Inaccessible Mice

[Wesley]

Our ceiling is made from concrete with battens nailed to it and plasterboard nailed to the battens. This leaves a gap of about one inch between the top of the board and the concrete. Mice seem to be running marathons up there at night and into the small hours of the morning and there does not appear to be any easy way to get at them. We do not have them in our ground floor apartment and our upstairs neighbour says she has not hear or seen any traces of mice. I have examined the outside of the building and can't find any obvious means of entrance.

The only way I can think of to get rid of them is to take off one or two ceiling roses and somehow put some poison up there. The problem is, how on earth can I get the poison up without making a large hole in the ceiling which would not be covered by the ceiling rose?

[Jonno]

Wesley scribbled

Blowpipe.

[Malcolm Race]

Something like this

Malcolm

[harryagain]

They are getting food from somewhere. Try to assess from where and put poison down there.

The last thing you want is dead mice in the ceiling, they stink.

[Lobster]

On 16 May 2015, Malcolm Race grunted:

I'm guessing it may be more awkward than that, even: the 1" deep battens may well be dividing up the space between the concrete and the plasterboard into multiple sections which the mice may or may not be able to access. So if you were to shove poison up above the ceiling roses, there's no guarantees that the mice will actually be in that section.

Trouble is, mice can get through incredibly small holes. You need to work out can they be getting into this space. I'm guessing they follow the route of the cables to the ceiling roses?

How about: unscrew ceiling rose and drop it down below the ceiling. Stand a tall step ladder underneath, and then build a cardboard tower on the platform using boxes and parcel tape, right up to 2" below ceiling level, and then stand a conventional mouse trap on the top. Hopefully your visitors will emerge from the hole in the wee small hours, and... splat.

[Brian-Gaff]

I'd suggest you go for their food source. They presumably are not eating the ceiling, so must be coming in and feasting some place on something. find that place, look for droppings, and put the bait there, and eventually you will find they vanish. Trouble is of course as happened down the road from me with some rats, the decomposing dead rats started to smell and they had the devil of a job finding the corpses. Brian

[alan_m]

Poison grain is only a millimetre long! The other thing that works well as is taken readily is a poisoned grain wrapped up in a pea size ball of mashed potato.

[Wesley]

Yes, I also thought there might be sections they did not have access to so I might be putting poison into a part like this which would be a complete waste of time. However, I reckon they are following the cabling route as I'm sure I heard them directly above a ceiling rose. I cannot find where they are getting their food as it must be somewhere outside the property. The only solution I can think of is to put some poisoned grain up there but how?

On 16 May 2015, Malcolm Race grunted:

I'm guessing it may be more awkward than that, even: the 1" deep battens may well be dividing up the space between the concrete and the plasterboard into multiple sections which the mice may or may not be able to access. So if you were to shove poison up above the ceiling roses, there's no guarantees that the mice will actually be in that section.

Trouble is, mice can get through incredibly small holes. You need to work out can they be getting into this space. I'm guessing they follow the route of the cables to the ceiling roses?

How about: unscrew ceiling rose and drop it down below the ceiling. Stand a tall step ladder underneath, and then build a cardboard tower on the platform using boxes and parcel tape, right up to 2" below ceiling level, and then stand a conventional mouse trap on the top. Hopefully your visitors will emerge from the hole in the wee small hours, and... splat.

[John Rumm]

You can cut a hole nearly as big as the rose, then patch it before refitting the rose:

(see the taper plug section)

Failing that cut holes anywhere - its relatively easy to patch and fill any damage.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Wesley writes

The *poisoned grain* I use comes in polythene sachets which might be squeezed through a generous ceiling rose access. You could consider how the electrician might have routed the cables in an effort to find their access point.

On the *no food* point..... Our Woodmice bring their own food: nuts etc. They are presumably looking for a warm, safe over winter spot. Other things hibernate in lofts, Cluster Flies, Queen Wasps, Butterflies etc. Probably not an issue in a flat though.

[spuorgelgoog]

In my flat it was before the battening was put up, as the cables are trapped between the battens and the concrete.

(apart from the one I put my knife into, obviously)

Owain

[Andy Burns]

Drill holes and inject squirty foam, not too much though :-)

[Lobster]

On 16 May 2015, "Wesley" grunted:

Did you read the bottom of my previous post (below)?

I can't see any particular problem with shoving poison up there as others have suggested except for the risk of ending up with smelling carcases, as someone else pointed out - hence my suggestion of a trap.

[Chris French]

In message , Lobster writes

Mice don't seem to smell, (too small I guess), rats however ...........

[The Natural Philosopher]

They do, especially when dead a few weeks

[sam]

Mine don?t and I have found some corpses.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah. but have you found them 8 weeks after they crawled under your camera bag to escape the cat? and you couldnt work out where the sweet smell of death was coming from?

One gets used to the smell of ones pets of course

[sam]

Yes, I have found some corpses under things in the kitchen where I would have noticed the smell if there had been any.

Never had any of that.

I don?t currently have any pets and haven't had any for 30 years now.

[alan_m]

Tell that to the one I caught in a trap at the start of winter last year. But, I guess, it will have dried out quite fast if left a day or two longer.

You can some short lived powerful air freshener products that are meant to neutralise/overpower the smell of decomposing bodies that are designed for confined spaces such as hollow walls.

[critcher]

put a hungry snake in the hole.