In most cases, seeing just a single mouse in your home doesn’t necessarily mean an infestation.
However, mice must be controlled as soon as you notice them. They can quickly damage your property severely, and they pose a significant health hazard to you and your family.
Here is everything you need to know about these pesky little vermin and how to deter them from entering your home in the first place.
Mice life cycle and reproduction
Most vermin typically live for about 12-18 months in the wild.
They are also part of the food chain and fall prey to predators such as cats, snakes, and owls.
However, indoors some of them can even make it to 2 years, especially if they go undisturbed and there’s constant access to food and water.
Females go into heat for 4-5 days, and once pregnant give birth after 21 days. Each litter has between 4-8 little ones, and a female mouse can reproduce up to 10 times a year.
This means that seeing one mouse and not dealing with it immediately can quickly result in an infestation, which is big trouble down the line.
Damage caused by mice
All vermin have to constantly chew and gnaw at things to keep their large incisor teeth from growing too large.
This means that if they manage to enter your home, they will surely cause great damage to it, if not dealt with immediately.
Furthermore, when they enter your property, they will try to build nests from anything they deem useful: wood, clothes, paper, fabrics and pretty much anything soft and pliable.
Mice are especially destructive to your walls and attic insulation, especially if it’s made of rigid foam and fibreglass batting, as they use it to make their nests cosier.
Vermin are also responsible for up to 1/5th of all domestic fires precisely because they chew through exposed wires or gnaw at them. This can cause short circuits, which is what results in a fire.
Mice can also cause damage to your electrical appliances, chew holes in your furniture, or even damage a family heirloom and important documents.
To deter vermin from entering your home you must:
- Locate and seal all entry points and cracks with rodent-proof materials; ● Follow good housekeeping practices;
- Properly handle and store your food and your garbage.
Health risks of mice
Mice carry a long list of pathogens that can have serious effects on human health. They cause and spread diseases like hantavirus, leptospirosis, salmonella, Lassa fever, rat bite fever, and monkeypox.
They will spread disease simply by being in your home by contaminating food, urine and faeces.
Since vermin are omnivorous, they can be pretty easily pleased by just about any snack they have access to. However, any food that’s been in contact with them then becomes contaminated and poses a major health hazard to both humans and pets.
That’s why, to safeguard your health, it’s best to keep all food safely sealed away. You can do that by using metal, glass, or heavy-duty plastic containers that mice can’t chew through or by utilising your fridge and your freezer.
That’s why infestations are dangerous and must be dealt with as soon as possible. However, even after the problem has been dealt with, proper disinfection must be carried out for mouse urine and pheromones not only pose a health hazard but can attract more mice.
Common signs of a mouse infestation
Due to their rapid reproduction rate, mice can quickly infest a home if they go undetected or are not dealt with early.
The most common signs of a mouse infestation are if you notice:
- Foul odours;
- Gnaw marks;
- Mice droppings;
- Scratching noises;
- Tracks and runways;
- A nest (usually made from anything from shredded paper to fabrics, to dried plant matter)
- Your pet becomes active and excited in a certain area of your home that it previously had no interest in.
If you notice some or most of these signs, or you even see a mouse scurrying around in your home, then you must deal with it quickly before it does any major damage.
Set up baited traps to catch the vermin quickly and also take steps to locate and seal any cracks and potential entry points. Remember, even after you deal with the mouse, you’ve still got to sanitise everything because of the significant health risks.
If you’re not sure what you’re doing or the problem persists, you can always hire a professional mice control company to deal with it instead. The experts will quickly assess the situation and implement the best methods to deal with the problem. They will even offer personalised tips based tailored to your home’s specifics that you can then take to rodent-proof it.
Mouse infestation preventative measures
There are a few important things you must do to make your home safe from mice.
First, you will have to remove all attractants to make your place less likely to be targeted by vermin.
For the exterior, all items stacked near the foundation of your house must be removed. Mow the lawn often, rake any fallen leaves and do not let vegetation overgrow so much that it provides a suitable place for vermin to nest.
You must also ensure that any bird feeders can’t be easily accessed from the ground and that they also have a tray. Birds are known to be messy eaters so if seeds spill, you can be sure that will attract mice.
Keep your garbage bin locked, so rodents and other wild animals can’t get access to it. Also, avoid leaving trash outside, for its scent can quickly attract mice.
If you compost, make sure you use a solid-sided bin and don’t add cooked food and anything strong-smelling, as that will serve as an attractant.
Getting a cat if you don’t already own one is also a great option. Felines are natural predators of rodents, plus the scent of their urine scares away most vermin, so they’d likely avoid your property.
Conclusion
Seeing even a single mouse in your home is surely an unpleasant, sometimes even scary, experience, but having an infestation is worse.
That’s why if you notice one, it’s mandatory to deal with it as soon as possible.
If you follow the steps above to the letter, you will surely maximise the defence of your home and, hopefully, never have to deal with this type of problem ever again.
