Rodents include rats and mice which invade your house or office building in search of food, water, and shelter. However, not only do they get their food and shelter, but they also bring along a lot of dangers to your health and property. Unlike many other pests, they are carriers for many serious diseases, including rat-bite fever, E. coli infections, salmonellosis, leptospirosis, etc.

In addition to this, rodents can pave the way for other parasitic attacks of insects, ticks, and mites. Therefore, you must take preventive measures and control them before it is too late.

Mice can chew anything literally – be it your books, plastics, clothes, aluminum cans, insulations, wallboard, or any other organic or inorganic food. So, there is not any particular thing that mice can feed on. In this way, their bites, body fluids, or other droplets can contaminate the food that you consume.

What do the mice look like?

Usually, house mice are dusty grey with cream-colored bellies. The color of the mouse’s fur ranges from light brown to dark grey. House mice have four legs and a round body form. Their muzzles are pointed, and they have big, hairy ears. They are 2.5 to 3.75 inches long, with their tails going as long as 2.75 to 4 inches.

How to know if there is a mice infestation?

Mice infestations have some characteristic features that you can identify in the following ways:

• You may notice mice gnaw marks that can be rough or smooth
• You may find some rod-shaped, pointed ends, dried or soft droppings on the floor
• A 4 toed impression or five-toed impressions can indicate the front and hind feet of mice, respectively
• The house walls or floors may have some oily rub marks
• You may notice burrows in insulation or around the windowpanes
• Mice urine is quite distinct that you can smell immediately
• Your cereals or food items may be damaged
• You might even see mice running around your house.

How to Get Rid of Mice Infestation?

Mice infestation includes a number of steps. Since there is always a risk of them coming back, it is imperative to take very permanent and powerful solutions.

Eliminate any points of access

Keeping rodents out of your house or rodent-proofing it is an important way to prevent mice infestations from spreading or happening in the first place. Eliminate points of entry and convenient access to your house to protect it from rodents. This can be challenging, given a mouse’s capacity to fit through even the tiniest of spaces.

Seal Any Holes or Gaps

Seal base holes and gaps in the walls, like those for utility pipes and vents. Steel wool and caulking perform very well in this situation. Avoid utilizing sealants made of plastic, rubber, wood, or something else that mice would quickly gnaw through.

Make use of mousetraps

The most effective method of eradicating mice in an active infestation is to use mouse traps. The traditional wooden snap traps can do for light to moderate mice infestation. It’s not unusual to set a dozen traps for a single mouse – or what you believe is a single mouse.

Additionally, it is a safe practice to lay a variety of various kinds of traps. In addition to the wooden traps, use lure traps, multiple-capture live traps, and adhesive traps. This increases the chances of capturing any of the rodents since others might be sensitive to certain kinds of traps and may escape them.

Choose the optimal lure for mouse traps.

Bait may be any item that the mice have been consuming in your houses, such as peanut butter, bacon, dried fruit, or any chocolate. When you are ready to set the baited trap, use a fishing line or dental floss to secure the bait to the trigger. This would ensure that the mice get theirs due without “stealing the cheese.”

Fix the mouse traps properly

You can place the mouse traps perpendicular to the walls with the control segment facing the baseboard. This leads the mouse to move straight towards the lure when it instinctively scurries around the walls, rather than going towards the trap in the opposite direction, prematurely releasing it.

Mice would not migrate more than ten to twenty feet from food sources and breeding areas, so put the traps anywhere you see mice or evidence of mice, such as mouse droppings or “rubbings” on baseboards and walls.

Every two days or so, rotate trap sites. Mice are inherently curious, and therefore will not resist traps as rats will.

Use bait packages to kill mice

Bait stations (or bait packages) are containers of meal or pellets that are locked. They are usually wrapped in cardboard, parchment, or cellophane, which the mice may quickly chew through to get the preserved bait.

The mice consume this bait and perish. Although these items are effective at eliminating mice, they should be treated by certified pest control experts to ensure the protection of you, your children, and pets.

Keep food in enclosed containers

Mice will live on as little as 3 or 4 grams of food a day, but a few crumbs here and there would suffice. Vacuum the surfaces and scrub down cabinets to remove residue, crumbs, and other food sources.

Food can be stored in glass jars or other airtight containers. Remember to secure your trash. Mice have razor-sharp incisor teeth that allow them to chew through almost everything, even concrete if the mood hits, but plastic bags are no substitute for hungry rodents.

Make sure your surrounding has no breeding places for mice.

Remove clutter or debris from around your house that may serve as a hiding place for rodents. Keep weeds at bay and kill burrows and spawning areas when they are discovered. Lining the base of your house with a strip of heavy gravel is an effective way to deter nesting and burrowing.

The fewer litter and garbage in your house and grounds, the simpler it is to detect mice behavior and avoid them in their tracks.