Mice and airbricks-is it a problem?

[mart]

We don't hear loads of complaints about this. However, that does not necessarily mean it is not happening.

When mice come in to a building, how often is the point of entry actually known?

Apparently mice can get through a hole that is the same diameter as a pencil. Would redesigning airbricks be like trying to reinvent the wheel?

I fitted a mesh over one of my vents. Maybe airbricks should have something similar fitted as standard? Or maybe some do that I am not aware of.

 

[eSCHEn]

I'm not sure a hole as small as a pencil would be accessible having seen mouse skulls. They simply are too large. Adults obviously, baby ones are smaller but I think even they would be too big by time they've furred up and are mobile out the nest.

13mm chicken wire is definitely traversable by them as I've watched them do it. But that is a hexagonal structure and the 13mm is AF so the points are actually wider apart.

Don't forget that mice are good wee climbers and scale up brick or rough render no problems. The gap they enter doesn't have to be low.

 

[bricol]

Two cats condescend to live with me . . . mice, entering via air bricks or not, aren't an issue . . .

Plenty of other entry points in your average house other than air bricks though . . .

 

[Migmac]

We had air bricks in our old house. I had to put zinc mesh over it to stop mice getting in.it didn’t stop them entering but cut the number down dramatically. There were other holes where the roof met the walls. Don’t think they could squeeze through a pencil sized hole though.

 

[brightspark]

mice can get through a hole the size of a pencil. every back end of the year I go round the house outside and inside and put bait blocks round as sometimes hear a bit of scratching in the ceiling 2 days later nothing

 

[mart]

It does seem hard to believe though about pencil size. What will that be 6mm maybe 8mm max? I'm just thinking about skull size as mentioned. Maybe the skull can reduce like their body can.

It is true about them climbing, curtains at least. I watched one going up the edge of the living room curtain. Then it decided to bite a leaf off a Rudbeckia plant that were on the windows sill.

 

[Migmac]

Apparently they can fit through a hole 6mm high. It needs width as they spread their bag legs out to the side to get them through.

 

[eSCHEn]

Apparently they can fit through a hole 6mm high. It needs width as they spread their bag legs out to the side to get them through.

Bingo. A letterbox the height of a pencil is not the same as a hole the size of a pencil.

 

[TechnicAl]

sure they can

https://www.eventprophire.com/product/giant-pencil/

 

[Parm]

All I know is that they can get through some quite small holes. My solution was to get some metal pan scourers from the pound shop, lace then with some poison bait and ram down any hole I could find in the barn walls and set them in place with PU expanding wood glue. No rats or mice in the last 5 years getting in and chewing cables

 

[RWD3M]

The little blighters came straight in through my patio doors! To be fair, the doors weren't there and I was having an extension built at the time

 

[ajlelectronics]

Apparently they are able to dislocate their skulls to gain access through small apertures. Shame that people will not let them be though. We have At least one family of mice in the grounds, but they seem to have no interest in coming in voluntarily. The only time we see them is when the cats bring them in.
I found one in my trouser leg the other day, the hard way! Same morning, another one cowering in the bathroom. They get gently evicted out the front where the cats have no access. Sadly one of them died of shock, but the other scurried off. I know it is what cats do, but I still hate it.

 

[Richiew]

We had them coming through the air bricks at our house. They made a lot of noise doing it and it sounds like an awful struggle as they squeeze through. A lot of scratting about. I fitted wire mesh to keep them out and had to trap the ones under the floor. I did find some supporting evidence in the shape of a dog biscuit from two doors down left outside one of the air bricks which they couldn't take in with them. Never had a problem since.

 

[jimbo84]

After having a rat problem I asked the pest controller what they could get through, rats not mice, and he reckoned a hole the diameter of your thumb for an average sized rat. Scale it down for a mouse I guess it could be something like a pencil.

Nothing more horrific than a rat infestation in a row of terraces, what a living hell that was.

 

[brightspark]

put it this way I found a mouse inside a double metal box behind a socket. the only way in was through a 20mm hole that had a rubber grommet in and 2 pieces of 2.5mm twin and earth through it I couldn't believe it but was true

 

[Cobbler]

When I was young, house had lead sheathed cables. A mouse decided to sharpen his teeth on the lead, he didn’t do it again!

 

[sako243]

Don't know if mice are as destructive as rats but all the old barns on farms around this area of Wales have glass embedded in the concrete mix. Rats are buggers for chewing through the concrete and it poses no real blockade to them but they can't chew through the glass fragments.

 

[TechnicAl]

Apparently they are able to dislocate their skulls to gain access through small apertures. Shame that people will not let them be though. We have At least one family of mice in the grounds, but they seem to have no interest in coming in voluntarily. The only time we see them is when the cats bring them in.
I found one in my trouser leg the other day, the hard way! Same morning, another one cowering in the bathroom. They get gently evicted out the front where the cats have no access. Sadly one of them died of shock, but the other scurried off. I know it is what cats do, but I still hate it.

It is what Cats do.........275 million times in a typical year in the UK.....and the owners fob it off with "thats what Cats do"...........

 

[brightspark]

was working in a grain store and they were hundreds of them bombing all over in front of you the place stunk of p..ss and droppings just think if they weren't controlled what would you be eating in your food and bread they were running up the walls and had got in to the 3 phase db and control panels and ruined them

 

[TechnicAl]

was working in a grain store and they were hundreds of them bombing all over in front of you the place stunk of p..ss and droppings just think if they weren't controlled what would you be eating in your food and bread they were running up the walls and had got in to the 3 phase db and control panels and ruined them

Controlled possibly but theres no control at the moment.....obviously not being controlled in your grain store.