How to Get Rid of House Mice 4 Easy Steps

Mice. They may look cute, but they can cause some serious damage. They can invade our homes or businesses and contaminate food, spread filth, or even chew through wiring that can start fires, so it's important to protect our health as well as our property. So in this video I'll show you step-by-step how you can get control of house mice and prevent them from coming back. Hi, I'm Colin with Solutions Pest & Lawn. If you're new to us, we create these videos to help educate people like you about DIY pest control. For the products shown in this video and more in-depth guides, click the card on the top-right of the screen or the links in the description below. For mouse infestation, there are plenty of signs that you can look for. You might see gnaw marks at the feet of your furniture, or you'll notice some bags of food have been chewed through. You might even notice foul odor where they might be nesting. Even single mouse can indicate larger infestation. Mice will invade our homes or businesses looking for food and shelter. They can often be found hiding behind walls in your kitchen, garage, basement, attic, or bathroom. Mice are smart, crafty creatures, but with the right tools and the right techniques, mouse control can be very easy. So we're going to start with the first step of our process: Identification. So how do you know that you're dealing with house mice rather than some other rodent like rats? Looking at their size can be your first clue. house mouse will typically measure around two to three inches, while adult rats can be around seven to ten inches. Mice also have larger ears for their head size than rats do. If you're having trouble spotting the rodents themselves, you can also look at their droppings. Mice droppings are smaller with pointed ends with smaller tail-shaped residue at the end. Norway rat droppings are noticeably larger with rounded blunt ends. Mouse droppings are also more plentiful in quantity. mouse will leave behind around 80 droppings, while rat will leave about 40. If you're having trouble identifying mouse activity, visit our website or stop by one of our nearest stores and we can help you out. The next step of the process is Inspection. One of the most common questions we get is, "How do know that have mice?" Well, mice actually have oily fur, so one of the things you can look for is grease or smear marks along your walls or baseboards. Mice droppings are another sign, as previously mentioned. Also keep nose out for any foul odors. Mouse droppings and urine leave behind really strong scent. You can also look for tears or holes in your food packaging in your pantry. Start the inspection process by looking inside your home. You're going to check underneath cabinets in your kitchen or bathrooms, inside of pantries, and behind appliances. Also check your garage, attic, and basement. Storage containers and clutter against the walls help mice feel safe as they travel. Mice never travel further than 10 to 30 feet from their nest, so if you're seeing mouse activity in certain spots, note these areas because this is where you'll focus your treatment. We also recommend prioritizing your indoor treatment as opposed to outdoor treatment. Once mouse has infested your home and found sufficient food and shelter, they rarely leave again. However, you should still make an effort to check the outside of your home or structure to see how the mice are entering in the first place. Inspect the outside of your structure to check for any cracks, crevices, or voids mice can use to get in. Make sure doors and windows close properly. Take note of any voids around plumbing or vents, and check nearby trees for overhanging branches. Mice can actually enter holes as small as US dime, so don't ignore these openings. Now that you know what to look for and where to look, you can begin treatment. Before starting your treatment, be sure to wear the proper personal protective equipment. Gloves are especially important when handling traps or bait stations, not only for your safety, but human scent can be left behind on the traps or stations and make them less effective. The first thing you want to do is sanitize your home or structure. Start in the kitchen and wipe down your stovetop and pantry shelves. Put away and seal pet food and other dry foods. Sweep up dirt and food crumbs, and declutter your garage, attic, or basement to remove any potential nesting sites. Cleaning is one of the most important and critical steps because you want to remove the reason that the mice are there in the first place: the food and shelter. Once you've cleaned the interior, it's time to seal any openings on the exterior. This will prevent additional mice from entering the structure during treatment and ensures the mice already inside your home have no alternative food sources outside. We recommend using material like copper mesh, as it's flexible metal material that can be stuffed into any openings and voids, and mice and other rodents can't chew through it. Now that you've cleaned and prepped the area, you can now begin with your baiting and trapping. For the most effective mouse control, we're going to use combination of mouse poison bait blocks, snap traps, and glue traps. By using snap traps, glue boards, and mouse bait stations, we cast wide net to catch as many mice as we possibly can. We're going to place the bait stations along walls about eight to ten feet apart where we've seen mouse activity and out of the reach of children and pets. Erarication is powerful rodenticide that comes in four-pound pail that holds about 64 one-ounce bait blocks. The bait blocks contain diphacinone, blood-thinning chemical that will slowly kill mice within few days. We're going to use the Eratication bait blocks with the Solutions Mouse Bait Stations. The bait station will house the mouse poison and will provide mice with safe space to consume the bait. For safety, it's designed with tamper-resistant lid that requires key to open. This prevents children or pets from getting to the bait inside. The Solutions Mouse Bait Station also features triangular shape that makes it perfect for putting into most corners. Open your bait station by fitting the keys two prongs into the holes on the station's front. Push the key forward and pull up to lift the lid. Place one block of Eratication in the back chamber so that both entrances to the station can be accessed by the mice. We're going to place the bait stations along walls about 8 to 10 feet apart where we've seen mouse activity and out of the reach of children and pets. When placing the stations, place them so that the station's holes are up against the walls. Mice rarely travel in open areas and instead travel along walls, so by placing the stations like this, we can actually provide them safe and easy way to enter the station. Check the stations every seven to ten days to monitor for activity. Along with the bait, we're also going to use the Solutions Easy Set Mouse Traps. These snap traps offer an instant method in killing mice. Unlike traditional snap traps, Easy Set traps are easy to arm, sanitary, and its unique pull bar design allows you to dispose of mice without having to touch them. Our snap traps come in increments of five. We generally recommend using between five and ten for most average households. We're gonna set the snap traps every five to ten feet along walls or baseboards where you've seen mouse activity and out of the reach of children and pets. Mice are nervous by nature, so the most effective way to use snap trap is to actually bait without setting them for several days. This is key step that most people often overlook when they're doing snap traps. By baiting traps and then leaving them unarmed for several days, we gain the mouse's trust. When baiting, don't use cheese, because mice actually prefer something sweet and sticky like peanut butter. We want to use something sticky like peanut butter because we don't want anything that's easily grabbed and run off with once the trap is set. Smear peanut butter on the trap's trigger plate and place your traps without setting them. Check the traps daily to see if mice are taking the bait. If you see after three or four days that they're continuously taking the bait off the trap, you can then set it. Finally, to round out our treatment, we're going to use glue board like the Catchmaster 72MB.These glue boards will help you catch multiple mice per trap in environments where poisons are discouraged. The Catchmaster glue board's unique design allows you to set it flat or fold it into box. Folding the glue board into box creates more conducive environment for mice. These glue boards come in increments of 12 so that you can effectively treat most homes, including garages, attics, basements, or storage closets. The Catchmaster 72MBs are very easy to use. Simply peel off the paper that's covering the adhesive glue. Place these glue boards in areas you've seen mouse activity but away from the reach of children and pets. Check the traps daily, and once you've gotten results, you can then dispose of the trap and the mouse. By using these tools and these techniques, should start to see reduction in mouse activity in about 7 to 10 days. But you want to continue your treatment for about 15 days. After 15 days, and you've seen noticeable drop in mouse activity, you can then start sealing up the cracks, crevices, and voids on the inside of your home or structure. Get these products today by visiting one of our stores or clicking the card in the top right of the screen. You can also find the links for these products down in the description below. Our final step of the process is: Prevention. It's important to avoid mice reinfestations by maintaining our environment, making sure that it's not conducive to mice or other rodents. Eliminate food and water sources by cleaning up around kitchens and bathrooms. Store foods such as cereals, pasta, or rice into airtight plastic containers. Maintain regular cleaning schedule. Take out the garbage and clean food crumbs and spills. Clean up leaf litter, yard debris, keep garbage in sealed bins, and pick up any wood piles near the structure. Also make routine checks around your home or structure, making sure those voids, crack,s and crevices stay sealed. Be sure to visit our website or stop by one of our stores to find these products and get in-depth guides for mouse and rodent control. We guarantee these products 100%, and we offer same-day shipping so you can get started right away. Solutions is small family-owned business, and we rely on referrals from customers like you. So if you like this how-to guide and when the products work for you, please share and tell your friends and family about us. I'm Colin with Solutions Pest & Lawn. Ask us how, and then do it yourself!