This is How Mice Keep Getting Into Your Washington D.C. Home
01/30/2022
It is estimated the more than 20 million homes in the U.S. each year are infiltrated by rodents such as mice and rats. Mice are small rodents that ...
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When mice and rodents invade your home they can be vectors for disease, contaminate food, and cause substantial property damage. Choosing the do-it-yourself route to a mouse-free home can be effective when you are armed with information from pest control professionals.
Don’t feel like reading? Here’s Board Certified Entomologist Wayne White with a rundown of the pros and cons to do-it-yourself mouse trap options:
Snap Trap
Snap traps are the most common option for professional residential pest control. These traps are a quick and effective solution to a mouse that has invaded your home. They can be difficult and even scary to set for the beginner pest controller for fear of the swift snap of the trapping mechanism hitting a finger. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully and avoid putting your fingers in the path of the trapping mechanism and keep them out of the reach of pets and children. Peanut butter or chocolate icing are effective baits for the trap. Cheese, while popular in cartoon mouse traps, will dry out and no longer be enticing thus rendering the trap useless.
Live Trap
When checked daily, these traps are the most humane option to ridding your home of mice. They must be checked daily to be effective. These traps have mice enter through a door that closes behind them so they are stuck in the box. If they are left alone for too long, the mice will die of starvation which is thought to be worse than the quicker death a snap trap inflicts. If you are in the market to get mice out of your house, without killing them, these traps could be for you. Once a mouse is caught, be sure to release it to an area that is far away from your home so it won’t just scurry back into the house.
Glue Board
Glue boards are great at catching rodents and even have the bonus of catching bugs along with them. However, lots of people are squeamish when it comes to using the sticky traps because of the inevitable struggle that the rodent goes through when trying to escape since the rodent does not die as soon as it is caught. We don’t recommend these traps for do-it-yourselfers.
Electronic Repellent Devices
Products like these claim to emit an ultrasonic sound that is only audible to rodents and insects in order to keep the pests outdoors. These simply do not work, don’t waste your money.
Important tips to remember:
- Rodents will not go for your bait if they have easy access to something yummier. Clean spilled food and store items in tamperproof containers to cut off rodents’ food supply.
- Mice can fit through holes as small as a dime. Look for gaps under doors, in the foundation, and where cables and pipes go from outside to inside. Plug up these gaps to help keep mice out from the get go.
American Pest offers inclusive options to solve mouse problems along with other common cold weather pests like stink bugs, and other pests that turn your home into a warm place to stay for the winter.
