Mice Pests - Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Know If I Have a Mice Infestation?
Common signs include droppings (small, dark pellets), scratching noises in walls or ceilings, gnaw marks on food packaging or wires, and a noticeable musky odour. You may also spot nests made from shredded materials.
What Causes a Mouse Infestation?
Mice are looking for warmth and food sources – both are easily found inside the average UK home. Mice infestations are more likely during the winter months as they look for shelter when the weather turns colder.
Mice can enter through very small gaps, often as little as 6–7mm. Common entry points include cracks in walls, gaps around pipes, vents, and poorly sealed doors or windows. An easy route for entry is attractive to mice, and many modern properties have air bricks a few inches off the ground that have holes just the right size for mice to enter. But any hole into your property that you could fit a Bic pen into, is big enough for an adult mouse to squeeze through.
Mice are competent climbers and can easily climb the walls of a house looking for the tiniest holes to gain entry.
Although they are attracted by food particles not being cleaned away, even the cleanest of homes can attract mice as they only need a crumb left underneath a kitchen unit to provide them with a meal. Unlike rats, mice are don’t need a water source as they get all the moisture they need from their food.
If your home has lots of clutter it can provide an easy nesting site for mice. A garden with rotting vegetation is especially appealing as mice will nest under the leaves close to an easy food source such as easy access to pet food or bird food left out in the open.
Household waste is full of leftover food for mice to feast on – if rubbish is not cleared away or secured in bin stores and wheelie bins then this will attract mice.
Bowls of cat or dog food being left out overnight in the kitchen are firm favourite for house mice. This will provide them nutritious meals to enjoy in the dead of the night.
Where Can Mice be Found in the Home?
The first place that our Pest ID rodent control experts would inspect is the loft. A relatively warm, quiet, safe and dry area, it has the perfect conditions for mice. The mice will then head through the wall cavities towards the kitchen, where they go under worktops to feed off of the tiniest morsels of food left around the kitchen.
But mice are not fussy house guests, and will reside in any space in your home or garden that offers them food, warmth and nesting materials. This can be anywhere from wall cavities, lofts, garages, sheds, under floorboards, under kitchen cupboards and even inside furniture.
What Issues Can a Mouse Control Issue Cause?
As mice are rodents, their incisors (front teeth) never stop growing and they have to constantly gnaw to wear them down. If they don’t their teeth can become so deformed they cannot feed properly and will die, so this means they will gnaw at anything in their surroundings. Not only can they cause damage to possessions (like books and clothing) furniture, appliances, housing structure & insulation materials (cables, woodwork, cardboard and plastic), but gnawing from electrical wires is a major cause of house fires.
Although a single mouse only eats a tiny quantity of food, a single mouse never remains that for long. If conditions are right, two mice can become 1,000 mice within a year. One female mouse, with litters of between 5 and 12 per pregnancy, can give birth to up to 60 pups in a year. Females are sexually mature within 6 weeks, can fall pregnant immediately after giving birth, and will give birth again within 19 to 21 days. Such a huge volume of rodents will consume a huge quantity of food and cause a lot of destruction.
Mice are known carriers of pathogens – as they are often found in dirty areas, they will carry the bacteria from these places, along with fleas and other parasites, into your home causing a threat to both humans and pets. They also contaminate food with their urine, faeces, and hair.
Can I Get Rid of a Mouse Problem Myself?
You may be tempted to treat a mouse problem yourself, thinking that you only have a very slight infestation – but there is very rarely just one mouse. With their fast and efficient breeding cycle, one mouse can become many in just a few weeks. Shop bought rodenticide may not be strong enough or in sufficient enough quantity to kill the entire colony, and any that survive can become partially resistant to rodenticides. If these mice breed it can create offspring that are partially resistant too, leaving you with a much bigger problem than you started with.
And while it may feel easy for you to place rodenticide in your property, a DIY approach can lead to bait shyness, where other colony members can associate sickness or death with a food source – and then avoid it at all costs.
Humane trapping is often thought of as a good alternative to other methods, but this approach is full of problems. The humane traps need to be checked by law every 8 hours, and if a mouse is caught inside you need to either quickly dispatch it by killing it yourself, or release it back into the wild where it will either perish from exposure or starvation (as house mice have evolved to live inside), or re-enter your (or another persons) property.
If entry points are not sealed and food sources remain accessible, mice can return even after initial removal. Their ability to breed quickly also means infestations can re-establish if not fully addressed.
The professionals from Pest ID are trained to use measures such as spring traps – these require great care when setting up so they work correctly and incorrect use can leave the mice ‘trap shy’ if they associate injury or death with them, which leads to the learned behaviour of trap avoidance.
How I can Prevent Them From Coming Back?
To keep mice out of your property, the first step is to block off their access routes, sealing cracks and holes on the outside, including areas where pipes enter the home. Fit wire mesh over air bricks, and keep plants and bushes trimmed and cut back away from your house so mice are not hiding close to your property.
Remember, if you can fit a Bic pen through any hole in your property, a fully grown adult mouse will also be able to fit through.
Removing food sources is another good deterrent – so take measures such as storing food in airtight containers, disposing of rubbish regularly and properly, and keeping bin stores tidy.
By keeping sheds, garages and lofts well ventilated and dry, and free from rubbish and clutter, you can make these spaces less attractive to mice looking for a home. You can also try to repel mice using cotton wool balls soaked in peppermint and clove essential oils – leave these in any areas that are frequently attracting mice.
Although mice feel fear if they smell pheromones from cat urine, cats are not always the best deterrent as they have been known to bring live mice into houses where the mice may escape within the house!
