Wheather the Season is the Cause for Unhygenic Environment. Winter nights can mean a mouse in the house or even a rat. But poisoning isn’t the only way to get rid of them.
As winter closes in, mice enter houses more often and rats are seen more frequently in gardens. This can be a matter of concern, but there are ways of coping with them other than putting down anti-coagulant poisons, which cause a great deal of suffering.
Which rats and mice enter houses?
House mice, wood mice, yellow-necked mice and brown rats are common in houses. Of the three mice, the one you’re most likely to encounter at home is the wood mouse, as this species is even more common in houses than the house mouse.
House mice and brown rats are most frequent in houses close to city centres, wood mice in the suburbs, and yellow-necked mice in rural areas in the South-east and Welsh borders.
Rats and mice are most common in roof spaces, then cellars and cupboards. They can also live in wall spaces.
What signs do they leave?
Cloying ‘acetamide’ smell characteristic of house mice; other mice leave little odour.
Gnawing – rodents need to gnaw continuously to keep their incisors short.
Tooth marks – larger ones are made by rats, who can gnaw through soft metals, such as lead and aluminium.
Droppings – a rat’s are 12mm long and often tapered at one end; a mouse’s are roughly half the size and thinner.
Greasy fur marks – rats and house mice leave dirty black smears along well-travelled routes, particularly ‘loop smears’ where they squeeze under roof joints.