How to Get Rid of Mice

Are your electrical cables looking like Swiss cheese? Plastic food bags ripped from odd places? Who scratches your wall at ungodly hours? Well, let us break it to you; you have unwanted guests living under your roof. We don’t mean ghosts, we mean mice!

Though they are small in size, they can do a great deal of damage. According to CDC, mice are known to spread over 35 diseases including rickettsialpox, salmonellosis, leptospirosis, and lymphoytic choriomeningitis virus. These diseases can be spread either through direct contact (by handling them) or through contact with their feces, urine or saliva.

If you don’t take serious measures to prevent and control mouse infestation in your home now, you have no idea what you’ll be up against in a couple of months.

A female mouse can give birth 6 to 10 times a year and have 12 babies every 3 weeks; that means 150 babies each year!

Getting Rid of Mice

Here are some great tips to help you drive these pesky disease carrying creatures away from your home.

1. Make Sure Mice Have No Access to Food

Mice like to reside in homes where they can find easy access to food and water. So, the best way to deter their existence from your home is to remove all opportunities for them to feed.

You can do this by:

• Putting all your food items in glass or air tight jars.
• Make sure the jars are properly closed and not left opened.
• Remove and dispose the pet food once your pet has eaten.

To ensure there is no access to food, you must also get rid of the garbage as these pesky creatures can

find something to eat in there too.

If you keep the garbage bin inside your home, make sure that it is properly covered at all times. And remember to take out the trash before you go to bed.

2. Maintain Sanitation

Mice thrive in unsanitary conditions. Therefore, it is advisable to maintain sanitation. Some of the good housekeeping tips include:

• Vacuuming the floor after you eat so that there are no food crumbs for mice to feed on.
• Cleaning the kitchen every now and then, especially areas like the kitchen sink and your cooking range.

3. Seal All the Gaps

• Look for small holes and gaps in your home and seal them. Holes are often drilled in exterior walls for installing pipe work for electric appliances and utility cables. Such holes should be closed and sealed by either caulk or by plugging steel wool.
• Install door sweeps to close gaps under the door frames.
• If there are gaps in your vent and air bricks, cover them up with fine galvanized wire mesh.

By sealing all the gaps in your home, you can easily make your home a ‘no-go’ zone for mice.

4. Dispose of Clutter

Mice use cluttered areas in homes to hide. So, if you have a habit of hoarding things in your attic or your basement, then you need to dispose of the clutter right away.

5. Use Mice Repellents

To prevent mice from sneaking into your home, you can also use ultrasonic mice repellents like Guardian Pest Repeller.

6. Place Mouse Traps to Catch Them Red Handed

There is a variety of mouse traps available like snap traps, sticky traps, and electrocution traps.

• Snap traps are the most commonly used mouse traps in homes. You can place snap traps around your home with food items serving as bait. Snap traps are great only when you want to catch mice but if you want to kill them, you’ll have to use electrocution traps. These electrocute mice and kill them right away.
• You can try sticky traps if you want to monitor their movement and track down their hiding place. This type of mouse trap sticks to the skin of the mouse and is hard to remove.

7. For Immediate Mice Extermination Use Rodenticides

These are advisable if you are looking for immediate extermination of mice from your property. Rodenticides are strong toxic chemical products that kill mice right away.

Since these are toxic and harmful, you must use them cautiously. And make sure that your pets and children stay away from these deadly chemicals.

8. Call an Exterminator

When noting seems to work, then you must get in touch with a professional mice exterminator. They are experienced and have quality equipment to exterminate mice from homes quickly and for long durations.