How to get rid of mice

[Bert]

Our 4-bed 1980s house has been plagued by mice for years. They seem to be mainly in the loft, but my wife reckons she can hear them in the space between the two floors. Things have been a lot better since I put draught excluder strips around the garage doors, but I don't believe that it is really possible to mouseproof a house. I have tried one of those ultrasonic devices, and it was useless. Since we have about 30 cm of fibre-glass in the loft, it is very hard to know where to put the traps, as the mice seem to be running underneath the top layer of fibreglass. There was blown fibre-glass in the loft to begin with. The traps don't seem to be working very well, but I caught one recently. Unfortunately it did not die straight away, and managed to drag itself and the trap some distance. Then it started to stink and so I had to go in the loft and find it. I would like to try poison, but what happens when the mice go off and die somewhere inaccessible? I had heard that they had such a low water content that, when they die, they don't rot, they just mummify. My recent experience makes me doubt that. We have seen mice in the kitchen. We suspect that they get in through the boiler vent - there are often crumbs of the cavity wall insulation below the boiler. That would mean they climb about 8 feet up the outside wall. I've tried to seal round the vent, but, because it was badly installed, this was not possible. We do not leave food out, and crumbs are few and far between. I know they'll gnaw on anything, but what is there of any nutritional value in the loft? [There is paper and card, but that does not seem to have been nibbled.] I do not want pets - so cats and dogs are out. Any other ideas?

[Vagrant]

If you can get hold of it, used cat litter will act as a deterrent - put it in the loft and under floorboards.

[treetops1]

Hello Bert, we had one in the bathroom living off the soap. I put packets of poison down. Bought from the older highstreet ironmongers. They chew through the packet, eat the poison and arn`t seen or smelt again. I put another down when I thought they`d gone and it is still intact.

[chazza]

We had a similar problem last year. We put rat glue down under the kickboards in the kitchen, and anywhere else we'd found droppings, and sealed all the possible ways they were getting in with expanding foam.

We caught a load of them on the glue (we had tried every other method before trying this by the way, nothing worked), and the rest couldn't get in!

[McMouse]

A friend of ours lives near woods in Scotland and is plagued by mice. He can't bring himself to kill them so uses humane traps and then releases them back in the trees. As an experiment he puts a dob of Tippex on their heads to see if there are any repeat offenders. He has now established that it is generally the same ones coming back.

[scotman]

Do you live in a street of houses or are you on your own? Mice, rats etc only stay in a location if there is something they need. Usually it is food and/or shelter. If you can deprive them of both they will move on.
Poison is best bet. If it is serious infestation then professional help is probably good in short term. You will also need to spend time/money blocking up as many access points as you can find. Remember mice have strange bodies and can get through VERY small holes.

[radiogaga]

Also use wet newspaper to fill any gaps the little bu@@ers can get through. the paper will dry and you've filled a gap.
i would continue to use the ultrasonic devices.

[Bert]

Thanks to all of you. I'll be following up your suggestions.