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Is A Mouse In Your Bedroom Costing You Precious Sleep at Night?

mouse in bedroom

Has your sanctuary been infiltrated by a disgusting, disease-carrying enemy? Have you recently been awakened from a deep and cozy slumber to the horrifying sounds of chewing, squeaking, and scratching in your bedroom? Finding mouse droppings – or even worse, a mouse! – in your bed can be traumatizing, but fortunately there are several solutions you can use to eradicate this nuisance from your sleeping quarters. If you’re losing sleep because you’re convinced that if you close your eyes, you’ll feel the tell-tale sensation of grubby little feet and nasty little whiskers running across your face, keep reading to learn all about what to do if this waking nightmare ever happens to you.

I Have a Mouse in My Bedroom: What Can I do?

If you find a mouse in your bedroom, your first move should be to plot its demise!

You need to do everything in your power to get rid of this mouse before it becomes an infestation. Two mice can quickly turn into dozens of mice if left unchecked, so you need to take every precaution to protect yourself and your family. To learn how to scare mice away, click here.

If you find a mouse in your bedroom, follow these steps to eliminate it immediately:

  1. Find out where the mouse is getting in and seal the gaps. Since they have angled collarbones and flexible ribs, mice don’t require much space to sneak into your home – just 1/4 of inch space is more than enough for them to get in. For more information on how mice get into house, click here.
    Mouse in gap
  2. Make your bedroom inhospitable to mice. Mice typically to avoid people at all costs, so for them to venture into your bedroom, it means that they found something that was more alluring than staying away. If you normally eat in bed, stop – the crumbs will attract unwanted mice.
  3. Destroy any mouse nests in your bedroom. Do so carefully with heavy duty gloves to avoid coming in contact with infectious, waste-borne diseases. By destroying their nests, you’ll make it less likely that they’ll return.
  4. Set out traps to capture the remaining mice that are lingering in your bedroom. You have choices on several different types of traps that you can use. If you want something final, consider snap traps or glue traps. Click here for information on a more humane way to get rid of mice.

What If I Found Mouse Droppings in My Bed?

Finding mouse droppings in your bed is one of the most alarming things you could ever encounter in your own home.Mice feces It means that a mouse has determined that the place you lay your head at night to sleep is nothing more than a toilet to this repulsive rodent.

If you find mouse feces in your bed, resist the urge to grab a bucket of gasoline and a match. As tempting as it is to take your linens outside and burn them, that would be overkill.

Here’s how to identify the droppings to verify that they came from a mouse:

  • Size: A mouse dropping is 1/4 inch in length.
  • Color: Mouse droppings are typically black.
  • Shape: Mouse droppings are sausage-shaped.
  • Quantity: A single mouse can drop 40-100 pieces of poop daily.
Rodent Droppings
Rodent Droppings

To learn more about the various differences between rats vs mice, other than their droppings, click here.

Unfortunately, if you find mouse droppings in your bed, then you need to completely sanitize your bedroom to make it safe to ever go back in there.

Mice droppings and urine carry an extremely rare but deadly disease called hantavirus.

Symptoms of this virus show up within 1-8 weeks after exposure and include:

  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Muscle Aches (in large muscle groups like thighs, hips, back, and shoulders)
  • Headaches

  • Stomach Pain
  • Sensation of Suffocation (as lungs fill with fluid)
  • Shortness of Breath

Scary Fact
There is no known cure for hantavirus, which makes avoiding exposure to it especially essential. Hantavirus does not discriminate or target just the elderly or infirm – everyone is equally at risk, and 38% of people who contract it will die.

So now that you’re properly terrified after finding droppings, what can you actually do to keep yourself and your family safe?

Never touch a mouse with your bare hands. Even dead mice can be vectors for deadly diseases. Always use heavy-duty, puncture-proof gloves when handling and disposing of mice.

Dead mouse

  1. Immediately open your windows and doors. You’ll need to ventilate the room to get rid of any lingering disease-carrying particulates that may be suspended in the air.
  2. Respirator and glovesPut on an P-100/OSHA-Certified respirator and heavy-duty rubber gloves. You cannot risk breathing or touching any mouse residue.
  3. Gather up your belongings to be cleaned. All clothes and linens will need to be washed in hot water and soap.
  4. Create a solution of bleach and water (1.5 cups of bleach and spray down all surfaces with it. Let it soak in for a minimum of five to ten minutes.Bleach and water
  5. Do not sweep or vacuum. It can cause particulates to become airborne and increase your risk of inhaling them.
  6. Thoroughly clean every surface with disposable towels. If possible, take items outside to be cleaned. Ultraviolet light (from the sun) kills hantavirus.
  7. When you are done cleaning, dispose of cleaning materials into puncture-proof bags and set them out for disposal. Disinfect your gloves before removing them to prevent making yourself fall ill.
  8. Thoroughly clean yourself up afterward, using soap and hot water. Throw your clothes in the wash and put on fresh clothes after your shower.

If you carefully follow each of these steps, your bedroom should become habitable once again.

Do Mice Crawl on Sleeping People?

If you ever plan on sleeping ever again, do not read the following sentence: yes, mice will absolutely crawl on sleeping people.

If you have found evidence of mice in your bedroom, it’s a very good likelihood that a mouse has already run across you while you were sleeping. And, if it’s happened once, it can very well happen again.

Fortunately, mice aren’t likely to linger if they’re running across your bed. They’re most likely trying to get from Point A to Point B, and across the bed is the quickest route.

Rats are more likely to try to bite you as you sleep, so even if a mouse did dart across you, you’re at low risk of getting nipped. To learn more about do mice bite and your risk of getting bitten by one, click here.

If you’re looking for an easy way to avoid mice in your bed, consider this foolproof solution:

Mice are petrified of cats and will avoid them at costs. Just the smell of a cat is a strong deterrent to a mouse. For more information on the best cats for catching mice, click here.

Cats in bed

If you found a mouse in your bed, it’s entirely human to feel a shudder of revulsion creep down your back. As humans, we’re born with an innate aversion to things that can be harmful to us. Sure, they’re tiny, but they pack a lot of disease into their mangy little bodies.

Here are some of the diseases that mice can carry:

  • Hantavirus: Spread by deer mice, you catch this virus from breathing in rodent urine or droppings.
  • Leptospirosis: You catch this one by coming in contact with the urine from an infected mouse.
  • Rat Bite Fever: Not just limited to rats, this mouse-borne disease is frighteningly easy to catch by bite or scratch from an infected rodent.

  • Salmonellosis: This disease is transmitted by water contaminated from mouse urine and droppings.
  • Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis (LCM): Carried by the house mouse, you catch it by coming in contact with their droppings or urine.
  • Bubonic Plague: This nasty disease comes from the fleas that are on mice.

Leptospira info

Can Mice Climb into My Bed?

Mice are excellent jumpers. With a good head start, they can bound onto your bed and scurry the rest of the distance up. Your bed, therefore, is no challenge to a mouse.

Mice can leap one foot straight up into the air.

If you’re looking for more information on whether or not can mice climb, click here.

If a mouse can ascend a brick wall, what’s going to stop it from scrambling into your bed?

Can Mice Carry Bed Bugs?

Bedbugs are tiny, red, blood-sucking insects.

Not only found in your bed, you can also encounter them in your:

  • Electrical boxes,
  • Baseboards,
  • Carpeting,

  • Couches and chairs,
  • Behind picture frames,
  • In curtains.

While they do occasionally feed upon mice, they typically fall off once they’re done eating (typically within five minutes). To learn about if fleas fall off mice after feeding or do mice carry fleas long term, click here.

Bed bugs are more likely to come in on:

  • Luggage (from hotels),
  • Backpacks,
  • Thrift-Store Purchases,

  • Secondhand Furniture,
  • Used Mattresses.

Bed bugs

Click here for more information about bed bugs.

What Can You Do if You Have Mice Living in Your Couch?

Not everyone is in the financial position to get brand new furniture if they have a mouse infestation in it, but it’s understandable if you want to throw your couch away if you do find a mouse in it!

The signs of mouse infestation in your couch include:

  • Finding a nest inside it.
  • Chew marks on the cushions and upholstery.
  • Sounds of scratching and chewing.

  • Squeaks coming from within the couch.
  • Actually seeing a mouse peering out at you.

Vacuuming your couchIf you’re not willing or able to part with your couch, you will have to call a professional to clean it and sanitize it. Many professionals will come directly to your home to help ensure proper cleansing of your furniture.

Please do not ignore this problem simply because you’re worried about the expense; while couch upholstery cleaning is fairly affordable compared to buying a brand new couch, there is no price tag that can be put on the health and safety of your family.

Neglecting this issue makes the risk of catching a disease and endangering your household too high.

Are Mice Scared of People?

Mice are naturally cautious around all potential predators.

Some of the more common predators of mice include:

  • Birds of prey (owls and hawks, for example),
  • Cats,
  • Dogs,

  • Skunks,
  • Snakes.

If you asked a mouse, humans would be firmly on that list!

While some cultures do actually consider mice a delicacy, most people certainly would be repulsed at the thought of eating one of them. However, since we do use traps to capture mice, that makes us a sworn enemy to these vile rodents. Their fear of us evenly matches our distaste for them.

Ways to Keep Mice Away from Your Bed

Getting a good night’s sleep is of the utmost importance, and you won’t rest until you know that you and your family are safe from mice.

You may not want to use snap traps or poison (you can find the best mouse poison here) where you or your kids sleep, so consider using natural alternatives to repel mice.

Mice hate strong, astringent odors. Keep these items near your bed and the mice are sure to stay away!

Infographic: Natural Mice Repellents

Finding a mouse in your bedroom can be devastating. You may feel violated, disgusted, and unsafe in your own home.

By reclaiming control of your domicile, you can regain that sense of security that was lost when you first found evidence of a rodent in your sleeping quarters. Taking precautions to keep them from getting into your room and thoroughly cleaning the room once they’re gone, you can terminate them for good and prevent them from ever coming back.

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