With all the cold weather lately, it’s hardly surprising that I’ve started to hear rustlings in the loft again. It’s been so cold and generally unpleasant outside that the mice have, understandably, been driven inside in search of shelter. Understandable, but not at all welcome! This time the noises haven’t been coming from the usual place – directly above my bed – but around the chimney breast in the living room. I was pretty sure there was still a reasonable amount of bait up there, as Martin the pest controller had put a double dose down to get rid of the persistent colonists back in November. Nonetheless, I don’t want the latest invaders to settle and breed, so I thought it was time to ask Martin to come over and top up the bait trays before the mice move to their favourite spot above my bedroom.
I called him mid-week, and was rather surprised when he picked up the phone and immediately said “Hello Gillian, shall I pop around on Friday?” You know you have a recurring mouse issue when your phone number is obviously programmed into the pest controller’s phone! It turned out to be even worse than that – Martin was actively expecting me to call him. I was chatting to him on Friday morning and he said that, for the past two years at least, he’s had call outs to both me and another of his clients virtually simultaneously. Often he sees us both on the same day, calling in at her place on the way back from mine. And if it’s not the same day, it’s always been in the same week. He was saying to his brother-in-law (Tim, my original pest controller) on Wednesday that it was really odd – he’d just been called out to Mrs So-and-So but hadn’t heard anything from Gillian. He put down the phone to Tim, and the next call was the one from me!
Anyway, he’s replenished the bait in the loft, and put some down in the garage for good measure. I’m pretty sure I’ve got some mice over-wintering in the woodpile in the corner of the garage. They can’t do a great deal of damage there, but I don’t want them using it as a staging post to invade the body of the house.
