Edinburgh house mice problem labelled "the worst in the UK" by local pest control company

Edinburgh is the mice infestation capital of the UK, according to a local pest control company which has recorded a 54 per cent increase in house mice in the city this year. Edinburgh-based Wee Critters Pest Control said that the increase is down to a number of factors including Covid and household pests growing a resistance to previously used bait. And it said that the main hotspots of Gorgie, Dalry and Leith are now reporting more house mice incidents due to the older inter-connected tenement buildings in these areas.

Wee Critters’ owner and director Andy Carral said he has never seen such an increase in house mice in Edinburgh. He said: “We are a very busy company because we take people on a first-come first-served basis, we help everyone, which means statistics are truer. We have seen a 54 per cent increase in mice this year alone, while it’s about 23 per cent for rats, which doesn’t seem as much in comparison to mice but it really is a big jump also.

"We are dealing with mice and rats daily. We are as busy now as we’ve ever been, I’m fully booked for the next two weeks. It’s largely mice, but rats also. Today alone I have done four rat jobs, not long ago it was once every other day. The mice issue is 100 per cent to do with Covid, as they had all that time when we were not working, so not treating and controlling them, allowing them to grow in larger numbers.

"Now we are back at work they have got to a population size we are unable to really control. In the second half of last year we started noticing a resistance to the products we had used for years and the numbers we were treating per job was increasing as well. We are now having to use a newer product which is more expensive, but it’s the only way we can work past the new resistance.”

Andy spoke about the mice and rat hotspots in Edinburgh and how he hopes the council’s environmental health department will look into the growing issue. He said: "There are certain cities in the UK experiencing resistance to different products. I think Edinburgh is the worst in the UK because of all the areas here with older buildings, much larger stone-built inter-connected buildings. It’s just ideal conditions for mice.

“Obviously the worst areas in Edinburgh are the Old Town, Gorgie, Dalry and Leith, as they are mostly made up of older tenement buildings which are inter-connected, allowing the mice to move from flat to flat without detection. Gorgie is the worst area, we are out there every day. With the connectivity of the flats there it’s a never-ending problem. You get one building under control but the mice just keep coming back as they tend to live in the gaps in the buildings between the flats.

"The council will be aware of this problem. House mice are becoming more and more of an issue in Edinburgh, it’s just whether or not Environmental Health consider it to be a big problem or not.”

The City of Edinburgh Council said: “We would be very interested in speaking to the pest control firm to better understand where they may be experiencing particular or unusual issues. Pest control is a matter of public health and it’s a concern we respond to regularly and urgently. We work with all residents and businesses who report pest control problems to us and will always take all reasonable steps to resolve problems.”