If you’ve heard the scuffling of mice in your walls in the middle of the night, you know how infuriating it can be not only to get a bad night’s sleep because of these pests but that you have tiny, furry invaders in your home. Yes, some people think they’re cute, but if they bring in filth and disease into your home along with chewing wires, causing mess and generally being a pest, they’re less than cute.
Mice will invade your home for three main reasons
It’s warm
You may find that as the colder months creep up on us, there is more activity by rodents in and around your home. This makes sense as, just like us, they get cold in winter and want a warm, dry place to sleep and unfortunately the bones of your home make the perfect home for rodents.
It’s safe
Anywhere that provides a safe haven away from snakes, birds and other predators is a good place to set up camp and mice know this. Having a solid roof that doesn’t let in the elements and keeps a family safe is also what mice are looking for and unfortunately, sometimes, that means you’re home plays host to more than your own family.
It’s got food
Warm, safe and full of food. What more could you ask for in a home? Mice will eat almost anything so your home makes up a veritable smorgasbord of options when it comes time to choose what’s for dinner.
The first thing to do if you think you have mice in your home
If you’ve got mice in your home or you can hear them running around in your walls, the first thing you will want to do is make sure you seal off all the areas they can possibly get into your home. This means going around your home and looking at the different entry points that rodents can possibly get into your home. The thing to remember here is that mice can squeeze themselves into the tiniest of places, so even if you see a point of entry into your home that looks tiny to you, chances are a mouse will be able to use it to get inside your home.
The places to check are:-
- Wire entry points (electrical, antennas, air conditioning, etc)
- Cracks in foundations
- Askew or poorly sealed door frames, window frames or screens
- Siding that is deteriorated or coming away
- Utility points (where pipes for bathrooms, etc enter your home)
There are several ways you can close up these gaps in your home, from replacing broken or deteriorated elements of your home to using expanding foam, wire mesh, quick-drying cement or simply covering/boarding things up.
Note:- Please DON’T cover or fill in the weep vents of your home. These are the small vertical lines built into brickwork to enable built up water to escape.
The second thing to do if you think you have mice in your home
If you find your home has suddenly become a mouse motel you need to make sure you’re not making it a place they want to live. Make sure you cut off any and all potential food supplies by not leaving food scraps around your home, keeping your bins secure (a brick on the top of the wheelie bin can help), keeping any compost piles in a sealed composting bin, putting away all food into cupboards and containers (don’t leave fruit or other food-stuffs out on benchtops).
Reducing potential food sources from your home won’t eliminate mice that have already gotten in, but it will help to make sure you’re removing all possible reasons for them to make their way inside in the first place.
The third thing to do if you think you have mice in your home
Now that you’ve removed their point of entry and hopefully their food sources, it’s time to take the next step in waging war against rodent invaders. It’s a good idea to now go around your home and make sure you don’t have any plants, bushes, hedges or shrubs too close to your home. You will want to make sure any plants are at least 30-45cm away from the brickwork of your home, particularly if they’re larger hedges or shrubs as their root systems might be creating pathways into your home.
When is it a good time to use baits and traps for mice in your walls?
The thing to remember if you’re going to use traps in your home is that you need to be able to access them and check them regularly. Mice tend to forage for food so can cover a wide area of your home, but they will usually only go within 20-40 metres of their main food source and nest. This being the case it’s unlikely you’re going to find where their nest is located as they’re usually tucked away in a dark, safe place, well out of the way of any potential traffic.
Traps work well if you have only a few mice but if you have an infestation or you haven’t fixed any of the issues listed above, it’s likely you will always be playing catchup with mice as they keep entering your home.
If you’re going down the road of using baits you purchase from your local supermarket or hardware store, it’s worth noting that some instructions will tell you to simply throw the packets into your roof space and the rodents will eat the pellets and die. In a perfect world, they will attempt to find a water source away from your home and die, however, more often than not they end up dying in your walls or inside the roof. When this happens you will definitely know about it as many customers have told us about their amazement that such a small animal can produce such a rotten smell when dead in your walls.
The best way to remove mice from your walls or ceiling
If you want the most thorough job possible when it comes to removing mice and rodents from your walls, a professional pest control company like Abolish is the best move. Not only will we check your home to ensure any entry points are covered or removed, but we will also help remove mice and rodents from your roof or walls using our commercial grade baits and traps. If you really want to get rid of mice and rodents, contact Abolish today on 1300 057 067.