What Can I Do to Get Rid of Mice in My House

February 17, 2022 Post a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won't change your toll but will share some commission.

If you lot build it, mice volition come. Sooner or later, you'll probably need to get rid of mice or rats. Autumn is prime time for an increase in mice in your firm, as they look for winter protection, but mice and rats can move in at any time.

While small, mice and rats can cause big problems. They chew on everything, causing property damage and potential fire risks when they gnaw on electrical wiring and build tinder dry nests in dark corners.

Rodents can spread disease, on their own, through the parasites they carry (their fleas carried the Black Plague) or through their droppings (such as hantavirus).

Contents

How to Tell if You Have Mice in Your Firm
Identifying Droppings and Urine
- Rodent (Mice and Rat) Droppings
- Rodent Urine
- Rodent Food and Nests
How to Keep Mice Out of Your House and Garage
- ane. Remove Food Sources
- 2. Seal Openings
- 3. Reduce Exterior Habitat
- four. Set Barricades with Kitty Litter and Peppermint Essential Oil
All-time Ways to Get Rid of Mice that Are Already in Your Dwelling
- Poisons
- Traps
- Bucket Mouse Trap
How to Safely Clean Up Mice and Mouse Droppings

How to Tell if You lot Have Mice in Your House

It'south probably more than common to run into mouse debris or mouse damage before you see the mice themselves, as they are nocturnal.

When I was a kid, the fiddling buggers would drive me crazy at night running around up in the attic. Thankfully nosotros didn't get rats in the business firm, only they would sometimes show up in the outbuildings around the farm.

Identifying Debris and Urine

Killum Pest Control offers an excellent online guide to interpreting rodent signs. Delight visit their site for more data, but I'll just share briefly their comments on dropping and urine identification.

Rodent (Mice and Rat) Droppings

Fresh droppings of feces ordinarily are moist, soft, shiny and dark, but in a few days they become dry and hard. Old droppings are dull and grayish and crumble when pressed with a stick.

The roof rat's droppings are up to ane/two inch long, spindle shaped and curved in contrast to Kingdom of norway rat droppings which are about the same length but comparatively edgeless. Mouse carrion are small, averaging about one/8 inch long, and are pointed on both ends.

Rodent Urine

Dried rodent urine will fluoresce blueish white to yellowish white. Commercial black lights frequently are used to detect rodent urine, even so observing fluorescence is not a guarantee that rodent urine is nowadays.

Numerous items will fluoresce under a blackness light, including optical bleaches institute in many detergents and lubricating oil. Of course, if there's a glowing rail of pee, odds are you lot have mouse motion.

Mice commonly mark their trails with urine (yes, I know, you probably didn't actually want to know that…) and so that other mice can follow their tracks to food sources.

1 source I read said that they produce fifty-60 droppings per dark – ewwww…

Once you've found their way into your home, you need to block it, otherwise they be right back in via the pee track highway. They tin can climb, besides – like mini rodent ninjas.

Rodent Nutrient and Nests

You lot may also find food stashes and nests in out of the way corners. I remember finding a mouse nest in the back of an old school desk in my room.

Gnawing damage is another dead giveaway. My mom had a cardboard box of one-time cooking magazines inside a wooden cabinet, and the mini rodent ninjas still constitute their way in and chewed the edges of the magazines.

How to Keep Mice Out of Your Business firm and Garage

To proceed these critters out and keep your family unit condom and your goods protected, follow these elementary steps.

i. Remove Food Sources

Bird nutrient, pet food and other edible odds and ends (even cardboard) that tend to pile upwardly in garages are like mouse nirvana. Crumbs nether the couch are a gourmet treat, and a cookie lost by toddler is a mouse family buffet.

Seal all food (for pets or humans) in solid containers, not just in bags. (Rats can and will chew through plastic bins, so be warned. Y'all need to employ metal containers to keep rats out.) Plastic garbage cans or Rubbermaid tubs volition generally keep mice out.

Clean, clean, clean! Gaps between appliances like stoves or refrigerators and cabinets can collect crumbs where they are hard for you to clean, but handy for mice to dine.

Remember, if they can get their heads into a space, their bodies can get in, also.

2. Seal Openings

This is the probably the toughest merely nearly effective mode to keep mice out – seal openings.

Equally I mentioned above, if a mouse can get its caput though, the body can go through every bit well. The footling pests only demand near a ¼ inch (0.half dozen cm) wide opening.

They can leap – up to xviii inches (I told you – mini rodent ninjas), travel upside down (y'all bet), and crawl along an electrical wire (piece of block). If y'all can stick a #ii pencil through a hole, a mouse can probably use information technology to get into your home.

When you find holes, you want to try and seal them equally strongly as possible.

The Cyberspace Center for Wildlife Damage Management recommends: Steel wool, copper gauze (stuff-fit) or screen wire packed tightly into openings is a practiced temporary plug.

For long-term or permanent repair, mix a quick-drying patching plaster or anchoring such every bit Fixall® into a wad of Stuf-it® before pushing the cloth into the hole, and shine over the outside.

If steel wool is used, rust stains are likely to result. Holes 3 inches (8 cm) or more in diameter should be covered or backed with 1/4-inch (0.six-cm) woven/welded hardware cloth prior to filling with a good patching compound.

Ane of our readers has also had good results with GREAT STUFF Pestblock 12 oz Insulating Foam Sealant. They specifically include a bitter ingredient to make the cream unappetizing to pests.

three. Reduce Outside Habitat

If possible, reduce the amount of mouse habitat outside your home to reduce the number of mice inside your home.

Trim copse and shrubs away from the habitation. Clean upwards droppings, brush piles, and other hiding spots where mice may take cover. Go on your compost bin(southward) as tidy as possible (opossums and rats like to raid the compost, besides).

I saw one site recommend moving wood piles 100 anxiety from the business firm and raising them one foot off the ground. Obviously they don't alive in Wisconsin. The mice will have to stay in the woods pile – their nests brand smashing tinder.

4. Gear up up Barricades with Kitty Litter and Peppermint Essential Oil

I of our readers shared her experience:

I used peppermint oil dropped on plain kitty litter. I put a small bag of litter (5lbs.) in a container from dollar store added 4 oz. Peppermint oil. Put chapeau on and shook it well. I left it over night.

So I put about a tablespoon of the litter in a pocket-size slice of old sheet or cloth any you lot take lying around. tie it into a lilliputian bundle or sachet.

Place these around your firm outside well-nigh every 2 anxiety and in garage and basement areas along walls. Lasts longer than spraying the oil and you don't have to worry about woodwork.

Remember mice have a keen sense of smell, after all they can find a lost spud chip backside a cabinet. So even though the smell decreases it'southward still working.

All I do is add together a fresh drop of the peppermint oil to each footling sachet every half dozen-12 months. Its been over 2 years since my mice disaster so it is working well for me.

Click here to buy 4 ounces of peppermint essential oil.

Best Means to Get Rid of Mice that Are Already in Your Dwelling

Your three main options are cats, traps and poison. I've come up to dear my kitties, merely information technology's not applied for everyone to accept a cat or cats in the firm, and not all cats are adept mousers. (I've had friends tell me almost their cats who watch the mice run right past them.)

Poisons

Poisons do kill mice, but not immediately. The mice will crawl off and die somewhere and potentially olfactory property really nasty, plus who wants mummified mice sitting around their house?

Poisons tin also be a danger to children, pets, and wild animals that eats rodents. By using poison in an attempt to get rid of mice, you may make the problem worse. I don't recommend them.

Traps

Bones wooden mouse traps are cheap and readily available, but don't always piece of work. A friend of mine was complaining recently that her mice kept stealing the allurement just not getting defenseless in the trap.

I similar Kness SNAP-E Mousetraps. They are much easier to fix than the standard wooden traps. I used them to articulate out the mice that moved into the garage terminal winter to become after the poultry feed. We tried a couple other brands, but the SNAP-Es worked the best to get rid of mice.

Humane traps are also available, but one site states that you need to take your mouse at least two miles away to make certain it volition not return. I am not a mouse chauffeur, and I don't think it's right to share my mice with my neighbors.

My mom's favorite bait was peanut butter, which they can't take hold of and carry off. Others suggest tootsie rolls equally another "stick tight" option. When yous're placing traps, try to put them along walls where you believe mice are moving. Block their path with a buffet of your choosing instead of letting them into your cupboards.

Two traps side by side are better than one, equally they will take a tougher time escaping both (remember – mini rodent ninjas). Set the traps perpendicular to the wall (see photo).

Cheque traps daily, empty and reset as needed. Odor from one mouse may help attract the next mouse, but having a deceased mouse hanging around doesn't practise anyone any favors.

Bucket Mouse Trap

Another selection that our readers brought to our attention is the Rolling Mouse Trap. It uses a bar, a bucket and peanut butter. The advantage is that it resets itself. The rolling trap tin can catch multiple mice per nighttime.

This can be a live trap or filled partly with water to kill the mice. An alternate rolling trap is the PAWMATE Rolling Mouse Trap which has a cycle in the centre for the peanut butter.

There are numerous YouTube videos on how to build your own if y'all are interested.

How to Safely Make clean Up Mice and Mouse Debris

Because of the risk of hantavirus and other illnesses, intendance should be taken when cleaning upwards mouse droppings/remains, particularly in quantity and/or in enclosed areas. (Information adapted from Environs, Health and Safety Online.)

Wearable gloves, either rubber gloves or work gloves you lot can wash in hot water
Spray the droppings first with 3% hydrogen peroxide, and so with white vinegar. This will kill 99% of leaner. A bleach water solution or disinfectant is besides an option.
Wipe up droppings with a paper towel, throw towel in garbage
Clean area with disinfectant solution or hydrogen peroxide/vinegar philharmonic
Wash hands with soap and water earlier and subsequently removing gloves

If dealing with big amounts of droppings, you may need professional assist. At the very least, delight article of clothing a face mask or respirator. Please be careful! Your canton extension function may be able to provide more data on any known rodent related illness outbreaks in your area.

Treat nesting materials and expressionless mice similarly. Always wash easily thoroughly subsequently touching contaminated materials.

You lot may also observe these other posts from our Green Home Series useful: