Fight pests yourself or call a pest controller?
A single mouse you can handle yourself. The honest dividing line per pest — and why poison and spray cans are the worst intermediate step.
Safe to do yourself: a single mouse in the kitchen. Set traps on the runways along the skirting board (peanut butter as bait), store food sealed and close the gaps where it gets in — a mouse fits through an opening of less than a centimetre. A stray wasp, or a small, freely hanging nest well away from the door, can sometimes still be headed off in early spring. Proofing is safe DIY: sealing gaps, fitting grilles, clearing food sources.
What to leave on the shelf: poison and spray cans. Rodent control with products is strictly regulated and reserved for certified companies — for private individuals, poison against mice and rats is largely no longer permitted, and rightly so: badly placed poison hits pets and other animals, and it masks the source instead of removing it. Spray cans against cockroaches or bed bugs at best chase the insects into the next room or to the neighbours. And a disturbed wasp nest turns the whole colony aggressive.
Call a pest controller directly at these signals: rats indoors (an emergency report), mouse droppings in several places or nuisance that persists after two weeks of trapping, a wasp nest in the cavity wall, under the eaves or near the door, any suspicion of bed bugs, and fresh frass at holes in beams or furniture — that points to active woodworm. In all those cases the question is not whether it gets worse, but how fast.
The costs are manageable as long as you act in time: a wasp nest costs € 75-150, mouse control € 150-350 per treatment plan — the full rates are in the price index. In doubt, just submit a free request and describe what you see: a professional can often tell from the traces whether it is a DIY job, and will honestly say so.