As the clocks have gone back and the colder mornings set in, NestBusters is seeing the usual late-autumn pattern repeat itself across Nottinghamshire: house mice pushing indoors in search of warmth and food, and moles pushing up fresh earth in gardens and verges that are finally soft and workable again after the recent rain. This week we’re focusing on two areas at opposite ends of our patch — Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield (NG17), and Nottingham city centre (NG1) — where we’re already fielding calls about both.
Mice on the move in Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield
The older ex-colliery terraces around Kirkby and Sutton — many with suspended timber floors, airbrick gaps that have never been fitted with mesh, and sheds backing onto allotments off Low Moor Road and around Sutton Lawn — are exactly the kind of property mice target as the weather turns. We’re also seeing activity in the newer estates fringing the old pit sites, where garden fences and compost bins back onto rough ground that’s attractive to foraging mice before they make the final move indoors. Typical early signs are a scratching noise in the loft or behind kickboards at night, small dark droppings along skirting boards or in the backs of kitchen cupboards, and a faint ammonia smell building up in rarely-used rooms.
Molehills appearing on lawns and allotments
At the same time, we’re getting regular callouts for molehills on the grassed areas around Kingsway Park and on allotment plots across both towns. Moles don’t come indoors, but once the ground softens after rain their tunnelling ramps up quickly, and a lawn that looked fine a fortnight ago can be covered in fresh spoil heaps within a few days. Left alone, the tunnels undermine lawns and raised beds and can make a real mess of autumn-planted bulbs and vegetables.
City centre properties facing the same squeeze
Across in Nottingham city centre, it’s a different kind of building with the same underlying problem. Older commercial premises and converted upper floors around the Lace Market and Hockley, along with the dense student HMOs near the university campuses, all have the gaps, shared walls and food waste that mice thrive on once outdoor foraging gets harder. Commercial kitchens in particular need to be especially vigilant this time of year — a single mouse incursion reported to environmental health can be far more costly than a routine proofing visit. We’re not seeing molehill activity in the city centre itself, for obvious reasons, but mouse activity there tends to run a few weeks ahead of the suburbs simply because there’s more food and shelter on offer.
Telling mouse and mole problems apart
It’s worth knowing the difference, since the response is completely different for each. Mouse signs: droppings (small, dark, rice-grain sized, often clustered near food or along regular routes), gnaw marks on food packaging or skirting, a musty smell, and scratching sounds after dark, especially in lofts and wall cavities. Mole signs: volcano-shaped mounds of loose soil appearing overnight, slightly raised ridges running across a lawn where a tunnel sits just under the surface, and no droppings or smell at all, since moles never come inside.
What residents can do now
For mice, the most effective single step is proofing — fitting brush strips or mesh to gaps under doors, sealing airbricks with mouse-proof vents, and checking where pipework passes through external walls. Keeping bins lidded and compost bins away from the house wall also helps a great deal. For moles, there’s no reliable DIY fix beyond repeatedly flattening the mounds; humane trapping by someone experienced gives a much better result and avoids the lawn damage spreading further.
If you’re hearing scratching in the loft, finding droppings in a kitchen cupboard, or waking up to a new molehill on the lawn, NestBusters covers both Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield and Nottingham city centre, and can usually get someone out within a day or two. Call us on 0742 984 9483 or visit nottinghampest.co.uk to book an inspection.
