Because mice are so adaptable, they can be very difficult to control as pests.

While some mice populations have become dependent on humans for food, others have been known to overtake natural habitats to the detriment of indigenous species.

Moreover, as cities grow and flourish so do mice – food sources become more abundant, and mice replicate. And throughout history, mice have had a significant impact on human health.

They help with the spread of disease, they contaminate food and water sources, and despite efforts to eradicate mice, their populations continue to grow.

When mice have babies, they have a lot of babies. Large litters are one of the main reasons it can be especially difficult to get rid of mice.

Unfortunately, a mouse infestation can be a big problem for home and business owners alike, and infestations are only likely to grow to provide ample food and shelter.

Nevertheless, mice also tend to have a short life span because of predation, so as difficult as it can be to eradicate a mouse problem, it is not impossible.

Certainly, any homeowner who has mice living in or around their property can attest to the significant damage these creatures can inflict. Mice can damage cars and motorized equipment, bicycles, electrical systems, furniture, and property.

Mice can also contaminate food sources, dishes, and cooking equipment. Of even greater concern is the fact that mice can also spread disease making them a significant risk to your family and pets.

As such, controlling mouse populations is paramount. In most cases, it will be well worth your while to contact a professional pest control provider. Not only will they offer the most effective techniques for ending a mouse infestation, but they can offer a variety of services from humane to environmentally friendly and pet safe pest control.

Still, if you prefer to tackle your mouse problems on your own, there are a variety of tools that can help you.

First, mouse traps baited with a food source can be very useful in catching and killing mice. If you prefer a more humane approach, glue or sticky traps are non-toxic and less likely to harm the mouse.

Cats can also be effective for controlling mouse populations, but it is not advisable to purchase a cat for the sole purpose of mouse control.

In addition, there are many commercially available mouse and rat poisons that can be effective, but these products are also toxic to children, house pets, and natural mouse predators (such as owls and hawks), so they should not be used.

Perhaps the best means of avoiding problems with mice is prevention. If a mouse cannot enter your home, it also cannot inhabit your home.

Seal entrances, vents, and cracks around your home either with metal flashing, mesh, or even cement. Clean up yard debris and ensure pet water and food sources are kept indoors.

Compost piles can attract mice so be sure to keep them well away from your house, garage, and shed. Also, bird and squirrel feeders will attract mice, so you need to keep this in mind if you want to attract local wildlife but avoid mice.

Mice can be nasty critters, and the amount of damage they can cause is more than enough reason to seek either DIY or mouse exterminator options.

Still, if you have unsuccessfully tried to eradicate your mouse infestation, it’s time to call in the professionals.

The field mouse is also known as a wood mouse. This is a rodent that unlike a rat has a longer nose with a pointed snout and a scaly tail. It also has small rounded ears and in a cartoon character may look very cute and friendly. Because of the character perpetuated by such depictions some people keep mice as pet and even give them to their kids as a pet.

The term field mouse is used generally in the United States to refer to mice found in the fields as well as in the house. These creatures are extremely curious and can be brown, white or black. The white lab mouse is used a lot in research and it is popular for this use because it has very uniform traits that offer uniformity in research findings.

The field mouse will come indoors to look for food and shelter especially from the cold and predators. One of the dangerous quality of field mice it its ability to reproduce at an alarming rate. What may have started out as one mouse looking for shelter can quickly become a rat infestation of epic proportions. These creatures are able to climb and gnaw their way into your space leaving a wake of destruction on your property.

Diseases associated with field mice

• Hantavirus
• Leptospirosis
• Plague
• Tularemia
• Monkey pox

Mice are creatures of habit so they tend to map out a route that they stick to. It is usually a beeline for food and shelter. Unfortunately, they also leave their droppings on their path which become a disease hazard. Mice will find different ways to get into the house but they always use the same route to the food.

When cleaning out areas with mouse dropping and urine use a pair of gloves to protect your hands. Also, do not ingest food from a contaminated container like a cereal box or an open food container. Even fruits in the cabinet or pantry where the mice have been found should be thrown out.

Pet or foe?

Domestic mice have been kept as pets by a lot of people and they are typically offered as starter pets for children who want a pet. According to pet mice breeders mice are clean and friendly with minimal supervision needed. But since some of the breeds being kept are field mice the conclusion that they can pose a risk of the above diseases. This may happen involuntarily but it can’t be ruled out with certainty.

In case the mouse gets past its enclosure, it can get to the electrical wires and chew at them or gnaw on wood or plastic. Training a mouse is much than training a cat or a dog.

How to get rid of field mice

You can choose to employ the use of traps on your own but we highly recommend calling a professional to smoke the mice out of their nest and ascertain the depth of their infestation. This will give them the correct approach to get rid of the pest and provide you with right advice of how to prevent such a situation in the future. Keep in mind rodents are not friends.

Voles are a danger to many gardens, and once they arrive, it is very difficult to figure out how to get rid of voles. They like to snack on carrots and onions and can do a lot of damage to the garden.

They also like the bark of fruit trees and roses. Voles can very quickly take over an area with their prolific reproduction cycles. Since the mole lifespan is only around 16 months, they can reproduce and delivery three to six babies at a time every 21 days.

Below are five tips to help you learn how to get rid of voles in the garden and yard:

1. How to know if there voles in my garden?

Good clues to look for are surface tunnels in mulch and golfball-sized holes in the dirt near where damage is occurring.

2. When is the best time to get rid of voles?

The best time to meet them is in the cold weather of the late fall and early winter when the animals stand less chance of food and will be scavenging more above ground looking for food.

Voles also make tunnels under the snow cover of winter. You are more likely to see them during snow cover as they go out into more open spaces that they would avoid during the warmer growing seasons.

3. What I can install traps for voles?

To trap voles used box-shaped traps. It is very important to note that the voles have a very sensitive nose. This means that all stations must be free of odors.

For example, the new metal of the traps is often has a layer of oil that produces a strong scent. This should be washed with unscented soap, and then rub the metal with dirt.

It takes several traps at the same time to have quick results. Check all traps several times a day and put them back in the same place when you have caught a vole.

As bait, you can use carrots, apples or celery. Remember to handle the bait and trap with gloves so you don’t leave a human scent behind.

4. Are there other ways to expel the voles?

Although possible, the use of chemical poisons will not be discussed in this article, as there are other ways to learn how to get rid of voles effectively.

5. What are the natural enemies of the vole?

To attract the natural enemies of voles, create shady spaces with lots of wood for weasels.

Do Voles Carry Disease?

Voles are known carriers of two diseases: tularemia, or Francisella tularensis, and Yersinia pestis.

The second one is better known as the plague that once wiped out a third of the European population. This is another excellent reason to not want voles in your yard.

Removal

Vole removal can be quite difficult, especially considering how quickly they can infest your yard. Even leaving one can cause the infestation to return in full force within a few months.

Fortunately, there are experts who can professionally remove your vole population. If you notice your yard being destroyed by what seems like voles, contact a professional pest removal company to come and help you out.

They can remove or exterminate your vole population and offer you tips on how to exclude voles from your yard in the future.

Sometimes it may be hard to establish whether there are rats in your space but a sighting of rat poop is a sure way of telling that this rodent has found a home in your house. Most people tend to confuse rat and mouse poop but the two are distinctly different. Mouse poop is much smaller with pointy ends and the size of a rice grain. Rat poop on the other hand is much rounder and fatter with more volume and rounded edges.

Unfortunately, rats defecate wherever they want indiscriminately. This means no space is safe from these hideous creatures. The droppings are usually black in color turning a dull black with time. When fresh the droppings are extremely black so you can tell if the rat infestation is current on an old one.

Health risks from rat poop

During the winter months when rats can find their way into your house you have to deal with their poop in addition to their unwanted presence. The rats will defecate where they find food like in a cupboard or pantry. Their fecal matter can spread disease causing bacteria not to mention contaminate your food that is stored in those areas. Plus they can trigger an allergic reaction in human beings once the feceas become dry and can be breathed in. Here are some diseases associated with rats and their poop:

The bubonic plague

This disease is lethal and feared because it is highly contagious and can decimate entire populations. In the middle ages it wiped out a third of the European population at the time. It is famously known as the Black Death.  Symptoms include headache, fever and swollen lymph nodes that are painful to touch.

Hantavirus

This is a life threatening disease spread when people inhale or come into contact with an infected rat’s droppings, urine or even saliva. People get headaches, dizzy spells and abdominal issues.

Salmonella

Salmonella is spread when human beings come into contact with the fecal matter of rats through food. Unfortunately, it is possible to ingest food that has been contaminated by rat poop especially if you leave your food open during a rat infestation. In the US, there are roughly 40,000 cases of salmonella reported because of contamination of food with rat and other rodent poop.

How to mitigate rat poop

You can prevent the contamination of your food with rat poop by preventing rats from entering your home in the first place. This is the first line of defense against these rodents. If you have an infestation, call a professional to set traps and get rid of the rats for you.

Make sure to lean the areas where you notice rat poop thoroughly. Wear latex gloves when cleaning rat urine or poop to avoid contaminating your hands.Spray the area with disinfect and or pour water with bleach and let the area soak for a few minutes to loosen the poop and also to sterilize the space. Use a paper towel, not your regular kitchen cloth, to wipe away the poop and urine. Keep repeating this process until the area is completely cleaned and disinfected.

Everyone wants to know the best way to kill mice.

Mice are one of the major problems for most of people. Other than that, mice spread diseases so it is very important to exterminate them before they could cause us unnecessary harm.

First of all, we will take a look at the accessories that can be used to exterminate mice from our homes.

1. Conventional Snap Trap

 These traps have been used for years and it is effective for killing mice. All we need to do is bait the mice trap with sticky foods and once the mice are trapped inside, it will be killed instantly with a very heavy steel bar connected within the trap. This option is one of the easiest ways to kill mice. However, if there are small kids in the house, it is advised not to use these traps, because the steel spring and heavy steel bar could really injure anyone if they are not careful.

2. Glue Traps

 Glue traps can be considered as one of the humane traps because this trap does not kill the mice, but traps the mice with the sticky glue. So you can either dispose of the mice, or you can end the life of the mice. It is much safer when you compare it to the conventional Snap Trap, because it is not as dangerous, however, better keep the trapping glue away from children because it is poisonous.

3. Live Trap

 This trap is also one of the best traps because it does not kill the mice like the above-mentioned trap. This trap just traps the mice, by putting some bait in it. And this trap should be checked every day whether the mice have been caught or not. If you wish not to kill the mice and want to set him free, do not release him in the woods behind your house, because it has 200 yards sense, and it will back to your generous house shortly. So make sure you leave the mice very far from your residence.

4. Electronic Mouse Trap

 This is set up all around the house or premise which will give a terrifying electric shock to the mice and kill them just within a few seconds. Actually, the electric shock activates when the mice steps on the internal plate, and when the mice complete the circuit, he will get shocked and die. Electronic mouse traps are very expensive but it is one of the good options if you really hate mice and want to make them die.

5. Ultra Sound Pest Control

This device uses sonic sound waves which affect the rodent family. The sound waves are on the level that only the rodents can hear. But be aware, do not use them if you have a guinea pig or hamsters in the house, because it will cause these critters some suffering as well. They are in the rodent family. However, this sound will never affect we human beings. This equipment rather expensive, but some parties claim that this is not a very effective way to rid your home of mice.

To prevent further damage in your home, call your local pest control company for the safest, best way to kill mice.

Mice are much smaller and much more common than rats.

Rats are always near water, so coastal areas will see more rats than the average population. Mice are truly everywhere, and they are most common in the winter months.

There are scores of households and companies in the world that have tried everything to remove mice from their homes. But, even they made it, mice always find a way to get back.

Once they enter the house it is very hard to get rid of them because they breed very fast. Also, these rodents are very fast and living in the wall cracks. As a result, the process of removing them can be very exhausting.

People are trying to remove them from the house because they know how dangerous they can be for the health.

Mice are carriers of a bacterium, which causes salmonella, and having them running around the house can be harmful. In addition, mice can carry other parasites like roundworms that can be found in their droppings.

Helpful Tips On Mouse Infestation Control In Your Home

The first step of mouse control is to close all entry points. There is no point to trapping mice if other ones can easily enter.

Once all entry points have been identified and closed you can move on to placing traps with bait. Traps should be placed in areas where the critters frequently pass by. If you have seen mouse droppings in a particular place then chances are mice frequently go through there.

Mice infestations occur in the end of fall because mice start looking for warmth and food inside. As a result, to prevent mouse invasion you would need to sanitize the house and taking care of the cracks and holes that can be used to enter your home.

Mice need food water and shelter to survive so removing all those things from their sight is first thing to do. There are also ways how to mouse-proof your home, the best way is to seal entry points with wire mesh.

Also, domestic animals like cats can be effective in dealing with mice.

It is also important to make all the places where we store food mouse proof.

The food should be kept in food containers to prevent mice to get in touch with it. The material used for patching the holes and building construction that prevents them from entering has to be strong enough so mice won’t be able to chew through it.

Remember that the most important thing you can do to make sure mice aren’t coming in is to keep a clean kitchen. Store all the food so mice can’t get to it and throw out all the scraps.

If there is no source of food for them, your home will not be as appealing to them.

Finally, keep in mind that in some cases you might want to get the advice of a professional mouse exterminator. As trained professionals, they can be much more effective in dealing with an infestation and keep your family our of disturbance.

If you have a mice infestation, then you should know that a house cat can’t get rid of the mice himself.

This is one of the common myths about mice. Mice reproduce very quickly, and a house cat won’t be able to keep up with a rapidly expanding mice population. Your four-legged friend may alert you that you have a problem, but you need more than your feline to get rid of them forever.

Mice infestations don’t start in the kitchen. If you are finding droppings in the kitchen cabinets, this means you already have a bad infestation.

You don’t have to find a mouse in the house to know you have a bad infestation. You don’t want to look for live mice. Mice poop all the time, so you want to look for their droppings. Mice dropping is about the size of a grain of rice.

If you are trying to figure out if you have them, there are three places to look. If you have a garage, look along the walls in the garage first.

You may find droppings along the wall. Mice usually travel along ledges and walls. For this reason, you should check all along the walls in the garage.

They are very common in the garage because the garage door is not sealed well. The rubber that runs along the bottom of a garage door starts to curl up after a few years, and this makes it easy to get a mouse in the house.

Once they get in the garage, they could go anywhere in the house. You don’t want to put holes in your walls, so head up to your attic.

See if there is any activity in the attic area. If you have a pull-down stair that goes up into the attic, you will often find droppings falling out of the door as you pull the door down from the ceiling.

Check the door first, and then check along the rafters and other areas of the attic. Check inside storage boxes and other areas too. There are many areas where they may be hiding.

Squirrel droppings and bat droppings are also common in attics, but mice droppings are the most common pests in the attic.

A mouse in the house is often hanging out in the attic.

Mice are also very common in crawl spaces. Look for droppings on the vapor barrier and other areas. Sometimes you can find mice nests in the insulation in the crawl space.

The best way to exterminate mice is through the use of bait boxes and snap traps. You can also purchase throw bags with mouse bait.

Place these along the walls in the crawl space and the garage. In stand-up attics, I like to place the snap traps along the edge of the floor. Make sure you do not place bait out in the open where other pets and animals can get to it.

The bait needs to be in a protected box or bag so that pets and children can’t get to it. If you want to get rid of a mouse in the house, you should use bait first.

Since many residents are not even entirely sure what a vole is or how much damage they actually do to a homeowner’s property, this species often manages to stay well under the radar as it gradually goes about its business.

These creatures are about six inches long with gray fur and closely resemble a small mouse as far as features go, but that is where the similarities end.

Voles spend a great amount of time underground and they are one of the purest herbivores found within the rodent family.

They love nothing more than to feed on root systems of area trees, but also consume a fair share of bark, vegetables, and plant matter.

This species can occasionally be found living a solidarity lifestyle but often live with several other adults and their young in one location.

This species is also occasionally mistaken for moles because both of them dig small holes into the ground in order to search for food while avoiding contact with predators.

It is also common to spot voles taking advantage of the underground passages that their similarly named distant cousins have dug, and since they are seeking different food sources this is usually acceptable to the moles.

These creatures will not dig just anywhere though, preferring their underground homes within deep grass or another cover.

The greatest threat from voles is their appetite for roots and bark, because both of these components play a large part in how trees receive nutrients. By damaging part of a plant’s supply chain it can often cause irreversible damage, especially in younger trees and plants.

When these pint-sized creatures gnaw on bark, it is usually close to the ground since they are poor climbers, but when the option of climbing is available they will also feed on lower branches.

The chew marks are usually about 1/8th of an inch wide and 3/8th of an inch long, so they are fairly easy to overlook.

Where To Find Voles

To locate this species lair, one of the best places to start is usually in tall grass or around dense shrubbery. Once in that area, the key thing to look for is trampled pathways that indicate their presence, and these can usually be followed in order to locate their actual burrowed out home.

Of course, it is entirely possible that there will be multiple locations to check before actually finding them, and if it is a large population they may reside in different areas stemming from the same pathway.

In order to effectively rid your property of voles, landscaping is one of the premier options.

Eliminate any tall grass and weeds, and then treat the area with an environmentally friendly chemical that will prevent the weeds from returning.

By eliminating their hiding spaces you are essentially doing two jobs at once; making them more likely to seek another home and giving predators such as snakes and birds a better chance of catching them.

Others have found success by placing various traps along their runways, and even without bait, they seem to often get caught if the placement is proper. For large colonies, this may require upwards of fifty traps though, and in that instance, pest control assistance may be necessary.

Where there are people, there will be rats. Rats dwell where humans settle because they have learned through the ages that people can provide them resources – whether they are welcomed or not.

Food and shelter are essential for survival and rats find them for free living in the house with unwilling human owners.

No matter how we keep our homes clean, if there are rodents lurking in the shadows, home is not just that clean anymore. In fact, we have invented some ingenious ways of trapping and getting rid of rats.

Rats are large rodents than their near cousin the little mice.

They grow between 8-16 inches long and about ten ounces in weight. They usually hide in the attic, between the walls, or up the ceiling. They are nocturnal critters that eat almost everything edible to their taste.

Rats can also reproduce fast from six to twelve offspring in less than a month. In just four to five months, these young rats can produce another set of offspring.

Getting rid of rats can also prevent you and your family to catch diseases carried by these large rodents. Diseases like the bubonic plague, leptospirosis, rat-bite fever, and other harmful illnesses are carried by rats and usually are left behind by their saliva, urine, and stool.

They have also caused fire and other accidents due to their mindless gnawing and chewing cables, wires, and other damages to property. If neglected, rats can become the number one annoying pests in your home.

Here are some helpful tips in eliminating rats:

1. Clean up crumbs and keep food safely stored away

You do not want your food to get contaminated with rats’ waste so store them properly. Rats gnaw at food containers so find suitable durable containers to store food. Keep your place free from food crumbs to prevent attracting rats.

2. Block the rat’s possible passageways

Check your place for any holes or passageways that rats can use to get into your house. You can block these entry points with steel wool or caulking for the time being.

Get rid of unnecessary clutter or storage in attics and closets to discourage rats to hide in them.

3. Use suitable methods in getting rid of rats

Observe first by getting a rat trap. But, if they persist, it’s time to call the pest control for rodent removal.

4. Use proper gear in handling dead rats

After killing some rats, expect to have a dead carcass around your house. Locate them immediately and use proper plastic gloves and other protective gear in disposing of dead rats. Their dead bodies can still transmit diseases.

5. Rat repellants

There are electronic rat repellants available. Choose one that is effective and safe to use.

For natural repellants place mint plants in access doors and windows or soak peppermint oil on cotton balls to deter rats. Rats have a strong aversion to the scent of these.

Rats can be put under control with the right methods you do. For severe rat infestation, schedule a consultation with your pest control company.

Mice are relatively small and hairy rodents, that damage household items, eat at food, and carry disease. Mice control can be complicated because mice are small in size and tend to crawl through small cracks and gaps.

Typically, they are prevalent in heavily cluttered areas, such as garages and basements. They are also hard to locate during the day and are most often found at night or when the lights are turned off.

It has been proven that mice are attracted to all types of food. If you have mice in your home, it is important that you do not leave any food out at any time and you should make it a habit to wipe all the surfaces that food has been in contact with.

These little creatures have soft skeletons so without you noticing, they can easily get through even the tiniest of holes. Another preventive measure is by placing bristle strips along the bottoms of the doors.

The good news is that there are several successful ways of getting rid of mice. Prevention is always better than a cure. Preventing mice from invading your home is so much better and much easier than working on a solution to get rid of them.

Preventing Mice Infestation

• For health and hygienic purposes, it would be good to clean under the sofa and fridge as often as you can to ensure that there is no leftover food on the floors that can possibly attract mice.
• Another effective way to repel mice is by using ultrasonic repellers. This device gives out a sound that deters mice from your home.
• Keeping a home clean, organized, and uncluttered is the best way to prevent mice from showing up in your home.
• Properly putting away any food in secure containers and bags is important because it will keep mice from showing up anywhere near food.
• Because mice are very versatile rodents capable of jumping and running up and down walls, be sure to seal any open spaces, vents, cracks or thin openings from the inside and outside of the home. This will ensure mice don’t crawl in from outside or jump from opening to opening.
• Traps are also effective methods for getting rid of mice. Place and hide traps or glue boards where you suspect mice to be around. Placing mice bait near traps will attract mice to the food and the trap, in turn, will capture the mouse.
• If your home is already infested with mice, you can always go for the conventional method of getting rid of mice by using mouse traps. Peanut butter and chocolate are much more effective as bait compared to cheese. You can easily find wooden or live-capture mouse traps at your local DIY store.

For cases wherein you have repeated mice infestation, hiring professional pest controllers would be a good decision to make because they are highly trained and skilled in the area of pest control.