Many pests can cause structural damage to your home or business and even harm its occupants. And one of the most destructive ones that can come and invade your property is mice. These small rodents can chew through various items in and around your house to use as nesting materials. These include clothes, electronics, wooden materials, soft furnishings, and even essential structural elements of your home. Mice can also gnaw on electrical wires, potentially causing a fire. But is it worth getting an exterminator for rats?
Consider that these furry critters are more than a property risk. Small rodents carry bacteria, viruses, and parasites, living with them is also a major health hazard. No one wants these furry critters to scurry around their property and spread diseases. So, if you’re looking for humane ways to deal with a mouse infestation, here are some mice removal tips and ideas to help you get started.
Remove Access to Food
An effective way to rid your place of mice is to take away the things that make your home attractive to them. Ensure that there are no food sources left in open places or kept in cardboard containers, which these pests can easily eat right through. Also, avoid leaving pet food on the floor overnight.
Seal Your Trash and Use a Garbage Can
Make sure that you empty the kitchen garbage can frequently. Seal the trash shut, preferably with a bungee cord, and never let the can overflow. Similarly, invest in a garbage can made of steel, as rats cannot chew through metal. Never forget to cover the garbage bin once you drop the sealed trash into the container. If the lid is broken, have it repaired or get the garbage bin replaced immediately.
Repel Mice With Unpleasant Scents
You can drive away mice by soaking cotton wool balls in peppermint oil, then putting them along surfaces where rodents travel or in holes with mice activity. It’s best to use this trick in confined spaces. It doesn’t work in large areas, as the scent tends to dissipate in wide-open spaces. If used correctly, peppermint oil can be a great mouse repellent. You may also spray dog- or cat-repelling products in these areas.
Seal Off Their Entry Points
One of the best ways to keep mice away is by sealing off their entry points. As soon as you’ve successfully repelled them, start looking for their entry points. Find out where the mice are getting into your property. Use a flashlight to check for any passageways, like holes, gaps, and cracks in the walls, floors, doors, or around pipes. Be extra diligent, as mice can easily squeeze through even dime-sized openings. Once you’ve found these holes, seal them off with steel wool, then cover them with foam sealant. If a mouse can’t find access to your property, then there won’t be a need to deter them.
Keep Your Home as Clean and Tidy as Possible
Having mice in your home or business doesn’t necessarily mean that your place is messy and dirty. These small rodents are scavengers. They will search for food, water, and shelter wherever and whenever they can. So, if your property is appealing enough, expect these unwanted guests to move into your space.
To help encourage them to leave, always sweep up any breadcrumbs or grains of sugar to keep your kitchen clean. Store dry foods in airtight containers. Also, clear the clutter in and around your house, especially in the closets, attic, and garage. Lastly, you can eliminate their hiding places by keeping grass short and thinning out shrubs in your garden.
The Humane Society International advocates humane methods as the default solution for deterring and evicting mice. Killing animals cause them pain and distress in a process that can draw out for a few hours or even days. In the case of some rat poisons, these rodent visitors (though unwanted) suffer for weeks. Besides, lethal methods don’t really solve the problem in the long term. You may be able to temporarily eliminate a single mouse or even an entire horde of mice with glue traps or poison, but treating merely the symptom proves futile unless the conditions that encourage them to visit your place in the first place are addressed.
