Mice in your Faerie Glen home? Here's how we deal with them

A mouse problem is solved by trapping or baiting the mice you have and then closing the tiny gaps that let them in. In Faerie Glen that second part matters more than usual, because homes near the reserve have a steady supply of field mice on the other side of the wall. Clear the house without proofing it and new mice will arrive with the next cold snap.

Two sources of mice in this suburb

Field mice from open ground. The reserve's grassland is full of seed, which supports a healthy population of small rodents through summer. When the grass dries off and the nights get cold in autumn, some of them move towards gardens and houses. Homes on the edge of the suburb tend to notice this first, often as droppings in the garage or a mouse in the pantry in April or May.

House mice in built-up areas. These live alongside people all year. Townhouse complexes, retirement villages with shared kitchens, and shops are where they do best, because food is always available and the walls and ceilings are full of linked voids.

How to tell you've got mice

You'll usually find the droppings before you see the mouse. They're small, dark and pointed, and you'll find them in drawers, behind the stove, along the back of pantry shelves and on top of kitchen cupboards. Other signs include shredded paper or fabric tucked into a corner, a faint musty smell in a cupboard, tiny holes in cereal boxes and bread bags, and light scratching inside a wall or ceiling in the evening. If the noise is heavy and thumping, read about rats in Faerie Glen ceilings instead.

What people get wrong with mice

The classic mistake is putting out one trap with cheese, catching a mouse and assuming the problem is over. Mice breed fast, and where there's one there are usually several. Another is leaving loose bait on the kitchen floor. Mice don't always eat it where it's placed. They can carry it off and drop it in cupboards, and a mouse that dies under the floor or in a wall will make itself known. For anything more than a single mouse, set several traps along walls, baited with a smear of peanut butter, and check them every morning.

Our treatment

We start by looking at the whole house: kitchen, pantry, garage, cupboards with pipes running through them, and the ceiling if we can get up there. We're looking for droppings, nesting material and, most importantly, entry points. Then we set up the treatment:

• Traps inside the house, along the routes mice use.
• Lockable bait stations outside along the walls, so mice are intercepted before they get in, without exposing pets or children.
• Tracking powder in wall voids and behind kitchen units where it can be used safely.
• A list of gaps to seal, with suggestions on what to use.

For complexes and retirement villages, we can work on the whole site through a monitoring contract, which is the only way to keep mice out of shared roofs and kitchens over time.

Where mice get into Faerie Glen homes

• Gaps under garage doors, especially the corners where the rubber seal has worn
• Holes in walls around geyser, aircon and gas pipes
• Weep holes and broken air bricks low on the wall
• Gaps where the roof sheeting meets the wall, reached by climbing creepers
• Doors left open on summer evenings, then forgotten

A local tip for reserve-side homes

Bird feeders are lovely next to a nature reserve, but spilt seed under the feeder is a free meal for mice, and they'll set up home nearby. Use a seed tray under the feeder, sweep up spills, and keep bags of seed in a sealed metal bin rather than in the garage on the floor.

What does it cost?

Size matters most: a bigger home, more entry points and a busy roof space mean more traps, more stations and usually an extra visit. A small house with a few mice is a modest job. A complex or village is quoted as a site plan. If you've seen one mouse once, try snap traps first, and call us if you're still catching them a week later.

Mice often go hand in hand with pantry pests, and our page on weevils and pantry moths in Faerie Glen covers that side. For autumn and winter preparation, read how to prepare for rats and mice. If you're over in the next suburb, see mouse control in Garsfontein, or start from our Pretoria mouse service. Other local pests are listed under Faerie Glen pest control.

We're SAPCA registered, and if mice return within three months of treatment, we'll come back. Give us a call on 012 012 5526, or WhatsApp a photo of the droppings and we'll confirm whether it's mice.