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Wall interiors, storage boxes, lofts, and attics are common places where mice hide. Often they invade homes during the fall and winter months in search of warmth, food, and shelter. Knowing what kind of damage these rodents can do, it is good to know how to get rid of mice in walls.
Due to their flexible nature, they can fit through tiny spaces in walls, foundations, and floors. Getting rid of mice in walls is a challenging task for homeowners.
Mice rarely leave their nests during the day, especially if they live within the walls. It’s easy to tell they have invaded your space through their clawing and gnawing sounds.
Before trying to get rid of them, you should ensure the pests are mice. This is to prevent using the wrong method to remove other pests. Each pest has a customized way of controlling them.
Prevention of mice and other pests is usually the best remedy for getting rid of them. But it’s easy for mice to slip through cracks regardless of the preventive measures your home has.
Ensure you act as quickly as possible once you identify possible mice infestations. Below is an easy and step-by-step guide that will help you on how to get rid of mice in walls.
How to Get Rid of Mice in Walls
Locate Their Entry Point
To prevent full-blown mice in walls infestations, ensure you can locate their potential entry points. Do a little detective work using a flashlight before you set up mousetraps.
Ensure you thoroughly check out your home, both low and high places. According to the National Pest Management Association, it is vital to figure out their entry point for the traps to be effective.
Here are a few other places you should check before setting up the trap inside and outside your home.
| Inside | Kitchen Cabinets | Baseboards | Near air vents | Basements/ crawl spaces | Under pipes or near drains |
| Outside | Foundation gaps | Around/ through the garage | Attic or Roof | Around pipes, gas lines, or electrical wiring | Under worn-out weather-stripping |
Once you determine the potential spot for their entry, set your mice traps around those areas.
Set Your Traps to Get Rid of Mice in Walls
To get rid of mice in walls causing havoc in your home, you should consider using mousetraps. Find the most vulnerable spaces in your home and set the mousetrap there, for instance, along walls, on kitchen cabinets, or behind trash cans.
Mousetraps come in a wide variety that you can choose from, ranging from design, cost, and function. Here are some of the mouse traps that you can consider using:
- Live catch traps- Just like the mammal traps, these traps only bait the mice without killing. Once the rodent is in a cage, the trigger-activated door will only reopen after releasing the mice.
- Electric traps are also effective mouse trap that lures the rodent into a chamber before releasing fatal shocks. The interesting fact about this mousetrap, it can only shock pests but not pets or humans.
- Snap traps- One of the most common types of mouse traps that attract mice in their tracks. If used correctly, it’s easy to wipe out the entire mice population since they are fast and efficient. Clam, bar and hidden kill are types of snap traps.
- Sticky traps- Compared to other mouse traps, this is the least efficient since you can only use it once. Unlike the other high-tech options, once the mice get stuck on the adhesive glue board, you have to kill or set them free.
Remember to use bait in all traps apart from the sticky traps. Most people prefer using peanut butter, but birdseed, chocolate, cheese, or nuts are effective for luring mice into a trap.
Clear Out the Garage
Are you trying to mouse-proof your garage? The first step is to determine what is inside your garage.
Mice get attracted easily to dog food or birdseed. So if you’re storing this inside your garage, mice will easily invade your garage space.
There is less food during winter making rodents move into your homes in search of meals. Use strong, airtight plastic containers to store in your pet food and birdseed. These containers help reduce the food aroma that attracts mice making it difficult for them to invade your garage.
Besides, it’s vital to inspect your garage perimeter wall for cracks or crannies that can lead mice to slip through. Ensure you seal any tiny openings visible to your eyes, making it difficult for the mice to pass through.
Adopt a Cat
If you find mice are becoming a recurring problem in your home, you should consider adopting a cat. Besides them being a lovely addition to your family, they scare mice from infesting your home.
You will notice mice keeping off once they are aware of predators present. But, it’s essential to note that cats can only scare mice away. They’re not a permanent solution to get rid of pests from your home.
Cats can be overwhelming and demanding. If you cannot keep up with their needs, you should consider revisiting the above-proven methods to eliminate unwanted house guests.
Contact a Professional Exterminator
It can be overwhelming and demanding dealing with rodents, especially if they keep returning after doing so much to get rid of them.
Instead of using dozens of snap traps, you can seek professional help from expert exterminators. Friends, neighbors, or family members can direct you to a professional who can help you with them.
Professional exterminators will do an extensive inspection from top to bottom, ensuring they have all evidence of the pests in your home. For example, they will look out for gnaw marks, mouse droppings, oil streaks, or nest materials to determine a mouse in the wall.
With detailed evidence, they will recommend the best solutions to deter other pests from infesting your home.
An accredited expert will place glue boards, self-resetting live traps, snap traps to areas where there is high traffic to bait the mice. If the situation is worse at your home, they will use human and pet-friendly mouse traps to help reduce the pests invading your home.
Moreover, ensure you seek services from a licensed and a member of a national or state association.
Most experts take time before getting their credentials, and they keep up with the latest techniques of getting rid of and preventing mice from invading your home.
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