One of the most common pests that you’ll encounter, the house mouse may look harmless, but these furry rodents are far from safe to handle. With a dark gray to light brown fur, house mice have gray or cream-colored bellies, pointed muzzles, and large ears.
House mice may not be aggressive, but they can pose some significant health risks to you or anyone living in your home. These rodents have been known to spread certain diseases, such as salmonella, through their droppings and by contaminating your food. Inhaling air that contains dust from dried mouse feces can also cause allergy or asthma flare-ups.
For California & Arizona homeowners, here’s what you need to know about what may attract mice to your home and what you can do once they’re there.
What Attracts Mice To Your Tracy Home?
As temperatures begin to drop during the fall and wintertime, mice are looking for a warm place to hunker down in, and your heated home tends to look inviting. Hot water heaters are especially popular since they provide a constant source of warmth for mice to nest near.
Besides warmth, mice are drawn to open containers or leftover food, such as:
- Pet food
- Berries and sweet fruits
- Plants
- Grains, seeds, and nuts
- Most types of meat
You’ll also frequently see that mice enjoy nesting and burrowing in cluttered areas, so it’s not unusual to find these rodents in storage areas, basements, or garages. Garages can be especially problematic.
Once a house mouse is attracted to your home, they’ll do everything they can to get inside – including squeezing through tiny cracks and openings in your walls or entry points. The shape of the house mouse’s body allows them to squeeze through openings the size of a dime, or for adolescent mice, the size of a pen.
Mice also won’t hesitate to chew their way in, and their durable teeth are capable of chewing through wood, rubber, plastic, or even low-gauge aluminum.
How To Prevent Mice From Getting Inside Your Tracy Home
There are a couple of preventative measures you can take as a homeowner to prevent house mice from getting inside your California or Arizona home:
- Make sure your entry points and your home’s exterior are properly sealed, using materials that mice are unable to chew through (such as steel wool or caulking).
- Don’t leave open containers of food lying around your home (including pet food), and keep any leftovers sealed up tightly.
- Keep your trash cans, both inside and outdoors, closed tightly and regularly dispose of garbage before it builds up.
- Avoid allowing clutter or debris to build up for too long inside your home or in your yard.
- Regularly use mice traps around popular nesting spots, like hot water heaters or cluttered storage areas, closets, or basements.
- Keep firewood away from your home and regularly prune shrubs and bushes.
Contact Pro Active Pest Control Today
While mouse traps may eliminate some of the infestations, house mice are clever, and trying to root out their nests with just mouse traps is unlikely to be effective. Traps also don’t prevent other mice from coming in or block off their entry points.
A professional pest service like our specialists at Pro Active Pest Control, however, will inspect your home to find nesting spots as well as potential entry points before treating the infestation. If you suspect that you’re dealing with a mouse infestation, don’t wait to contact us at Pro Active Pest Control to learn more about our mice control program.