In Prahran's older properties, the most common mouse entry points are gaps around plumbing penetrations beneath kitchen and bathroom sinks, the space between original and replacement flooring in renovated apartments, gaps behind built-in cabinetry where new units meet original uneven walls, deteriorated external door seals, open pipe chases in Art Deco buildings and cracked render at ground level. A proper exclusion inspection finds all of these.

Prahran's proximity to the Prahran Market and Chapel Street dining strip means the suburb has an unusually high ambient mouse population in surrounding streets and drainage. Mice from commercial food areas migrate into residential properties when competition for food increases. Store all pantry items in hard-sided sealed containers, keep pet food in sealed bins, clean behind and beneath appliances regularly and make sure your outdoor bins have tight lids.

Mice nest in warm, undisturbed spaces close to food. In Prahran's apartments and terraces, that means storage cupboards under stairs, behind laundry appliances, bedroom wardrobes with cardboard boxes and rarely opened pantries. Regularly disturbing these spaces, removing cardboard and using sealed plastic storage bins makes them far less attractive as nesting sites.

One dropping in a kitchen drawer is not a stray mouse passing through — it means the nest is within a few metres. The earlier you call, the smaller the colony, the more contained the contamination and the simpler the treatment. A job caught early takes one or two visits to resolve. A job left six weeks is a different conversation entirely.