Mouse Control

We have 3 main types of mouse in this area, The House Mouse Mus musculus, The Yellow Breasted Field Mouse Apodemus witherbyi and the Wood Mouse Apodemus sylvaticus we will not describe each one separately albeit for the descriptions as treatments are pretty much the same and they are all as common as each other. The House Mouse is smaller than the other 2 and grey in appearance, The Field mouse is light brown with a yellow or cream belly and is mid-sized between the other two. The Wood mouse is the larger of the three and a darker brown colour with a paler belly, people often describe this one as looking like Mickey Mouse with his bulging eyes and sticky up ears 🙂 All three are found in all locations but the House Mouse would be the most common by far in towns and cities.

Whereas rats are relatively easy to treat mice are sometimes the complete opposite, mice have an ability to become resistant to poisons at the drop of a hat, it is often necessary to change the poison mid-term within a treatment if it is obvious that the initial one is not working. Coupled with the very large numbers that can infest and breed within the house or fabric of the house and treatments can be challenging even for professionals sometimes.

Mice are agile and can gain ingress to the house through unbelievably small entrance points as small as 4mm, yes 4mm !!!! There are few houses that mice would struggle to gain entry to. Like rats they are seriously destructive and often cause thousands of pounds worth of damage, one of the most common being the chewing of plastic water pipes which in turn causes flooding and damage. In houses mice most often infest the loft/roof area first and eventually find their way into the house following via water pipes and electric wires to most commonly the kitchen area, where upon they will begin to forage for food, often starting under the toaster to clean up crumbs, moving on to pasta and cereals in your cupboards later.

Mice are now an all year round pest, they seem to be affected by warm summers and winters that increase numbers in the wild, whereas cold winters suppress breeding, food being scarce in the wild is an important factor so if there are few acorns and chestnuts in the autumn expect to get more mice.

Mice are the cute cousin of rats and are often mistakenly put up with as people feel sorry for them… Don’t, a serious mouse infestation in our opinion is much worse than a rat infestation, not only do they increase their numbers faster than rats but they also carry all the same diseases as rats, something often overlooked by most people and this can cause some serious health issues.

Treatment is most often achieved by using poison in the loft area but it is quite normal to get “breakaway” infestations that nest within the house such as in the bottom of a sofa or armchair, in these situations it is necessary to place poison within the house which can be quite challenging to do safely without endangering children and pets so should be carried out only by a professional.