Mice house entry points

castan · 27-10-2020 10:30pm #1

I’m looking for someone in Cork who could identify mouse entry points and seal them up to prevent re-entry.
Anyone know what trades people might do this type of work.
Do pest control companies offer this service or do they just set poison?
Thanks

jenneyk19 · 27-10-2020 10:35pm

put poison down

you can look yourself

get a torch and go around every inside wall

look for mice poo small black like grains of rice

you will not seall every hole

walk around outside and look at roof leaves

they will go to your kitchen and live under stove and fridge

gozunda · 27-10-2020 10:37pm

Mice have extremely flexible skeletons and can get through a 6mm gap, that's about the size of the butt end of a pencil

Best of luck ....

Godeatsboogers · 27-10-2020 10:44pm

I'd suggest you get a cat but if you let it outside it will bring back alive and dead animals, you might save some of the animals from death, but eventually the cat will bite the head off the animals before the bring it back to prevent you saving its life.

Also, humane mouse traps are cheap. Some people have used the logic of 'they're only mice' to justify killing em, my justification for not killing them is the exact same

castan · 27-10-2020 11:09pm

Godeatsboogers wrote: »

I'd suggest you get a cat but if you let it outside it will bring back alive and dead animals, you might save some of the animals from death, but eventually the cat will bite the head off the animals before the bring it back to prevent you saving its life.

Also, humane mouse traps are cheap. Some people have used the logic of 'they're only mice' to justify killing em, my justification for not killing them is the exact same

Thanks for that.
A cat won’t work as we have 3 dogs, 1 which I def wouldn’t trust with cats. The dogs seem quite happy to hang out with mice strangely!
Im not keen on poison for lots of reasons.
My plan is to block all entry points and use humane traps to remove and bring them far away (from other houses too) for release.
We live upstairs in an old house so entry could be via pipes downstairs and so the requirement for someone who might think of all possibilities and seal correctly.

fred funk }{ · 27-10-2020 11:39pm

You're wasting your time trying to block entry points as they'll still get in. I recently saw one climb up an outside wall and into an open window on the 2nd floor of a house during the day.

Try avoid leaving any food about as that will attract them.

castan · 28-10-2020 12:01am

Thanks. They’re incredibly agile!

fred funk }{ wrote: »

You're wasting your time trying to block entry points as they'll still get in. I recently saw one climb up an outside wall and into an open window on the 2nd floor of a house during the day.

Try avoid leaving any food about as that will attract them.

castan · 28-10-2020 12:03am

Godeatsboogers wrote: »

I'd suggest you get a cat but if you let it outside it will bring back alive and dead animals, you might save some of the animals from death, but eventually the cat will bite the head off the animals before the bring it back to prevent you saving its life.

Also, humane mouse traps are cheap. Some people have used the logic of 'they're only mice' to justify killing em, my justification for not killing them is the exact same

Thanks for that.
A cat won’t work as we have 3 dogs, 1 which I def wouldn’t trust with cats. The dogs seem quite happy to hang out with mice strangely!
Im not keen on poison for lots of reasons.
My plan is to block all entry points and use humane traps to remove and bring them far away (from other houses too) for release.
We live upstairs in an old house so entry could be via pipes downstairs and so the requirement for someone who might think of all possibilities and seal correctly.

Sleeper12 · 28-10-2020 12:14am

We put in a hanging bird feeder on a bracket attached to the back wall of the house. We've seen a mouse scale the wall out onto the bracket and eat the bird feed. We've now moved the feeder away from the house. Not a good idea to have a food source so close to the back door.

28-10-2020 12:24am

My 14 year old Cat is great at catching mice. We live in the sticks so there is no shortage of mice.

Today I was in Carlow with one of my sons and the missus called me in a panic, a mouse had rad out from the press under the sink so I had to come home with such an "emergency" before I left for home I told her to get the cat off the bed and put him in the kitchen which she did.

I got home went into the kitchen, no Cat to be seen, went into the conservatory and there was the git asleep sunning himself on a nice cosy cushion so I picked him up and brought him to the kitchen, he wasn't pleased so I searched for the mouse and found him hiding in a corner, got the cat and the mouse legged it and started climbing one of the walls, the Cat jumped up got him in his mouth and I opened the door and he ran out.

where did the mouse get in ? anyone's guess, my Sons, nearly 5 and and 6 are always leaving doors open but they climb walls and can easily get in an open window, last year I get 5 in the attic.

Best thing ever I got in woodies was an electronic mouse trap, fantastic and kills them humanly by electrocution rather than make them suffer in a trap.

Fine Cheers · 28-10-2020 1:14am

Had a few every year in the attic. Think I found the route of entry - under patio door frame, small gap but probably enough. Filled with foam filler stuff out of a spray can. Attic seems quite enough now so hopefully that's that. Had issues with slightly bigger rodents knocking around the garden after erecting a new bird feeding table. Got local pest guy out. Put down some bait boxes (traps in a box) and poison blocks on straightened out coat hangers for under the timber shed. Took a few weeks but did the trick. Word of advice: Never ever dump cooking oil from chip pan into a hole in the ground. Stupid is as stupid does. Have one of those plug in yokes in the attic too, not working methinks.

jenneyk19 · 28-10-2020 1:16am

cats don't work as mice live in walls and attic

and pet food left out attracts mice into house

Stigura · 28-10-2020 10:11am

Castan; I take it you're in a detached property? Either way, you have 'neighbours' living down stairs?

Hoboo · 28-10-2020 10:16am

I'd avoid poison. Ended up with the worst smell I've ever experienced when one died. Found him two years later when slabbing the kitchen ceiling took a board off and out he fell....well what was left.

Also ended up with a dead cat after he caught a mouse a few years later, not sure if it was old stuff or a neighbour had put some down. Either way.

Used humane ones with peanut butter and they worked 10/10.

28-10-2020 11:05am

The electronic mouse trap I got in Woodies, was expensive, around 50 Euro's but all I have to do is put batteries in it which are on their 2nd season now, they last ages, put in some Nutella and the mice can't resist it, a green light flashes once the electric zap thing has been activated.

You can get one that catches I think up to 10 mice.

This is the one I have, in the video below I warn you not to watch after 4:23 if you are sensitive to images of dead rats and cooking rats.....

This video shows the multi mouse trap in action.

Forget poison which can cause mice to die in the house with an awful stench for months and cause them to drown in the water tank as the poison makes them thirsty as their internal organs fail, the electronic trap is just much more humane.

gozunda · 28-10-2020 1:41pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The electronic mouse trap I got in Woodies, was expensive, around 50 Euro's but all I have to do is put batteries in it which are on their 2nd season now, they last ages, put in some Nutella and the mice can't resist it, a green light flashes once the electric zap thing has been activated.

You can get one that catches I think up to 10 mice.

This is the one I have, in the video below I warn you not to watch after 4:23 if you are sensitive to images of dead rats and cooking rats.....

This video shows the multi mouse trap in action.

Forget poison which can cause mice to die in the house with an awful stench for months and cause them to drown in the water tank as the poison makes them thirsty as their internal organs fail, the electronic trap is just much more humane.

Had an older style fuse box years ago. Opened it to find a mouse had accessed it and had contacted the end of 2 terminals and so fried himself.

I reckon he didn't even know what hit him. There was no smell as he was well crisped....

28-10-2020 1:46pm

gozunda wrote: »

Had an older style fuse box years ago. Opened it to find a mouse had accessed it and had contacted the end of 2 terminals and so fried himself.

I reckon he didn't even know what hit him. There was no smell as he was well crisped....

Yep had to remove a fried mouse from the fuse board in my Aunts a few years ago.

Treedays · 28-10-2020 3:09pm

I bought the electric trap from screwfix which has very good reviews, and a couple of the cheap manual traps this summer. The manual traps caught 2 mice but they never went near the electric, despite it being in the same place (and 4 times the price)

28-10-2020 9:24pm

The trap, not the multi mouse trap but the single electric one I linked to above is excellent, put in Nutella and they'll be queuing up to be Zapped!

I had 4 of the plastic ones from Woodies and they eat the bait but the traps never went off.

Calahonda52 · 29-10-2020 10:21am

Deleted User wrote: »

The trap, not the multi mouse trap but the single electric one I linked to above is excellent, put in Nutella and they'll be queuing up to be Zapped!

I had 4 of the plastic ones from Woodies and they eat the bait but the traps never went off.

Have you put the multi meter across it?

looksee · 29-10-2020 10:35am

Agreed about not keeping them out, though I did improve the situation considerably in the last house when we got the kitchen re-done. There was a tiny gap round the edge of the room where the floorboards and wall did not meet, so I blocked it before the new cabinets went in and that sorted the vast majority of the cases.

In this house though Isaw a mouse race across the floor and disappear through a gap between a floorboard and the bottom of the architrave (awaiting a new floor) - a gap of maybe 5 or 6 mm. The mouse just poured itself through. We have 3 cats but they are more likely to bring mice in than catch then and take them out.

29-10-2020 10:36am

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Have you put the multi meter across it?

NO the voltage would be too high I'd say.....:D

fred funk }{ · 29-10-2020 12:57pm

I think mice are a lot more common in houses than people think. They're experts is escape and hiding. I recently had a small bag of bird seed on the floor in the back spare room and recently went to move it and noticed they had nibbled through the bottom of the bag at the back and were having a feast unbeknownst to me, didn't even suspect we had any mice in the house!

Mice house entry points

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