There are few things that cause quite as much concern and panic in the home as the realization that you have an infestation, and the bigger the creature, the more problematic it can be. The telltale signs of a mouse ingress into your house are enough to make many people feel deeply troubled, and anyone would want to take action on this. There’s a lot of advice out there to help deal with these pests, but the quality of that advice varies. So here, we’re going to take a look at what you can do when there is a rodent infestation on your property.
Reader's Roadmap
How can you tell when you have mice?
Mice are among the more confident pests that may enter your home; they’ll move around, looking for food sources – and they will help themselves when those are located. They’re also pretty clever at evading capture and attention, and the moment they perceive that they have been spotted, they will dive for cover. Being very small, they don’t need much in the way of cover, so your first awareness of a mouse in your home could be droppings; you can recognize these because they are small, hard and darkly-colored.
What about the noise?
Mice make a familiar squeaking sound that is pretty much immediately recognizable, but they tend to not want to give away their location to any humans (or cats) in the area, so they’ll keep it to a minimum – using the sound to communicate with any other mice if they have found food, or are looking for a safe place and need to locate their buddies. Your first clue to their presence may instead come from a rapid scrabbling noise that they make when moving around, particularly if they are climbing or moving through narrow spaces.
How do you catch them?
A mouse is not about to let itself be caught by a human: they can move fast and have the advantage of being able to move through spaces no wider than a standard pencil. If you have a cat, they may have more luck pouncing and trapping the little rodents – but cats like to bring gifts to humans, and sometimes one of those gifts will be a mouse.
Traps or mouse bait stations are generally effective if well-baited – but if you use the popular humane mouse traps it is worth being aware that any mouse that is released outside the house will usually find their way back in. Your house is warm and cozy, and there’s food there, and that’s a much better bet for a mouse than braving the outdoors. If you do use humane traps, release the rodents some miles from your home to avoid this risk of return.
How important is prompt action?
It’s pretty important. If you see the telltale droppings and hear suspicious sounds, then it’s possible a mouse has found its way in. The longer it has to find its way around, the greater the chance it will be joined by friends, at which point it is possible for them to multiply and the eradication of the pests can become much harder to achieve. So the sooner you can remove them, the better.