How Are Mice Getting In?

Whether you have a home in Willow Grove, Doylestown, Warrington or Warminster Pennsylvania, each home has one thing in common. Mice!

Mice can enter a home through the tiniest of holes, they can climb up an exterior wall without breaking stride, they can climb across wires and can get up under siding. I’ve even had customers tell me that they saw a mouse enter their homes right through the door as they were bringing in groceries!

Once inside mice will make themselves at home. There are so many areas to nest. Under cabinets, in wall insulation, in furniture, behind refrigerators, in the insulation of ovens even. They will find food and water easily, and they will reproduce quickly.

We don’t have to talk about all the negative aspects of having mice in the home. The droppings, the urine, the damage to food, the potential for illness. They are unwelcome and that’s for sure!

So, a homeowner’s objective is to keep them out, but how? Well unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. I always tell customers to start with the obvious. Walk around your home and look for missing mortar between brickwork, gaps and holes around pipes or wires that are entering the home, and gaps around windows. If you find any of this then seal them up with a good rodent proof caulk. I usually recommend stuffing the hole with some tightly packed steel wool first.

Next thing you want to do to keep mice out is check your garage door. If you see daylight entering below the door or coming in the sides, then mice can easily enter. You need to either even out the floor under that door or add some good weather stripping. there are companies that make rodent proof weather stripping and it’s worth investing in these because mice will easily check thru common weather stripping, which would make the cost and labor involved in replacing the weather strip for nothing. While we are on the topic of mice chewing through thing, when you are sealing the holes up outside, don’t use spray foam. It’s worthless. Even if it says rodent proof foam on the can. Mice could check through cinderblock if they wanted to. So, spray foam is like a sheet of paper to them.

Weather stripping your garage door is important, but just as important are the entry doors. Be sure they are also sealed tightly. Mice will come in right under a door if there is a gap.

Even with all this work, if a mouse gets up under siding and there is an entry hole being covered up by that siding, the mice will get in. All you can give is your best effort. Even with trying your best there may not be a way to keep them out completely, so your next best bet is maintaining a baiting and trapping program to keep the population down, and that’s a story for another day.