GETTING RID OF MICE

Mice are never welcome guests in homes or businesses. They can spread diseases such as hantavirus, salmonella and listeria through their urine, droppings, saliva, and nesting materials. People often discover that they have these house mice or deer mice in their homes or business upon hearing scurrying noises at night or finding rice grain-shaped droppings.

Common Signs of a Mouse Infestation

• Hearing scratching and scampering sounds at night.
• Uncovering messes caused by gnawing or chewing, or discovering these types of marks.
• Finding damaged stored food packages.
• Sighting live or dead mice.
• Uncovering their nests.
• Discovering urine or droppings.
• Finding burrows or holes in your walls.
• Coming across mouse feet tracks on dusty surfaces.

Do Mice Case Damage to a Home or Structure?

• Since mice breed year-round, populations can grow rapidly increasing the amount of damage. Sizes of litters and number of babies per litter vary by species, ranging from 5 to 10 litters per year and 5 to 12 babies per litter.

• Mice love chewing on wiring to keep their teeth short and to gain access to places that the wires may be blocking, which has the potential to cause electrical fires.

• Mice can chew through soft concrete, wood, drywall rubber, plastic pipes, insulation, aluminum and even gas lines, leaving you with expensive and potentially dangerous repairs.

Having a mouse infestation is unsettling but it’s nothing to feel embarrassed about. We’ve outlined the best ways for how you can help prevent mice from getting indoors and how to get rid of mice if they have infested your home or business.

How To Make Your Home or Business Less Appealing to Rodents

• Remove nesting and harborage sites around your structure.
• Cut tall grass and weeds back from your home or buildings.
• Secure garbage, recycling, and compost containers with tight-fitting lids.
• Raise woodpiles about 30 centimeters (1 foot) off the ground. Place them away from the house or building entrances.
• Never place fatty or oily food waste, eggs, or milk products in the compost.
• Use a layer of heavy metal mesh between the soil and the bottom of the compost.
• Eliminate water sources like leaky taps, sweating pipes, and open drains.
• Keep kitchen or food prep areas clean and store dry food and dry pet food in metal or glass containers.

How To Get Rid Of Mice

The best way to get rid of mice is to prevent them from getting indoors to begin with. Mice can enter a home through cracks in the exterior, gaps in the windows, roof, utility lines and they are also attracted by food left out in the open.

How To Get Rid Of Mice In The House

Getting rid of mice is a task that can leave you feeling stressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed, but we can help with that. Here are some tips for how to get rid of mice:

• Use metal weather stripping under doors and weather strip windows. Mice can squeeze through cracks as small as a dime or quarter. Even the small gaps created by worn thresholds under doors will allow mice access to your home or business.

• Keep doors closed, and caulk around doors and windows to prevent entry.

• Keep an eye out for siding and foundation gaps, roof and soffit gaps and roof and fascia gaps. Fix as needed to prevent mice from gaining entry.

• Check your roof and roof vents for holes or other damage, and fix as needed.

• Regularly inspect exterior walls for gaps or holes.

• Stuff copper around pipes before caulking or plastering.

• Cover dryer vents, attic vents or soffits with fine mesh metal screening.

• Remove nesting and harbourage sites around your home.

• Regularly cut your grass and dispose of yard waste.

• Raise woodpiles about 30 centimeters (1 foot) off the ground and place them away from the house.

• Secure garbage in containers with tight-fitting lids.

• Never place fatty or oily food waste, eggs or milk products in the compost.

• Use a layer of heavy metal mesh between the soil and the bottom of the compost.

• Eliminate water sources like leaky taps, sweating pipes and open drains.

• Keep the kitchen clean and store dry food and dry pet food in metal or glass containers.

• Store non-perishable items in airtight, secured plastic totes.

How To Get Rid Of Mice In The Walls

Mice often live in small spaces in homes, such as crawlspaces and walls. When these pests live in your walls, they hardly make themselves inconspicuous, as you typically hear the unsettling scratching sound of mice at night. Here are some tips for how to get rid of mice in walls:

• Before attempting extermination methods, ensure that mice are indeed the pest residing in your walls, as different pests may require different extermination methods. Droppings and tracks are common in houses experiencing infestations. Check for holes in walls, floors, foundation, and ceilings.

• Mice commonly emerge to find food, so place traps where you find holes in the wall, or you can lure mice out with food bait.

• To be effective, traps must be placed in areas frequented by mice.

How To Get Rid Of Mice In The Attic

Rustling and scurrying sounds in the attic is the last thing you want to hear. Much like hearing mice in your walls, it is important to determine whether it is mice that are inhabiting your attic or if it’s another pest.

Finding a dead mouse in your attic is usually indicative of there being more than one around. Here are some tips for detecting mice activity in the attic:

• Usually attics tend to be a little dusty. Check for mice footprints.

• Check for rice grain shaped droppings along baseboards or in corners.

• If mice are in your attic, there may be a pungent smell similar to ammonia.

If you have mice in attic:

• Examine your house for gaps or cracks in the exterior where mice are able to enter your home and block off any entry points with steel wool. Ensure you do this step properly. If you do not, more mice may find their way inside.

• Trap and kill any remaining mice that may be in your attic. You can live trap mice if you’d prefer to release them into the wild.

If you are unable to eliminate the mice from your home or business or would like the expertise of a licensed professional, give us your local mouse pest control expert, a call. We can help you get rid of mice.