the sound of small feet in the attic

I fully intend to get a cat (I love them anyway) after Miss Wiggy (my cockatiel) goes to that great bird house in the sky.

Is it possible to import another animal that will prey on the mice? Can you buy an efficient hunting cat who can have access to the attic at all or most times?

I simply can't bring myself to kill them. Mice, I am talking about, as they are a bit of a problem here in the country.
So I do use humane traps and then take them for a long walk.
But recently I read that they hate the smell of peppermint so I bought some peppermint rodent spray, and a bottle of peppermint oil which I scatter around. There have been no mice since.

I was expecting a ghost story, too!

How do you know that the problem is caused by mice and not by rats? My neighbour had this problem and it was caused by rats coming up the sewerage pipe and into the attic.
Some local authorities do provide a service whereby they put down the poison and do the necessary checks. This can save you up to £200.
Sadly my authority no longer provides such a service, but does have a list of professionals that you can refer to.

I can’t believe what I m reading with all of you who like putting poison down without a second thought no I m not ‘soppy’ baggs what right have you to kill an animal they are no lesser a creature than you are and have a right to live
A rat is equally intelligent to a dog why is one cosseted and the other poisoned
Block up holes or whatever way they are getting in thats what I did when I found a rat nibbling a wooden skirting board in my house I looked and looked until I found a possible entrance the tumble dryer hole blocked that up and never seen a rat since
He didn’t know he was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing he didn’t do it on purpose unlike humans who murder and rape and kill on purpose
My word I m surprised

Get a pest control company in. Had mice when I moved into my new home in loft and kitchen. They got rid of them . Then a Squirrel got into my loft again pest control got rid of it. I have 2 large electronic pest control plug in devices on all the time. My roofers put in its hard plastic hinged thingy fits under the tiles and goes into the gutters nothing can get in. I don't feed the birds as it encourages mice and squirrels . Put bait in the garden. Got rid of any there. I have no problem with killing the pests. They can do a lot of damage in the home and carry diseases and fleas. Not a popular view I know . But I don't want the pests. There are plenty of parks near to my home they can live there.

When this happened in a house we moved to a long time ago, it turned out to be a huge wasp's nest in the far corner. So big, the exterminators had to cut it in half to get it out through the loft hatch.

Could be squirrels up there. They do cause great nuisance and can be very destructive. Might be a good idea to contact your local councils's Pest Control Deparment who could advise you on what is up there and the best ways of getting rid.

Rodents are attracted by the insulation on electrical cables and chew it. Squirrels or mice can cause fires this way when they seek shelter in the loft. Best to get rid of them - we had a pest control company who also came back and removed the corpses.

I have no sympathy for rodents in the house, last year one chewed through a plastic water pipe flooding the lounge, thankfully painting the ceiling was the main damage.
So poison in the loft is the routine, they can play all they want outside, inside they are not wanted.

I had a starling come to nest in my attic at springtime for 2 successive years. The patter and scratching about would start about 5am and last for a couple of hours. I could hear this whilst lying in bed and at first thought it maybe mice or bats. On one investigation in the attic I saw three little chicks with beaks open waiting for mum to come. Just under the eaves where there was a gap. After spring had passed and they had fledged I had some wire put along the eaves to stop them nesting again. It did the trick.

We had to resort to old fashioned mouse traps baited with dark chocolate, we caught more than 30.

I use what I call splat traps - i.e. the old-fashioned mouse traps. I have come to the conclusion that the "humane" traps are anything but - the poor creature sits sweating, shaking and terrified in a tiny space for as long as it takes for someone to come along and release them. The splat traps give a very speedy death.

When the mice are caught in my traps I take the bodies into the field and put them for the buzzards and other wild life to feed on - a contribution to the natural cycle of life. Nature is red in tooth and claw - one creature loses its life and it feeds another.

I can't say I am thrilled with that as the system the world works by - but it is what it is.

We used poison for an infestation of rats in our holiday home in France. We bought it off the shelf in the local supermarket and left it in the locked up house when we came home. We then picked up the corpses and put them in the bin. We have no pets at home or in France. The mice were trapped in the house once we came home so there was no chance of other animals having access to them and we disposed of them in a closed container. Quick, clean and straight forward.

Poison blocks if you wear disposable gloves and a mask ( we all have plenty of those ) aren’t a danger to you. We don’t use our loft space so no danger of anyone getting close to them and coming to harm. We also had plug ins around the upstairs rooms, but still the mice moved in in October and left in the Spring, its better to get rid of the mice before they chew through your wiring and cause a fire.
We tried the humane traps and caught so many (some mornings 6 at a time) and realised that as some were caught and taken, others were moving in, you need to stop them getting in in the first place, but fixing the gaps in the roof isn’t cheap.

People think they are being humane when they catch mice alive and transport them to a place a distance away.

They are not being humane. They are putting the mice in the territory of other mice who will kill the intruders inhumanely.

Wish people'd stop being soppy about nature.

Standard mouse traps, especially modern, 'advanced' (i.e. very effective) ones, are humane. A mouse caught in one doesn't know a thing about it.

Where I am currently living (overseas) we get ferrets in the attic. They come in, in spring, to mate (maybe they're shy!). I haven't heard them yet, but the children have.

Makes me reluctant to leave my bedroom window open at night.

Could be birds. We had a gap in the soffits and starlings got in to nest. Scrabbling footsteps... ended when we replaced the soffits.

TOTALLY agree with you bluebelle. They die such a dreadful slow death being poisoned. I have recently been feeding a beautiful squirrel, was nearly taking food out of my hand and brought me so much joy, I saw him yesterday just sitting on my neighbours shed, just couldn’t seem to move, i’m Sure he had been poisoned, broke my heart.

Oh NEVER poison them or those dreadful mouse traps They have as much right to be in the world as you or I just because they are in the wrong place doesn’t mean they should die You sound as if you ve been doing the right thing by using humane means to get rid of them You say the tea tree worked for months then you mention all the other things you are using without success, but not mentioned the tea tree again, if that worked why not use it again
Failing that please get some humane traps so they can be released to the wild to live their lives through

I wouldn’t use poison, ever. There is a chance that a pet or wildlife could eat the dead rodent and be poisoned as a result. This happened to my neighbour’s cat recently.

Why not use mouse traps? It always works for us and you can get humane traps and release them if you prefer. DS caught some mice and the DGC loved watching him set them free.

I would use poison as a last resort.

Also it could be birds making a noise not mice.

thy also deal with the disposal.
which needs to be done properly, obviously.