vermin control is against the charter.
Please be aware that a new charter applies from hereon in.
Thanks,
DBB

tony glenn

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Leave the traps in the attic, if there is anything there it would be a mouse rather than a rat I would think. The other good spot for a mouse trap is on the floor in the hot press. Mice will want food so won't hang around in the attic and starve:P
Mice & rats can climb through the house without too much trouble, usually following pipe and cable runs.
As the temperature has dropped in the past week mice will pay a visit to your warm home.
Peanut butter as bait is great also.

Thanks for the advice. Any thoughts on the lack of evidence? Surely you'd expect to see at least one dropping.....

Ashbx

I wouldn't completely rule out birds either. My parents had a birds nest in their roof of their house for a long while. They kept coming back each year!

tony glenn

Ashbx wrote: »

I wouldn't completely rule out birds either. My parents had a birds nest in their roof of their house for a long while. They kept coming back each year!

Thanks! That's cheered my wife up...if only for today lol! Still no further sounds, still no sign of movement near the traps.

Jim 77

It could be bats. I have bats in my attic that seem to live in a small hole in the apex of the gable end. Bat droppings can be seen but they are more like black flakes than typical mice or bird droppings. I've never heard them entering or leaving the attic but I've seen them from outside.

As you probably know, bats are a protected species, so if you have them then you probably need to contact a "bat expert" to find out what to do.

bren2001

tony glenn wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. Any thoughts on the lack of evidence? Surely you'd expect to see at least one dropping.....

I caught 12 mice in my hour 2 years ago. There was never any "evidence" of them being around.

my3cents

Easy way to check is to feed the little buggers. Get something like a small ash tray and put about 100 grams of wild bird food in it then weigh it to the nearest couple of grams then put it up in the attic over night. In the morning look to see if any has been eaten and weigh whats left. They might have taken it away but iirc mice eat about 10 grams of food a day and rats 25 grams.

tony glenn

my3cents wrote: »

Easy way to check is to feed the little buggers. Get something like a small ash tray and put about 100 grams of wild bird food in it then weigh it to the nearest couple of grams then put it up in the attic over night. In the morning look to see if any has been eaten and weigh whats left. They might have taken it away but iirc mice eat about 10 grams of food a day and rats 25 grams.

I checked yesterday morning, nothing had changed. I went up a couple of hours later...one medium size very dead rat in the trap.
Disposed of and trap reset, I'll check again this morning. I also blocked all the gutter downpipes with crushed wire netting, can't see any other way it could have got in. Semi-detached, so the neighbour is also setting traps, and has blocked their downpipes as well.
And promised not to leave their front and back doors open!

my3cents

what did you bait the trap with?

tony glenn

my3cents wrote: »

what did you bait the trap with?

The trap was pre-baited with some sort of dark goo (Big Cheese Traps)
but I added a little Denny Luncheon Roll....ham and chicken.

my3cents

tony glenn wrote: »

The trap was pre-baited with some sort of dark goo (Big Cheese Traps)
but I added a little Denny Luncheon Roll....ham and chicken.

Its always good to know what people are using because there are still a lot that would bait a trap with a dry old bit of cheese and then wonder why they'd caught nothing.

fred funk }{

I use a bit of a Rollo chocolate. It doesn't spoil if left there like other bait and works great.

tony glenn

fred funk }{ wrote: »

I use a bit of a Rollo chocolate. It doesn't spoil if left there like other bait and works great.

Ha! For a moment, I thought when you said 'it doesn't spoil' you were going to say you could eat it later if they didn't!

fred funk }{

tony glenn wrote: »

Ha! For a moment, I thought when you said 'it doesn't spoil' you were going to say you could eat it later if they didn't!

I've eaten worse..lol

tony glenn

fred funk }{ wrote: »

I've eaten worse..lol

Ratatouille?

batman1

You need to find out where they get in. Make a really good survey outside. I doubt they are getting in via drainpipes especially in a new house. I'd place a bet there's a hole in the outside walls of one of the houses.

I had the same problem with our new house some years ago, albeit mice.

Turns out they were getting in behind the boiler in the neighbours house where it's against the back wall.

Edward M

Have you thought of this?
https://youtu.be/lgZQ8gyUlwI

amtc

I was reading this feeling rather delighted that I had no mice (I had some three years ago - at the time I caught one using peanut butter but saw another one and called in pros). I only put on my heat for the first time this year Sunday. I read somewhere that if you put tea bags in corners it repels mice, so was feeling all very smug here. No droppings. No noise.

Anyway I was up at 8.20 and my housemate was coming in from her nightshift ( we very rarely see each other) at the same time. She screamed walking in the front door. I screamed walking from sitting room into kitchen. A small little dark thing with a long tail ran from radiator under fridge. Both of us ran upstairs, and I rang guy who happened to live a road down and I now have 5 bait things set plus mesh over vents front and back. He does this over a four week cycle. Wasn't that expensive.

Serves me right for being smug!

tony glenn

amtc wrote: »

I was reading this feeling rather delighted that I had no mice (I had some three years ago - at the time I caught one using peanut butter but saw another one and called in pros). I only put on my heat for the first time this year Sunday. I read somewhere that if you put tea bags in corners it repels mice, so was feeling all very smug here. No droppings. No noise.

Anyway I was up at 8.20 and my housemate was coming in from her nightshift ( we very rarely see each other) at the same time. She screamed walking in the front door. I screamed walking from sitting room into kitchen. A small little dark thing with a long tail ran from radiator under fridge. Both of us ran upstairs, and I rang guy who happened to live a road down and I now have 5 bait things set plus mesh over vents front and back. He does this over a four week cycle. Wasn't that expensive.

Serves me right for being smug!

We've been ok since we caught the culprit, traps still down and checking every morning. Drainpipes covered with wire netting, so fingers crossed. Good luck with your situation!

BarryD2

tony glenn wrote: »

We've been ok since we caught the culprit, traps still down and checking every morning. Drainpipes covered with wire netting, so fingers crossed. Good luck with your situation!

Keep checking. Once rats get an idea in their heads as to where they want to live, they seem to be hard to shift. But hopefully you've stopped that idea developing. They can be amazing climbers, I've seen them climb a vertical wall on the pebble dash. You can also get a device that plugs in and emits a high pitched noise they don't like but you'd need a power supply in the attic for that.

tony glenn

BarryD2 wrote: »

Keep checking. Once rats get an idea in their heads as to where they want to live, they seem to be hard to shift. But hopefully you've stopped that idea developing. They can be amazing climbers, I've seen them climb a vertical wall on the pebble dash. You can also get a device that plugs in and emits a high pitched noise they don't like but you'd need a power supply in the attic for that.

Thanks, Barry. Btw, I already have devices that emit high pitched noises. Apparently they're called grandchildren.....

amtc

The guy I got to deal with the mouse yesterday told me that the devices only work for a few seconds and then they get used to them. He showed me a picture of a mouse quite happily sitting on one.

vicwatson

Has anyone got RENTOKIL out? Pricey ??

amtc

The guy I got is ex Rentokil. Wasn't expensive. Can pm u his number