How To Get Rid of Mice

As cute as a pet mouse can be, wild mice create serious problems for humans. Hiding in sewers and underground subway systems, these pests often invade homes once the weather grows colder.

They will chew their way through your home, leaving feces and tracking bacteria and disease. Along with a host of health hazards, there are known neurological and emotional effects resulting from a mouse infestation.

To address an infestation, your first move to determine just what you’re dealing with. It’s important to distinguish mice from rats and to identify the specific species that is causing you problems. Once you learn about several common species of mice that are found throughout homes, you can take steps to rid your property of them and prevent more from returning.

Mice range from small to medium in size. They generally grow to around two to three inches as adults, not including the length or their tails. Some can grow five to seven inches. Different species can vary in color, but most mice are grey, brown or black. They all have small paws with nails, and their heads are characterized by whiskers and large eyes and ears.

While mice can bite if they feel threatened, their main danger is in the diseases they transmit, including salmonella, hantavirus, and forms of meningitis. Mice teeth never stop growing, so they’re constantly gnawing and chewing on rough materials in order to file them down. This causes them to chew through wiring and insulation inside homes.

• Mouse are more curious than rats and more likely be seen running around.
• On average, most mouse species are smaller than rats.
• Mice like to burrow within walls, while rats dig under buildings and plants.

Signs of a mouse infestation will be obvious for a variety of reasons. While mice do like to hide, they will also scurry about your house in plain sight.

Even if you’ve seen one or two, you’ll want to develop a treatment plan quickly as they can breed rapidly and cause an enormous problem in no time. Look for any of these additional signs as well:

• Small footprints among the dust in your house
• Small droppings
• Gnaw marks on furniture and clothes
• Small burrows or holes along your walls
• Foul odors
• Scratching noises in your walls
• Signs that your food has been tampered with or eaten

If you’ve ever been startled by a mouse in your kitchen, you may have hoped you could just ignore it until it went away.

But if you see even one mouse in your home, it’s a good bet that you’ve got entire families of mice—in your walls, in your attic, in hard-to-reach spaces in your garage, and in other hidden places. And even if you don’t already have a lot of these resilient pests in your house, spotting that one mouse indicates that you probably will soon.

• Mice tend to live in groups, which is why it’s so important to begin a treatment method the moment you see any evidence of them.
• On average, female mice can have five to ten litters each year.
• Like insects and other pests, mice use pheromones to communicate and leave trails to their nesting areas. Part of a successfully integrated pest management plan should include disrupting these trails and making it harder for the mice to communicate.

According to a government publication from the UK:

• Wild mice become sexually mature at only six weeks of age.
• Litters usually contain up to eight baby mice, and females can reproduce up to eight times each year.
• One pair of breeding mice can produce up to 64 direct descendants a year, and meanwhile all of their descendants can begin reproducing within six weeks. This means that a few mice can multiply into a huge population in a short time.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified a few diseases that mice and other rodents can transmit directly to you or your family:

• Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome:People typically contract this serious respiratory illness from breathing dust that has been mixed with rodent droppings.
• Rat Bite Fever:Mice are usually too timid to scratch or bite people, but you can also contract this disease by drinking or eating food or water that mice have contaminated with feces.
• Salmonella:Even the common house mouse can spread a strain of this dangerous bacteria. That’s one reason why many health professionals caution families against keeping pet rodents when they have very young children in the home.

Besides spreading disease, mice aggravate allergies through their dander and droppings. They also bring in fleas, opening the door to another type of infestation and all the risks that come with it. Mice will spoil stored food, destroy property, and contaminate your home. They will also chew holes in essential structures and in electrical wiring and insulation, and so pose a risk to your safety as well as your health.

According to Cornell’s Dr. Hermanson, even relatively clean houses may provide attractive nesting and hiding places for mice. These tiny creatures can survive on leftover food in a pet dish or a few crumbs that have been swept into a corner.

Before you begin using the natural repellent of your choice, you should first take a tour of your home inside and out to identify any areas where mice are likely to get in. This could mean small holes, cracks and crevices that you may not have seen before, especially in your garage, basement or attic. You might also want to check your roof, especially if you have a fireplace and a lot of trees which mice could climb up to gain access to your home. Once you’ve identified each entry point, it’s time to create and execute a mouse-proofing plan.

You can place permanent barriers at common entry points, such as around pipes and electrical lines entering the home, and holes in the siding. You can also find products like spray foams, or use metal, wood, or plastic to fill in gaps where mice are coming in. Invest your time and energy on this first line of defense — once mice have made a home for themselves inside your house, other mice will be attracted by their scent. The fewer opportunities you give mice to enter your home, the less need you will have for repellents and traps.

Mice in the home have been a problem for as long as there have been indoor dwellings, so it is no surprise that there are many different opinions on how to get rid of them.

Many traps on the market are quite effective, but it is important to choose one with your specific circumstances in mind. Mouse poison is be dangerous for pets and children, while live mouse traps require extra effort on your part to be emptied and reset for catching more mice. You also need to consider the level of mouse problem in your home. If you have hundreds of mice in the walls, it may be more practical to bring in a professional exterminator. Popular treatment options include:

Traditional traps use bait and a spring-loaded bar to attract and kill mice. They have been around a long time because they work. But the rodent control arsenal has grown to include the snap trap—mechanical jaws that close on the mouse when it springs a trigger. But these types of traps only kill one mouse at a time, and even the snap traps can be challenging to set without hurting yourself. Both traditional and snap traps require you to detect and dispose of each dead mouse before you can use them again. Bait boxes, poison, live traps and high-tech models use gas or electricity to kill mice – improvements worth paying extra for. Find out which of the best mousetrap options, both standard and electronic, are ideal for you.

Learn which types of bait or bait stations might be the best options for your particular mouse problem.

Traps and poisons for mice are also effective for rat control. We’ve outlined some of the best mouse poisons on the market to fit your needs, whether you have a big infestation, a small one, or have children or pets at home.

Either way, having a cat or dog in the house will either have a positive or neutral effect on a mice infestation, and definitely won’t be a negative. Having pets just means you’ll have to pay special attention to the types of traps and baits you’re using so that they aren’t harmed in the process.

Many of the most effective natural repellent approaches are specific to mice, so keep in mind that they may not help with a rat problem in the same way some traps and poisons will. Here is a more comprehensive list of the best mouse repellents you can purchase immediately if you’re in need of a treatment right away and don’t want to fuss with any DIY methods.

Regulations in some places like the State of New York require landlords to have licensed commercial exterminators apply pesticides inside occupied rental units. Tenants in these areas may be free to use their own measures, but they probably also have the right to ask their landlord to take care of a problem that arises.

You should also be sure to contact a mouse control expert if you’re seeing widespread signs of an infestation, such as mouse droppings, home damage, and other significant signs of mice and rats.

Remember that exterminators can’t end your mouse infestation if you don’t take their advice. If your pest control technician applies traps or poisons, but you will still need to heed their suggestions to seal up tiny entrances, keep dirty dishes from piling up, and store food properly. By working with exterminators as part of a team, even a rapidly multiplying mouse infestation can be controlled.

According to Orkin, these cities consistently rank as having the worst rat problems:

• Norfolk, Virginia
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Portland, Oregon
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Miami, Florida
• San Diego, California
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Houston, Texas
• Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Seattle, Washington
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Denver, Colorado
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Detroit, Michigan
• San Francisco, California
• Washington, DC
• New York City, New York
• Los Angeles, California
• Chicago, Illinois