Mice are very common pests, especially when it’s cold outside. They come sneaking into our homes to escape the cold, then set up shop in wall voids and other hidden areas where they will multiply. Mice may look cute to some, but these are wild animals that spread disease. Mice will damage your home’s interior and attract more pests, costing you hundreds of dollars in repairs.
If you suspect that there are mice in your home, look for the following signs. If you need help, contact the exterminators in Brampton or near you.
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Top 5 Signs You Have Mice in Your Home
Droppings
Mice leave droppings everywhere behind them, so if you find any, you can bet that there are mice nearby. Mouse droppings are very dark and cylindrical. At roughly 6mm in length, they resemble black grains of rice. These are usually found near sources of food and along the paths that mice take every day, like the backs of kitchen cabinets or along the baseboards of the home. Do not touch, sweep, or vacuum mouse droppings. Spray them with disinfect first, then pick them up while wearing gloves and throw them out.
Noises at Night
Mice are mostly nocturnal, so that is when you are most likely to hear them. People with mice in the house may hear a scratching sound coming from the walls or the ceiling of the home when it is dark out. As rodents, mice are always chewing, which creates that scratching sound.
Smudge Marks
Mice have poor eyesight, so they like to follow the same paths every night. As prey, they prefer to hide under cover, walking along the baseboards of cluttered rooms. Rubbing their bodies against the same surfaces repeatedly leaves marks. Finding greasy marks on the bottoms of your walls or surrounding an opening in the wall may point to mice.
Teeth Marks and Tears
Strange holes and tears in your paper, bedding, or fabrics may be due to mice because they use these soft materials to build nests. Mice may also leave holes in your boxes of cereal or other pantry items. They will chew their way through any accessible piece of food. Look at the tears closely and check for teeth marks. Do not eat anything that has a chewed hole in it and wash any fabrics that may have been damaged by mice.
Foul Odour
Given their poor eyesight, mice use their urine to mark their territories and indicate that an area is safe. This leaves the smell of stale urine around the house, especially in enclosed areas like cabinets, pantries, and drawers.
How to Get Rid of Mice
There is more to getting rid of mice than setting up a few traps. If you want to get rid of mice yourself, you will need to clean up the house, block entry points, and set multiple traps, checking and resetting them every day. For guaranteed results, contact a mouse control professional.
Here’s how you can get rid of the mice on your property:
Clean up the house
Clean the home from top to bottom to limit the pests’ access to food and shelter. With no food, the mice will be drawn to your traps. Vacuum thoroughly and keep every surface clean. Store pantry items in sealed containers and don’t leave any food out overnight, like dirty dishes or pet food. Use lidded garbage cans and take out the garbage every day. In terms of clutter, you should get rid of the things you don’t need and organize your belongings. Create space along the walls and take things off the floor.
Outside, you can reduce your chances of getting more mice by tidying up the yard. Move piles of leaves and other clutter away from the walls of the home. Mow the lawn regularly and pull weeds. Get rid of the bird feeder and harvest your food on time so there is less food available. The neater the yard, the better.
Block Entry Points
Mice get into the home by squeezing under doors and through gaps in the walls. Grab some caulking and seal every hole you find on the exterior of the home. You can stuff larger holes with steel wool and cover the gaps under your doors with weatherstripping. Cap wall vents with a quarter-inch mesh and use weep hole covers you can buy at the hardware store. Fix broken window screens. Finally, you should seal any gaps you find between your soffits and the walls of the home – mice have been known to climb through these and into the attic.
Set Multiple Traps
There are a few different kinds of traps out there: snap traps, electronic traps, and live traps. Choose the kind you like most and purchase several. Mice may come in large numbers, and they breed very quickly, so you must try to catch multiple mice per night. Bait your traps with a pea-sized amount of peanut butter, gum drop, or jerky, and place them wherever you have seen signs of mice. Traps should be set against walls, where mice are likely to move along.
Check your traps every day. When you catch a mouse, be sure to spray it with disinfectant before throwing it out in a zipped plastic bag. If catching live mice, set them free in the yard, after you have excluded the home. Wash your traps, while wearing gloves, to remove your scent and the scent of dead mice. Then, reset your used traps and check them again every day.