At Genie Pest Control, we understand that your home should be a safe, comfortable, and inviting place for you and your family to live. It should be a place where you feel at ease and can exist happily, knowing that your belongings and your home are safe. Whether you are living alone, with a partner or your family, your home is your domain, and the last thing you want is to have intruders coming into your home to share your space. However, hearing the sounds of tiny feet scurrying across your floor and finding droppings are a clear sign that you may very well have some unwanted guests.
Mice are sneaky creatures that can be very destructive if not dealt with properly. Although these little pests typically do most of their foraging at nighttime while you are asleep, they will leave clear signs that they are present in your home. As with most household pests, it is best to put preventative measures in place to deter mice from coming into your home in the first place. Our rodent control experts at Genie Pest Control explore what you can do to keep mice out of your home and how to deal with them if they get in.
Block Potential Entry Points
To effectively keep mice out of your home, the first thing you need to do is prevent them from getting in. Mice are capable of squeezing through spaces that are as small as 0.25 of an inch in diameter. As you might imagine, this means that there are a lot of potential entry points around the perimeter of your home. Our extermination team at Genie Pest Control recommends slowly walking around the outside of your home, looking for any small gaps or spaces that mice could use to access your home. Plug the holes with steel wool with a gauge of nineteen or higher to stop mice from squeezing through these spaces until you find a more permanent solution.
Prepare For Setting Mousetraps
Once you have sealed up the potential entry points to your home, the next step is to set up mousetraps in your Omaha home. When you are setting your traps, you must clear the area of any droppings, food or crumbs that might be present. If there is more than one food source near the trap, the mice may choose to eat those other items instead of the bait on the trap. To ensure that they are attracted to the trap you have set, just be sure to prepare the area properly first.
Choose The Right Bait
While TV and cartoons often use hard cheese on mousetraps, this is not necessarily the best bait to use. Peanut butter is very useful, as are soft candies and chocolate, which mice love the taste of! If you are going to use cheese, use a soft, strong-smelling cheese. Other types of bait that do a great job of attracting mice include birdseed, nuts, and wet cat or dog food.
Where To Set Your Traps
When you are setting your traps, remember that mice typically move around your home close to the baseboards and under furniture to avoid being detected. Keep this in mind when placing your traps so that you position them optimally throughout your home. Setting your traps up behind furniture and next to the walls in your home is what our extermination and rodent control experts advise for best results.
Resetting Traps After Capture
With the traps positioned in the right location and with an appropriate bait set, it’s time to play the waiting game. Since most mice activity is during the night, it’s advisable to check your traps first thing in the morning. When you catch a mouse in the traps, you should put the dead mouse into a bag and put the bag in an outdoor trashcan. Reset the trap without cleaning it, as other mice will be more attracted to a trap that has the scent of another mouse on it. The mousetrap will become more effective after it has caught its first mouse. Simply add more bait and reset the trap to catch any more mice that might be present in your home.
Call The Experts To Keep Mice Out Of Your Home
Dealing with an infestation of mice in your Omaha or Iowa home can be a daunting thought. A mouse will typically live for nine to twelve months, and in one year they can produce anywhere from six to ten litters of baby mice. When you have mice in your home, you need to deal with them quickly and effectively as they can cause a lot of damage. Chewing through the electrical wiring in your home and spreading bacteria as they chew and contaminate your food supplies, clothing, furniture, and other belongings.
If you suspect that you have mice in your home, get in touch with our team of rodent control experts at Genie Pest Control by calling (402) 346-7810 or (712) 325-0808 immediately. With our rodent removal expertise, we can advise you as to the best course of action to take to deal with your mice problem for once and for all.
