STOP and PREVENT Mice from Entering Your Home
This winter, you may find that mice are trying hard to enter your home. These small rodents prefer warmth. They’ll be searching for openings and cracks in your walls, doors, and windows. If you’ve experienced a mouse infestation in your home, you may have set traps or even called an exterminator. These methods can be effective but can take a while to work effectively. Here are some preventative measures that will keep mice out of your house for the short term.
Mouse-Proof outside of House
One of the simplest ways to mouse-proof your home from the outside; let your outdoor cat roam as much as possible. Cats are natural predators of mice and will spend hours hunting them. When mice see cats, they are deterred from coming anywhere near them. Hence, they stay away from your home. Keep in mind, that if you are using a pet door to let your cat in and out of the house, that could be another entry point that mice will use if it is not sealed properly. Indoor cats will help with a mouse problem as well. Cats can often sense mice on your property and will do all they can to catch and kill them on site.
Placing mint leaves in your lawn and around your property can discourage mice from finding their way into your house. Mice hate the smell of mint and will stay away from the strong smell. You can also plant some mint in your outdoor garden as a natural mouse repellent. Apply peppermint or spearmint leaves all around the inside and outside of your home to keep mice at bay, however, once the smell wears off, mice will use the leaves for bedding, or you may even attract insects such as ants.
You can also repel mice before they get to your home by putting mothballs around the outer perimeters of your property. Mothballs will quickly send mice running in the other direction. However, this method is poisonous to children and pets. So, make sure you position the mothballs in a place where they are out of sight and out of reach of humans and pets.
How to Keep Mice out of House in Winter
During the winter, mice are trying to get access to your home for both warmth and food. One natural method is to add some fresh bay leaves to the surfaces of your pantry. This will keep mice from raving through your cupboards and opening food packages. You can also crush bay leaves and sprinkle them on your windowsills. This helps to prevent them from getting any further in your home, even if they’ve made their way to the window area. The negative to this is that once the odor has gone away, the leaves can attract insects such as ants, or mice will use them for bedding.
You can also set humane traps. Mice enjoy foods like cheese and peanut butter. Place these foods in the trap and make sure the door to the trap closes securely once the mouse is lured in. Once you have caught the mouse, take the little creature to a location far away from your home to release them. There are also sticky traps that you can set around your home to catch them. However, there’s a chance that other rodents and birds on your property will get caught in them as well and these traps sometimes result in the death of what is caught.
The Permanent Way to Eliminate Mice in The Home
Keeping the windows, doors, and walls properly sealed will also prevent a mice problem in your home. Mice like to enter your property through small cracks and openings, and, will sometimes create a home in between the walls. Renewing the caulking around your doorposts and windowsills will make it harder for mice to chew or claw their way into your home.
Mice can enter your home anywhere there is a space of a quarter of an inch or more. It is imperative that you close any spaces where you can see light coming in or out of your home. This includes spaces on your roof as well. Exclusion is the “Only” method that will keep mice and any other pests from entering your home.
“Exclusion,” is the term used by wildlife professionals who are certified to completely seal your home from pests. They are trained to identify areas where mice and other pests can enter your home now or in the future. They seal those areas using professional grade materials that match the home’s exterior. Once the exclusion work is complete, you never have to worry about any pests entering or invading your home.
If you’re still not able to completely keep mice from getting into your house, NJ Pest Control is here to help. Our certified “Exclusion” team has years of experience, and, are friendly and knowledgeable. We are a Veteran owned company providing Pest Control and Exclusion services for over 18 years in NJ. Contact us to today for a consultation and to set up your exclusion appointment.
