After converting half a loft (successfully) and leaving things well alone, we found we had the patter of tiny feet and noisy squeeking from over our heads as we tried to sleep. This was just before Christmas and so, yes, the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' is wrong, they were stirring - and LOUDLY. After Christmas my wife and our eldest son (10) were forced to investigate, having found a mouse in our bread bin (sent to the tip complete with said mouse). Where we had left the 'old insulation', we found a mouse nest and used barbeque tongues (really!) to catch 3 mice! The next night, a new nest and 2 more mice, the next night was same!
We cleared out all of the old paper lined insulation which the mice loved and froze until we could re-lag the attic properly (against the roof).
This was great, no more mice over our heads! WRONG! They moved into the kitchen!
And so the mouse traps started flying (literally) into action and, after catching our 16th mouse, we took apart the kitchen units and found a hole the size of the house bricks behind a particularly cold unit.... We sealed the hole with a solid metal plate (commonly called a baking tin) and have been very happy with the results.
The lessons to be learnt?
- Remove paper lined lagging from your roof - mice love it
- Mice prefer cheddar to edam
- Dripping chocolate onto a trap is better than pieces jabbed on
- Always keep your old baking trays
- Never buy a house that isn't sorrounded by a moat
