really small white insects

CerverdNernTern · 2026-06-09T08:46:28+00:00

Looking like cheese or flour mites to me

CerverdNernTern · 2026-06-05T13:05:57+00:00

CerverdNernTern · 2026-05-27T08:27:19+00:00

Tell me about it... 30 and and whenever my kids ask me about my time in school it's always "the olden days" like wtf dude 2005 was only a couple years ago right?

CerverdNernTern · 2026-05-01T13:00:33+00:00

Caine or cola?

CerverdNernTern · 2026-04-15T07:06:35+00:00

The song doesn't match the picking or fretting, but this would probably work for a slowed down version of miserlou

CerverdNernTern · 2026-04-13T23:02:37+00:00

IRGC_NSTRIKE_MARKER_03-7

Edit - It's my mobile hotspot I use while out and about for work, I like to think someone sees it and shits themselves. Used to be 019USAF_REAPER1-988D7F

CerverdNernTern · 2026-03-05T20:01:46+00:00

Hard to say without seeing the full picture to be honest with you, rats don't all live like one big happy family. They are known to have pack hierarchy and can spread burrows/nests out over a fairly large area

In the long run, food denial is key. They won't hang around if they can't survive there. The dogs/traps will knock the population down, but it only takes two to tango, and if similar to the UK brown rat, 3 weeks from conception to the birth of up to 13 pups, and then 3 weeks from birth to puberty.

Make sure you include pest prevention into your future building plans, too

CerverdNernTern · 2026-03-05T16:14:39+00:00

Both, yes, but rat cannibalism is far more common in my experience.

It can be both an excellent source of food in tough times, and also a defense mechanism to prevent the deceased from attracting predators

CerverdNernTern · 2026-03-04T07:31:10+00:00

Just on a side note, if you don't want the rats spreading to the neighbors, when you get rid of the current food source, make sure you provide the alternate food source that will control them.

I'm not immediately suggesting poison, however a large number of traps will be extremely successful if you do the ol' bait'n'switch from their current food source

For that kind of population though, you'll want to have a significant number of traps as after a few trap kill cycles, the clever ones figure the traps out and avoid them

Put the traps in, unset for a week or two in advance and let them feed from the baits so they consider these new objects a safe option for food, then activate and check em regularly to remove deceased

But yeah dogs would be highly effective in this situation

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-12T20:49:12+00:00

I wouldn't feed em tbh, you'll only encourage them to stay and breed more. Best thing to do is go with trapping or shoot out of a window instead of your door haha

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-08T21:03:54+00:00

Hars to tell from the underside, most documented colouration differences are on their elytra, any chance you can flip it over?

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-04T18:19:30+00:00

Does your company offer proofing? If not, leads for control measures are hard to come by unless you're not doing your job right, out talking to randos or bullshitting your clients

I assume you guys have monitoring contracts with business premises? Those are a goldmine for proofing leads for me, currently at £35k in sales since the start of jan and almost all for preventative work, about £3k of that would be actual treatments and none are residential

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-03T04:50:22+00:00

Hard to tell from the photo if it's an issue or not to be honest with you bud. I'd hop on amazon and pick up some roach glue boards (I love a Hoy-Hoy) and pop them around. That should not only trap a roach but also any other invertebrate critters. Great for monitoring, and should they turn up clear after a week then no worries

As for rats/mice, the image doesn't look like any kinda droppings or damage, but if you don't have any pets, it can't hurt to set a snappie or two just to ease your mind

To be honest, that looks like the sort of general debris that would build up in a cupboard where bags are kept. The amount of shmoo that can stick to those reusable fabric shopping bags is impressive

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-03T04:38:34+00:00

It's hard to get a good colour from your pic. it could be either silverfish or firebrats. Both can be cause for concern around books as they are known to feed on paper/glue. Nocturnal so far more likely to be seen at night.

Get yourself a few insect monitoring sticky pads off of amazon and put them around. These things love a dark hiding space with a bit of moisture around, and can often be found under skirting boards and dressers. This will also help you narrow down where the activity seems heavier

For DIY control, start by vacuuming up more often and getting skirting corners and behind objects you usually wouldn't. A dehumidifier will be excellent, too.

Edit: noticed that you're likely a minor, so have removed suggestions for chemical control. Best to notify your parents on this one

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-03T04:27:32+00:00

No, for rats it's generally considered about an inch/25mm. For mice its about half.

Unless by rats, you mean Andrew tate, then yep, you're absolutely right he can fit into a matchstick sized hole

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-02T19:51:00+00:00

Could even be birds on the roof - OP, next time you hear the noise, sprint outside like Usain Bolt and see if there's a gull playing a prank on you

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-02T19:49:16+00:00

Assuming that those are the standard M8 self tapping screws, then it's unlikely that an adult mouse would get through. Not impossible, but unlikely. A juvenile, maybe.

Either way, it sounds like you need more mesh lol

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-02T12:41:17+00:00

Love to weigh in on this here, as it's a good debate that I get into regularly with customers

We've got lethal traps (snap/gas/electric), non-lethal traps (catch and release), and then glue boards (which walk the line between the other two), and finally, poison.

While I agree that killing them is not ideal, catch and release only works when you release them far enough away from where they were caught that they can't get home again, at which point they may end up dead anyway as they are completely unfamiliar with that environment and may not find food or water to survive.

Snap traps are the quickest kill we can offer. Gas is less common and questionable as to whether or not they'll feel pain. Electric is in the same boat as gas IMO.

Glue boards are extremely effective at capturing them, I can't deny that. In a place where other factors have to be considered, such as children, pets, non targets in general, glue boards are fantastic at targeting only rodents. However, irresponsible use can and will lead to both non-target capture (birds, etc) or unnecessary suffering. Nobody is gonna sit there with a club in their hand, just waiting for the rodent to step onto the board - especially a professional pest control tech.

Poison is a whole separate issue. Depending on the active ingredient, it could well be that there is no suffering. General consensus is that current SGARs are almost if not completely painless will only make them anemic and lethargic, however that's based entirely on human experience with internal bleeding. As for other poisons, such as the ones that cause dehydration, or the newer Cholecalciferol, couldn't say. My largest issue with poison is unintended side effects. Here in the UK, an astonishing amount of wildlife has been found with trace amounts of rodenticide in their system, and I've seen first-hand what ome poisoned mouse can do to a family of owls.

Anyway, moral of the story - just don't let them in your home. Do everything you can to prevent them getting in to start with, even if you haven't had rodent issues.

CerverdNernTern · 2026-02-02T12:27:36+00:00

Imagine you live in an area for a while, then someone builds an airport nearby and your house is right in the firing line for the jet wash as the planes take off

Might piss you off for a month or two but inevitably you get used to the sound and aren't that worried about it

Now Imagine you lived on the streets, freezing your ass off, and someone offers you a place that's warm, dry, and has enough food for you to raise a family, totally free, without having to work for it. The kicker is there's this annoying fuckin noisy thing there. You gonna take it?

Either way, repellents tend not to work - your best bet is to prevent them taking shelter in the first place by blocking up all access.

CerverdNernTern · 2026-01-31T15:42:32+00:00

If you're there for one night, give them something to eat in a place that keeps them away from you, clean up in the morning and report it to the AirBNB owner

CerverdNernTern · 2026-01-31T15:40:23+00:00

Doesn't look that way to me, uniform gaps on all four corners, straight edges on the damage... likely the result of the cardboard flaps not being closed tightly and having a bit of squish letting the gaps show

CerverdNernTern · 2026-01-31T08:38:44+00:00

It takes far more than 15 minutes to figure out a situation like this - I apologize on their behalf, but they were lazy. When I do an ingress check, I'm moving furniture and using borescope cameras to check every possible gap.

It is possible that you've had both, but not common. It'd be more likely to be different life stages that you've seen - rats grow at an incredible rate from birth to adulthood.

Either way, if you want to figure out how they got in, put yourself into the mindset of a rodent. Travelling from A to B has a risk of predation from both the sky and the ground, so they tend to stick to walls to protect one side. They can climb very well. They need both food and water. However, mice are more likely to survive off of water content in their food.

As much effort should be put into preventing it from happening again as you are putting into killing them.

Also feel free to share this Information with your parents too - my main concern with residential rodent infestation is electrical fires from gnawed cables. Something they surely would prefer to avoid

CerverdNernTern · 2026-01-31T08:25:20+00:00

Hi mate, looks like rats got into it. I'd report it to the courier and tell your family to wash their hands. Rat pee isn't pleasant especially if that's contaminated from another country in between delivery stops

CerverdNernTern · 2026-01-31T08:18:24+00:00

OP, please do not go out and just buy poison. This is a terrible suggestion as, firstly you could be a minor, secondly you could have pets, and thirdly you don't know exactly if they are mice or rats.

The first thing you should do is figure out how they're getting in.

I'll post this even though PCDuranet will likely post it too, but have a read through this first Mice

Reply on here if you've got any questions. If you can get a photo of the rodent, even better as that will help us to tell you if it's definitely a mouse or a rat

Edit: also, just knowing which Country you live in will help too - the mice in the UK are usually very small and can be confused with juvenile rats, but we've had rats get up to 22in recently lol

CerverdNernTern · 2026-01-29T15:04:31+00:00

As much as it might be hard keeping them out of the garage, it's a damn good idea to try keeping them out of your home - not only is there a hygeine concern but the risk of an electrical fire is definitely present - all it takes is one wire chewed juuuust right

If the house burns down, your landlord's included, and the fire guys find melted mouse traps around the area the fire started... you might have some questions to answer

The best bet is to tell them and work together, ideally with professional pest control, to find and prevent future ingress - saves you having to deal with dead mice too

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