New build not finished caused infestation

ssparks2003

What have you done as a homeowner to remove the mice that are in the house since £6-7k implys a lot of longterm damage, surely traps and professionally laid bait etc would have reduced the numbers very quickly. Also upon first noticing the issue, other than getting onto the pest controller what did you as the homeowner do to remedy the situation of the mice walking in off the street? It sounds like you are waiting for the builder to resolve it, surely you could have arranged to fill some holes in this situation? 

BooJewels

deannatrois said:

However I was not able to find out how they were getting in the house, it was an old house so it could have been a number of places. 
[...]
I also put all food in containers (and checked them regularly)

The house we've had the infestation in is a 30s detached and the only place we found to be a likely culprit was that there's a vent panel on each run of wall - and there are a few, as it isn't square.  We fixed a fine gauge metal grille in front of each of these - so air still gets in.  We also filled around the couple of drain pipes coming out of walls. Along with the trapping (a dozen Little Nippers and a jar of PB) we also put any food we need for ourselves (I stay over to clear it when lockdown arrangements allow) in big plastic boxes, which keeps it safe for us.

I think we're clear of them now, haven't seen any new droppings or evidence for a few weeks.  So the vents must have been the entry points.  But as mentioned, they don't need a very big space to get in if motivated.  I thought a danger point would be when it got colder, but I think we've been okay.   Still leave loaded traps in key places though.

ProDave

This just yet again highlights the lousy build standards of most of the UK's housing.

In our last house we regularly got mice in the loft. They came in every winter at harvest time, driven out of the fields and we concluded they were entering through the obligatory roof soffit vents.

We have just built a new self build house, this one built completely air tight and super insulated (ventilated with heat recovery ventilation)  It is so air tight and sealed that no mouse has yet got in, and even spiders can only find their way in if we leave a window open.

It would be nice to think one day all UK houses will be built with as much care and detail as this but I doubt it.

getmore4less

Mice leave a trail everywhere. 

How long did you ignore the signs to get to that much damage?

Oh_Daesu

HI All, Basically below is a run down of what we did as you have asked!
We got the Local authority pest control in for about eight month's at £80 (TBH useless they are)
Spent about £160 on traps paid out about £400 on professional's to get rid of them (Big Help)
Not including wire wool, putty to fill in holes that they chewed through the corners of walls.
We even went away for weekend and laid down so many traps to catch them and came back to four dead over that weekend.

We were fine the first 15 months from what I understand from talking to the pest controllers is they had slowly been called out further and further up the estate as the houses were completed due to mice but this isn't all property's on the estate. Added to this the estate management company refuse to put down any bate box's on the estate.

Were constantly cleaning the house making sure its clean and tidy and the reason we are saying the damaged is worth 6/7K is we brought two new sofa's that the rodent's chewed in to and nested in one of them chewed the edges of the carpets on all floors not to mention the skirting boards and kitchen table these were all new furnishings.

In total we have caught 19 to date, But need to catch the rest hopefully before they mate! 

Oh_Daesu

getmore4less said:

Mice leave a trail everywhere. 

How long did you ignore the signs to get to that much damage?

I never ignored the signs as soon as I knew we had them I went strait to the shop and brought traps.  

bouicca21

I had mice in a rented flat. It was a Victorian conversion and the floorboards in the kitchen didn’t quite meet the wall.  Little b*****s were able to climb up the wall to my flat on the first floor.  They avoided all the traps and frolicked in the kitchen cupboards even though all contents were inside locked plastic boxes.  Every visible point of access was filled with wire wool and some sort of filler.  They even bit their way through that.

no one ever found where the nest was, though the amount of anti mice stuff in a nearby garden centre tended to suggest they were everywhere in that area.  Fortunately I wasn’t there very long but if it had been permanent I think the on,y way of getting rid of them would have been a cat or better still a Jack Russell.

AdrianC

bouicca21 said:
I think the on,y way of getting rid of them would have been a cat

Every single mouse (bird, rabbit, squirrel) that's got into this house seems to have come in through the catflap, carried carefully in the jaws of a cat.

Unfortunately, the little sod brings them in alive, then releases them...

There's nothing more fun than being woken by a 3am round of the "squeek-bang-thump-crunch" game on the bedroom floor.
Fortunately, the live (and mightily irate) squirrel was released in the bedroom during the day.