Solving a wee problem

KYA deLongchamps continues with her 12-week series focusing on getting your home ready for winter...

If you had the choice of a well bedded, safe, warm penthouse with meals gifted in your path, or a life bobbing on a rain-lashed barley stalk- where would you choose? Mice come into our homes, because they are invited in by insufficient physical defences and sloppy housekeeping. Unless confined to a cage with an adoring infant keeper and their own workout wheel, they are extremely bad news. Mice can squeeze their malleable, tiny bodies through the faintest 6mm gap around the wiring and pipe-work. Holes in cavity block-work, the warm warren of timber frame, and other welcoming cavities leave your home wide open. Height is no barrier to intrusion and they can leap up as much as 30cm and cling to rough render as good as any David Blaine.

BAD BEHAVIOUR