Every attic I have been in that had mice had tunnels through the insulation where the mice were going through. Like actual tunnels, not gaps or disturbed insulation.
I think they typically use a black light to confirm that, don’t they? Rodent urine should glow. If you have one, shine it on that spot and see if it fluoresces.
If there is pee, there will also be poo. Have a gander and see if you see any droppings. They’re like little black pellets the shape of zeppelins (if you’ve ever had a hamster or gerbil, they’re similar), if you can’t find any I’d be very dubious about mice. In my experience from having them, you hear them scuttling at night. If you’re worried, you can get humane traps for pretty cheap - definitely cheaper than an exterminator.
I don’t remember seeing any poop. Maybe I’ll go up and check again. He also showed me some gaps in the insulation and said that’s made by mice to get around. https://programming.dev/pictrs/image/e62db50e-9ca8-418a-aa9a-196671204f70.jpeg. He also said the insulation is 12 inches which is low and to gave me a quote for $8000 to remove existing insulation and blow new insulation (because there would be rat poop inside). Or $6000 to blow on top of old insulation.
So where I am we don’t use blown insulation like this, so please take this with a pinch of salt, but…
I redid 50m^2 of roof insulation in my house to exceed the insulation standards in my area and the cost of all the (very high spec) insulation sheets and materials was just over £3000. I don’t know about loose insulation that gets blown like in your picture, but I just wanted to contextualise why I thought the price seemed high.
If it was me, I’d set up a couple of cameras and mouse traps to see if you get anything. If not, add that company to your big book of Bullshit and chalk this down to a good lesson learned. Owning a home can be stressful and expensive enough without scamming dingbats making things more difficult.
If you do end up with mice in the traps, it would be worth getting a quote from another company, juuuust in case.
Yup you should be seeing small pill shaped droppings. Mice leave them everywhere (if you have them).
A cheap solution is to ask a neighbor with cats for some leftover litter (urine litter not cat poop). Fill up a small disposable tray or bowl with the urine soaked litter and put it up in your attic for a few days. I’ve had mice clear out the day of and never return. Also consider just getting a cat for long term pest control.
Fun fact, cats aren’t actually very effective at killing all the rodents. They’ve done studies and basically the cats just make them really skiddish and they hide so you never see them. They kill one here or there but the real benefit is getting them out of sight.
You never met my cat. She was the Terror of Rodents. Like Roman conquerers of old, she used to line up decapitated rats on the welcome mat as her Triumph. Stepping on a whole family of five dead rats while leaving for work is a good start to the day.
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