Wondering How To Get Rid Of Mice Right Now? Here’s Our 10 Best Tips
Are you wondering how to get rid of mice right now? Do you want to know the best tips for getting rid of mice? We’re not surprised. Each winter, these pesky rodents are looking for warmth and shelter to ride out the Canadian cold season. Often making our houses their homes, having these unwelcome guests inside your property is the stuff of most homeowners’ nightmares.
An evasive species, mice live in dark and secluded spots of your home, and are notoriously difficult to remove. That’s why thousands of Canadians turn to the expertise of a professional mice exterminator when they’re tired of constant skittering, scratching or gnawing. Ultimately, once mice have made themselves comfortable in your home, it’s important to start mice control measures right now. Otherwise, you could end up with an entire mouse infestation.
Fortunately for you, Terminix Canada has dedicated this blog to listing the 10 best ways to get rid of mice. While many DIY mice control methods exist, some prefer the convenience of saving themselves the struggle and calling in professional mice exterminators instead. Whatever suits you, this blog details how to get rid of mice in your home, using the best methods of mice removal. Additionally, we’ll cover how to get rid of mice in your walls and attic.
How To Get Rid Of Mice In Your Home Right Now
- Seal up all entry points
- Perform regular attic maintenance
- Assess any wall scratching
- Start using mousetraps
- Choose mousetrap bait carefully
- Place mousetraps in strategic locations
- Don’t ignore bait packages
- Regularly practice good sanitation
- Think outside the house too
- Let cats do their bit too
1. Seal Up All Entry Points
So you want to get rid of mice right now. The best way to get rid of mice is to prevent a mice infestation in the first place. Canadian homeowners can effectively defend their property by sealing up all points of entry to prevent easy access. This isn’t a task for the unqualified however. Why? Because mice are incredibly cunning and nimble. They are able to squeeze through the tiniest openings one-quarter of an inch and up. Ultimately, mice can fit in small cracks and crevices that are only a pencil width’s wide.
Whether you call for professional help or tackle the task yourself, you should always seal cracks in your foundation, walls, and places nearby utility pipes and vents. Effective sealants include steel wool, hardware cloth, expandable foam, caulking, and even mortar. Keep in mind that mice have very sharp teeth and can sometimes chew their way through inadequately repaired openings. Our professional mice control specialists know the correct tools and materials to get a job done right. Finally, products like weather stripping are highly effective too and provide a barricade for the doors and window gaps in your home.
2. Perform Regular Attic Maintenance
If your mice problem is overhead and you’re wondering how to get rid of mice in the attic, it all starts with regular attic maintenance. Attic mice control is imperative since these pesky critters chew through electrical wiring and piping, potentially causing fires or flooding.
Remember the entry point elimination we spoke about in tip one? You’ll want to apply the same sealing methods to all cracks or openings that lead to your attic. By regularly assessing whether you’ve sealed all possible entryways, you stand a far greater chance of keeping more mice out.
3. Assess Any Wall Scratching
Questioning how to get rid of mice in the walls? You’ll need to carefully assess whether mice are actually inside walls in the first place. This involves constant monitoring at day and night. Ultimately, to get rid of mice in walls is more difficult than mice in the attic since walls provide a smaller area to work with. Hearing mice in walls does provide some reassurance too. We’re not joking either. Mice that are alive in walls still have the opportunity to be caught by a professional mouse exterminator. We’re sure you don’t want dead mice decomposing inside the walls of your property.
4. Start Using Mousetraps
Where mousetraps are used, you should always deploy them responsibly. Classic wooden snap traps can work but success varies greatly depending on the size of the mice infestation. Importantly, you should know that it could take up to a dozen traps to capture just a single mouse. Therefore, you shouldn’t be overly reliant on mousetraps being your only mice control tactic. Beyond classic wooden snap traps, there are bait traps, multiple-capture live traps and glue traps too. When deploying mousetraps, make sure to lay a combination of different types to stand the best chance of catching intruding critters.
5. Choose Mousetrap Bait Carefully
Removing pesky mice starts with understanding their diet and what they love to eat. In short, choosing mousetrap bait carefully means you stand a better chance of conquering your mice infestation. Mice love to snack on things like bacon, chocolate, dried fruit, oatmeal and spreads. All these baits can be applied to your mousetraps to try and draw in a particular intruder. When setting baited traps, always tie the bait to the trigger with either a fishing line or dental floss. Bait can also be safely secured in place with a hot glue gun. If you’re wondering how often to set fresh bait, the answer is every couple of days.
6. Place Mousetraps In Strategic Locations
There’s no point placing mousetraps in areas that mice avoid. Firstly, you’ll want to deploy traps perpendicular to the walls in your home. Remember, the trigger section of traps should always face your baseboards. By doing this, mice will run directly towards the bait as they naturally travel along walls. If you ignore this tactic, you risk mice triggering mousetraps from the wrong direction, hindering their success in turn. Importantly, mice never travel further than 10 or 25 feet from their nesting locations. Therefore, mousetraps should always be set in areas with warning signs like rodent droppings. Lastly, don’t just leave mousetraps in the same location. Mice move around so constant deploying and redeploying of the traps is key.
7. Don’t Ignore Bait Packages
Beyond selecting and setting your own mice bait, remember that bait packages, or bait stations, exist too. These meals are usually sealed within plastic wrapping so mice can easily obtain access to the preserved bait. When successfully used, mice feed on this fresh bait and die. Nevertheless, trained mice exterminators should always handle products like these. The reason being that bait packages threaten the health and safety of you, your children and your pets in the wrong hands.
8. Regularly Practice Good Sanitation
While this tactic won’t get rid of mice, it’ll help to prevent more mice intruding both now and in the future. Remember, mice can survive on just 3 to 4 grams of food a day. Therefore, you should diligently remove any food waste from the floor. Always make sure to vacuum up things like crumbs or other spillages. Don’t stop there because you also need to wipe down counters, eliminate residue, and prevent any easy access to food sources. Other good kitchen habits include storing food in an airtight jar or container while ensuring garbage is securely stored in trashcans with a closed lid. You’re asking for trouble if you leave plastic trash bags around for mice to chew through with their teeth.
9. Think Outside The House Too
So far, this blog has explained methods you can take inside your home but don’t ignore the outside too. Remember that mice started life outside before entering your property. Therefore, you should eliminate potential nesting areas around your foundation. These include weeds and burrows and other debris. One thing you can do to landscape your home’s exterior is lining the foundation with a strip of heavy gravel. This helps to clear the nesting areas where mice frequent before effortlessly breaching gaps in your foundation. Elsewhere, you can remove bird feeders and regularly trim fruit trees and plants to remove food sources and deter rodents. Lastly, garbage should be disposed of regularly and placed as far away from your home as possible.
10. Let Cats Do Their Bit Too
Everybody knows that cats enjoy hunting mice. But remember, this is no substitute compared to the effectiveness of a professional mice exterminator. That said, it has been known for cats to catch mice without homeowners lifting a finger. Historically, human beings, particularly farm owners, have used animals to control rodent populations.
Terminix Canada Is The Best Way To Eliminate Your Mice Problem For Good
Offering 24/7 support, our rodent control specialists will tackle the mice problem plaguing your home. Learn more about our rodent inspection, rodent defence, and rodent monitoring. Find your closest Terminix Canada branch today!