No matter how gracious a host you are, there’s a group you would certainly not welcome into your home – mice. But unfortunately, these pest guests always find a way to invite themselves.
The earlier you accept this, the faster you can come to terms with getting rid of the mice in your home. After all, getting rid of mice can be as simple as calling a professional pest control services. However, if you are brave enough to handle the situation, this post will help you identify how you can get rid of mice by yourself.
Rodent Infestation: What Attracts Them?
As annoying as it may sound, mice and other rodents contribute to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Hence, they are bound to always appear around your home at some time.
To make it worse, rodent elimination is now a well-paying job in Louisiana. In fact, Louisiana now pays $6 for every swamp rodent you can kill. The amount of rats in the state has increased exponentially, and they are a huge threat to humans, wildlife, and the environment. In order to combat the rat population, farmers have begun using poison to kill them, but it is not an effective pest control solution.
To efficiently get rid of mice, you should first understand what attracts them.
- Shelter
The main thing that attracts rodents and mice is their search for shelter. When the weather cools and winter sets in, rodents and mice seek refuge inside homes.
Much to their advantage, they have small bodies that make it easy to fit through spaces as small as ¼ inch.
- Food
Pest control specialists will confirm, that rodents and mice need as much food as possible to stay alive. This means they are ready to set up camp wherever they find enough food for sustenance.
- Nesting materials
Rodents and mice create nests when they need to reproduce and rear offspring. The materials they prefer to use include soft materials like shredded paper and cotton. However, they do not restrict themselves to just the above materials. They also improvise, provided the material is soft on their paws.
Identifying Rodent and Mouse Infestation
Though rodents and mice are very small, they tend to leave obvious traces of their presence. While untrained individuals may take a while to spot those signs, the skilled team at J&J Exterminating Co. are experts at quickly determining their presence.
Generally, there are two primary pieces of evidence you should look out for when dealing with rodents and mice. First, you should “look,” then you should “listen,” i.e., listen for scratching sounds and look for droppings.
Below is a more detailed outline of signs to take note of when you want to identify and get rid of mice:
- Look for chew-or scratch marks on your furniture and food packaging. You may also pay attention to see if there are scratches on your baseboards or around your floor trim.
- Check for droppings in your corridors, beneath your sinks, and behind your cabinets.
- Check for food crumbs in unusual places, like in the middle of the floor in your kitchen.
- Look for nests made of fabrics, paper, or other soft, shredded material.
- Listen for noises like scratching or squeaking in your cabinet or walls at night.
How To Get Rid Of Mice
Once you see signs that you have rodents in your home, you can follow the guides in this section to get rid of them.
- Get rid of entry points.
The best way to get rid of rodents and mice is to identify and get rid of their entry points. Seal the cracks and holes you have around your building.
Next, as pest control services providers do, you too should check around pipes and vents. If there are visible openings, ensure you block them. As a rule of thumb, avoid blocking holes with materials like plastic, rubber, wood, or anything mice can easily chew through.
- Set mouse traps
This is one of the best ways to get rid of mice. Place mouse traps in strategic places around your home. For example, you can place traps along your walls and behind trash cans.
If the population of mice infestation in your home is not high, the classic wooden snap traps will work well. However, it is advisable not to underestimate the mice infestation population. Set as many traps as you can. You can use multiple-capture live traps with glue traps and wooden traps because some mice may know how to evade some types of traps.
It is very stressful, setting traps is an efficient way to eliminate mice. However, you can get professional pest control services if you don’t want to go through this stress.
- Select the best baits
When it comes to baits, you can use whatever the mice have been feeding on in your house. Otherwise, you can use some known mice favorites like dried fruit, bacon, chocolate, butter, peanut, or oatmeal.
Ensure to secure the bait with a hot glue gun or tie them firmly onto the trap. You should also replace the bait with fresh ones every two days. If the bait isn’t working, try switching to nesting materials such as cotton balls or feathers.
- Get rid of nesting materials.
Make sure to store your soft fabric material in places mice won’t easily get to. You can use heavy-duty plastic bins because mice can chew up things like cardboard, paper, or lightweight plastic when they want to make nests.
- Use natural mouse repellant.
If you didn’t know, mice have a sharp sense of smell, and you can use that against them. Below are some natural mice repellant options you can try:
- Apple cider and water. Make a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water.
You can spray the solution on the walls and corners of your house. Repeat this at least once every month.
- Hot pepper solution. Get a mixture of chili pepper, sliced habaneros, dish soap, and water. Once you do that, you now have a spicy pepper spray that serves as DIY pest control tool to help eliminate mice and rodents.
Spray the mixture anywhere you’ve previously spotted mice.
You should note that this mixture is not poisonous to people and pets but can irritate the eyes, nose, and mouth. Therefore, you should avoid spraying clothing, furniture, and place people or pets visit.
- Maintain good sanitation
Though good sanitation won’t help you eliminate rodent issues, it will certainly help reduce infestation. So, you should clean your floors regularly and maintain good sanitation.
- Get a cat
Cats are one of the most effective predators for dealing with mice. So, you should consider getting one because they won’t stop until they’ve hunted down any rat in their sight.
This makes them handy for keeping your mice infestation to the barest minimum. Cats are so effective that mice may vacate the premises if they smell a cat’s urine nearby.
Call a Professional!
If you realize that getting rid of mice might be a tough task for you to take on yourself, call J&J Exterminating Co. for professional pest control services. The team provides 24-x7 services, offers free estimates, and have a service guarantee offer for all their services.
