How To Keep Mice Away

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The only real way to keep attracted mice away from your house or property is to seal them out - find every last open hole mice can use to crawl into your house, and seal those areas shut. Outside of this, no other tactic will keep them away - no cat, no repellent, device, or any amount of poisoning or trapping will keep them away for good. But seal all the entry holes shut, and problem solved, permanently. Below are the 4 main steps:



STEP 1 - Home Inspection: - Find out how the mice are getting inside the building. That's the only way to keep mice away. Holes as small as 1/4 inch must be found.

STEP 2 - Seal the Open Holes - Use steel mesh and sealant, or metal flashing, to seal shut all open gaps and holes. Block off air flow, so the mice don't try to chew their way in.

STEP 3 - Trap & Remove the Mice - I highly recommend using wooden snap traps - they outperform any other kind of trap out there, and there is no point in trying to catch mice alive and relocating them.

STEP 4 - Clean the Mouse Waste - Vacuum the droppings, and fog the house and attic with a special enzyme cleaner. Read more here: attic decontamination services.



Whatever you do, do not hire an extermination company to do your mouse control. They want to never solve the problem, and they are very lazy. Instead of actually sealing the house and trapping and removing the mice for a permanent solution, a pest control company treats mice like insects, and they use poison. Poison is the worst possible approach to take to keep mice away. It will never solve the problem, and it will only cause dead mice to stink up the house, before new mice quickly come in to take their place.



Furthermore, repellents do not work at all. To read more about why, click my Do mouse repellents work page. Here are more good articles about mouse removal.

How to get rid of mice
How to trap mice
How to kill mice
How to catch mice alive
How to get rid of mice in the attic
Mouse removal methods
Pictures of mouse droppings
Do mouse repellents work
How to get mice out of your walls
Mouse in the wall scratching
How much does mouse removal cost?
Directory of Mouse Removal Professionals
How Long Does It Take To Remove Mice In A Building?

Here is an article written by my Columbian friend, who has a rat problem in his country:

Getting rid of mouse problems - Perhaps one of the most common problems in every household is the infestation of mice. These cute little creatures belong to the family of rats but are generally smaller and with a slight difference in appearance. Because of their size, they have more accessibility to minute holes and entrance ways that we fail to notice. As it is, they are 10 to 20 times more frequently seen in homes than rats. Although they are not as dangerous as rats which carry diseases and parasites, there is just on fatal virus which is carried by one type of mice called the deer mice. The virus is called the Sin Nombre Virus which is said to be the cause of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome which is a very rare and fatal disease.

Similar with other rodents there are several ways to control their growing population inside your property. The first and the most basic thing to do is just to maintain cleanliness and sanitation. It has always been known that these little rodents are fond of sneaking up on your garbage to find possible food for them. They are easily attracted to fruit peelings and other edible leftovers poured onto the trash can. They can be lured by pet food being left anywhere. Being clean and orderly will result in limiting their food sources as well as possible lairs which is one of the most effective ways of keeping them out.

You can also try to “build them out” meaning that you make sure that your home is free from any opening as small as ¼ of an inch to allow them entry. You should be able to put seals or covers in possible entrance ways.

Traps or snap traps are still considered the most effective tool in trying to capture these animals. You can use as many traps as you wish making sure that you put them in areas where they frequent the most and allowing them to trust their safety outside their holes for a while to prevent them from being aware of the danger that is set by the traps. There are now many different kinds of traps that you can buy in the market or even in online stores. One type is called the single snap trap which only allows a single mouse per trap to be captured and then needs to be baited and reset. There is also the multiple-capture live trap which allows quite a number of mice to be caught without resetting thereby cutting off on the labor involved. There is also what we call the electrocution trap. This device is operated by a battery which when triggered will release electrical impulses. If you have pets it would be best to keep your eye on them as well to prevent them from setting off the traps and hurting themselves. Recently though, there is an innovation which performs just like a fly trap gluing flies in place when they touch the surface of the paper. For rats, we have what we call the glue board which catches the mice and glues them into the spot.

Another possible option is of course through the use of pesticides or chemicals that would induce some kind of killing substances into their bodies. We have now the normal pesticides or toxins that have been used previously and the most recent development is the anticoagulant pesticides which causes internal bleeding. The problem with this is that not all mice might die in the process and would develop some kind of resistance to the toxin making it more difficult to kill them next time. It is also a problem if they die inside your ceilings or walls that would make it difficult for you to find and bury them. If left untouched they would surely rot and would give off a very nasty odor inside your home especially in hot weather. Thus, poison is a bad option for how to keep mice away from your house or attic.

Another possible solution to your mice problem would be to bring in your dogs or cats inside to scare them away. Although they might not really be able to kill the mice in your bedroom they should be able to serve as a possible repellant for the mice not to return.