As the weather gets colder and Cinderella’s friends are looking for a place to stay, it’s important to know what attracts them, how they get into your home, and how to get rid of them. They tend to look for high-carb foods, but really any food out in the open is open game for them.
They can chew through anything paper-thin, and sometimes aluminum foil, so your bags of flour, sugar, brown sugar, rice, and chips need to be kept in a plastic tote, double-wrapped, or inside something heavy, like a crockpot, pan with a lid, or a casserole dish with a lid.
Mice can get into your oven, cupboards, cabinets, china cabinet, and pantry. Lock your food away in the fridge or freezer, a tight bin, a secure Tupperware set, or somewhere else air-tight, solid, heavy, or cold.
Mice and rodents love your decorative pumpkins! You can keep them off by applying a thin layer of Vaseline to the outside – they hate the texture!
Traps
Skip the cheese – mice are more drawn to peanut butter in mouse traps. It’s also good to remember that mice are smart and sneaky – if one gets caught in a trap, you will have to move it, because the others have probably learned from the other one’s mistake. Mixing up the food you place on the trap will help confuse them further. If you choose to use a live trap, it’s best to release the animal over a mile away from your home, or it’s likely to return. Poisons are typically slow and painful for rodents and can cause further damage to the environment if they are ingested by a predator, like an owl or a neighborhood cat.
Prevention
Prevention is the best way to keep them out for good, so be sure to walk around your home and inspect for openings as small as 1” that mice can squeeze into. Seal them with drywall plaster, wood, caulk, or brick mortar in order to keep them outside where they belong. Peppermint oil is a strong natural repellant, and this article by BBC recommends soaking cotton balls in it to keep them away.
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Happy rodent-free living!
Sparkle & Shine Cleaning Services