What a beautiful Northeastern Fall we’re experiencing this year as we rapidly approach the peak of Fall colors. But there’s a downside. As temperatures drop mice begin looking for Winter food and shelter…possibly in your home!
Each year at this time hundreds of homeowners in Southern Connecticut call for help with house mouse control.
Credits: Fall Preview: Mice Pest Control — Chagrin Valley Pest Control
House mice are Olympic gold medalists when it comes to entering and navigating your home. They are excellent climbers and can run vertically up a brick wall at top speed. A house mouse can effortlessly jump 5 or six times it’s body length (equivalent of a human jumping vertically 20-30 feet)! And house mice can slip through a crack the diameter of a pencil.
Inside your home, house mice find everything they need for a comfortable Winter:
- Insulation for a warm, soft nesting area
- Your kitchen provides all the food they need
- Water condensation on pipes ensures mice will never go thirsty.
House Mouse Control First Line of Defense: Make the environment immediately OUTSIDE your home unfriendly to mice.
- A wood pile, high grass and leaves provide perfect nesting areas.
- Bird feeders, dog food or any animal food provide all the nutrition a rodent needs.
- Ponds, bird baths, fountains and any standing water will attract a thirsty rodent.
House Mouse Control Second line of defense: Seal every crack larger than the width of a pencil.
Mice are part of the ‘Rodent family’ – this means their 2 front teeth constantly grow. To keep these teeth in check, they have to constantly gnaw to wear them down. This means mice can gnaw through floorboards, door frames, plastic pipes, and electrical cables and even lightweight aluminum. This provides a problem for the pest controller as any proofing works are often bypassed by the mice gnawing through the proofing product or simply gnawing another access hole next to the area proofed.
Credits: What can cause you to suffer a mice infestation? – Murray Pest Control
House Mouse Control Third Line of Defense: Eliminate any available source of food INSIDE your home.
Given a mouse only weighs around 10 grams, it doesn’t need much in the way of split food or refuse to live and raise a family.
Dog and cat food is nearly always left on the floor all day and night where it is easily accessed by foraging rodents.
Much like our food, it is high in proteins and vitamins and therefore is ideal for supporting mouse infestations. Pet birds can encourage an infestation, the canary & millet seeds used to feed them are ideal mice food, they usually come in soft packaging that is easily gnawed through and mice can fit through the bars to all bird cages. Credits: What can cause you to suffer a mice infestation? – Murray Pest Control
Other Food Sources on Your House Mouse Control Hit List:
- The cages of pet guinea pigs and rabbits – mice can easily get into their cages to feast on their food.
- Bulk food storage: House mice easily gnaw through those bulk bags of rice and flour from Costco that sit in your pantry for weeks.
Your house mouse control challenge dramatically increases once mice are inside your home. Each mouse can rear a litter of 8 within the first 6 weeks, and do this up to 10 times each year! The next generations are mature in 6 weeks, and rearing litters of their own. Do the math…that’s a lot of mice!
What’s more, by the time you see the first mouse, or mouse droppings, the mice may be 2 or 3 generations along!
House Mouse Control Ultimate Line of Defense:
Call ApolloX Pest Control Now: (888) 499-7378
Even if you do not see any signs of house mice, we can thoroughly inspect your home and yard, help you to an effective mouse control strategy, and discover a mouse control problem before long before you know it’s there, and way before it get’s out of hand.
Recent Comments