Are You Putting Out a Welcome Mat for a Mouse? How to forestall and Get Rid of Mice
As the weather turns colder, just like many of us, mice are looking for warm and dry places to spend the winter. The first step in controlling mice turning your home into a vacation spot is to forestall their entry. That's easier said than done. An adult mouse can squeeze through an extremely small opening, as small as the diameter of a pencil. You don't need gaping holes in your foundation to set out the welcome mat for mice. Every pipe and cable that goes into your house through a wall provides an entryway. The space nearby pipes especially is ordinarily big sufficient for a mouse to get through. Before the weather gets cold, check the following to make sure you are not leaving out a welcome mat for mice:
· Put fresh seals nearby every utility pipe and cable prominent into your house, and look for cracks in your foundation that are ¼" or more. Also look for gaps under doors.
· You can use caulking where appropriate, or plug spaces with steel wool or wire mesh. Make sure you are using a material that isn't something a mouse can chew or use to help make a nest like cardboard, insulation or Styrofoam.
· Your stable door is an ideal place for mice to come through. Check your weather-stripping, especially on the bottom
Make sure you're not providing a restaurant for mice. The average mouse house can live in a very small nesting area and can survive on tiny amounts of food. Mice feed on a wide collection of foods but prefer seeds, cereal, grains, high fat and protein items like nuts, bacon, butter and sweets. Mice are "nibblers" and may make 20-30 visits to separate food sites each night.
Even the best sanitation practices don't all the time forestall a mouse infestation. You have to be persistent about eliminating their food supply.
· Keep food in glass jars, metal tins, and airtight warehouse containers.
· Rodents can chew through plastic, so your average grocery store package may not be sufficient to keep them from feasting on peanut butter, bags of chips, etc.
· Boxes of cereal and other dry foods are easy to access and supply excellent nesting materials.
· Store as much food as you can in your refrigerator, especially items like fruit and vegetables that are difficult to fit into regain containers.
· Mice love to share your pet's food. Empty pet food dishes before going to bed each night, and keep bags of dry food in mouse-proof containers such as a tightly sealed trash can or hard plastic tote.
· Be sure your trash cans have tight lids, and never put food or garbage in open wastebaskets in your kitchen.
Your first clue of a mice infestation may be a dead mouse in your garage, pantry or other entry point. Be very meticulous when removing dead rodents, as they carry all kinds of diseases that can infect you and your family. all the time wear rubber or plastic gloves to deal with a dead mouse. Put it in a plastic bag, place that bag in a second bag and seal it tightly. Put the sealed bag in a trash package with a tight-fitting lid.
Also glove up when cleaning or disinfecting items that may be contaminated by rodents, especially garbage cans and recycling containers. If you've set out traps, whether throw them out with the mice, or disinfect them by soaking them in three tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water, or a industrial disinfectant containing phenol.
After disposing of mice, removing taps, and cleaning contaminated objects, keep your gloves on and wash gloved hands in soap and warm water. If you can, add a household disinfectant. Once your gloves are clean, then you can remove them and wholly wash your hands with soap and warm water.
If you have seen signs of mice (described in my last post), you can try to eliminate them yourself with products found in stores. These consist of toxic baits, rodenticides, traps, and glue boards. Be meticulous not to put your house at risk using what may seem to be harmless solutions. Keep in mind that anyone that is bad for a mouse, is going to be bad for children and pets.
Toxic baits and rodenticides sold over the counter for homeowner use are anticoagulants containing brodifacoum, chlorophacinone, diphacinone or warfarin as active ingredients. They kill by interfering with normal clotting of the rodents' blood, causing the animal to die from internal bleeding. It is an old wives' tale that poisoning makes mice thirsty so they will go covering to look for water. It is more likely they will recession back to their nests. And this can cause an odor qoute if the mice die inside the house - inside walls or inaccessible areas. Take extreme care to position baits in areas inaccessible to children or pets. Dogs, in particular, are at high risk for poisoning since they are attracted to the bait and good at looking items they shouldn't play with (how many socks has Fido stolen this week?)
Traps are safer than toxic bait and chemicals, but are still hazardous to miniature fingers, paws, and noses. We suggest using at least a dozen traps or glue boards to be sufficient in do-it-yourself mouse elimination. Place them wherever you see mouse droppings or signs of gnawing.
Most hardware and farm-supply stores sell multiple-catch mouse traps that can capture and hold a dozen or more mice before they have to be emptied. But don't leave one of these out for very long, as the smell of dead mice is quite nasty. Using cheese as bait only works in cartoons. More sufficient options are gum drops, peanut butter, or a cotton ball moistened with a few drops of vanilla flavoring.
You can also find glue boards at most stores. Mice die of suffocation when they run over the boards and become stuck in the glue. Again, be meticulous glue boards are settled out of the way of children and pets.
Be sure to check traps sand boards several times daily and use the sanitation instructions when emptying traps and disposing of carcasses to avoid contamination. If you have found dead mice, or signs of an infestation, your best bet is to call a professional exterminator who uses stronger solutions made for industrial use that will work faster and more efficiently. There are also many pest operate companies, such as legacy Pest Control, who use ecologically amiable products.
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