How To Prevent Mice In Your Home

There’s A Mouse In Your House: How To Get Rid Of Rodents

Destructive, disease-spreading mice are unwelcome guests in any home, and it’s not safe to allow the infestation to linger. 

Instead, you need to take action as soon as you know there’s a problem with mice control. However, getting rid of those cunning little creatures isn’t the easiest thing in the world. 

Take a closer look at why it’s important to deal with mice infestations quickly and effectively, and how you can prevent them from invading your home.

Mice Damage Your Home

One of the most important reasons to set up pest control treatment for a mice infestation is because of the structural damage those little creatures cause through nest-building, gnawing, and defecation. Don’t be fooled by their small size – rodents are destructive.

Mice chew through and burrow into car seats, insulation in walls and attics, and upholstered furniture to create a nest that is hidden from humans and potential predators such as the family dog or cat. They will also gnaw anything they could potentially use to make their nests more snug, such as books, cloth, paper, and wood. If they gnaw on the insulation around electric wires in your walls or attic, they create a real fire hazard in your home.

Mice Contaminate And Destroy Food

In addition to causing structural damage in your home, mice contaminate and destroy food in your kitchen, grocery cupboards, and pantry. To make matters worse, they’re not fussy eaters, so they’ll happily nibble on your stored food as well as your pet’s food.

Cardboard or paper food packaging is extra-attractive to mice. Not only can they easily chew through it to get to the food inside, but they’ll use the packaging as nesting material. Mice also chew on plastic and wooden food containers and other items and utensils, and they shred napkins, paper towels, and other items for nesting material. 

According to some estimates, most mice eat approximately three grams of food every day. However, the real problem is not the amount of food they eat. It’s the amount of food they contaminate and destroy, which can be up to 10 times the amount of food they consume. Not only do mice leave bits of partially eaten food that’s unfit for human or pet consumption, but they also contaminate food with their urine, droppings, and hair.

Mice Spread Disease

The saliva, urine, droppings, and hair that mice leave behind while looking for nesting sites, nesting materials, food, and water in your home act as scent trails that attract other mice. Mice droppings are also a reliable sign that you have an infestation, even if you never actually see a mouse in your house. Their droppings are rod-shaped and have a point at both ends.

 As if attracting other mice wasn’t bad enough, those substances, especially the waste products, as well as the parasites mice carry, potentially could spread diseases that have serious consequences for you and the other people in your home. Hantavirus, Lyme disease, lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV), salmonella, and Weil’s disease are some of the diseases that mice potentially could spread.

When mouse droppings and urine dry out and turn to dust, they can spread viruses such as Hantavirus. The initial symptoms are similar to flu symptoms, such as aches and pains, chills, and fever. However, if you don’t treat the virus, it can lead to severe shortness of breath and kidney failure.

The ticks that mice carry could eventually detach from their hosts and bite one of the people in your home. This could lead to Lyme disease, which has symptoms such as fatigue, fever, headache, and a particular skin rash. If the condition worsens, other symptoms such as irregular heartbeat, arthritis, and brain and spinal cord welling can develop.

You could be infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV) through exposure to fresh mouse saliva, droppings, and urine, as well as nesting materials. This viral infection can cause serious neurological problems.

Mice can contaminate kitchen work surfaces and food in your home by tracking bacteria, dirt, and waste debris across them. Those substances might carry the bacteria that causes salmonella, which has symptoms such as severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever.

If water contaminated by mouse urine enters your body through your mouth, nose, eyes, ears, or cuts in your skin, it could lead to Weil’s Disease. Initially, the symptoms are flu-like, but they can lead to much worse issues, such as meningitis or liver damage. 

Furthermore, some mice carry the bacteria that causes rat-bite fever, which you could contract through bites, eating or drinking contaminated food and beverages, or touching an infected dead mouse.

Prevent Mice From Invading Your Home

A mice control problem is a serious matter. Take the following steps to prevent them from invading your home.

• Find Points Of Entry

One of the first steps to take if you find a mouse in your house or if you’re trying to prevent them from invading your home is to locate their points of entry. When you know where they’re getting into your home, you can place traps in places where they’re likely to be most effective. Putting traps down randomly is not going to make much of a difference.

Check your home thoroughly. Walk around and look for gaps or holes and fill them in. Remove any debris close to your home’s foundation and look for small gaps in your doors and windows. If you find any gaps, caulk them. Get someone to inspect your roof for possible entry points for mice.

Look for areas in your home where mice droppings are concentrated and try to find the nest. When you know where the mice spend most of their time, lay traps in those areas.

• Eliminate Their Food Sources

Do your best to eliminate the mice’s sources of food in your home. Store food in containers that mice find difficult or impossible to gnaw through, such as plastic or glass. Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink, take out the trash whenever the bin starts filling up, and clean your floors frequently.

Make sure there aren’t any leftovers in your pet’s food bowl. Give your pet only as much food as they will eat. If there’s any food left in the bowl, dispose of it where mice can’t get to it.

Let The Experts Help You

If you haven’t managed to deal with the mouse control problem at home by following the steps above, get the experts in to help you. Pest control professionals know how to get rid of mice effectively, and how to protect your home from further infestations.

Contact Twin-Boro Termite and Pest Control for a free inspection and estimate. Our pest control professional will inspect your home, assess the situation, recommend the best course of action, and work with you until the problem is solved.