How to Fight Mice in Your Home

Seeing mice in the home is never a good thing. They bring a wide variety of dangers and diseases with them, and there’s no reason to keep them around. Like any responsible homeowner, you’re likely wondering what you can do to fight the mice in your home. It’s important to act fast, as a small infestation can explode in no time – but luckily there are plenty of things steps to take to fight mice in your home.

First Steps

Now that you’ve seen a mouse, chances are it ran away and disappeared somewhere. It’s still lurking around somewhere, but stay calm – it’s definitely more afraid of you than you are of it. If you can, try to track down where it went. Keep an eye out for mouse droppings, which look like little black grains of rice, or yellow stains from where they’ve been.

You can leave a trap in this area, which can be an effective way of catching mice. However, keep in mind they often have multiple routes through a building. Clean up and close any sources of food you may have laying around, such as an uncovered butter dish, a knife with peanut butter on it, dirty dishes, or food scraps. Make sure trash cans close and are secure – Mice are resourceful and can often squeeze under lids. They’re looking for food first and foremost, so the more you can eliminate food sources the less places they will have to go. It’s important to control this aspect, because even if you were to eliminate the current population the free food would attract new vermin with enough time.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve hopefully gotten your potential food sources under control, you can begin to address the problem of the mouse population, and start protecting your home from future infestations. While it can be difficult to permanently and completely seal your house from outside intrusion, you can make it more difficult by ensuring there are no holes in your siding or foundation, and that your gutters don’t have an easy way to get in through overhangs in the roof or holes drilled for wires. Electrical systems are one of a mouse’s favorite ways to enter a home, and making sure these holes are sealed with epoxy is a great way to keep mice out. Caulk can be tempting, but mice have great teeth – They’ll chew through anything they can if they feel they can get food on the other end.

Mouse Holes

If you spot a hole that mice are running into inside your home, it can be useful to leave this hole uncovered and place baits or traps near the hole, as mice will frequently use the same avenues they’ve had success with. Even if they’ve been chased there before. Snap traps are a tried and true method for keeping your mouse population low, but there are also sticky traps and no touch traps. Find out what works best for you, as they will likely have multiple such entry points to your home.

Always check crawl spaces, basements, attics, and areas where wires enter and exit the walls, as mice love to chew. They do this not only to gain access to another room, but also to keep their teeth short. If a mouse is in your home, it’s chewing on something. With how rapidly they can reproduce and how hard it can be to manage a population, it’s important to get professional advice if you’re unable to manage to problem yourself.

Contact Us

Don’t hesitate to give us a call if have worries about trying to fight mice in your home. We’ll be able to advise you on the next steps and offer a variety of solutions to ensure that your unwanted guests don’t nibble you out of house and home.