Bristol Mouse Control
Why Are We Different?
We "SOLVE" and avoid the traditional cycle of: Bait - Stink - Flies - Repeat! Customers across Bristol are now enjoying the tranquility of a rodent free home because we check everything.
Mice - The Facts - The Truth - The Answers
What Diseases Do Mice Transmit?
Mouse borne diseases and parasites represent a significant public health threat. Those Most At Risk Include: Children, Pregnant Women, The Elderly and people Convalescing.
> Salmonella - Severe and sometimes fatal food poisoning.
> Tularemia - If bitten by a rodent this bacteria can attack your immune system and lungs.
> Leptospirosis - Weil's disease - a notifiable disease, leading to multi-organ failure and death.
> E.coli 0157 - This frightening disease from rodent faeces causes renal failure and intestinal bleeding.
> Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis - Viral Meningitis that starts of innocently like flue.
> Plague - Very rare in this country, but cannot be excluded from thought.
How Mice Spread Diseases And Parasites
Routes of Disease Transmission Include:
> Biting - you, your children, family, pets or livestock
> Urine & Droppings - Infecting your groceries and work surfaces with urine and over 30 droppings each per night
> Being eaten - by your pets
> Contaminating - pets and your pets food and water
> Spreading - blood sucking parasites like fleas and mites
> Contaminating - water supplies especially where they fall into water tanks
What Do Mice Look Like?
Key Features of The House Mouse (Mus musculus):
Diseases Include: Bubonic plague, Typhus and Weil's disease are among the best known.
Life Span: 18 Months
Length (body only): 15 - 20 cm (body only) - up to 45cm including tail
Weight: 20g when mature
Colour: black, grey
Sexual Maturity: 4 Weeks
Gestation Period: 19 days
Number of litters: 8 per year
Number of young: 6 - 8 per litter
Diet: They are Omnivores, feeding on almost anything.
Daily food: 2.8g
Daily water intake: 1.5ml
What Are Mice?
Mice are a common species of rodent that are commonly symbolized in children's books as being cheerful creatures with pointed noses, round ears and a thin tail. This isn't that far from the truth as mice are generally quite agile, discreet and cute to look at.
Found throughout the world mice are considered pests of both economic and medical importance because of the damage they inflict on food stocks, and because some of the diseases they carry are transmittable to humans.
Another important consideration focuses attention on the rate at which these rodents are able to reproduce.
If conditions are right, mice develop populations of plague proportions, in a very small amount of time. The only good news here is that mice will usually be controlled fairly easily when we apply the right mix of pest management approaches.
How Many Kinds of Mouse Are There?
The UK is home to many types of rodent but as we scale down by species, we only have a small number of mouse species.
Common species of mouse you might encounter as pests include the Wood Mouse, House Mouse, Yellow Necked Mouse and Field Mouse. For the sake of simplicity, these define the four UK species of mice noted as important pests.
Are Mice Carnivores?
Mice are omnivores (basically eat anything), with a strong preference for cereal based food products. A varied diet is significant reason these rodents are so successful in so many different habitats.
Common varieties we see in peoples houses and businesses are the field mouse, house mice and wood mice.
Where Do Mice Come From?
There are many different mouse species that commonly enter buildings for food and shelter.
The most likely mouse in your home is the common house mouse and the second is the field mouse, closely followed by the wood mouse.
These little rodents have been present within the United Kingdom for millennia, and are nothing new. Some people think these mice first appeared after being brought to our shores by the Romans, but no one can really decide.
How do You Get Rid of Mice
Mice are controlled and eliminated in two ways. The first and most popular method is to control populations with lethal control methods. The second and least popular method is exclusion and environmental control. So whats the difference?
Popular methods of lethal control include: Trapping (cages, snap-traps, glue boards) and Poisoning (bait, liquid feeds, contact poisons).
Favoured methods of environmental control include: Proofing/Exclusion (preventing mice entering an area) or Line of sight (ensuring all sources of cover, concealment and encourage are eliminated).
Successful management of pest problems associated with mouse activity, demand that a variety of these methods are married together.
Only by using a combined and integrated methodology will it be possible to get rid of mice successfully over the longer term.
However, the fact remains that adjoining properties might not share your proactive stance, and in time the rodent population will return. It might be in five minutes or five years, but eventually they will return - and you must be ready for them!
Mouse control is sometimes a complex task, but commonly the best scenario is to always focus on controlling the rodent population as close to its source as possible.
Building provide easy routes of entry for mice to enter homes which is why structural repairs and proofing by experts like ourselves will solve a mouse problem for good.
Poison and traps have their place but repairs and proofing are always preferable, because they solve the pest problems and don't just subdue it for a few weeks or months.
How do Mice Get Into Your Attic?
Mice enter attics and loft spaces through a variety of means that include climbing plants and trees, building faults and adjoining properties.
> Climbing Plants:
Climbing Plants offer rodents a convenient route of entry in to your attics, lofts and crawl spaces.
Plants like Wisteria, Virginia Creeper, Clematis, Ivy, Jasmine and Roses offer a perfect climbing frame for rodents to climb. Once mice reach your gutters, they usually squeeze under the tiles and populate your loft.
The best way to manage this, is to ensure that you have at least 12 inches of clearance between the highest reaches of your roof and the plant. Some rodents will be able to climb the rest of the way but their range is significantly curtailed.
> Overhanging Trees:
Almost all broad leaf trees will very quickly develop sprawling branches that grow over and onto your roof.
Sprawling branches, like vines and ivy, are a common avenue of entry for rodents. With branches we recommend clearance of at least a meter to perturb not just mice, but also squirrels and rats.
> Building Faults:
Building faults are normally the most likely place for rodents to enter your property at ground level.
The most likely places are damaged air vents, or open tumble dryer vents together with holes in defective render and pointing.
Two areas we find that customers miss again and again, is beneath pipes that come through walls or the unfilled holes where previous pipes were located.
At first glance, most pipes will look well sealed with cement around them, but run your fingers underneath and it is common to find substantial gaps.
These allow mice to enter wall cavities and access your lofts and other underfloor areas from where they can easily contaminate and infest your living spaces.
> Adjoining Properties:
Adjoining buildings can be significant and utterly dreadful sources of mouse activity. In some areas we see terraced houses that are over 100 properties long, making lasting elimination almost impossible.
Mice will travel through attics, under floors and along gutters to find food and other resources and sometimes a house mouse will decide to stay.It is a sad and disturbing truth that rodents from adjoining properties are hard to eliminate quickly. The best you can hope for is that any mouse activity remains concealed inside the structure of the building and not your living space, without damaging wires.
