Having clean living spaces keeps unwanted pests, like mice, from moving into your home. These pests can damage property and transmit diseases.
Mice leave obvious signs, gnawing on wood and fabric. They smear grease, leave droppings, and build nests. Most notably, you’ll hear them run around, scratch the walls and floors, and make squeaking noises.
If you notice rodents have moved in, you’ll want to take immediate steps to avoid a full-scale infestation.
What Attracts Mice To Your Home?
Mice want the same thing that all pests do: food, water, and shelter. They’ll eat food spills, drink standing water, and move into cardboard boxes, piles of paper, or old clothes.
If your home offers easy access to food, pests will move in. If they’re comfortable, they’ll reproduce and create a full infestation.
Problems From Mice
Mice can carry dangerous diseases like salmonella, dysentery, leptospirosis, and hantavirus. These diseases can be deadly for humans, so keeping mice out of your home is important. They also carry fleas and ticks that may latch on to your pets and you. These parasites may spread Colorado tick fever and Lyme disease, which can be debilitating to humans.
Like cockroaches, mouse droppings and urine can trigger allergic reactions and acute asthma attacks, especially in children. Along with harming human health, mice can damage homes and property. They gnaw just about anything to keep their constantly growing teeth trimmed.
With health care expenses and home repairs, mice infestations can be expensive. Not dealing with the problem immediately only makes the costs rise.
How to Avoid Mice in Columbia
Homeowners in Columbia can avoid having mice move into their homes with three simple steps: Prevention, inspection, and treatment.
Indoor
To prevent mice from moving into your home, the most important thing you can do is keep it clean. They love to snack on crumbs around your home, so keep your kitchen and dining areas clean. Never leave food and beverages out overnight, as mice love eating the leftovers resting in piles of dishes and cups.
Minimize the number of places in your home where you eat to avoid spreading crumbs. Pets can also leave their pet food around the house, so empty their food bowls each night.
Mice will move into garbage cans and food containers. To prevent this from happening, seal food items in airtight containers. Homeowners should empty their indoor trash bins each night and keep the exterior trash bins outside, away from the exterior walls.
Since mice also like water, take care of leaky pipes, drainage issues, and moisture buildup in crawl spaces and laundry rooms. Mice are quite small, so they can easily make their way into your home and take advantage of any available water and food.
To be sure your home has low humidity, buy a hygrometer to check humidity levels. Try to maintain humidity under 50%. Use a humidifier in your basement to prevent moisture from attracting mice.
Outdoor
Since mice can squeeze into tiny spaces, inspect the exterior of your home and seal off any openings. They only need a hole the diameter of a pencil. Use caulk to close gaps or holes in your windows, doors, and foundation. You can also use steel wool to fill in holes.
Make sure your window screens don’t have holes and use weather stripping on doors and windows.
If you have a grill, garden, or bird feeder, check for food droppings, standing water, and spilled bird seed. Trim overgrown vegetation, don’t overwater your plants, mow, and weed frequently.
Inspection & Treatment
If you have seen signs of a rodent infestation, call Phenom Pest for an inspection and a plan that meets your budget and pest control needs. We use methods of pest control with active ingredients that are safe for humans and their pets.
Worrying About Mice? Call Us Now!
The best way to avoid a mouse infestation is to take preventative measures. Keeping your home clean and taking care of attractions outside of it is a good place to start. However, even clean homes can still end up with mice, especially once the weather turns cold.
At Phenom Pest Protection, our experts provide dependable pest treatment solutions to solve your rodent problem. Call us today to get started!
