Mice in student house?!

Basically the whole time we've lived at this house we have been aware of a small mouse problem in the kitchen, we would see the odd one in the kitchen which would run away. We spoke to the landlord who then sent pest control and laid traps and we assumed that was the end of it. BUT they are now back with a vengeance and we've seen at least 5 different mice. They have been in every room in the house including our bedrooms! We keep the house clean and we've notified the landlord again but he doesn't seem to want to know, any suggestions?!

Reply 1

Juno

Original post by Joemulford123

You're going to have to be really good with any potential source of food. Pick one room, and try not to eat other rooms of the house. Don't leave dirty plates lying around - they can eat the crumbs. If you know you have dropped any food then ensure it is picked up immediately. You might need to start hoovering more regularly.

Try to store all your food in containers they can't get at. This might be a definitely sealed cupboard, or you might have to keep everything in plastic/metal boxes. Anything edible is a source of food, so this includes things you wouldn't eat as they are (flour, sugar, dried rice etc).

If you can see anywhere that they are getting in then make sure this is blocked up. But they can get into very small gaps, so this might not be obvious.

The "humane" traps aren't particularly effective. Poison is good, but not if you have pets - and you may then have to deal with dead mice.

Reply 2

Hayytch

Original post by Joemulford123

They're coming back for your treachery against them, don't close your eyes at night.

Reply 3

Joemulford123

To be fair my room is fairly clean so it seemed to just come in for a few minutes and then bugger off but it's my housemates who seem to leave dirty plates in the kitchen for a night or leave cold mugs of tea on the floor in the living room so no wonder they're thriving!

Reply 4

Carthaginian

Just mouse trap them, then throw em in the bin.
It's not that hard.

Reply 5

Juno

Original post by Joemulford123

Exactly. The mice are loving the food and the warmth (it's getting cold outside).

You might be able to manage by sealing up all gaps and killing off the mice inside - but mice can climb through gaps the size of a pencil, so they can find ways if they want to. The easiest way is to make it undesirable as well as putting out some form of bait.

Reply 6

Hippysnake

good source of protein.

Reply 7

Joemulford123

Yeah, the pest control guy did fill in some holes in the kitchen but we live in an old terraced house in a rough, dirty neighbourhood with a grubby little cafe so no wonder they're everywhere! Would just love to be able to go to sleep without hearing scratching noises everywhere and seeing the odd burst of grey or brown with a tail!

Reply 8

junior.doctor

I had mice at university in a shared house. We initially tried traps, but in all honesty the only thing that sorted it in the end was poison. As has already been said, not possible if you have pets (or children living with / visiting you) - but assuming you wouldn't have either of these if this is the average student house. Putting poison down also means you have to be prepared to get rid of dead mice - and ours had a habit of crawling into hidey places to die (like UNDER the kitchen cabinets…) so despite looking out for them we would often be alerted to a dead mice by the smell :frown:

can be quite unpleasant walking into the living room and finding a dead mouse in the middle of the floor. For us it was worth it though and it got rid of the problem pretty quickly. Also there are always more mice than you think there are - we'd seen probably 2 different ones but swept up 7… Definitely second the advice about being careful with food and crumbs and vacuuming regularly / keeping food out of bedrooms. Think about how they are getting in. Any chance they are coming from neighbours, especially if you're in a terrace? If you know your neighbours might be worth asling them if they've had any issues and then all putting poison down at the same time.

Reply 9

Joemulford123

We did have poison put down initially and I think we ended up killing one or two initially! I know what you mean about the smell, turns out ours died behind the skirting board behind the sink but we just seem to hear them everywhere now, in the ceilings and the walls. There's a massive hole in the downstairs cupboard which has a lot of sawdust/debris under it so that's definitely one possibility! One of them ran out from under my bed last night and went in my shoe and then proceeded to stick its head out at me!

Reply 10

Joemulford123

Also just to clarify apart from my housemates leaving plates around generally I think I keep the place relatively clean, I mop the kitchen floor once a week, bleach the worktops every time I use them to prepare food, bleach the sink, and vacuum about once a week so not sure how much more I can do!