Mice & Air Bricks

My Sister In Law is CONVINCED she has mice and they are coming through the airbricks!! No amount of reassurance from my Brother or myself will stop her and she wants the airbricks blocked up. This is NOT an option obviously, so she is asking us about putting some sort of grids over them. They live in quite a large bungalow and there are approx 30 airbricks. They are the 'standard' type i.e. same size as a brick and with two rows of small square holes. Can we do this without any detriment to the airflow and if so what is the best size of mesh to use so as to stop the 'mice' and still allow airflow. By the way my Brother has mentioned divorce may be an option!

Cheers

John

Reply to
John
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You need to contact a kitchen utensil manufacturer to find out where he gets his mesh from that is used for flour sieves and suchlike. Something like

0.2mm. Get some. Put this over each brick to avoid divorce. There will negligible effect on airflow. Obviously no mouse would be able to effect entry through airbrick size holes anyway , so save time and effort by bolting the doors when she is out !!!

Pete

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Reply to
Peter Stockdale

IME house mice will fit through the little square holes in our air bricks, they get stuck getting out.

AJH

Reply to
sylva

Well, I disgree ... they can.

Get some expanded aluminium and fix it round the air bricks. IF mice are getting in through there it will stop them. It won't stop air circulation.

I've used it to prevent swarming bees from gaining access to cavity walls.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

You obviously feed them too much inside ! (my original post said mm -sb cm sorry) Try feeding them outside and perhaps they will get suck coming in !!

Pete

Reply to
Peter Stockdale

Like hell they can't!

For the OP - you need mesh, like this:

Reply to
Grunff

Of course they are bigger and fatter after feeding up inside. B-)

I agree a mouse could just get through a normal masonary air brick. I don't think they could get through 1/4" mesh but if they have a known path the mesh will have to be pretty tough or they'll knaw through it.

At this time of year once they are in they'll stay in, nice and warm plenty of food. So you'll have to trap or poison 'em. Poison isn't a good idea as they have a habit of dieing in a most in accesable place and stinking for a week or three. Live trapping is OK but remember releasing vermin anywhere but on your own land is illegal. Iif you release at the bottom of the average garden mousey will be back inside before you. You need to transport 'em a few miles but then you aren't on your land...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Do you have an air compressor ?

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Releasing them from my second floor window onto the road outside seems to work for me :-)

Reply to
quisquiliae

That's why I said it, in fact I haven't seen house mice here in 25 years but the last one I did had died from exposure whilst exiting via an air brick.

Yes this is true of wood mice, I think house mice will stay resident year round, they are much smaller and grey rather than brown.

Releasing non indigenous animals in the wild is unlawful but where do you get this other bit from?

An animal will suffer a crueler death on being displaced from its home territory than a swift blow when caught.

AJH

Reply to
sylva

I prefer live trapping since it doesn't spatter mouse juice round the bottom of your food cupboard. I then empty the mouse into a freezer bag and beat it with a shoe.

M.

Reply to
Markus Splenius

I used the soffit mesh linked below to cover up my air bricks, as I was having a problem with wasps wanting to live under my house. Although I did find it was not quite wide enough, so I bent the longer edges of two cut pieces together, and flattened the join with a hammer. Thus I made a piece about twice as wide as the original. I then fixed it over each vent with 6 screws evenly placed to try to stop things bending the mesh and making gaps to still get in. Not that a wasp is likely to be strong enough to bend it, but something else might be. I did have some concerns about it restriciting air flow, and I'm sure it may have a very minor effect if looked at from a scientific view. It made me wonder why air bricks do not come with mesh already, perhaps fitted on the inside when the house was built?

James

Reply to
James

The finer the mesh, the more likely it is to get clogged over time. When I fit airbricks, I use the plastic ones with clip on grills. These have finer openings than in conventional brick ones, but you can take them off and clean out the grills and the airway through into the house. (Was also useful for feeding copper pipes under the floor.)

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

"Dave Liquorice" wrote | ... Live trapping is OK but remember releasing vermin anywhere | but on your own land is illegal. Iif you release at the bottom of | the average garden mousey will be back inside before you. | You need to transport 'em a few miles but then you aren't | on your land...

If you use a catapult mousey is on (over) your land when released, but a good distance away when it lands.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

That's not very humane. I give them to the cat, so they can play happily together :)

Reply to
Ian Stirling

As a guide, if you can push an ordinary Bic biro though a hole, a mouse can get through it. The answer used to be galvanised perforated metal, as used on meat safes, but I expect expanded metal is easier to get these days.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

"nightjar .uk.com>"

I have a roll of perforated galvanised AND a roll of perforated stainless steel.

Offers?

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

That sounds emminently sensible, mouse gets dispatched fairly humanely, you don't risk getting bitten and the resultant mess of blood and brains is contained. I like it. I generally prefer poison and have had no trouble with smells. Last time I had to I came down one Sat a.m. and found small house mouse sitting hunched on the kitchen floor shivering. Mouse did not so much as move (apart from said shivering) while I stepped over him, fetched my hammer from the toolbox under the sink and put it out its misery with a well aimed thud. We had a vinyl floor, so no problems. I did have to clean the hammer though.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Ashby

I suspect you had more blood and brain spatter from a hammer than you would with a trap. We've never had it when using a trap.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

We did once, caught the poor blighter by the nose. I don't like traps.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Ashby

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