mice in the loft

[SpikeyBush]

What's the best way to eradicate vermin from above my ceiling? Sounded like Mr. Jangles & his pals were doing Riverdance up there the other night. Don't want to use poison as they'll just go and die in some nook or crannie and pen & ink after a few days and attract heaps of flies.

My cat is not up to the job BTW. Do I need to quote Alan Sugar?

[wolf63]

"Do I need to quote Alan Sugar" Why - does he have a cat?

[HowardKennitby]

poison - trap - predator
the choice is yours.

[starone]

They have loads of babies, every few weeks. If you don't do something about them quickly you will be overrun with them.

[SpikeyBush]

Wolf63 just like my cat: You're fired!

[petal54]

bucket of water with pole of somkind with peanutbutter on.

[wolf63]

My little princess (sister of my avatar) would scare away any mice for you - she would scream in terror as soon as she saw it.

[SpikeyBush]

I may need you to elaborate Petal. There are lots of things that can be done with buckets of water, poles and peanut butter, some of which I have only seen on TV in Amsterdam

[FredPuli43]

Mice in a roof space? What have you got up there? A hay loft? Or is it in between floors, so the ceiling is below the floor upstairs?

Only ask, because I'm wondering how you know it's mice. In this farm, the mice aren't great ones for climbing; the roof is a daft place to nest because there's no food nearby, so they stay near the ground, scuttling under the floor boards. Even rats, which do climb, seldom or never make it to the upstairs celing and roof. Bats, on the other hand, get in and make a heck of a noise scratching about upstairs.

Poison is the easiest answer (not for bats, obviously which are protected anyway!). We poison the rats and don't get invasions of flies in the area, and get no smell.

[tinkerbell23]

Probs traps ....xx

[Goonermatt]

step 1) Get rid of bad cat
step 2) Get good cat

[RATTER15]

Mice in a loft space is extremely common, I would suggest the use of poisons and dont hesitate. Unless you are extremely proficient in the use of traps they will breed faster than you can trap them.

Are you sure they are mice, generally speaking you wouldn't hear mice in the loft, could it be rats that are much easier to get rid of. Mice or rats dying in the loft dont usually present a problem with smells, no guarantees though. Identify your quarry first, then buy the specific bait for that species.

[RATTER15]

I hasten to add, cats are the single biggest culprit for introducing vermin to any house!! FACT!!

[nannybooby]

We have the same problem on and off -traps and poison is the way forward.Know what you mean abot Micheal Flat feet and his crew doing riverdance lol ,how can something so small make so much noise.

[RATTER15]

If it is mice you will need to put a lot of poison down in quite a few places in the loft due to the sporadic feeding nature of mice.

[mojay]

If you were hearing that much noise I'd be fairly sure it was rats and not mice

[nannybooby]

No we have viewed the bodies its mice

[cathfromsaron]

there is a rather cheap humane 'hotel' (trap), avaialble from homebase or B&Q, which keeps them alive; you have to take them outside and over a river or road to release them! this may take a week of daily/twice daily checking to complete!

THEN you need to find out where they are coming in AND ensure there is no 'bedding' and food for them up there! x

[RATTER15]

>>>THEN you need to find out where they are coming in AND ensure there is no 'bedding' and food for them up there! x<<<

Generally speaking you will never find out how they are getting in, if its a loft space used for storage or has any form of insulation there will be ample bedding for thousands of mice. as for food, from the loft space a mouse will have easy access to other parts of the house including the kitchen and also be able to get outside for food and you would be amazed at just how much food is stored in out loft spaces when you are a mouse that will eat the leg off your table if it needs to.

Just get poisons down ASAP.

[cathfromsaron]

i was just being practical!

you can actually place the poison in the large humane traps to ensure that you don't have smelly dead bodies to find/remove later ...

[ladybirder]

I had mice in the loft and never heard them at all. Only found out when I saw chewed up stuff there. Tried the humane trap method - useless. I can't remember exactly how many miles you have to take them away so they don't make their way back but it would take forever as they would be breeding faster than you can take them for a walk. Six weeks later I was overrun with them and had to use poison and so did next door's loft which adjoined mine.