10 ways to a mouse-free home

Dayan Buensuceso – homify Dayan Buensuceso – homify
Casa Imbassaí, Jamile Lima Arquitetura Jamile Lima Arquitetura 露臺
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Sitting idly by the living room, your eyes detect movement and find that a mouse had just passed by from a couch seat a few feet away towards the bulky mahogany drawer. Your mind asks a dozen questions a minute like where it came from or where would it go next and will it bite any of you at home? It's crazy, but before you get all worked up, spend a few minutes reading through these helpful ways to avoid another encounter with that critter.

1. Buy mouse traps

Mice are unnecessarily irritating because they feed on not just your leftover food or ingredients, but also your personal non-food items! So don't hesitate buying a mouse trap. These days, mouse traps come in sophisticated styles but the classic cage-type ones won't fail you so long as you also strategically place them where the mouse often trails.

2. Place a good bait

The most basic mouse traps are those that either require a bait to effectively capture the mice or those that are simply sticky so that the mice won't be able to break-free. For those using the one with the bait, we recommend placing bits of peanut butter, chocolate, or cheese as they are lured by high-calorie sweets and fatty food. Quite the picky-eaters, don't you think?

3. Follow their trail

Mice are interestingly agile so if you can't catch them in an instant, it's wiser to follow and capture them like a ninja.  Following them means monitoring where they pass by and where they excrete or wherever it is that they frequent so that you will be able to place the trap on any of those spots.

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4. Check the top and the bottom

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If they find refuge in higher parts like on top of some furniture then check it out. They can even pass by window ledges! If they're more low-lying then note the back or bottom parts of your pieces of furniture.

5. Find holes along walls

Mice enter houses for mostly two reasons – food and heat. One of the areas where they can find heat is inside holes especially along plaster walls. Ask yourself, where would it likely find home in your home? Monitor those cracks and crannies.

6. Guard your food spots

With heat secured in a hole, the next thing you can search for is your kitchen or pantry where the mouse can go stealthily whilst taking or nibbling away your stacks of chocolate! In fact, you might also want to check on your trash from time to time as those bits of crumbs might be picnic for them. So other than placing the mouse traps on these areas, try to seal and secure these to send a clear 'no entry' message to the mice.

7. Be wary of entry points

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Admittedly, it can be hard to secure every nook and cranny of your home from the mice most especially when you have a garden. The least you can do is to track down the trail of the mice from outdoors. Yes, it seems contradictory but it's worth a shot because by then, you'd be able to trace where they pass through and thus place some blockade to limit their movement.

8. Stay close to covered spaces

Mice constantly seek protection that's why they go all ninja mode on you. If they find areas that are less risky, they'd go for those in a snap. If it's underneath the ottoman, they'd dive to get through to it. If it's behind rattan boxes, they'd scurry towards those. So a clever application of that knowledge would be placing the traps on those areas.

9. Forget the poison

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We've been mentioning traps and other preventive measures but if you've noticed, we haven't exactly recommended using poison. One reason is that it can be dangerous to households with children as they can ingest them when unchecked. So it's better to steer away from those and go for other safer methods like say domesticating a cat!

10. Prevent at all costs

While some have chosen the path of domesticating mice, we would advise against caring for mice that roam wildly around as they could carry some infection. We wouldn't want another plague, don't we? In case the above tips have been done but there remains a mouse on the loose, you may have to resort to professional help through calling exterminators.

Read our steps to preventing and eliminating fungus at home as well!

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