A CROYDON woman is fuming after pest controllers left the skeleton of a mouse in her kitchen.

Mum-of-two Michelle Wilson, who lives in a council flat in Prestwood Gardens, found the grisly remains underneath her microwave last week after pest controllers from Croydon Council's contractors, Ecolab, visited her home.

She said: "When I rang Ecolab to tell them they said they would have to go back to the council to get another job number. It's ridiculous."

Mrs Wilson said she has endured a mouse problem for the last year.

She said: "It's filth. The whole estate is infested with them. I think we're just being palmed off by the council and it's not good enough."

When she first spotted the mice Mrs Wilson contacted the council's environmental health department. She claims officers told her mice were not classed as vermin, like rats.

Initially Mrs Wilson was told it would cost every person in the block affected by the infestation £94 for the council to remove the mice.

However, Mrs Wilson believed this to be too expensive for council tenants and wrote to her MP Malcolm Wicks, who intervened. Ecolab treated the infestation free of charge but Mrs Wilson said the mice keep coming back.

She added: "The mice have left holes in the walls - there's loads of them so they're just going to keep coming back and nobody is doing anything about them. The mice are actually living in our wall cavity."

Finding the skeleton, as well as maggots, was the final straw, she said.

Mrs Wilson's three-year-old daughter suffers from Turner Syndrome - a chromosome abnormality - and is frightened that if she got hold of the poison, it could seriously harm her.

She added: "We have had to learn not to be scared of mice because we can't frighten the children. Over Christmas they were climbing up our Christmas tree and eating the chocolate. We've had to learn to live with them and that's disgusting, I think."

Mrs Wilson is petitioning the council to treat every flat on the estate.

A council spokesman said: "The contractor has not been able to gain access to the flat frequently enough for the dead mice to be removed and follow-up treatment and proofing to be carried out.

"We appreciate that Ms Wilson cannot stay in all the time but the simple fact is, if the contractors cannot gain regular access, they cannot fully deal with the problem."