Mouse control in The Hague: recognising the signs
The house mouse is small, greyish-brown and mainly active at night. If you see one during the day, there are usually more. Quite often the signs give them away before the animals themselves do:
- Small dark droppings the size of a grain of rice in cupboards and drawers.
- Gnawed packaging, soap, candles or insulation.
- Greasy grey smears along skirting boards and pipes where they run.
- Scurrying or scratching in the ceiling, walls or under the floor.
- A sharp smell of urine in a cupboard that is rarely opened.
Not sure whether it is a mouse or a rat? Look at the droppings: rat droppings are clearly larger. In that case, read more about rat control.
How mice get into a home
A mouse can squeeze through a gap of about 6 mm, roughly the thickness of a pencil. In practice it is always the same weak spots: gaps around pipes running through floors or outside walls, air vents without mesh, open weep holes, the gap under an outside door, or a hole left behind by an old heating pipe. Once inside, mice use cavity walls, suspended ceilings and the crawl space as a network of corridors.
Activity rises in autumn, when mice move from gardens, parks and allotments towards warmth and food. A bag of bird seed in the shed, cat biscuits on the floor or an open bread bin gives them a reliable supply.
How our mouse control works
Setting traps without sealing the gaps is like mopping with the tap running. That is why our technician starts by tracking runs and entry points, torch in hand, in the meter cupboard, under the sink and in the crawl space. Openings are sealed with materials mice cannot gnaw through, such as steel wool with sealant, metal mesh or a brush strip under the door. An open weep hole gets a mouse-proof vent cover instead, so the cavity can still ventilate.
Next, we deal with the mice already inside, using traps or bait in locked bait stations placed where children and pets cannot reach them. Professional rodenticides may only be used by certified pest controllers. On a follow-up visit we check the stations and look for fresh signs of activity.
What you can do yourself – and what to avoid
There is plenty you can do to support the treatment. Store cereal, rice and pet food in glass or hard plastic, sweep up crumbs behind the cooker and keep the wheelie bin away from the outside wall. For a single mouse, a few snap traps along the wall with a dab of peanut butter may be enough.
What we advise against is putting down poison yourself. Children and pets can get to it, and a mouse that eats it often dies somewhere you cannot reach, inside a cavity or under the floor, leaving a bad smell. If fresh droppings keep appearing despite your efforts, it is time to call in a professional.
Keeping mice out after treatment
After treatment, the goal is to stop them coming back. Walk around the outside of the house and check the crawl space every autumn. Are the vent covers still in place, has the sealant around the pipes cracked, does the garage door close properly at the bottom? Mice find a new gap faster than you might think.
If you live in a flat, talk to your neighbours or the owners' association (VvE). Mice travel between homes via service shafts and shared crawl spaces, so if one household seals up and the others do not, the problem stays. For other pests in your building, take a look at our pest control in The Hague.
