A mammoth undertaking

When Tim the pest controller visited last time, he predicted that the mice would be back in November, and I had a note pencilled in my diary to give him a pre-emptive call this month. But then I started hearing scrabbling sounds at night again, which indicated that the mice were back. I phoned Tim on Monday morning, and he came round that afternoon to investigate and lay some more bait.

He poked around in the loft a bit and confirmed that I do indeed have mice up there again, and that they had taken all of the bait that he had left out last time. He also added the unwelcome news that there were fresh squirrel droppings up there too – but fortunately no sign of rats. The squirrel should be affected by the same bait as the mice, but in addition he has left a live trap outside the house to attempt to catch it. I have to check it twice a day, and am under instructions to call him immediately if it traps anything, as he doesn’t want me to have to deal with an angry and vicious live squirrel. It was interesting watching him decide where to place the trap – he says that after so many years of working as a pest controller, he knows the correct place as soon as he sees it, because he can effectively “think like a squirrel”.

The trap has been there for a few days now and so far has caught nothing. The mice, on the other hand, are clearly taking the bait as they are getting louder again. The scrabbling and tap-dancing directly above my bed was so bad at 3am last night that I had to move into the spare room to try to get some sleep ahead of a long day back down at our Hampshire HQ again today. I think I’ll be sleeping in the spare bed again tonight, as they don’t seem to like to run about so much above that room.