It is hard to get success in mice elimination if you do not have a proper strategy in place. First you need to make yourself acquainted with the life cycle and the habits of the mice. For properly controlling mice infestation, understanding the target species is extremely important. Homeowners are generally more concerned about the common house mice that cause lot of damage to the food items and furniture inside the house. Mice usually favor foraging within the vicinity of their nests (approximately 10 feet to almost 30 feet if required). These rodents have a capability to travel not just horizontally but also vertically. Any part of a commercial structure or house can get infested with mice. Mice droppings are a breeding ground for different kinds of bacteria. Mice elimination is a very important activity demanding prompt attention since serious health hazards might be posed by these rodents if delayed.
Only mice elimination is not adequate to get rid of mice permanently, there must be proper mice prevention plans too. It is of no use if you eliminate mice successfully and discover later that new rodents have again entered after a few days. In mice prevention there are certain important aspects which should be stressed upon. First is exclusion, which involves blocking all entry points to the house / property. Secondly, food sources must be removed from the reach of mice. Food items should not be left open during the night. You must clean your garbage receptacles daily and keep them tightly closed when not in use. The third aspect of mice prevention deals with extermination / removal of mice by various methods like poisons and traps.
It is observed that when temperatures drop, mice try to enter into the households and other commercial buildings in search of shelter, warmth, and food. Therefore, you must take all possible measures to block every single gap in your house to bar the rodents from entering. Even an aperture of one-fourth of an inch is sufficient for mice to sneak inside your house. All windows and doors of your house must be sealed tightly. You must change defective sweeps and thresholds. Electrical circuits, junction boxes, entrance points of pipes/ wires into the house must all be checked meticulously. You must also ensure that rooftop-vents are appropriately screened. In order to be successful in mice elimination, one must remove mice harborage properly. Piles of brushes, shoes, etc. are safe havens for mice.
Baiting mice with poisonous baits is a frequently employed technique. You should try to bait the rodents outdoors and trap them indoors. If mice are baited inside the house, they often die in concealed and unreachable areas of the house and emit an obnoxious smell. If you do not have any option then you have to bait inside your house. In that scenario, you must ensure that the baits are kept outside the reach of pets and children. People who face mice infestation on a large scale with a huge rodent population outside their houses might need to get expert assistance. Reputed pest-control companies are present who provide suggestions and also take action against mice infestation. Experts might also suggest tamper-resistant rodent bait-stations. These baits can be anchored down with the aid of robust block-baits fixed on bars / spindles.
As a safety measure, the baits are affixed firmly to the bait-station where children and pets are unable to reach. Trapping of mice for mice elimination is done primarily because of two reasons. Firstly, a person can know within a short time his rate of success. The other advantage is that since the homeowner knows the location of the carcass it can be effortlessly recovered and removed. In this way there is no chance for foul smells to develop.
As a thumb rule try to use traps twice the number of the estimated number of mice. You should not be miserly in purchasing mice traps as greater the number of traps bought, higher the chances of getting success in mice elimination. Try to use more traps in the zones where mice are most active. This can be identified from large quantity of droppings in a particular area. Generally these zones are in the proximity of the feeding and nesting sites. You should place at least 3 traps, or even more, successively to prevent mice from jumping over them.
All the best,
Sergiu Zburatoru
