written by Martin Rolland for http://www.pestcontrol.co.uk
If you're having a pest control problem then it might be that you require mice removal. That's quite common because mice are common in the united kingdom. The most common for home infestations is quite appropriately the house mice. As pests go they don't look too bad. As rodents go they don't look so bad, for that matter. You certainly do not want a rat instead of a mouse to be there. Which one you have though will be a matter of luck really. It's going to depend which one happened to be around.
Let's say that there's a mouse around and he comes to your house instead of going to your neighbour's home instead. Why might that be? Well, there could be a lot of reasons. Perhaps their house is more tidy. Well, actually tidiness does not matter exactly. After all, it's gong to make no difference to a mouse whether a newspaper is thrown on the floor or is put neatly away from sight in a drawer. Especially when they have not even chosen what house to go to and they are still outside. At that distance it is going to be their sense of smell that they are relying on. Don't let this put you off cooking a nice roast though, it's not the sort of things that we find to be pleasant smelling that they also like. They're more likely to go for a bit of refuse than for a nice roast so you don't have to be concerned about that. If rubbish piles up though, that can let off an aroma and that is something that is going to attract mice and lead to
being necessary.
Let's say that both places are rubbish free though. They might not be above ground when they are near these two houses, they could be amongst the pipes and looking for water. Maybe one of the pipes near your home leaks and so they choose that place because they want the water. Even if that were the case though, to actually enter the house they would require a gap. There would have to be a gap big enough for them to squeeze through between the pipe and the wall. That's the way that lots of rodents are able to get into a place. The gap might not even look that big enough but it could be big enough. You also have to seal up any other holes or gaps to deter mice or rats because they will probably find some way in if there is one. So the best thing to do is just make sure that there is nothing to attract them in the first place.
Unfortunately though when it is cold, it might be that they do not sense anything that they actually want in terms of food or water, it could just be that they want the warmth. And if it were not for the fact that they carry diseases with them then we might be more welcoming to them, but they contaminate our food and they'll probably bite as well if we get too close to them. So the best thing to do is just to stay away from them and to make sure that nothing is present in your home (except maybe warmth) that will make them want to come to you.
If everyone did this then populations of rodents would probably decrease, and the ones that did exist would mostly exist outside. Of course if they stay outside, even in the sewers, that doesn't really matter. It is only when they come up and say hello to us in our homes that we need pest control to get rid of mice.