When you hear mice scraping and bumping in your walls, or you actually see a mouse running along a baseboard in your home, you're likely to have questions. As rodent control professionals in Richmond, we get asked a lot of questions about mice. Today, we're going to share with you some of the questions we hear most often about mice in Richmond. Take a look and see if your question is on our list.
What Is The Best Way To Get Rid Of Mice?
This is the big one. If you have mice in your home, you want to know how to get rid of them. There isn't a silver bullet for mice control. We recommend a multi-pronged strategy that includes routine inspections, addressing entry points, protecting vulnerable spots, securing all food sources and attractants, keeping things clean, and deploying traps. While you can do most of these yourself, we recommend that mice traps be deployed by a professional. We'll cover why in our next question.
Are Mice Traps The Best Way To Control Mice?
Yes. They are what professionals use. But, before you go looking on the internet for what the best mice traps are, you should know that it is very difficult to trap a mouse and that there can be some extremely undesirable results when you do it wrong.
Why Is It Difficult To Trap A Mouse?
Mice are clever animals with heightened senses and defensive behavior patterns. Here are just a few of the ways a mouse might avoid your attempt to trap them.
- A mouse may avoid a trap you've touched because it can smell you on it.
- Mice often evade spring traps because mice are fast.
- Mice don't prefer cheese. If you use cheese on your traps, mice may not take the bait.
- Some baits can easily be removed from the latches of spring-loaded traps. It is best to use foods that are sticky.
- Mice don't run around in open spaces. They use their whiskers to run along walls or to navigate around objects in a room. Placing traps in the middle of a room won't work well to catch mice.
What Can Happen When Traps Are Deployed Wrong?
There are a few undesirable outcomes that can result from deploying traps incorrectly.
- When a mouse evades a trap or detects traps as being dangerous, it can become trap shy. This will make the mouse more difficult to remove.
- When a mouse gets a leg caught in a trap, it is likely to gnaw its leg off to escape. If it dies in your wall, it can create an odor and become a catalyst for other pest problems.
- Spring-loaded traps can catch mice but they're not the best mice traps. If a dog, cat, or child gets into an area where there are traps, they can be hurt.
- When you put traps down over and over again and never cull the rodents faster than they reproduce, or you don't remove them faster than they're getting inside.
What Do Mice Hate The Smell Of?
There are many things that mice hate the smell of, such as vinegar, cinnamon, peppermint, cloves, cayenne pepper, and many other things. Unfortunately, these will not drive mice out of your home or prevent mice from getting into your home.
What Is The Best Way To Get Rid Of Mice?
If you live in Richmond, the best solution for a mouse problem is to reach out to Go-Forth Home Services. We offer mice control options that can be custom-tailored to solve your specific issue. Reach out to us today to schedule a service visit.