Edinburgh woman 'forced to move out' of home after 'mouse crawls up shoulder'

Edinburgh Live

a day ago

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An Edinburgh woman has detailed how her home was overrun with vermin as mice nested in her bed and climbed over her body.
Maggie Wolohan, 46, of Clovenstone Gardens, is pleading with her housing association to move her after she came face-to-face with a rodent in her bedroom.
Prospect visited her home and fumigated the public stairwell as well as filled holes with steel wool in the flat. But Maggie believes this has not gone far enough and the mice will return.
The issue became so bad she claims she had to move in with her brother on Clovenstone Drive for 12 weeks. She has accused her landlord of not taking her concerns seriously while adding the ordeal has caused her stress.
'I've been plagued with mice,' Maggie said. 'It is about the third or fourth year in a row now.
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'I had to move out and go and live with my brother and only recently moved back in because of it. They had began to nest in my bed.
'We put traps down but it did not work and contacted Prospect who sent a man out. He was lovely and filled the holes he could see with steel wool but they didn't fumigate my flat.
'Prospect fumigated the stair but the problem is the mice are in the flats. Back in May I was sat in my bed, playing a game on my phone, when a mouse had crawled up from the bed, onto my arm and up my shoulder - I s**t myself.
'That night I moved out. I was at my brother's for 12 weeks and it was really disruptive as I suffer from epilepsy.
'I've had to get rid of my bed and all the stuff underneath it and have not been compensated. All I got was an advance on my Universal Credit and I have to pay that back.
'They will come back because my flat was not fumigated and I've found more holes in my bathroom. I don't feel like Prospect have taken me seriously enough.
'This has really triggered my health and stressed me right out.'
Maggie's brother, Duncan Wolohan, 53, of Clovenstone Drive, has also experienced his own problem with vermin. He and his wife claim to have been kept up at night by the sound of scurrying rats behind their bedroom wall.
'We noticed the rats a couple of years ago,' he said. 'We think they have come in through a hole in the back or are coming down from the roof.
'My wife can hear them scurrying up and down but to be honest we have not heard them for a few weeks. She could hear them in the walls in our bedroom at night, it was this scratching noise.
'We complained about the issue and they said they found holes but they are worried they are digging under the ground to get into the block. Other people a couple of blocks down are definitely worse affected.
'I think Prospect have done as much as they can, they can only fill the holes they see. They've also been up in the attic to see what was up there.'
Despite Duncan feeling the issue may have been resolved, his wife had other thoughts. She believes the rats may be 'hibernating' and will return when the weather becomes colder.
'At the beginning when we heard them, Prospect seemed uninterested,' she said. 'That was until they got so many calls last year to do something about the rats. .
'Pest control said they were digging underneath the home. I think more traps should be laid as they will come back. I want a proper investigation into what is causing them.'
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Prospect said they have notified their team about the issues and will reach out to the impacted residents.