The calls are flooding in from people all over the Greater Chicagoland area needing pest control for mice. Its mouse season.
Here are some tips to help keep mice out of your home. Yes its true, if you see a mouse in your home, there are usually more.
The mice are trying to get their nests and food stores all ready for the winter. Unfortunately, this nesting and set up is in peoples homes. Don’t worry, we got this!
I will never forget one of my favorite customers telling me. “The mice may be looking for a home, but they don’t pay rent! Get them out of here!”
Mouse Prevention
While there is no 100% effective way to prevent a mouse infestation in your home, there are some things you can do to make it harder for mice to get in your home. If you have already followed these tips, please visit our Exclusion page to see how Men In Black Pest Control Services professional Exclusion Technicians can help you seal your home against mouse infestation.
Mouse food sources
This means, human food, dog and pet food, bird seed, and yes, even grass seed. These are the things mice like to eat.
Solution: Keep them all in containers. Ive been in many homes and have seen mice chewing through bags of grass seed as well as bird and dog food in garages. Keep all food away from mice by sealing it in plastic containers.
Mouse Inspection
Walk around your home, look for entry points. Check around your gas, air conditioner and electrical lines for any holes.
Solution: If you find any of these holes, seal them up.
Inspect around all doors and windows
Check your doors and windows and make sure all the seals on these are tight! Don’t leave them open during the winter. I know quite a few people who do this believe it or not. They keep the storm door closed and the regular door open. What they don’t realize is that mice can come through a hole the size of a pen! Mice don’t need a lot of space to enter the home.
Inspect and maintain garage door to prevent mice
This is a big one when it comes to prevention. Keep garage doors closed at all times. Especially if you keep your garbage cans in the garage.
Solution: Check the seals on the bottom of the garage, especially around each of the sides. Mice are blind for the most part and will usually stay close to the wall. They can only focus on things about 2 feet away so a mouse will keep against the walls. Mice will actually chew through the bottom seals of a garage door.
I have 6 kids. I can’t tell you how many times they have gone out and left he garage door open for hours at a time. Sometimes they have even left the garage door open until the next day. Result: Mice in the garage..
Have a mouse in the garage? Lets face it, the outside of a home (including the large garage door) is designed to keep the elements and mice out. The inside of your garage is NOT. Mice can and will get through the walls connecting your home to the garage since they are nowhere near as hard to get through as the walls outside of your home. Keep that garage door closed at all times.
Mouse prevention around your home and yard
Do not give mice a place to make their homes.
Solution: Get rid of wood and brush piles. Keep the grass, weeds, brush and bushes all cut back and down away from your home. These are all perfect nesting sites for mice.
Prevent mice in your outside air conditioner
Mice hide in your air conditioner and make homes in there during the winter, especially when there is a cover over it. When you put a cover over your outside air conditioning unit, you are blocking out all light, generating warmth on sunny days, and putting a roof over the heads of a family of mice.
These covers help heat up the air and trap moisture around your condenser coils and fins. When the moisture builds up, it freezes between these fins causing them to push out and get closer to each other. The freezing and thawing may even push the fins so close that they will block the airflow between the fins completely. Freeze thaw, freeze thaw. This is bad.
More importantly, with regards to pest control, these covers help create a perfect environment for mice during the winter time! As soon as the air conditioning is off for the fall, the mice will start making nice warm nests inside of the outside units to keep them comfy over the winter.
Solution: If you must cover your outside condensing unit, use a piece of plywood and something to weigh it down like a large brick or rock. These units were made to be outside including in the winter. However, I have seen some very large icicles come falling from gutters and completely demolish an outside unit. The brick and plywood offer quite a bit more protection than those cloth covers.
Do sonic emitters repel mice?
I know some people swear by sonic emitters to repel mice and insects. To be totally honest, if they really worked, we would be selling them to clients ourselves. We’re pretty cool like that.
Bottom line, they are not backed by the EPA as a mouse repellent and they do not work in most cases.
I cant tell you how many calls I have been on with sonic emitters plugged into every room as an attempt at do it yourself mouse control. More importantly, I cannot tell you how many of these devices I have seen sitting in the garbage can outside as I was leaving after performing pest control in customers homes or businesses due to a mouse infestation.
Unfortunately, none of these emitters have much scientific data backing them up on their claims of keeping mice at bay. There’s no government regulation with regards to these things except the FTC recently getting involved. People waste their money on them. However, they continue to be sold with now minor regulation and extremely little scientific backing because they cause no harm.
While these devices may work for a short time, mice will find a way around them. As far as these sonic emitters, they may irritate mice for a bit, but mice get used to them quickly.
Does peppermint oil repel mice?
Some essential oils can help with repelling mice from areas your home. You need to use large quantities and be EXTREMELY diligent when using things like peppermint oil. If mice are already in your home, most of the time essential oils will just drive mice deeper into hiding.
As with sonic emitters, I have seen handfuls of cottonballs doused with peppermint oil in the garbage can after performing a mouse service.
I NEED HELP WITH MY MICE!
The most important thing to remember with mice is this that they breed QUICKLY. You may already have a first AND second generation of mice living in your home before you even see that first one.
Due to the health risks associated with mice and their droppings (which can be potentially fatal in some cases) if you cannot get them under control quckly, CALL Men In Black Pest Control Services.
We can not only take care of your mouse problem for you, but we also offer exclusion services to help keep them from coming back, as well as clean up, disinfecting and insulation services for any damage they have done to your home.
