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Getting Rid Of Mice Infestations: Natural  And Non-Natural Methods

Getting Rid Of Mice Infestations: Natural And Non-Natural Methods

When you hear the scratching, gnawing, scurrying and squeaking sounds at night, rest assure that you have mice at your home and you need to take a prompt decision to get rid of them. But did you question yourself, why is it your house they have chosen to infest?

The traditional mouse traps, do they really work? What are their favorite foodstuffs and how can you trap the little ones using the traditional methods? You will get all your answers once you go through this page.

The Guidelines in this Page:

  • Signs Which Signifies that you Have Mice in your Home
  • Mousetraps: How do they Work?
  • Mouse Poisons: How do they Work?
  • Ultrasonic Mouse Repellents: How do they Work?
  • Natural Ways to Get Rid of Mice: Do they really Work?
  • Finally

Signs Which Signifies that you Have Mice in your Home

As mentioned earlier in the page, when you hear typical sounds in your house which are because of the climbing, crawling, digging, chewing or moving actions done by mice and are prudent during the night time, you surely know that you have mice in your house. Certain other signs apart from the noises also give you indications that your house is infiltrated by mice. Let’s analyze:

Click here to know about ultrasonic sound pest repellents.

Rodent droppings:

Rodent droppings give a clear indication that you have mice in your house. A mouse will drop 50 to 70 pellets per day. Scattered pellets, huge in numbers assure you that you have a serious mouse infestation.

Gnawing marks on soft spots:

The initial gnawing marks by mice that you tend to see are on soft surfaces like cardboard boxes, toilet papers, soap bars, etc. With the increase in the size of the infestation, gnawing marks spread to electric wires, cords, and other soft surfaces. Due to the ever-increasing attribute of the incisors of mice, they need to trim them regularly and so the act of gnawing multiplies as the number of mice increases. The gnawing can get to that extent that mice can chew your electric lines too causing power disturbances in your house.

The first time you see the running pests at your home:

The first reaction from a normal person after he or she sees a running mouse is to make loud or queer sounds, falsely running after them to make them flee as fast as possible from the place. However, doing so you can find out their den too. They are nocturnal creatures who like to operate when no one is around.

During the day time, if they accidentally come across you, they run away from you because they are scared of you. By chasing them, either you find out their nests or drive them towards a trap. Sometimes they run away from your home but be sure that they will come back, once the situation is appropriate.

Why does a mouse enter your house?

Rodents look for 3 main things when they infest a place. They are:

Foodstuffs:

Mice always look for food. They have sensitive noses to search for them too. They can sense things having different scents at the same time. The various scents include the aroma of foodstuffs too. If they detect with their powerful noses, that food is nearby and that too at your house, they will invade your home in no time.

Temperate and humid atmosphere:

Like other rodents mice also look for humid and moist environments. Although their bodies are capable enough to adjust to any environmental conditions, you should keep in mind that mice are little creatures and the heat generated from their tiny bodies are no match to larger animals.

Cold atmospheres change their heartbeat counts and metabolism and they gradually lose energy. Once hey revive energy and start living in a warm and humid atmosphere (which is your house), they come to their normal procedure of reproduction.

Hiding from predators:

Mice are prey for many animals like birds, canids, and snakes to name a few. They look for a hideout from these predators. But unfortunately, they are unaware that hiding in homes could be more difficult for them as they might come across to cats, mouse baits and other mouse traps.

All you can do is to lock the different spots in your house from where you suspect mice can enter. Follow a mouse and find out the location of its access points. The entrance locations could be from your kitchen doors, bedroom windows or your inner walls.

Watch this video to learn more about the probable entry points of mice infestations:

Mousetraps: How do they Work?

The concept of mouse traps we come to know from various articles and images are true, actually work and are real. This is how they work.

Mosquito

A traditional mousetrap (snap trap) contains a rectangular wooden structure as the base. The wooden platform has two parts. One has got a spring structure and the other where the bait is put. As depicted in the cartoons, the bait is generally a piece of cheese.

As soon as the mouse gets into the part of the trap where the cheese is put, the spring system gets activated and a metal bar falls on the mouse and kills it. It is quite difficult for a mouse to escape from these traps and eventually they die out of breathlessness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the following traps:

Advantages:
  • Simply designed traps where no toxic chemicals are used.
  • It can be used multiple times and hence, cost-effective.
Disadvantages:
  • Traps are small and can attract little children and pets if you keep them in close proximity. Toying the traps could be harmful for them, especially if they try to get hold of the piece of cheese, placed as bait.
  • Once a mouse gets trapped, it dies in no time due to a lack of blood circulation. You must get rid of the dead rodent as soon as possible. Remember, they are potential carriers of harmful diseases.

Mouse Poisons: How do they Work?

Mouse poisons, on one-hand, kill mice in no time but on the other-hand are harmful to your household if you have pets and children.

A mouse poison works in 3 ways:

  • They are anticoagulants, which prevent blood clotting causing internal bleeding, which finally kills the mouse.
  • Other types of mouse poison contain toxic elements like pyrinuron, yellow phosphorus, strychnine or arsenic which are toxic to their digestive system and they die within a day or two.
  • Similar toxins also deposit calcium carbonate (CaCO3) or other insoluble calcium salts in body tissues, blood vessels, and organs of the rodents and ultimately they die. The process is called calcification.

Mouse poisons are harmful to humans and pets and have significant side effects too. Once the poison works, you have dead mice in and around your household. You need to get rid of them quickly. When a mouse realizes that it is going to die, it slowly creeps into its nest or any shady areas nearby. The nests and the shady areas can be your inner walls, tunnels in your garden, dark places of your kitchen.

So, the process of applying mouse poison does not end until and unless you dig out the dead mice and get them out of your property. As mentioned earlier, they are carriers of deadly diseases and a rotten dead body of a rodent near a water source, your pets, and gardens having good soils are detrimental.

Ultrasonic Mouse Repellents: How do they Work?

Ultrasonic sound mouse repellents have taken a lead among the different kinds of mouse removing methods recently. The major reason behind their popularity lies on 3 factors: one, they repel rodents i.e. rodents flee from your home, two, no harmful toxic ingredients are used in the mouse removal technique and finally three, you don’t get to see dead mice in your property which is a threatening source of deadly diseases. The process is simple.

These electronic gadgets produce jittery and abrasive ultrasonic sounds that tamper the nervous systems of rodents. Ultrasonic sounds are not heard by humans and pets. Although usage of these products show fruitful results but no scientific foundations have been found to prove the functionality of the products. Minor though unavoidable complaints have been launched by pet owners, that kittens and puppies get annoyed by the sounds emitted by these gadgets.

Natural Ways to Get Rid of Mice: Do they really Work?

All of us love to try the DIY methods of removing any pest infestations in our house. Firstly, they are cost-effective and secondly, we really don’t know how serious the matter is. Few are the common DIY methods:

Using a common soda plastic bottle as a trap:

Cut the plastic bottle in parts, so that the cap portion and the flattened bottle portion depart. Insert sand, dirt or small pebbles so that the second part gains some weight. Put the bait on top of the materials. Apply oil on the cutting surface of the cap portion and apply it reversely on top of the flattened portion so that it looks like a funnel.

Mice have strong senses of finding foodstuffs, using which they drive towards the reversed cap portion of the soda bottle and with the help of the oily circumference, they unattentively enter the flattened portion of the soda bottle.

Once you see these tiny rodents getting trapped in the bottle and cannot move it because of the granulated weights caused by sand, dirt or pebbles, quickly reverse the top cap and seal the marks at around where the cut was made, the mice are trapped inside a simple soda bottle.

Here is a video which gives you even an easier clue on how to trap mice in a soda water bottle:

Coin and glass trap:

This is a no-kill mousetrap and simple to use. Take a plastic jar and apply some peanut butter in the inner wall near to the middle of the jar. Take a flat wooden surface and put the jar upside down on it. Take a coin (preferably a thick one) or a bottle cap and place it between the mouth of the jar and the wooden surface in a way that the vertically placed coin gives ample space for a mouse to go through the gap.

Make sure the coin or cap balances the jar. Having a strong sense of smell, a mouse easily finds the scent of peanut butter and goes through the gap. As the peanut butter is applied in the middle of the jar, it tends to jump to reach it. In doing so the jar loses its balance, the coin falls horizontally and the mouse gets trapped in it.

As soon as you find out that you have trapped a mouse, grab the wooden surface along with the jar, go outside your home and release the mouse. Be sure you do that quite far from your home as mice know their ways to get back to their nests.

See this video for a clearer picture:

Spoon and bucket mouse trap:

This mouse trap is even simpler. All you have to do is to put a bucket or tumbler under any counter in the kitchen. It could be the basin or the cabinet. Place spoons or forks on top of them so they glide towards the bucket. Apply layers of peanut butter on the handles.

Mice sniff the peanut butter and climb on them. While they approach towards the bait, the spoons and the forks being unable to balance fall inside the bucket with the mice. All you need to do is to quickly cover the bucket and carry it outside your home and release the mice. This is also a no-kill mousetrap.

Essential oils to get rid of mice:

Essential oils naturally repel mice along with other pests. These are natural products and are chemical-free. Essential oils are natural extracts from plants and herbs like lavender, basil, pine, thyme, vetiver, peppermint, bergamot to name a few. The natural scents released from the essential oils irritate pests and they run away from their odor.

Essential oils are available at malls, markets near your home and you can order them online as well. They not only prevent pests to enter your house but have other positive attributes as well. As for example, the peppermint oil (Mentha x Piperita), is used for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), cold, headache, itching, muscle pain and is used as a mouthwash too.

To repel rodents, just mix a few drops of peppermint oil with water, pour the mixture in a spray bottle and spray the solution on different parts of your house. The scent generated by the spraying creates a safe zone for your home, where pests won’t get in to.

Cat urine to get rid of mice:

Mosquito

It sounds horrific but once upon a time, this was one of the methods to keep rodents away from the house. Though sounding orthodox, the application has a scientific reasoning behind it. Cats feed on mice and since mice have a strong sense of smell, they can identify the scent of their predator’s litter. Once they find it they stay far away from the filthy smell.

Advantage– You don’t have to kill the animals.
Disadvantage– Who wants a grimy smell of animal urine (major ingredients being urea and water) in the house?

Snake droppings to get rid of mice:

Mosquito

Snakes are natural predators of rodents. Snake droppings make them aware that their predator is nearby and once they get the hint, they flee from the area. We know, what might be coming in your minds? You are wondering whether to keep the skimmy reptiles at your home to get rid of the rodents or not? No! You don’t need to do that.

A lot of pet stores sell dehydrated snake droppings as mice repellents. Just spread them around your house and they guard your household from rodent infestations. But you should keep in mind that though dehydrated, these are original snake droppings that contain toxic elements and bacteria. Pets and children should be kept at a safe distance from them.

Perfect provisions to take, so that mice don’t enter your house:

Mice actually enter through various holes and loopholes in your house. You should do a proper checking to deter that. But how do you do that?

  • Scrutinize your house and if you find even the tiniest hollow through which mice can squeeze into your house, block it immediately.
  • Restrain foodstuffs and biological wastes like culture tubes, syringes, needles, Petri dishes in sealed plastic containers which detain the stink or flimsy smells to reach the sensitive noses of the rodents.
  • Check regularly the water pipes and potential crawling spaces in your home like kitchen inner walls, or burrows in the garden which could be advantageous sources of water. A sustainable water source helps mice to breed.

Finally

A mice-free house is what we want but for that, we need to read the instructions on the pesticide packs when we buy them from the market. Natural methods are also applicable but for that, you need a sound knowledge of the biological requirements too. But lastly, whatever methods you apply, it should not harm children and pets.

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