How to Get Rid of Mice: 5 Easy Ways

Knowing how to get rid of mice in your house will reduce your stress and stop the structural damage and mess they can cause. Chewed holes, urine and droppings, scattered nesting materials, and sanitation issues while spreading diseases are some of the damage they can cause.1 Read on to learn tell-tale signs you have unwelcome mice in the house, where they may be coming from, and what to do about it.

Causes of Mice in Homes

Like it or not, mice and other rodents are an important part of a healthy ecosystem, and they will likely be present around your home. If you are seeing evidence of mice, consider what could be attracting them to your home. Are there cracks and crevices near doors, windows, and walls? Do you have bird feeders around that are providing them food? Could they easily find water in your yard? Is there dense vegetation against the foundation of your house that gives them a place to hide against the house?

Mice and other rodents are also incredibly sensitive to airflow, especially in the fall and winter. If mice are running around the perimeter of your house and there is a gap allowing air from inside to flow outside, they will follow this airflow because it leads somewhere warmer where food is likely present.

How to Get Rid of Mice

Seal Entry Points

When rodents are accessing the inside of your space, it is important to find where they are entering and seal those spaces up. Spray foam may fill the space but mice and rats can easily chew through it for re-entry. Instead, screw some type of metal sheet or mesh in place.

Modify Their Habitat

Look around your yard to see if easy access to food, water, and shelter attracts mice to your property. Change these factors to make the environment around your home less desirable to mice by doing the following:

• Cut back ivy and vegetation near the home where mice could be hiding.
• Don't leave human or pet food outside.
• Turn off irrigation systems when not in use to reduce water sources.
• Remove bird or squirrel feeders especially if they are close to your home because the ample supply of seeds and nuts attracts rodents.

Set Snap Traps

Use snap traps to trap rodents by yourself. Make sure the mouse traps you are buying are special mouse snap traps and not rat traps. Rat snap traps are too big for mice.3Snap traps only catch one mouse at a time and require emptying and resetting.

Make a DIY Trap

If you prefer to make your own mouse trap, you can do so with several items such as a bucket, a deep glass bowl, or an empty 1-liter soda bottle. The goal is to trap the mouse in something that it cannot climb out of. Peanut butter, cheese, crackers, and chocolate can be used to bait the mouse.

Set Humane Traps

You can also try to set catch-and-release mouse traps that trap the animal, allowing you to free it back into nature (and far away from your house). These traps often look like small plastic vessels that house the mouse once trapped and feature a door on one side that is used to release it into the wild.

How to Prevent Mice in Your Home

Maintaining a well-kept home is the best prevention against mice:

• Sweep up and store food in sealed containers.
• Pay attention to your home's exterior and promptly seal up holes, cracks, or anything that may allow a mouse into your house.
• Seal gaps along your home's foundation to ensure rodents can't feel any indoor airflow.
• Close all doors (including garage doors), especially at night.3

Signs of Mice

When it comes to rodents, there are two primary pieces of evidence you're looking (and listening) for: scratching sounds and droppings.

• Scratching sounds: If you're sitting on the couch reading or lying in bed at night and you hear a scratching or scurrying sound from inside the walls, this could indicate the presence of an animal in your space. Sounds in the walls or attic don't always mean rodents. It could also be squirrels, birds, or even yellow jackets, so you'll need to do some further investigating to figure out what's causing the issue.3
• Droppings: Finding droppings in your garage, pantry, or other spaces indicates rodents or other animals. If you find droppings that you think belong to a rodent, compare one to a grain of rice. Mouse droppings are significantly smaller than a grain of rice. If the dropping is close to the same size or larger than the grain of rice, you are likely dealing with a rat issue.3 Mouse droppings are also commonly confused with bat droppings.

Mice vs. Rats

Rats and mice cause similar damage but they look and behave differently.

• Mice: They are significantly smaller than rats and so are their holes and burrows. Mice are more likely than rats to come inside the living space but also nest in larger numbers than rats. Mice are much more curious, making controlling and trapping them easier and more productive than trapping rats.3
• Rats: They leave holes ranging in size from a half dollar to a baseball. Rats are neophobic (fear of new or unfamiliar things) making it difficult to entice them into a trap.4

When to Call a Professional

Call a professional for a mouse issue if you can't successfully eradicate the problem. If the situation is severe, call an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) professional who may use chemical control to manage the issue.

Mouse poison must be used correctly. Professional pest control experts should put rodenticide blocks in a locking station anchored in place. These stations encourage rodent feeding while keeping the bait locked away from people and pets. When poison baits are left in the open where children or other animals can access them, the results can be catastrophic.5