The sun is out but the mice are not! Welcome to the June update of MOUSEWATCH!

We have reduced the mice meeting frequency to every two months, due to the lack of sightings, which is why your favourite updates have also reduced in frequency.

There have been NO sightings in April and May of mice but King's continue to have routine visits in each building to monitor the situation, particularly looking at bait boxes where there is minimal activity, which suggests low numbers. I never realised the technicalities of pest control, however, there is a LOT to think about that I never thought I would know. There are a few new systems, which means that if an issue arises we can deal with it quickly (plus we have Mousewatch which is great - shameless self-praise mid-article).

This time we had a slightly different session: we had what I am going to call a ‘spotlight’ session from our external contractors who work on the pest control issue. I have learnt more than I have ever cared to know about pests (or should know imo), but I am now going to share some of that information with you:

• Apparently, London has seen an increase in mice as they are now searching out food 
• Mice can gain behavioural and genetic resistance to bait. The pest control company that King's pays is on a number of national boards to understand innovation to the highest level in managing pests
• King's has trend mapping done to ensure we can see hotspots of issues points and I hope this can be used to inform Mice control in future

And there it is - June's Mousewatch Update! I hope this has made you feel a little more comfortable about spending time on campus and let's hope mice continue to leave our spaces just for us to use (as they were intended to be).