What to Do If You Have Mice in Your Home

When we talk about having mice in our homes, we usually speak generically. From the perspective of some whose home is infested with mice, the breed does not matter. It is possible that the infestation could come from different breeds of mice and interbreeding could happen so you could have hybrids of different subspecies. When it comes to house invasions, mice are mice and the damage they do does not depend on the kind of mouse. Deer mouse, house mouse, field mouse, or any other types of mouse, you need to find ways to get rid of them. Mice and humans do not cohabit well. A single mouse will eat about a third of a pound of food in a month and leave about 3,000 mouse droppings in the same period. Worst of all, aside from the food eaten, the mouse will contaminate 10 times more food than it ate. And that is just the food. Mice also damage your belongings to the point that they cause electrical fires because they chew the wiring. They are also carriers of a variety of diseases. If you think that a mouse sighting is no big deal, think again. A female mouse can have up to 10 litters a year with an average litter size of half a dozen babies. They are more prolific than they would be in the wild as they have better access to shelter and food. The babies are born tiny, blind, and hairless but they mature quickly and females are self-sufficient in less than six weeks. Males take a couple more weeks. This means that by the time a baby mouse reaches 6 weeks, she can start having her own litters. With a life cycle and reproduction that begins so quickly, in a very short time, you could have serious problems with rodents. You can see what this means to your home. A female mouse can enter your house pregnant -- their pregnancies last about three weeks. Soon you will have at least six more mice. Supposing half are female, in another 9 weeks, you will have 18 mice and so it goes. Considering that more than one mouse likely entered your house, you can see how quickly the invasion can get out of control. The bottom line is that getting rid of mice must be a priority, Keep an eye out for signs of mice such as droppings on the carpet or kitchen counter, holes in skirting boards around your house, and traces of infestation in your kitchen and household garbage cans, and other places where mice lurk looking for food and shelter. Mice usually find ways to squeeze into holes and cracks. Their goal is to find places where food is stored. You can hire someone to do this for you or set up your own prevention program using mousetraps, repellants, poisons, Victor mouse traps, and live traps. Be aware of the effects that your trapping methods have. If you choose to set a trap with a food that is poison or set out rodent poison, you run the risk of having your dog or cat get into the poison or eat the poisoned mouse. Regardless of the type of trap you use, you have to choose a food that will attract the mouse. While they are not particular about what they eat, some foods are more compelling than others are. A cubed type of food such as cheese or meat works well because it can hold its shape in the trap for a couple of days. Something that becomes mushy just does not work as well. Traps with peanut butter do work well. If you use poison, snap traps, or glue traps, you have the additional chore of removing the dead mouse. If you use live traps, you have the live catch to deal with but often this is a simple matter of releasing the mouse outdoors. Either way, you have to focus on finding the point of entry so it does not happen again.