While mice may be portrayed in cartoons as loveable and comical creatures, in reality, having them in your home is no laughing matter. Aside from being unsightly, mice can carry diseases.
If you notice a mouse scurrying around your house, it may be time to contact a professional pest control company that offers rodent control.
In this article, we’re exploring a common question we receive from our customers – how do mice get in your house anyway?
How Do Mice Get in Your House?
Mice can actually gain access to your home in a surprising number of ways. Some are obvious, and there are some that are not so obvious. Here are the most common ways for mice to enter your home.
Gaps and Cracks
This is a little obvious, but gaps, cracks, and holes in the structure of your home are as good as an open door for mice.
Noticed a few holes but think that they are too small for mice to fit through?
Think again.
Mice can actually compress their entire bodies (and even skulls) to squeeze through tiny gaps and holes. Here’s a quick video showing a mouse squeezing through tiny holes.
Shocking, right?
Climbing
Mice are pretty agile climbers. While not typical behavior, they can climb structures pretty easily. This means that any gaps don’t even have to be at floor level for them to gain access to your property. They can climb up screen doors and window screens easily and can also climb sheets hung out of windows.
Overhanging Branches
Speaking of climbing, this is an often overlooked (pun intended) way that rodents can enter your home. Branches and bushes that are within reach of your property provide a suitable bridge from outside to potentially inside!
Mice climb bushes and branches as part of their natural behavior. To prevent this, you can consider trimming back bushes and branches to avoid contact with your property.
Attic Spaces
You might not currently have a mouse problem, but maybe your neighbors do.
Unlike people, mice don’t differentiate between individual properties. And you may be unaware that they consider attic space prime real estate which can easily allow them to move all the way from one end of the street to the other!
As we said above, mice only need small gaps to squeeze through, so if there are mice in neighboring buildings and those buildings share a roof space, this may be the source of your mouse problem.
Basements
The same rules apply to basements as they do attics. Even if conditions aren’t favorable for mice in your basement, it might be a different story next door. Mice tend to avoid being out in the open, and subterranean levels often offer the perfect conditions for them to move around.
Pets
While cats are traditionally a mouse’s worst enemy, they can often inadvertently bring the problem into your home.
Cat owners will already know that our four-legged friends occasionally bring home a little surprise. Half of the fun for cats is the thrill of the chase, and they will rarely kill a mouse immediately when they catch it. Instead, allowing it to escape before releasing it and catching it again.
If this happens in your home, and the mouse does manage to scurry away, your cat may have unwittingly introduced a problem.
What Attracts Mice in Your House?
Mice don’t tend to stay where they aren’t welcome, and if you suspect that you’ve got mice in your home, it probably means there is something they consider favorable to stay. Normally this is one or a combination of the following factors: –
- Shelter – Mice generally shy away from human contact. If there is a quiet, warm, dry, and dark area, then this offers the perfect site to build a nest. The ideal solution, in this case, is to prevent access in the first place.
- Water – As with all mammals, mice need water to survive. By removing water sources, such as pet bowls, or standing water in other areas, you can discourage them
- Food – This is the biggest attractor of household rodents. Free food is never turned down by rodents. Mice aren’t picky eaters and will quite happily forage through garbage, compost heaps, and untidy cupboards.
Does One Mouse Mean an Infestation?
One mouse doesn’t necessarily mean that you have an infestation.
But…
If you have seen a mouse, then there is a chance that you might. As we said previously, mice tend to shun human contact and it is rare for them to be seen during the day. The fact that you have seen one could indicate bigger problems. For them to be seen during the day means that there may be overcrowding in their nearest nest.
Mice breed at a frighteningly quick rate, so one mouse can easily become two mice. From there, exponential growth leads to a really big problem. A single pair of mice, working on average breeding time, can multiply to over 5000 in a single year!
Removing Mice from Your Home, the Easy Way
There are several methods that you could try to remove mice from your home. However, they are variable in their success rate.
There is one way that you can be absolutely sure.
Use the services of a professional pest control company. They will be able to accurately assess the extent of your problem and deal with any rodent infestation at the source. This is particularly useful in some of the above examples, where the problem may not have originated from within your own property.
Facility Pest Control has extensive experience in removing mice and other common rodents from your home. With advanced techniques that are proven effective, we can quickly and easily rid you of rodent problems permanently. Facility Pest Control serves the California area and is a family-run business. Why not contact us today to discuss a consultation and solution?
