Tips For Preventing And Getting Rid Of Rodents In Your House
by Luke Fields
No one likes seeing a rodent run across the floor at home, but having rodents in a house is quite common. The problem with rodents in your house is that they can contaminate your things, and they tend to multiply quickly. If you find one mouse in your house, you can be certain that there are more. Here are some things you can do to eliminate the rodents that are in your house, and to help prevent them from returning.
Exterior Tips For Preventing Rodents From Getting In
Despite the small size of normal mice, they are able to get inside a house through the smallest cracks they find. Because they like to enter homes when the weather gets cold out, it's important to mouse-proof your house before the weather begins to change, and here are some tips to help you seal up all the cracks and crevices:
- Seal foundation cracks – Walk around your entire house with a bottle of caulk, and use the caulk to seal any small holes or cracks you see on the foundation of your house, and on the area where the foundation meets the siding or brick.
- Insert steel wool in cracks – Another method that works great for larger holes and cracks is steel wool. You can stick steel wool in these cracks, and this will prevent mice from entering.
- Check the soffits – Mice can also climb up gutters and homes, and they can end up getting inside your house through your soffits. If you see any holes in your soffits, plug them with steel wool or caulk.
- Close off vents and plumbing – Next, check all vents that you see (such as a dryer vent) and all plumbing pipes that come from your house. Make sure these areas are sealed and that there are no gaps or cracks.
- Add weather stripping to doors – If you can see light through an exterior door when it is closed, it has a hole big enough for a mouse to enter inside. You can fix this by adding weather stripping to your doors. This is also helpful to keep heat inside your home during the winter months.
Once you complete these tasks, you may need to do several things inside your house.
Tips For The Inside Of Your House
No matter how hard you try, small rodents may still find a way inside, but they are not likely to stay if they cannot find food to eat. Here are three things that you should do to make sure you are not giving rodents a good meal:
- Put dog food away – Mice are very attracted to dog food. If you have a dog in your house, make a habit of putting its food away every night. Keep the dog food in an airtight container or bag, and only feed the dog at certain times.
- Keep food in airtight containers – Mice will eat almost anything, but they can only eat what they can get into. By keeping all food in airtight containers, the mice will starve.
- Take trash out nightly – The smell of trash tends to attract mice too, and by taking your garbage out daily, the mice will not have any food to eat inside your home.
If you complete these steps and still find rodents in your house, here are some tips to help you get rid of them.
Tips To Eliminate Mice
According to the Family Handyman, female mice can give birth to around 60 baby mice each year, and that is why it is important to eliminate the problem before it gets out of control. The first thing to do is to set up mouse traps. Instead of placing one trap in an area, place two next to each other. Place traps near doorways, and along the edges of walls, and bait them with peanut butter.
Another idea is to use moth balls, but you must be careful with these because they are toxic to people. Moth balls will repel mice and other pests that you may have in your home, and you can place these inside closets, by your doorways, and outside of your home.
If you try all of these tips and cannot get rid of all the mice in your house, call a pest control company such as Total Control Termite And Pest. They may recommend some of the same things, but they may also have other great methods for eliminating rodents and other types of pests.
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About Me
Welcome to my website. My name is Larry Silva, and I want to talk a bit about private mortgage insurance. You may have heard the term PMI mentioned when you were in the process of purchasing real estate. When I first heard my lender talking about PMI, I was very confused. It was my realtor who sat me down and explained what private mortgage insurance was and when someone is required to purchase it. He told me that PMI is not lifelong insurance; it can be cancelled when the mortgage principal balance reaches a certain point. Once it was explained to me, private mortgage insurance was no longer a mystery or a confusing concept. I would like to pass on what I learned and hope that you find it to be of value.