Okay bear with me here.

Last year, whilst I was away, my 'rents had an issue with mice. Forgot how many they caught but they used a helluva lotta traps and caught them all, including the mummy and daddy mice. Anyway, because of other issues, we never got round to sorting out the holes they may have used.

Some of the gaps are around heating pipes, some are just gaps in the floorboards next to walls, holes next to electrical sockets etc where mice could creep through. Can't figure out how they're entering the house (there's no obvious paths or anything) but they've started to come back in.

I want to seal up some of the holes. Not sure of the best method. Ideas?

Tricky one - mice can collapse their skulls down and pass through a hole about the width of a bic biro. For that reason, it's very, very difficult to fully mouse proof a building because they make use of such tiny holes.

Have you thought about a cat?

Try and make sure there are no easily accessible food and water sources.

Keep cereals etc in sealable plastic containers instead of the boxes.

Lots of poison and/or traps.

You can also get some anti-mouse things you plug into the wall. They only work for so long though, until they become accustomed to the noise.

A professional.

My parents rent out a house and when the tenants moved out they left mice in the kitchen. They hired a pro who charged £95 and laid traps and poison and blocked up the holes.

That was about a year ago and there has been no trouble since.

We have those, some will give out a low beep or humming noise that can be just as annoying to humans (unintentional Bratty reference ), but ours aren't too bad - one upstairs, one downstairs, haven't had mice in the house since they were installed*

*We live near a railway line, so the rodents have their own little playground anyway - I'll never forget the screeches of a mouse we caught in a trap that was then dragging himself around with it under our floorboards

Check with your local authority Pest Control department - they might offer the service cheaper than this.

I know about mice and holes but there are gonna be some obvious places they use. We're using traps to catch them but in the past, some of them have been sneaky enough to steal the bait without setting off the trap.

Council people not been much help - we got free poison and that's it.

Who was the pro, Nick? Company or independent?

He was a one-man-band. I didn't have any dealings with him myself, but my parents who did seemed quite pleased.

So was the pied piper...

Sorry, I chose not to resist.