Having mice in your house can be a dreadful experience especially when they criss-cross through your living space shamelessly leaving you screaming and confused! Worse still, the mice produce smelly urine that can cause burning sensation and create immense discomfort among your family members and visitors. These frustrating experiences call for sobriety in resolving the problem successfully. You should remain calm and initiate urgent measures to keep mice away before they entirely infest your house. You need to have crucial information before embarking on the actual elimination process to boost your chances of complete mice eradication. This article will furnish you with vital details which, if properly executed, assures of a mice-free house!
How to keep mice away from my house
If your house provides a conducive environment for the mice to thrive, then you’ll be fighting a losing battle by trying to eliminate the stubborn rodents! The initial step should always be geared towards creating a harsh environment for the mice which you’ll achieve by eliminating all food and water sources. Also, you should rid your house of materials that are ideal for making a warm and cozy nest. Such materials include old newspapers, pieces of clothing, grass or other organic matter inside your house. While there are other secondary measures that you can institute to eliminate the mice from your house, it is imperative that you start by successfully implementing this golden strategy.
I want to stop them
Mice get into your house through incredibly small holes that you may not be aware of their existence! Also, they are naturally creative and can easily chew through timber, plywood, particle boards and other types of densified wood.
As such, you should eliminate all the mice attractants and use methods that scare them away from your house.
You can apply the following tips for a completely mouse-proof house:
- Identify all the entry points. You need to perform a thorough search to locate all the spaces that provide enough room for the rodents to get into the house. This step is crucial and you should, thus, ensure tremendous effort to identify every entry point. The stubborn rodents like utilizing spaces that are in the darkest corners of your house. As such, you should be extremely sensitive with the cracks in the foundation and any opening that may appear on the ceiling.
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Seal the entry points. Once you’ve identified the possible entry points, you need to seal them to ensure that no mouse can enter through it. This process may be challenging due to the mice’s ability to squeeze themselves through small holes (more than ¼ inch). You can, however, overcome the challenge by ensuring that you use a static material that cannot rust. It’s advisable that you avoid using sealants made out of rubber, wood or rubber since the mice will gnaw them easily and access your house! Get more tips on how to get rid of mice in walls here.
Highly Vital
Never underestimate even the slightest hole! The rule of thumb when working towards achieving a mouse-proof house is any space or hole that can accommodate pencil’s diameter is large enough for a mouse to go through. Also, ensure that all the windows and doors have weather stripping and ensure that they do not leave any space when closed. - Invest in airtight food canisters.
Ensure that you put all pantry items, cereals and foodstuffs away from the reach of mice. You should own several airtight canisters that you always lock tightly after storing the foodstuffs. This is one of the best ways to get rid of mice in kitchen. The rodents starve and move away to other food-rich areas. Also, ensure that you do not leave pet food exposed which would give the rodents easy access to the food materials. All the dog feed, cat feed and any other form of pet food should be covered at night.
What keeps field mice away?
If you want to succeed in eliminating field mice for good, you’ll need to ensure that your outdoor is neat, organized and that it is devoid of field mice attractants.
You can achieve this by ensuring the following:
- Regular maintenance of your landscape.
Field mice love overgrown grasses and disorganized lawns because they provide them with shelter. They find access to your house where they obtain food and return to their cozy nests in the midst of the long grass. As such, it becomes relatively difficult to control the rodents if you fail to maintain a neat landscape that’s devoid of long grass and clutters. Ensure that you regularly trim the grass and maintain flower beds to avoid creating a conducive environment for the mice to hide. - Keep natural predators.
Field mice fear predators and they won’t tolerate their presence. You should ensure that you predators spend most of the time outdoor to successfully curb the field mice menace. Such predators include non-venomous snakes, owls, and dogs.
Also, read through how to get rid of field mice to acquire golden rules of keeping the mouse away and prevent a re-infestation.
Keeping mice out of my room
Having mice in your room is a scary experience especially if you suffer from musophobia!
You should, however, not worry because you can keep mice out of your room by following the following steps religiously:
- De-clutter your room. It’s likely that you have items piled somewhere at the corner of the room or stacked in a box inside the house! Well, this creates a conducive environment for the mice to stay and reproduce. You should separate the relevant materials from the old, disposable items. Once you achieve this, arrange the items neatly to avoid a congested room and dispose of anything that’s not usable.
- Check out entry points. Ensure that you critically search for areas that may allow the mice access to your room. Be keen to look at areas around the pipes and wires. Once you identify such holes/ spaces, you should cover them with a hard material that can’t be chewed by the mice.
Use traps/ Baits. Set traps in strategic locations to maximize the chance of elimination. You should first study the rodent’s movement patterns to determine the ideal location to place the trap. Also, ensure that you use an attractive bait such as peanut butter.
Are there any ways to keep them out in winter?
Apart from the chilling weather, winter brings along an avalanche of problems! Key among them being mice infestation that gives homeowners sleepless nights. These rodents run away from their natural habitat due to repelling weather conditions, reduced food sources and lack of shelter. If you need to avoid this occurrence, you’ll need to ensure that you create an environment that is equally repelling. Let the mice lack all they were rushing into your house to acquire.
You can achieve this by ensuring that you deny them food, water, shelter, and warmth through fulfilling the following simple steps:
- Clean all the dishes after meals. Ensure that you leave your house sparkling at night. The cleanliness and orderliness of your place will automatically drive the mice away.
- You should ensure that you avoid piling the utensils in the sink to avoid stagnant water that offers the mice with a watering point.
- Keep away all old papers and clutters. Ensure that old rags, grass, and newspapers are not accessible to the mice. This will deny them the materials to construct their nests thus discouraging them and driving them away.
You should ensure that the mice do not get any chance to enter into your house. You’ll achieve this by blocking all the holes and spaces that the mice can squeeze through. You should note the rodents are small and can fit in a small hole of a quarter inch!
Mouse prevention
Preventing mice from entering your house is a necessary exercise if you want to avoid a possible infestation. You should perform regular checkups to ensure that the house does not have a single mouse. It’s also critical to ensure that your house is mouse-proof which offers an absolute guarantee that you’ll not face infestation crisis.
The best ways to prevent mice from infesting your house revolve around creating barriers around your house which entail sealing the entry points and ensuring an unpleasant environment for them. Also, ensure a clean environment both inside and outside your house.
While there exist other numerous methods that you can apply to prevent mice, orderliness and cleanliness remain the most efficient. You can also use other complementary methods including traps, poisonous baits and natural predators as discussed herein.
How to prevent them from entering the home?
You can keep mice away from your home by:
- Keeping pets that are harsh on the mice. The rodents have a strong sense of smell and they will detect their predators from a distance. Once they suspect danger, mice will move away from that specific location until they are sure of their safety. Some of the pets that mice fear include cats, dogs, and owls. Read about best cats for catching mice here.
- Ensuring an orderly house. Remove all the unnecessary materials to decongest your house. The garage is among the favorite places for mice to launch their infestation. As such, always ensure a clean, orderly and highly organized garage. Click this to find out how to get rid of mice in your garage.
- Use repellents. Apply DIY techniques to drive away mice. You can use natural methods that produce strong smell to keep them at bay.
The Best Way
You should always work towards having a mouse-proof house which provides the surest mice elimination tactic. You should regularly check for holes and spaces that are large enough to allow the rodents to squeeze through. It’s critical to note that the mice are highly innovative and they’ll always find a way to enter into your house.
Also, ensure that your lawns and flower beds are regularly maintained to prevent field mice from infesting your outdoors. If you allow mice around the house, they will trick you and enter the house when opening the doors and the windows which may lead to infestation! They can also climb up the walls and enter your house through the ceiling region. Read more on can mice climb here.
What should I use?
Even when the situation appears unbearable, there’s always an escape route!
Before you surrender to the stubborn mice, you should try using the following substances to keep them away:
- Moth Ball.
These substances contain naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene which are toxic to mice. You require a relatively high concentration (use several mothballs at ago) to achieve the desired results. Their toxic nature makes them a high-risk method of eliminating mice. You should vacate the house for a few hours after application and ensure that children and pet do not access the toxic mothballs.
Please see detailed descriptions here. - Peppermint essential oils. This product produces a strong smell that repels the mice out of your house. You should soak several cotton balls in the oil and place them in strategic places to keep the rodents away. Other substances that produce strong smells that the mice cannot tolerate include ammonia, onions, cayenne pepper, Tabasco sauce, and cloves. Further details can be found here.
- Use of sound deterrents.
Mice hate ultrasound noises and they will move away to serene places leaving you in peace! You can use buy the devices from the nearest pest control store. Once you’ve acquired the traps, place them in the regions that are highly infested. While this method eliminates mice, they may get used to the noise over time making them ineffective. As such, you should ensure that you combine it with other methods to enhance efficacy.
For more information click here. - Use of traps. You can opt to use commercial traps or homemade traps. When choosing the device to use, ensure that it is effective, cost-effective and humane. There are also plenty of poisonous baits that you can use to kill or drive away the mice.
You can find the best mouse traps here.
Best thing to keep them away
The golden rule of keeping mice away from your house is to ensure that there are no holes and spaces that can allow them into your home. It’s, however, crucial to note that you should complement this method using other non-toxic methods. You should use humane traps after sealing the entry points to create a synergy that guarantees a mouse-free house.
The secret to a mouse-free house lies in ensuring that you achieve a mouse-proof house. Ensure there are no loopholes that the rodent can use to get into your house. Additionally, you should not provide a cozy environment for the rodents.
I think I have a rat, not a mouse cause I’ve one black one. Will cedar oil or peppermint work with this pest and If I have 1 Will I have more?
Rat populations can easily climb to high numbers. Just one female and her offspring have the ability to create hundreds of new rats in just a few months. Rats get into your attic or walls, build nests out of soft building materials and once there they quickly begin producing babies.
Pest control experts know that getting rid of just one rat is much easier than trying to eradicate an entire family unit. If you do have rats as well as mice, cedar oil will not work on them because it does not repel mammals like other pests such as snakes or insects. Peppermint is also useless when dealing with rats because they are immune to its smell and taste and don’t care if it is applied around their nests.