Mark Healey, 28, discovered the house on Danefield Road was infested with the little rodents about six weeks ago.

"It's absolutely riddled with them," said Mark.

"The kids are so frightened. One of them was actually throwing up the other night because she was so petrified.

"An environmental officer said we had 50 or 60 mice in the house and I can believe it. Apparently the lady who lived in the house before us had a lot of problems with them.

"They are about three inches long and very cheeky. You can hear them scratching inside the walls which is very annoying. And they come out at about tea time and just run across the floor. We've seen about five at once."

And while the family's problem is not being solved, it's getting steadily worse - as their furry friends are breeding every 12 weeks and producing six baby mice in each litter.

"Environmental officers have been round from the borough council seven times in the last six weeks and nothing has worked," said Mark.

"They must be getting immune to the poison they keep putting down - I've seen a programme about supermice like these.

"We've caught five ourselves, with traps upstairs. But they've now learnt to take the bait without being caught.

"We've never had pets but we got a cat, Katie, thinking it might help. But she hasn't caught one mouse - she's more scared of them.

"But something has to be done because it's so bad. The council said it can't put us in temporary accommodation until the problem is sorted out, because we aren't homeless.

"We really are getting upset and angry now."

A spokesman from Vale Royal Borough Council said: "We have been visiting the premises since early August and carried out pest control treatment. However, there are other issues that need to be pursued.

"The adjacent semi-detached property is to be visited on Thursday by pest control staff who will then fully investigate the situation and take necessary action.

"We do not normally rehouse people when there's a pest problem and we hope it will not be necessary to do so in this case.

"We will review the situation once pest control operatives have called on Thursday."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.