Mice
Mice Along a Row of Cottage Houses
These houses were built in pairs and short terraces, and each party wall belongs to two households. Where the dividing wall in the roof space was never carried right up to the tiles, or has lost bricks over a hundred years, the lofts along a row are open to one another. Mice follow that line easily, and a house in the middle of a terrace has neighbours on both sides to receive them from. How mice reach a loft explains why height is no obstacle.
End of terrace or mid-row
An end-of-terrace house has one shared wall but an exposed side, often with a passage, a gate and a flank wall carrying pipes and vents. A mid-row house has fewer outside walls and two neighbours instead. Both get mice; what differs is where to look first, so tell us which you have.
Kitchens added at the back
Many estate houses have had the kitchen enlarged or a lean-to built across the back. Because the old solid walls leave few other openings, the places mice come in are usually the join between newer work and original brick, the pipes boxed in behind the units and the hole where a boiler flue was cut through. How mice are getting in lists the entry points to check.
Signs in a Terraced Estate House
- Droppings along the skirting of the wall you share with next door
- Nibbled packets in the cupboard under the stairs or beside the boiler
- Scratching above the bedroom ceiling in the evening
- Shredded paper or insulation near the loft hatch
- Droppings behind the cooker or in the cupboard under the sink
The signs of mice sets out what each of these means. Large droppings, or burrows in the garden, are more likely a job for rat control in Burnt Oak.
First Steps in a Joined House
- Decant cereals, flour, rice and pet food into sealed tins or hard tubs
- Knock next door: if they have mice too, you are probably dealing with the same ones
- Clear stored boxes from beside the party wall in the loft so droppings are easy to spot
- Leave holes open for now, because a mouse sealed into a wall or floor will chew its way out elsewhere
- Keep poison out of the loft, where a mouse can die out of reach and leave a smell
If you rent from the council or a housing association, tell your landlord about the mice before booking anything privately, and private tenants should let the landlord or agent know as well.
Around a Mouse Visit
Booking
When you book mouse control, say whether the house is mid-terrace, end of terrace or one of a pair, whether the kitchen has been extended, and which rooms and floors the signs are in. Mention if the neighbours have mice, as that changes what is worth checking.
Getting ready and afterwards
Clear the cupboards under the sink, around the boiler and under the stairs so their backs can be reached, and make sure the loft hatch opens. You will hear what was found and what comes next. How long it takes depends on the house and how established the mice are, as how long mouse treatment takes explains. Get back in touch if new droppings appear after a quiet spell.
Keeping Mice Out of the Row
Mice that used a route once will try it again, often in autumn when they start looking for warmth. Fill gaps around the pipes in the extended kitchen, check the boiler flue from inside and out, and fit a brush strip to a back door that has worn at the threshold. Small accessible gaps like these are what rodent proofing in Burnt Oak is for. A gap in the party wall in the loft is a builder's job, and a whole row does best when the neighbours tackle it together; why mice keep coming back explains the pattern.
Mice in other kinds of Barnet home, from flats over shops to interwar semis, are covered on Mouse Control Barnet. Neighbouring Edgware has more semis and garages than terraces, and its own set of routes.
