George K.
Have you ever trapped a mouse before? If you have, then you know that there’s more to it than learning how to properly set a snap trap. And if you haven’t, then it’s time for you to learn. There’s never just a single mouse in your home and learning how to trap groups of mice is necessary if you want to completely get rid of the mice in your home.
Learning all you can about mice and how to trap them effectively will help you with your home mouse pest control. If you’re ready to free your home from your uninvited mouse tenants, here’s how you can do that.
Why Mice Show Up in Your Home
Before you start trying to get rid of mice, it’s helpful to know why they come into your home in the first place. Learning a bit about their behavior can guide you in your efforts to get rid of them. It’s a “know your enemy” situation.
Mice can come into your home at any time of the year. You might be more likely to find them inside your house in the winter when it’s freezing and hard to find food outside. The mice will come inside your home looking for warmth and food. But they can still show up in your home during other times of the year as well. In the summer, they might be looking for shelter from the sun or from predators.
So the main reason mice come inside is for survival. They can easily find food and shelter, and there are lots of places to hide and build up a colony of mice. But even though it’s beneficial to the mice to come live inside your home, it’s a bad situation for you.
Mice – well, rodents in general – are known for carrying and spreading disease. Not to mention that they also steal and contaminate your food. And leave their droppings everywhere. And make skittering noises in the walls so you never forget that they’re there.
Yeah, mice are a problem for you. So let’s move on to how to effectively trap mice.
How to Trap Mice
Step 1: Block Entrances to Your Home
As soon as you realize that mice are in your home, start looking for how they got into your home. And don’t just look for big gaps and holes near the ground – adult mice can fit through holes as small as a dime and can climb up the walls of your home to find a way in if they want to. So search everywhere you can think of for these openings.
When you find likely holes, fill them in as completely as you can. Doing so will prevent more mice from coming inside your home and adding to the group of mice that’s already there. And it will ensure that, once these mice are gone, others won’t get in later. Remember, prevention is the best mouse pest control.
Step 2: Set Out Traps with Bait
The next thing to do is choose the kind of trap you want to use and put it out to catch the mice. There are lots of different trap options, but the most popular version is a classic snap trap. Many people favor these because it’s a quick way to catch mice, and it also kills them pretty quickly as well. Other people prefer to set out poison, which can work well, but it does mean you might have to go searching for the mouse bodies before they start to smell. Poison can also be a risk to children and pets.
Glue traps, however, are not a highly recommended way of trapping mice. Glue traps are best for trapping insects because they won’t live very long after getting stuck. But mice, even though they do get stuck on the traps, can survive on the glue for a long time before they die, which means a lot of unnecessary suffering for them.
Snap traps tend to be the best option, but if you choose another type of trap, look for one that will kill quickly so it’s as humane as possible. And make sure it’s a high-rated trap that you can place bait in.
Traps are most effective when you put good bait in them. Mice will eat most food, so you don’t have to be too picky about your bait. But some great options are peanut butter and, yes, cheese. Both of these are easy to smell and will attract the mice well. But if you don’t have those on hand, you can choose another food as well.
Set out the traps throughout your home. Choose places that are near food or good hiding places for mice. Places like underneath cupboards, around trashcans, and near pet food are great options.
Step 3: Check Traps Regularly
When you set out the traps, make sure they are out during the night. Mice are typically nocturnal, so that’s the time they’re most likely to end up in the traps. Check the traps in the mornings to see if any mice have found their way into them.
It’s important to check the traps at least once daily because the mice will start to smell if left in the traps for long. Plus if the traps are full, they aren’t catching more mice. Checking regularly also helps you figure out if your traps are placed well or not, and you can move them to a better location if needed.
Step 4: Call Mouse Pest Control If Needed
If you’ve seen a mouse in your home, or even just heard one, then you should assume there are others living nearby. Mice live in groups and can have babies multiple times a year, so even if you start off with only a couple of mice in your home, that can change drastically over the course of a year. The mice will have babies, their babies will have babies, and within a few months, you have several generations of mice living in your home.
If it gets to that point, you probably need to do more than just trap the mice. Even if you do everything right, the mice will reproduce faster than you can get rid of them. So you’ll need to call professional mouse pest control to help. Professional mouse pest control has the resources to handle large infestations of mice in any home, and it will spare you from killing the mice yourself.
