Mice are capable of climbing stairs, climbing walls, walking on wires or cables, and swimming through sewer water (yes, a rat may appear in your toilet! ) to get into your house. So what is the best method to prevent mice from entering your home?
To tell the truth, mice adapt to the environment easily, since they are relentless when it comes to looking for food, warmth and shelter, and precisely your house has all these elements. That is why in autumn and winter these elements become even more necessary and therefore their need to enter your home also increases.
Don’t underestimate mice
Mice will be continually looking for an opportunity to enter your home through any crack they can find. That is why you must become a real handyman and fix any type of damage in your house or seal any type of crack or hiding place.
How do mice get into houses?
Speaking of mice, I’ll never forget talking to a rodent control expert once who told me that “their agility was admirable.” I suspect that those who have suffered from a rodent infestation in their home were not thinking exactly how admirable it was, but rather the fear that its presence produced in them.
You should also know that younger mice can fit through holes as small as the diameter of a pencil (6mm!). This means not only looking for the most obvious entry points, but also looking for the most hidden ones.
- Did you know that…
The common mouse can easily climb walls 2 meters high
Mice can squeeze through holes the width of a pencil
Mice can jump up to 24 cm
Rats can jump 77 cm vertically and 120 horizontally?
Through the roof!
It is no coincidence that the black rat is also known as the roof rat. The black rat is even more agile than other rodent species, and sometimes they find a way to enter houses through roofs.
Are you still wondering how the mice managed to get to the high cabinets in the kitchen where you keep your food? Imagine the back of your fridge/freezer. What for you is simply one more element of the appliance, for rodents it is the perfect surface to climb, it allows them to access the remains of food and food that is on the upper part of the kitchen counter.
Other entry points into your home can be:
- Through holes in the basement
- Downspouts around pipes or where a pipe used to be
- Through structural defects – damaged floor or roof
- Through ventilation ducts and air chambers
- Through the pipes – yes, rats are very good swimmers and can survive in sewers and drains
How to keep mice away
As an owner, you are interested in preserving your health, your safety and of course your money, and that means avoiding mice and rats. Mice and rats breed very easily, so a small problem can quickly turn into a large infestation. If, in addition to this, we take into account the diseases that are known to be contagious and the viruses that they can carry, in addition to the material damage they cause to the wiring, furniture and other elements of your property, it is well worth paying attention to the first signs and act as soon as possible.
As always, prevention is the best remedy.
There are many remedies that you can carry out to avoid the presence of an infestation of mice, all of which require little effort and little cost. If you want more security to avoid an infestation of mice in your home, you will need professional help from a company specialized in rodent pest control.
Tips to prevent a rodent infestation
- Food storage – food should be stored in plastic or metal containers, in addition to regular cleaning under the sink, refrigerator and kitchen cabinets.
- Doors – In cases where the doors do not fit properly to the ground, especially in old houses, it is advisable to add some type of material that prevents the passage of rodents.
- Pipes – Seal openings around pipes or around any holes left by old pipes.
- Holes – In general, any hole larger than 5 mm would allow a mouse to sneak into your house, since through that crack they can insert their jaw and then gnaw until they get a larger opening through which their body can fit.
- Air vents and vents – Cover these with a fine galvanized mesh, especially if they are damaged.
- Roof Wings – Check the roof for damage or holes.
Mice need shelter, food, and warmth.
Once they enter your home, mice will quickly seek out a secluded spot, ideally one that is close to a food source – the kitchen or dining room are ideal hunting grounds. This is why it is normal to find mouse nests behind kitchen appliances and in the back of the fridge/freezer. Plus it’s hot in there!
- Mice love paper with which they can build nests
Any type of paper from newspapers to magazines that you may be storing is likely to be used by rodents to make nests, including toilet paper or paper towels.
looking for heat
Mice can easily find warmth by creating their nest inside wall voids, under laminated flooring, near the heater, or even in your attic or attic.
Looking for food
What do mice eat? Most people already know that mice don’t just eat cheese, they also like chocolate and even peanut butter. There are even people who have researched and discovered their favorite potato chip flavor!
Mice are able to obtain their daily amount of water from the food they eat, as long as it has certain levels of moisture.
Rats, on the other hand, do need access to water and cannot survive on moist food alone. That explains why rats love bread and other foods like potatoes, which have a high water content. And that without forgetting the weakness they have for your garbage can!
This explains why you are more likely to have a mouse infestation in your home than a rat infestation. Still, if you live near a river, lake, stream, or any other natural water source, you’re more likely to come across rats.
- Did you know that… mice feed on several food sources in one night, while rats are more careful and prefer to stick to only 2 or 3 different sources.
Night activities
Since mice are nocturnal creatures, it is very rare to discover any signs of their activity during the day, unless the infestation is severe or unless you are very thorough in your search for signs.
Joining the baseboards
Their natural instinct pushes them to move in their environment with great care and always attached to some element that protects them. In your house these elements are the skirting boards, and the mice will always move attached to them. It is very rare to see a mouse running across a room at full speed. This cautious behavior is what protects them from predators in a wild environment.
- Did you know…whatever activity rodents are doing, their eyes will always look up to stay alert for predators.
If you don’t take action against an infestation of mice, you’ll likely start to see stains along the route they normally take, as a result of their greasy fur rubbing against the wall or baseboard.
physiological functions
Another obvious sign of mice in your home is the appearance of urine and small droppings.
Mice tend to go out of their way to urinate, as a way of marking their territory and letting other mice know where food sources are.
What should I do?
In the wild, mice can survive from 1 year to 18 months given the right social and environmental conditions, during which time they can reproduce.
Do you realize how an infestation of mice can multiply in your home if the proper preventive measures are not taken?
In the event that a plague of rodents establishes itself in one place, urine deposits will appear, because rodents tend to urinate always in the same known places. These urine deposits are a combination of rodent urine and remains of their hair.