As you know, mice are very elusive with traps. They are not easily caught with a simple conventional mouse traps anymore and poisons aren't always as effective, lest they could pose serious harms to your kids or to other non-targeted animals, especially your pets. And you really don't want to have them in the wrong mouths.
One thing you have to know about mice is that they are highly intuitive animals. Over time they have develop a keen instinct to investigate to assist their unidirectional curiosity. Once they have encountered new items within their foraging territory they will begin to investigate them and sooner they will be akin to the potential dangers they may pose. This is the reason why some traps don't seem to work anymore no matter how many you place inside the house. An alternate strategy to this is to vary the location every once in a while when you find that they're not working with their present locations anymore.
Mice are grain and nut lovers. One of their most favorite snacks apart from crackers is peanut butters and cereals. There is something about foods with high fat and protein that attract the vermin. When setting-up a bait trap, it would be wise to employ the usage of some of these favorite mice snacks to get them interested to come over. This will significantly enhance the effectiveness of the trap. However, you should also make it a point to clean up your kitchen or anywhere in the house where someone eats to make sure that the effectiveness of the traps are fully optimized. Mice will rather fetch free meals on food crumbles and morsels scattered around the floor than taking it from something they will probably find pretty suspicious, in this case a mouse trap.
An average feeding capacity of mice per day is only 3 grams. That's about 10-15% of its body weight. That simply means, in little amounts of food morsels that they find in the floor, sparingly every day, they could already sustain their existence all throughout the time being inside your house. Then you take into consideration that they are pretty prolific breeders, producing about 8 litters a year and per litter is about 4-8 pulps. You can now probably deduce how many mice are there swarming and roaming inside your house by the end of the year. You can also already foresight the amount of gnawing damages your properties would have already suffered from by then.
Mice forage shorter distances than rats. They only forage for 10-25 feet from their shelter and that will significantly shorten depending on the abundance of food supply within their host. They are also "nibblers" as they visit many different places in search for food and often easily transfer to another. They require less water that's why they could go on foraging for days without water intake. Mice are nocturnal that's why they are normally active at night and you can barely see them in broad daylight.
There are different ways to catch mice. It would be an additional help if you get to know these mice catching devices and methods, so that you will know how to vary your ways in catching the vermin and implement an effective pest mice control measure.
First Things First: Execute a pest mice inspection to see if there is really a mice infestation going on inside your house. Mice droppings are the most obvious indicators that they do thrive inside your household. You can also make use of UV lights to trace dried mice urine in the floors. This will serve also as effective evidences of their existence.
Devices, Methods, and More Ways
Eliminating Exit Points
The most basic approach to eradicating mice infestation is to deny them of food and shelter. If they have lesser or no other places to go or to run, you can now then easily monitory their waypoints and itineraries. You can now easily narrow down your crosshairs to their few rally points and set-up the traps in those areas. But before you can execute the "divide and conquer" plan, you must first be able to think like them and know where they go so that you would be able to pinpoint their exits and entries and thus their possible shelter location. Here are some tips on how to identify them:
1. Seal away seams and cracks in the wall and pavement surfaces that are larger than half the diameter of a dime. A full grown mouse would only need a quarter of an inch to squeeze itself in. You need to block all possible holes as possible to limit their exits and entries. Make sure to check on cracks or holes under the sink, at the back of the fridge, wall corners or any other highly conducive secluded places for mice habitation.
2. When sealing use sealing compounds make sure that the patch output has a smooth finish to prevent possible recursion of gnawing damages. It would make it difficult for mice to gnaw on smooth edges.
3. Make sure as well that the doors and windows are tightly shut. Don't leave any seams in them enough to serve as mice exits.
4. Clean-up thoroughly every after eating. Not just every after major meal but every time you eat up something anywhere. If you limit their food sources they will be circumstantially forced to look for it where you want them to look, which should be on the bait of your mouse trap.
Trapping
Trapping as means for catching and getting rid of mice infestation is advantageous in three levels:
1. They are safer than using toxics to eliminate the rodent problems as they do not have any poisonous substances that could potentially harm your kids or your pets as well.
2. Practically quick and visible results.
3. You can easily dispose of the caught mouse or mice, every after a successful entrapment. Unlike rodenticides wherein there is a possibility that the poisoned mice will yet to die in remote inaccessible areas which would eventually lead to the decomposition of the carcass thus, the invitation of more pests and bacteria, let alone the stench it produces.
Types of Mice Traps
1. Snap Traps - the most commonly used mouse traps. They are designed to fit into bait station to prevent the accidental ensnarement of non-targeted animals. The reason why they are immediately availed, apart from their effectiveness is the fact they cost less. Each snap traps of mice size would only cost less than a dollar. However, you may need more than one snap traps for they could only catch a mouse at time. You also need to check them daily for any ensnared mouse to prevent them from dying in the trap and causing a stench.
2. Multiple Mice Catch Traps - as what the name implies, it catches more than just one mouse. However, they would cost more than the former.
3. Glue Boards - glue boards mice traps make use of a special strong adhesive to ensnare rodents. Larger glue boards can entrap a maximum of 3-4 full grown mice. You just have to place them on the right location.
Rodenticides
Rodenticides are simply poisons used to kill rodents. There two common forms of rodenticides. One is the pellet form and the other is the block form. They are both proven to be very effective mice killers but as they are poisons, they could also pose health dangers to non-targeted animals as well as to your children. Make sure that you place the rodenticides in places where they’re not accessible, better yet, not visible to anyone or anything you don’t want to accidentally munch on them.
There is also a newer type of rodenticides called "Single Feed Rodent Baits". They deliver a more lethal dosage just in a single munch. You need to learn more about the classification of rodenticides!
This is how you control mice my friend.
All the best,
Sergiu Zburatoru
