Dealing with mice right now? Mouse & Rat Control, by a team that does nothing else.
Almost every failed mouse job we get called to has the same shape: someone put bait down, activity stopped for a while, and then it came back. The bait was not the problem. The problem was that nobody found the entry point, so the treated space became empty territory for the mice already living next door.
How a mouse job should run
- Survey first. Droppings, smear marks, gnawing and the pattern of noise you have been hearing all point back towards the harbourage and the entry route. A technician who starts by placing bait rather than by reading the evidence is guessing.
- Treat what is there. Tamper-resistant bait stations, break-back trapping, or both. Trapping is often the better call in homes with small children or pets, and in any premises where food is handled.
- Proof the way in. Sealed with stainless steel wool, rodent mesh, metal plate and mortar. Not expanding foam or sealant, which a mouse chews through in a night.
- Follow up. A return visit confirms the activity has genuinely stopped rather than gone quiet.
Why 6mm matters
An adult house mouse gets through a gap roughly the width of a pen. A young one needs less. That single fact explains why a property can look completely sound and still have a dozen usable entry points: a worn door threshold, an air brick with a broken slat, the hole cut for a gas or waste pipe behind a kitchen unit, a gap at the eaves, an open cavity at the top of a party wall.
The pipe runs behind kitchen units are the ones we find most often, and they are invisible until somebody takes the plinth off. If you have mice and cannot work out where they are coming from, that is usually where to look. See how mice get in.
Terraces, semis and flats
In terraced and semi-detached housing, and in converted flats, mice frequently travel between properties through shared floor and wall voids without ever going outside. This is why a whole row of houses can report mice within weeks of each other, and why treating one property in isolation often does not hold.
Where that is the situation, proofing the internal routes into your property matters as much as the external ones. Even with an active population next door, a properly sealed home stays clear. Where the source is plainly a communal area or a neighbouring commercial unit, we will say so, and that evidence is what you need to take to a freeholder or managing agent.
Signs worth acting on
- Droppings the size of a grain of rice, usually along skirting or inside cupboards
- Light, quick scratching overhead or behind walls, most often after dark
- Gnaw marks on packaging, cabling or woodwork
- A faint ammonia smell in enclosed spaces such as under kitchen units
- Smear marks along regular runs, where grease from their fur builds up
Mice breed quickly enough that a small problem left for a month is a considerably larger one. See signs of mice to confirm what you are looking at, and mouse droppings to tell them apart from rats.
Proofing as the finish, not the extra
Proofing is the part of this job we are known for, and it is included in how we work rather than offered afterwards as an upsell. For a property that has had mice more than once, or one that is simply exposed, sealing the whole building inside and out is usually the more economical answer than treating it every autumn. See mice proofing and super-proofing.
We are family run and fully insured, our technicians hold the RSPH Level 2 qualification, every treatment is backed by a written guarantee, and rodents are the only thing we work on. A free survey is available on request.