Everyone wants to feel safe and comfortable in their own home. After a long day of work, you just want to relax and put your worries to rest. Unfortunately, house mice can make rest and relaxation hard to come by. They can be noisy, destructive, and even spread disease to you and your family.
Your home may be a warm and inviting place for friends and family to gather, but house mice are guests you never want. Here’s what to know about house mice in Opelika.
What Are House Mice?
The common house mouse is a small rodent measuring about two to four inches long with a tail that's three to four inches long. House mice are grayish-brown in coloration with a pointed snout and a rounded shape. If you’ve got any type of mouse living in your property, chances are, it’s probably a house mouse.
If the name didn’t give it away, house mice are attracted to man made structures like houses and apartment buildings. Your house provides everything that a house mouse could dream of, from a warm dry shelter to raise its young to a reliable supply of its favorite food. Once they’re settled in, house mice can breed rapidly. Just one female house mouse can give birth to more than 30 offspring a year, turning one unwanted guest into an army.
Why House Mice Can Be Dangerous
Depending on who you ask, mice can either be cute or terrifying. While house mice aren’t quite as scary as folks make them out to be, they aren’t harmless, either. The truth is house mice are a danger to your property and belongings as well as the health and safety of your family.
Mice love to chew things up. As members of the rodent family, like rats and squirrels, they can’t help but gnaw on things to trim down their teeth. And since their teeth never stop growing, rodents never stop chewing.
House mice will go after paperboard storage boxes where you may keep heirlooms and valuable belongings as well as books, furniture, and structural materials like drywall, electrical wiring, and wooden beams. And of course, they will eagerly chew through boxes of cereal, crackers, and other dry food in your pantry.
Even worse than their tendency to gnaw and destroy your property is their capability to spread disease. House mice are known to carry a number of harmful parasites like fleas and ticks who can infect human hosts with serious illnesses like bubonic plague and Lyme disease, respectively.
Coming in contact with house mouse droppings or urine can cause salmonellosis, leptospirosis, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM).
How To Prevent House Mice
Here are a few simple tips you can follow to prevent a house mouse infestation in your home:
- Store food properly. Make sure that any food in your pantry or kitchen is kept in a metal, glass, or heavy plastic container that mice can’t chew through.
- Keep surfaces clean. Wipe down all counters, tables, or other surfaces for crumbs and traces of food waste.
- Close all entry points. Mice only need a hole about the size of dime, or ¼ inch wide, to get inside. Seal any holes or cracks around your property with caulk, steel wool, or small steel plates if you can.
- Replace faulty weather stripping. Check the weather stripping around your doors and windows and replace any that may be loose or falling away.
But the most important step you can take to prevent house mice from invading your home is to get professional assistance. The experts at Prewett Pest Control serve Alabama with modern technology and a human touch. We will work with you to develop an affordable plan to eliminate house mice in your property and prevent them from coming back.
For the best treatment and protection from house mice in Opelika, get in touch with us today.