Dirty garages, cluttered storage areas, and messy attics can attract mice. Keep food and pet foods stored away from these areas. Remove soft nesting materials such as books, fabric, and cords.
Mice love ceilings rummaging around and can cause extensive damage when present for an extended period. Keeping them at bay requires diligence and sustained effort.
Crawl Spaces
Crawl spaces make perfect hiding places for mice, and they’re often infested because of excess moisture and a plethora of food sources. The best way to avoid pests in crawl spaces is to keep a clean house, remove trash, and eliminate puddles and damp areas.
However, if you find pests in your crawl space, don’t hesitate to call a professional for mice removal help. These critters can cause serious damage with squeaking, scratching, and gnawing. They can also degrade insulation and undermine the structural integrity of wooden beams.
It’s essential to figure out how the mice got into your crawl space and prevent them from returning. Look for exterior gaps big enough for mice to squeeze through, such as around pipes and vents. Seal these to prevent entry. You can also use a dehumidifier and crawl space encapsulation to control moisture and eliminate food sources that attract mice.
Attics
Mice are common in attics, where they find plenty of hiding spots, including rafters and insulation. They can also access gnawing material like wires, electrical cords, and old book pages.
The best way to remove mice from attics is to seal up entry points. Check for areas that could enable entry, such as open vents, clogged chimneys, and loose shingles. Ensure doors and windows fit tightly, and use weatherproofing strips, caulking, or steel wool scouring pads to fill gaps and holes bigger than a quarter inch.
You may be able to spot mouse activity by looking for greasy marks on walls, ceilings, and skirting boards that result from the rodents’ tails rubbing against dusty surfaces. It’s important to store your food in airtight containers and dispose of garbage regularly. Additionally, you should make sure to keep your basements and garages free of clutter, as well as trim tree limbs that are close to your house. If you have firewood stored against your house, moving it further away is best to reduce the risk of fire.
Walls
Mice can enter homes through the smallest cracks in walls, floors, and foundations. Once inside, they can cause gnawing marks on books, boxes, papers, storage bags, gas pipes, and electric cables.
You can often detect a mouse infestation in your home by noticing signs like droppings, chewed-up paper, cloth, and cardboard. You may also hear scurrying in your walls and attic.
It would help if you also watched for greasy marks on walls where mice crawl next to walls to travel between their nests and food sources. These greasy marks are caused by mice carrying food particles in their paws that are then dropped on the wall surface.
You can eliminate mice from walls by sealing cracks they enter through and removing foods they find appealing. You can also try using a humane trap to catch and release mice without killing them. It’s best to consult a pest control professional to confirm whether you have an infestation and for advice on getting rid of it quickly and permanently.
Ceilings
The dark corridors of air ducts, crawl spaces, and walls offer mice plenty of hiding places. Their compulsive gnawing can damage electrical wires, water and gas pipes, and packages. They can also cause fires by chewing through paper and stored fabric to harvest nesting materials.
Mice invade homes for three simple reasons: warmth, shelter, and food. They can spread diseases to humans through their urine, feces, and saliva. They can also contaminate food and injure pets and wildlife.
You can prevent these pests from entering your home by repairing gaps or cracks larger than a dime, especially in basement foundations and the area around window frames. Fill holes with steel wool (which can be reinforced with caulk) or a foam insulation pest blocker. You should also store food in metal cans and clear away fallen leaves, twigs, branches, or other debris that can serve as passageways to your home.
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