Author: Kurt Treftz, Cascade Pest Control
We’ve all seen the old cartoons or common traps that advertise mice being lured in with the promise of cheese. Have you ever wondered what else attracts these rodents and how you can prevent them from nesting in your space? Cascade Pest Control has the answers.
Effective Mouse Control
The key to effective mouse control is having a better understanding of the habits of mice and being able to prevent them from being attracted to your home or business. Any rodent is mainly attracted to reliable food, water, and shelter, especially mice.
Food
Contrary to popular belief, mice don’t like cheese that much. You’ll have much more luck luring a mouse with a fattier or more carbohydrate-laden food than you will with cheese. Here are a few foods mice enjoy:
- Cereal
- Meat
- Peanut Butter
- Sweets & Fruit
- Pet Food
- Seeds
These foods are helpful baits for any small mouse traps you have set, but they’re also foods to look out for in your kitchen for signs of mice. Any of these food items left out or not properly stored are easy targets—make sure you’re wiping down counters well and storing dry food items in plastic containers to avoid contamination.
Shelter
Mice thrive in dry, dark, and warm spaces. Unfortunately for you, this describes many of the less traveled nooks in your attic, walls, crawl spaces, etc. It can be a hassle to get into these areas to check for signs of nesting mice, but you can also cut mice off by limiting the amount of nesting materials they have to hoard away.
Common nesting materials that they target are:
- Insulation
- Tissues & Toilet Paper
- Newspaper
- Cotton & Lint
- Cloth scraps
Anything soft that they can tear off and chew up is a viable material for their nests. Signs of nesting include mouse droppings, musty smells, and any combination of these materials torn up and meshed together in a concentrated area.
Prevention
Once you’ve eliminated their options for food and shelter, the step beyond that is ensuring mice can’t get back into your home or business in the first place.
Prevention is a huge part of mouse control. Mice are particularly difficult opponents because their strong teeth can chew an opening in pretty much anything for them to squeeze through. They are also adept climbers and jumpers, so getting up the side of a multiple-story house is no problem.
Easy access points for mice include:
- Gaps in door or window jambs
- Vents
- Holes around plumbing or electrical access points
- Long tree branches or ivy close to the house
- Cluttered areas or trash bins
For over 42 years, Cascade has served and protected the Greater Seattle area from rats, mice and more. Our rodent control techniques are eco-friendly and guaranteed to keep mice and rats at bay. We’re ready to work with your schedule to start eliminating and preventing pests and rodents from your home!
Looking for rodent and mouse control services? Call 888-989-8979 for a quote from Cascade Pest Control!