Mice in the loft
- Dec 2, 2019
- 2 min read
Mice are nocturnal creatures and are usually hidden during the day. This is why mice infestations can go unnoticed by property occupants for some time. Particularly in commercial premises where are people are not present during the night.
For many of our customers, the first indication of an issue is typically when they are in bed at night, when the home is quiet, and they can hear movement/scratching in the loft.
Lofts are an ideal nesting spot for mice. Lofts tend to be quiet, undisturbed places, where there’s plenty of insulation, cardboard boxes, fabrics, paperwork etc for these inquisitive creatures to shred and use as nesting material.
Mice can cause an enormous amount of mess and damage doing this and it is important to get on top of infestations as promptly as possible.
It is no surprise to anyone that mice are very small, but their flexible skeletons allow them to squeeze through the tiniest of gaps- as a rough guide, if you can poke a biro pen through the gap, it’s big enough to allow mice access.
UV tracking dust, showing mice activity in this loft. We can use this to indicate access points
Signs of Mice
Droppings - Small, brown to dark droppings, scattered randomly. Typically for the house mouse, the sizing of the dropping is equivalent size of ½ to 1 grain of rice. For the field mouse, this is slightly longer, about the size of basmati rice.
Smell - Mouse urine has an ammonia smell, this can be particularly strong in a closed and confined space like the loft.
Tracks or Footprints - Dusty environments such as unused lofts can show up rodent tracks and tail marks.
Greasy Marks/ Smears - on walls or floor. Or dark smears around holes/gaps indicating a well used route for travelling mice.
Gnawing – Evidence of gnaw marks on furniture, beams or floor boarding
Shredded materials and nests
Scratching noises may be heard - particularly at night when mice are most active
Live or dead mice - Seeing a mouse during the day, may be an indication of a heavy infestation.
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