Ideas for mouse proofing house!

[soloequestrian]

We've just redone our kitchen and hoped that the walls were impervious to mice. How wrong we were. They're eating their way in around the sink pipes. We keep plugging the holes with wire wool and expanding foam, but they just start again at the edge of the new hole. At the moment our plan is to remove the kitchen again, put wire mesh right along the plasterboard wall then maybe thin ply on top of that. It's going to be a fairly big job so wondered if anyone has any other tested ideas? I won't use poison because there isn't a humane one and I already have a cat.

 

[Velcrobum]

We used cement to block mouse holes. Mice can get through very very small holes! Perhaps snap traps externally inside lengths of pipe to protect birds might be the answer. You can also get electric kill traps which are also quick to dispatch mice.

 

[Polos Mum]

what are they coming in for - can you remove the sources of food - sort pasta, flour, nuts etc in glass jars - cereal in thick plastic pots.
Where do they live, can you clear hedges from around drain pipes etc. to make it less easy for them to access.
They are pretty determined.

Normal snap traps are quick - if you can remove the current ones and remove food sources to stop others coming back

It is to be taken seriously - we had some in the loft which I thought was an annoying noise until a few months later when we decided to do something about them and discovered they had chewed to mush all the roof felt and £10k later to have the roof redone - I'm less worries about traps !

 

[emilylou]

edited, just seen you have a cat. Perhaps a terrier too

 

[Ceifer]

Agree with @Polos Mum.

We had them in our kitchen in our old house. Put all food in Tupperware boxes and we had to use snap traps. We discovered that they used to use the front door to come in . The property opened onto a court yard so in the summer we used to leave it open to let air in and they would toddle in straight past the dog

 

[Micky]

Traps..

 

[rabatsa]

If you can poke a pencil in a hole then a mouse can use it. You will not get them all with traps. Many, many bait points will be needed.

My friends mice took walnuts from a bag in a kitchen drawer, up the wall cavity and then rolled them across the bedroom ceiling to break against the far wall. This kept them awake every night and took quite a while to discover what was happening.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

When we lived in the caravan we had mice in the walls inside the insulation. I put snap traps for them in the kitchen cupboards. Heard one go off one day and a delighted cat came trotting in with mouse and trap. Tried to tell me she had caught it. Caught quite a few before they gave up.

 

[Rowreach]

No way I could find and fill in all the holes that mice could squeeze through, plus I have rather fancy Victorian air vent things in my outside walls, so I got a plug in mouse deterrent thingy and it works a treat. I've been here 6 years and haven't had a mouse indoors since the first winter (when they scampered around under the floorboards being "chased" by the dogs on top).