Category: Mice

Mice are a frustrating infestation and aside from bed bugs and cockroaches are among the most difficult infestation to rid yourself of. While there are many options when it comes to domestic mouse treatments if the infestation has been going on for longer than a few months it likely domestic products will start to fail. There are many types of mice including deer mice and field mice that do not frequent human homes, at least not in the summer and rarely enter the home through the basement or the first floor.

If you are dealing with a mouse infestation or have suspicions thereof, contact Biehn Mouse Control for a fast and effective complete eradication.

These mice are temporary invaders and are looking for warmth, not food. The mouse that lives in the walls of the house, hunting for food and never leaving the house for any reason is specifically referred to as the house mouse. They are white and often patchy with various shades of brown and they are smaller than many other mice species. They enter a human house to stay permanently and can breed rapidly. As time goes by they will move up the house, invading each floor above as their population grows. They will eventually reach the attic where the infestation will become severe and dangerous and feces fills the attic and hantavirus and respiratory issues and even sepsis can get you. Mice leave feces on the food they eat and shed fur that creates a specific smell of must and fills the house. People with existing respiratory issues will suffer from the dander and feces as it dries. 

 

Protecting your home from house mice starts in the kitchen, if you have a pantry then you are in great danger. Real pantries are in the basement which mice have ready access to, they can invade your food supply and poison it with their feces. Plastic wrap and cardboard are no defence, they can even chew through hard plastic containers. They cannot chew through glass however but can chew through soft aluminum and even wood and concrete. They do this by nature because they must file down their teeth as they keep growing throughout all rodent’s lives. This is the quality that defines what is a rodent and what isn’t. Squirrels are rodents because their teeth grow endlessly. 

 

If you want to protect your pantry from mice you can use a variety of methods. Rodent traps work well when baited with something mice love like shrimp shells that have gone off. Do not bother with cheese, peanut butter or shellfish works better. You can also use mechanical and electronic traps but they need to be emptied regularly or will not be effective. If the situation has gotten severe then you may want to think of calling in commercial exterminators who can use commercial grade rodenticide to kill the mouse population in your home, quickly and easily without having to worry about dangerous and messy traps. The mice dehydrate and desiccate in the walls and are not a bacterial issue. 

Mice are very fond of sheds and garages, especially those that are filled with stuff. Mice love stuff, it makes it very easy to hide and if the location is somewhere the owners don’t often venture into then the mice have managed to find a truly perfect home. They will burrow through boxes in search of food, which if you are a hoarder they will certainly find and they will stay there forever if not evacuated forcibly. While house mice often occupy these types of secondary structures and connected structures other types of mice frequent them as a long-term rest stop in the cold of the winter.

If you are dealing with a mouse infestation or have suspicions thereof, contact Biehn Mouse Control for a fast and effective complete eradication.

They are not as tenacious as the house mouse but are far more skilled at making and finding entryways. Unlike house mice, these wild mice, deer and field mice, are amazing jumpers and climbers and can scale houses with ease and enter through the attic. This makes entering any kind of shed or garage very easily and in the winter this will generally be an issue for anyone who lives near the wild, either backing up onto a ravine or living beside a park you will be endlessly affected by rodent populations living there in the summer and then rushing into your house in the fall. 

 

When mice get into a place they tend to chew a lot. The rodent is defined by their overly large incisors which sit at the front of their mouth and continue to grow for their lifetime and, like human hair and nails, even after the rodent is dead. This means they need to constantly grind their teeth down by chewing on very hard materials from aluminum to steel mesh and wood, electric wires which can cause a fire in your home or shed or garage. Mice can be very dangerous to your home and even more dangerous to you. They will defecate on food and all around the place, urinating as well, which can cause terrible illnesses like Hantavirus which is a severe respiratory illness that can be fatal and can be gotten from improperly cleaning mouse feces. 

 

So how can you handle a mouse issue? You can try setting traps, maybe inspect the outside for opening and see about sealing them up. If you want to use poison make sure it is localized, you don’t want some of it getting lost under a shelf only to be found by a cat or small child. Put it in a bowl so the mice can get at it but not make a mess, though they will take it back to their nest. Mice are awful bedfellows, they eat, defecate and urinate in their nest erasing any idea that mice are clean. If you cant handle it on your own you can call a professional who will be able to resolve the issue quickly and quietly. 

Rats and mice are very similar but also extremely different. Rats are much larger and more aggressive. A mousetrap will hurt them but may not kill them. What it will do is brutally harm them which is inhumane and unnecessary. The rat will continue living in most cases but will have lost a paw or a tail and will struggle to get food and eventually starve.

If you are dealing with a mouse infestation or have suspicions thereof, contact Biehn Mouse Control for a fast and effective complete eradication.

This is why it is so important to use the proper tools when dealing with pests. Using a mousetrap to catch rats will result in a large number of injured starving rats and a rat population that will stay away from all types of snap traps from now on because they saw what happened to their family members. Rat traps are made specifically for rats just as mouse snap traps are made specifically for mice. Trying to interchange them is like trying to use a hammer to screw a screw into the wall. It just does not function properly and will cause much more damage than it will prevent. 

 

If you have a situation that calls for snap traps then you must research the proper tools and methods, like you are doing right now by reading this blog. There is a lot you can do to prevent rats from coming on your property and things you can take away that the rats rely on. Something as minor as a bird feeder can bring scores of rats to your property while a water feature will bring hundreds. Rats have very high water content and need to drink water constantly. If you have a water source on your property like a leaky hose, a sprinkler system that runs at night, or if your property floods in some seasons you will very likely see rats. The best way not to is to be prepared. Do not leave food outside. That includes animal and bird feeders, garbage, pet food and even crumbs. Any food source left outside, like leftovers or spilled food and drink will attract things to your property. If you remove all of those things, you will be preventing rats from coming to your property and if you already have them will be taking away one of their much-needed food sources. 

 

If the situation is severe and you are not sure what you can do, or if you have mobility issues and cannot deal with the situation yourself, you can call in the professionals. The Exterminators Inc can send in trained, insured and experienced technicians that will exclude your home of rat entryways, bait the exterior with poison and install snap traps, properly baited and set, to control and reduce the rat population while pushing the rats out of the house with exclusion and a rat one-way door. This device allows the rats to leave the house but prevents them from re-entering.