What’s The Most Humane Way To Keep Mice Out Of Your Home?

Many homeowners suffer from problems with mice at some point or other. You might notice their bite-marks or droppings or you may even see a mouse on occasion. The problem with mice is that they can squeeze through holes, cracks or gaps no wider than a pen so keeping them out of your home can be a real challenge. If you are concerned about causing the mice to suffer unnecessarily slow and painful deaths, you might be interested to know the most humane ways to keep mice out of your home.

Review Your Attitude To Food Storage

Mice infestations are generally caused when there is a prevalence of food. Remove the food source and you’ll usually solve your mouse problem. You should always contact a pest control specialist if you need to use bait to destroy an infestation. Standard rodent bait causes internal bleeding which makes the mice suffer unduly. A pest control company will have the most humane solutions such as effective snap traps. Once you have taken this step, look closely at how you store food in your cupboards and pantry. Food should be kept in containers with tight lids to prevent mice from being attracted to it.

Store Your Food Waste Responsibly

You should also be careful about leaving pet food out and ensure that it too is stored responsibly. Many homeowners unintentionally attract mice with old or uneaten pet food. You should take the same approach to food waste in your home by keeping it in metal or heavy-duty plastic bins with tight, secure lids. You can also try to leave trash out in the morning of the collection – don’t leave it outside for days on end. If you compost your kitchen waste to use in your garden, ensure that this too is kept in a strong plastic compost bin with a tight lid. Very often, mice infestations start outside the home and then migrate towards the property over time.

Mouse-Proof Your Home

If you are simply concerned that mice might be breeding or nesting around your home, the most humane way to keep them out is to pay a professional pest-control firm to ‘mouse-proof’ your home. This isn’t a cheap option but most firms offer a two or three year guarantee that your home will remain free of mice (or any other rodents for that matter!). How does it work? Trained specialists conduct a painstaking fingertip search of your property and professionally seal off any places that mice could be entering.

Fancy Some DIY?

If you have the time and expertise, you can do some of this work yourself by purchasing cans of spray foam from your local hardware store. Spray foam expands and fills cracks and no, mice won’t chew or nest in or around it. It’s a long and complex job but you’ll be improving your home’s energy efficiency by sealing off draughts where heated or cooled air would otherwise be lost. People use spray foam for all sorts of things, not just keeping mice out. You may have seen firms that spray foam the interior of roofs, for example. There are plenty of how-to videos on YouTube to get you started.