Got Mice? Don’t Think Twice!

Mice are nasty pests and should be eliminated as quickly as possible. They dribble urine everywhere they walk, their droppings are dirty, and they can gnaw on wires making them potentially deadly! So my title fits, don’t think twice about evicting them from your home.

Some folks may want to try to manage the eviction process themselves, and if this is the case then follow some of these techniques for guidance, and if not there is always the option of calling Gove Pest Control for a speedy ousting!

1. Find all the areas in your home where droppings can be found. Under kitchen cabinets, behind the fridge, under and behind the stove, basement ledges, etc. This will tell you where the mice are hanging out, now clean them up following the CDC guidelines  and monitor for new droppings. This will tell you where the new activity is.
2. Use plenty of snap traps in the areas of activity. If you are under your kitchen sink, clear out some clutter and use like 8 traps and follow point # 3. Bait using peanut butter, chocolate syrup, bacon, cheese. Smear just enough on the trigger, make the mice work for their meal, this will make is more likely the trigger will trip. I can’t tell you how many times I come across traps with bare triggers where the mice ate the bait away. Set the trigger to the most sensitive level. Do this in all areas of activity.
3. Monitor the traps every 3 or 4 days. The mice may be going around the traps, hopping over them (yes they can jump), or the traps may not be in their line of movement. So simply move the traps every so often. Put them on different walls, put two close together, put one on the wall and one off a few inches. Change things up.
4. Don’t avoid basement ledges. Where the joists sit at the top of the wall. Use plenty of snaps there and move around as needed.
5. Rock their world by sealing up holes. A confused mouse is a clumsy mouse who will more easily get caught. Pipes and wires under the stove, pipes under the sink or going into the wall, air conditioner cables coming into the home from the outside, cable wire entry points, gas line entry points, etc. etc.
6. Change things up with glue traps, buy a bunch online, and use plenty.
7. Unless you are willing to deal with the odor and possible temporary fly problem, don’t use bait. Bait can be a quick way of getting things under control, but they will not eat the bait and go outside to find water and die. #oldwivestale! They will die in the open, middle of your floor, under your sofa, in the walls, wherever. If you have a large population then you will have a heavy odor of dead mice. My motto is to catch and toss. You can keep a tally of how many you have and you know they are disposed of.
8. Last but not least. Be careful. If you have pets, children or nosy neighbors.

Mouse work can be time-consuming, there is no doubt about it. As a do-it-yourselfer, it can take some time, and even if you were to hire a great exterminator from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, you know, Grove Pest Control, it would require some follow up services. Mouse work can be costly because of the need for follow up, and if you want to include the mouse exclusion (Fancy way to say seal up all the holes) it can be even higher of a cost, but to some, it is worth every penny to know that the mice are gone.

Grove pest control provides service with a smile to Montgomery County, Bucks, County, Philadelphia, and darn near everywhere in between. If you need us we will be there for you, so give us a call at 215-237-6831.