When autumn arrives, food sources diminish and temperatures rapidly drop. Mice and rats then begin looking for alternative food supplies and shelter and all too often end up joining us in our homes, shops, factories and offices. Also too often we are reluctant about this unprecedented invasion until they’ve moved in, set up shop and begun raiding the kitchen and anything in their way.

Mice gnaw on electrical cables, pipes and eat our food causing short circuits, flooding and numerous health risks. They can also cause consternation to those with phobia of mice. There’s never a better time than now to prevent mice and other rodents from moving in with you.

Do you know that mice and rats have the potential to spread well over 35 different diseases? These diseases can be spread through contact with mice bites, urine, handling them, feces of saliva. If you see mice droppings, holes in your food packaging or hear squeaky sounds and scratches on your walls, you may have a mice infestation, and best believe they can breed and multiply in no time at all.

As much as this can be a frightening encounter, you should that mice and rodents are a common household occurrence. When temperatures drop rapidly, the need to find shelter and warm is an instinctive survival attribute—and your home provides the perfect setup for that with lots of warmth, shelter and easy access to water and food.

Mice can pose a serious danger to you and your family. It may be through contamination of surfaces and your food with their droppings as well as fire hazards when they nibble on the wiring in your home.

To fight these pesky squatters, you need to initiate a proactive plan. The following tips should help you rid your home of mice and other annoying rodents this winter.

Cut the Water Supply

Factors like leaky roofs, broken pipes and poor draining gutters have the potential to supply mice with water. Since all creatures require water for survival, cutting their water supply can help keep them at bay. Remove these water sources by repairing any leaks and cracks in your home.

Ensure Cleanliness

Like the common phrase “cleanliness is next to Godliness,” mice also need food to survive. Clean up your surroundings after meals and store your food in sealed containers, also avoid leaving crumbs lying around. If mice detect any available source of food, they’ll feast and alert fellow crew members who will come in hordes, more like the whole mice family and friends.

Reason like a Landscaper

Thoroughly and closely scrutinize your home surroundings and see whether your landscaping encourages the breeding of mice. Trim shrubs and cut tree branches that stretch close to your home and remove any ground cover that’s close to the periphery of your home. 

Seal Your Home Off

Examine all cracks and openings in your home so mice cannot find their way in for food and warmth. Be on the lookout for cracks in your windows and walls, broken screens, vents and door gaps that may not be properly sealed. If you seal such openings with materials like sheet metal, cement mortar or steel wool before winter, you’ll discourage potential intruders.

Trap Your Enemies

In the event that mice find their way into your home even after your best efforts at sealing, you may consider secondary alternatives which involve setting up different bait and trap stations. These are perfect ways to eliminating imminent threats to your home. There are quite a number of solutions you can come up with to take care of mice which may want to disrupt your perfect snowy day in the comfort of your home.

Eliminating Food Sources

Besides seeking warmth and shelter from the winter cold, another major reason mice and other rodents find their way into your home is because of food. An abundance of food supplies will definitely help establish a permanent place in your home, and best believe there will be havoc and chaos to ensue.

You can eliminate food sources in your home using additional tips like these:

• Store foods like cereals, rice, dog food and so on in tightly sealed containers 
• Keep bins as far from the house as possible 
• Ensure well cleaned surfaces around your home 
• Clean all dishes properly after use 
• Keep your garbage in metal or plastic can with a lid

Other Entries

Look in every place, high and low because mice and skilled climbers. House and deer mice are very good climbers that will feed on a variety of food sources.

They will find their along tree branches that extend over the roof, drop onto the roof and from there they hardly experience any difficulty making their way into the roof using cracks and gaps on the eaves. Cutting overlapping branches away from the roof and trimming climbing plants like rambling roses, honeysuckles, ivies, vines and so on will help a great deal.

One fortunate aspect is that mice are easy pests to detect inside your home. By implementing and following the above mentioned tips you should be able to keep your home free of any rodents. Locating and repairing any entrance pathways will be key to success. You should also consider calling an experienced pest exterminator who will deal with mice infestation. 

Alliance Pest Services is your New Jersey rodent control and removal expert.