Old house - mice and other univited guests
Old house - mice and other univited guests
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Discussion

ShredderXLE

Original Poster:

720 posts

176 months

Yesterday (21:28)
quotequote all
I live in an oldish house (early 1920s) in and its more holes than solid bits it seems. Im also fairly rural.

As its getting cooler in the evenings Im getting mice coming in again, and this year shrews.

Ive bought humane traps before as i didnt like to kill them and dont want to put down poison, but it got to the point where last year I was removing two or three every couple of days and dropping them off a couple of miles away during the night and it was keeping me awake.

It wont be possible to seal up all the gaps as that would probably involve rebuilding it foundations up but ive just heared another rustling noise in my bedroom and seen a small shrew squeeze between the carpet and the skirting board (gap is only about 5mm) so seems like its time to set traps again.

If you live in an old house is it just a case of having to cohabit with them? They always go again in the spring and fortunately arent anywhere ive got food (idont actually keep anything worth eating)

Are there any repellants that actually work?

cliffords

2,813 posts

40 months

Yesterday (21:39)
quotequote all
We had an old rural house for a couple of years . I fought the little devils every autumn and winter. I did try poisoning them, and tried pest control people. In the end I used the humain traps. I could easily catch 4 a day . I used to keep them in a cage untill I had about 25 .Then take them for a drive . I used to take them a good few miles . We had a cat too and he was scared of them.
The numbers were endless. Pest control only use poisoning and in those numbers it can't work.
I don't think you can beat mice in the country,no repellent worked for us.

Edited to add. What are the other uninvited guests in your title ?
My wife's sister wanted to stay , is this what you meant .

Edited by cliffords on Saturday 20th September 22:26


Edited by cliffords on Sunday 21st September 07:55

paulwirral

3,636 posts

152 months

Yesterday (21:44)
quotequote all
Cats and or small terriers , both preferably, if your in the country you’ll look like a townie without them to be fair .

shtu

3,959 posts

163 months

Yesterday (22:09)
quotequote all
Snap traps indoors, bait boxes outdoors. This is the time of year that rodents head indoors, as it gets colder and the fields are harvested, so a good time to get on top of it.

Placing of traps is a bit of an art, in your case a few in the loft space might be worth doing as well as a goodly amount through the house.

And as I mentioned on a recent thread, don't use glue traps. They're horrific cruel things.


Snow and Rocks

2,908 posts

44 months

Decent traditional snap traps set with a small piece of sticky chocolate - mars bar works pretty well.

We live in a rambling 200 year old cottage in the middle of a Scottish forest so no shortage of wildlife trying to join us but this approach largely keeps on top of them. I tend to catch a fair number at this time of year and then it tails off to 1 or 2 a month over the winter.

The idea of keeping tens of mice in a cage before driving off around the countryside with them made me chuckle, not convinced it's actually particularly humane either...

LooneyTunes

8,381 posts

175 months

Our place is sufficiently old to have cartoon style mouse holes in some of the skirting boards.

We still regularly have mice in the house, especially when the fields have been cut or the weather starts going colder, and the only way to deal with them is with bait boxes (left out all the time). I’ve seen three in the past three months: two young ones in our sitting room (put those outside) and a large dead one in the cellar on Friday.

Traps are fine (and agree that Mars bar works well, mice love it and it doesn’t come off the trap too easily) if you have a specific incursion but the maturity/gestation cycle of rodents is such that you really need to stop a population getting established and poison helps with that. We generally use the Pest Expert stuff via Amazon.

We have cats in the barns, usually rehomed ferrals, a good one can make a big difference but won’t necessarily be able to deal with everything, especially if rats are involved. People often don’t realise how big rats can get…

Crumpet

4,602 posts

197 months

To be fair I just accept the mice and leave them to it. It’s the squirrels that cause problems for us, we’re missing half a rafter in the roof because of those little sts.

WH16

7,434 posts

235 months

We live in a rural property built circa 1820, we have five cats. Some deal with the house, others the outbuildings.

anyoldcardave

951 posts

84 months

Its not an old house or rural problem, newer houses in London suffer too, mice, squirrels, foxes, cats, but worst of all rats.

Leaving a door open for the dog invites them in lol, a fox popped his head in one evening, the dog chased it out of the cul-de-sac, came back happy, with the fox 4 ft behind, repeat until they got bored, for several evenings at dusk, bloody fox was screaming at the door looking for the dog to come out to play.

I guess rats are more a city problem, be thankful for that. not even concrete is safe from those little fookers.

LooneyTunes

8,381 posts

175 months

anyoldcardave said:
I guess rats are more a city problem, be thankful for that. not even concrete is safe from those little fookers.
livestock feed in the countryside = a rat problem. Controlling them is tricky as there’s other wildlife to take into account.

Dog Star

17,050 posts

185 months

LooneyTunes said:
Our place is sufficiently old to have cartoon style mouse holes in some of the skirting boards.
No way! That has to be the most apposite username ever! Do you use anvils to deal with your pests?

Promised Land

5,139 posts

226 months

Age of the house is somewhat irrelevant, I live in a new build built in 2001 and have had mice for a good 7-8 years now, you know when they have taken up residence in the loft.

I have 4-5 Victor traps up there all year round and I also place them outside on the perimeter in a box. Idea being catch them before they enter.

I still get between 25-40 a year in the loft though as it’s impossible to find all the entry points they use.

Woodland and fields behind my garden don’t help but you just have to accept you’re living in their territory.




ATG

22,389 posts

289 months

In the last couple of years we've got ourselves better organised and cracked down on the mice as soon as we've seen any in the house, and as a result a few evictions with humane traps has done the job. In previous years we'd let it get out of hand and then it was a big job to get rid of them all.

I'm guessing the number that try to come in depends on how the land around you is being managed. We're surrounded by hill pasture for sheep, so there isn't some big glut of food for mice that suddenly disappears.

We do occasionally get a vole in the house. There are loads of them outside, and no sign that they want to all come in during the winter.

If it rains really hard and the ground is completely saturated we sometimes see a shrew in the house. I'm guessing they're getting flooded out. They're completely innocuous and disappear after a day or two.

There are a few natural predators outside including a weasel that we sometimes see trotting up the patio or staring at us from a hole in the garden wall. I've seen it carrying off mice occasionally.

Grey squirrels are the most destructive pest we've got. They're in one gable end at the moment. It needs repairing anyway, but first thing is to get the body squirrels out of there.

Bats are numerous and welcome. And we used to have loads of rabbits (which I quite liked) but some disease completely wiped them out a year or so ago and I haven't seen a single one since. No doubt we'll get recolonised at some point. The way they got completely wiped out was a bit of a shock. Only saw and dispatched one ill one above ground. I guess the rest just curled up and died underground in the space of a couple of weeks.

ShredderXLE

Original Poster:

720 posts

176 months

Sounds like a case of live and let live. Unfortunately due to my work patterns I cant really have any mouse hunting pets (as much as i would like to) as they would be alone in the house for long periods.

With the humane traps I had bought previously I would hear them go off and then the mouse scratching inside it and rocking backwards and forwards was keeping me awake and i was then jumping in the car at some crazy time in the morning to drop them off in a wooded verge a few miles away (i started by walking them down to the end of the road but they kept coming back a few hours later) Some nights I was out two or three times and it started to affect my sleep.

I think the springy snap traps that sadly bump them off might be the best option.

Im guessing the ultrasonic repellant things you see advertised dont really work, otherwise they would be fitted everywhere.

cliffords

2,813 posts

40 months

Snow and Rocks said:
Decent traditional snap traps set with a small piece of sticky chocolate - mars bar works pretty well.

We live in a rambling 200 year old cottage in the middle of a Scottish forest so no shortage of wildlife trying to join us but this approach largely keeps on top of them. I tend to catch a fair number at this time of year and then it tails off to 1 or 2 a month over the winter.

The idea of keeping tens of mice in a cage before driving off around the countryside with them made me chuckle, not convinced it's actually particularly humane either...
I could not use the traps that killed them so it was just more humane than that. Letting a whole load go at once is quite impressive. I learnt after the first time to shut the car door first

anyoldcardave

951 posts

84 months

LooneyTunes said:
anyoldcardave said:
I guess rats are more a city problem, be thankful for that. not even concrete is safe from those little fookers.
livestock feed in the countryside = a rat problem. Controlling them is tricky as there s other wildlife to take into account.
Yes, but feeding in the countryside and raiding barns for animal feed is not an option for city rats lol, I will go on the phone and post a picture of the pile of crushed concrete I found one morning from the fookers trying to get in.

anyoldcardave

951 posts

84 months




The fooker dug through around the water pipe, through the concrete conservatory floor and into the kitchen.

I don't think old rural houses where rats can find food elsewhere have this issue?

otolith

62,586 posts

221 months

LooneyTunes said:
We have cats in the barns, usually rehomed ferrals, a good one can make a big difference but won t necessarily be able to deal with everything, especially if rats are involved. People often don t realise how big rats can get
Also, unpredictable how predatory they are. At one time we had a massive ginger tom, about 9kg of attitude, and two females less than half his weight. The females were sisters. Only one of the three ever showed any interest in killing things, the smallest of the three. When we moved into a new house which had rats in the compost heap, she haunted it for a week until she’d killed them all.

Tisy

804 posts

9 months

Also rural here. You won't get rid of them with pathetic "humane" traps - they are a complete waste of time and when you release the catch(es) a few miles away feeling all pleased and warm and fluffy with yourself, the mice will be back at your house before you've even got back home in your car.

As mentioned above by others, feral cars are a must-have to even stand a chance at keeping on top of them and sticky chocolate in traps (eg. Mars Bar) should take care of the rest. Don't bother with domestic cats as they don't do crap and at the most will just bat the mice around and play with them. Terriers will destroy your house when the mice disappears down a hole and the dog goes ballistic ripping everything up to get at it.

For squirrel issues, make sure no trees or bushes touch or overhang your property and at miniumum a 20ft horizontal gap if you do have some close by. They don't generally bother climbing up the side of your house, but if there's an easy path to your roof via foliage they'll be straight on your roof and eating through wood, plastic, wires and anything else that gets in their way if they think there could be food on the other side.

Snow and Rocks

2,908 posts

44 months

Guessing it must be grey squirrels that cause issues - we have loads of reds, quite often see them jumping from tree to roof and never noticed that they cause any damage.