How to Get Rid of Mice – Rodent Control for Riverside and Moreno Valley Homeowners
Learning how to get rid of mice isn’t as easy as it sounds. Mice may be small, but they are incredibly fast and smart as whips. Mice can steal the bait off mice traps without setting them off, which is mighty frustrating for the homeowner who simply wants a mouse-free home.
The following guide can help. Here is how to get rid of mice in your home quickly and efficiently and without all the headaches from the evasive little creatures.
Mice can spread germs and diseases, and they leave droppings and urine on your countertops and stove. Get rid of them the easy way with this guide to complete rodent control.
Stop Future Invasions
Before you go about ridding your home of the mice that have somehow found a way inside, you will need to eliminate any entry points you can find in and around your property. Don’t think you can just look for archway holes like the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. Mice can squeeze themselves into the tiniest spaces. In fact, a mouse can flatten its body to about a quarter of an inch. But, if you get down on your hands and knees and look all around the rooms and the outside walls of your home, you should be able to notice a crack, hole, or opening just the right size for a mouse to squeeze through. Look very closely around your foundation and where utility pipes and vents occur, as these are common entry points that will have to be sealed. Just make sure you use a good mouse-proof sealant, as the crafty rodents can easily chew through plastic, rubber, and wood. While you are sealing up cracks and fissures big enough for a mouse, get good weather stripping for your doors and windows to ensure they seal-up tight when closed.
Get the Right Traps
Nothing gets rid of mice better than the tried and true mouse trap. Get the classic wooden snap kind, even though they are a pain to set. Avoid sticky or other types of traps, which may catch the rodent alive, forcing it to suffer. Wooden mouse traps eliminate the mice quickly and without making the mouse suffer. Wooden traps are effective for light rodent populations. The trick is knowing what type of population you have. Homeowners tend to underestimate how many mice they are dealing with. You will quickly find out if you have to keep buying more traps. Keep in mind that mice are clever and can begin to avoid mice traps before long. For heavy populations, you may need to resort to bait traps, glue traps, and multiple-capture live traps, or call a professional pest control company.
Choose the Right Mouse Bait
Did you just catch a mouse eating the chocolate stored on your countertop? That cake is just the bait to use. The mouse obviously enjoys it and will be attracted to the scent. Other excellent bait choices include peanut butter, chocolate, bacon, dried fruit, oatmeal, and other nut spreads. Here is how to ensure the mouse doesn’t steal the bait and runoff, leaving the trap unsprung. When you are ready to set the baited trap, tie the bait to the trigger with a dental floss or fishing line. This will keep the bait in place as the mouse struggles to run off with it, triggering the trap and eliminating your mouse. Another tip is to secure the bait in place with a hot glue gun. If none of your mice have come to take the bait after two days, change the bait or at least replace it with new, fresher bait. If food doesn’t seem to do the trick, try appealing to the rodent’s nesting instincts by using feathers or cotton balls as bait instead.
Place Your Mouse Traps in Key Locations
You have to trap mice where they nest and look for food. Mice generally don’t travel more than ten to twenty feet from their food sources and nesting places. This means you should set the traps anywhere you see rodent droppings or rubbings along your baseboards and walls. Place the traps perpendicular to the walls so that the trigger faces the baseboard. This forces the mouse to run into the bait as it scurries along your walls. If you place the trap incorrectly, the mouse might run over the trap from the improper direction, which can trigger the trap prematurely. If the traps still aren’t sprung after a day or two, change their location. Mice are naturally curious and will come to check out the traps before long.
Consider Bait Stations
Another terrific way to rid your home of mice is to use bait stations or bait packages. These are sealed packets that contain poisoned meal or pellets. The mice can easily gnaw through the cellophane, plastic, or paper wrapping to feed on the bait, which will eliminate your mice before long. While bait stations can work to rid your home of a pesky mouse, you should let a professional pest control expert handle the poisonous packets to protect you, your family, and your pets.
Keep Your House Clean
Mice can survive on very little food per day, around three or four grams. They may eat a few crumbs here and there, and that is enough to sustain them. The trick is to ensure there are no crumbs for the mice in your home to find. Sweep and vacuum the floors and wipe down the counters as often as you can. In addition to keeping crumbs off the walls and floors, store food in jars and airtight plastic or glass containers. The rodents in your home could also be getting into your garbage. Secure the trash can with a lid and take any plastic trash bags outside.
Employ Rodent Control Outside of Your Home
Speaking of trash bags, remove any debris that may be stacked up outside your home. Mice can hide in places you would never suspect, but you can be proactive with your mouse control by keeping weeds on your property to a minimum and by destroying nesting areas when you find them. You can add an extra layer of protection by lining your home’s foundation with a strip of gravel and by keeping your property free of clutter so you can spot rodent activity quickly and stop it just as fast.
Adopt a Cat
One of the most effective ways for Riverside and Moreno Valley homeowners to get rid of mice in their homes is to adopt a cat from the local shelter. Right now, there are cats waiting for someone to come adopt them, and aside from food and general costs of pet care, cats act as exterminators absolutely free. If there is a mouse in your home, your cat will find it. Rodents might also find another home to invade, one that doesn’t have any pets. While dogs can also chase mice, cats are naturally mice-catchers and adopting one is a great way to make a new friend and get full-property rodent control.
Get a Free Quote for Rodent Control to Get the Mouse Out of the House
Final Exterminators wants to help you evict any unwanted guests that have found a way inside your home. Mice can get into your home in the unlikeliest of ways, and you never quite know how many rodents you have to contend with. If you don’t want to set up traps (or dispose of them after the mice have been caught), the good news is that you don’t have to worry about rodent control at all. Leave the heavy lifting to us, the local professional exterminators.
We are the last pest control team you will ever need. If you want to get rid of the mice inside your house, call now for a free estimate. We can provide one-time and regular pest control services for complete rodent extermination.
