5 Easy Tips To Get Rid Of Mice In Your Attic

Last Updated: April 1, 2020

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Mice can be the bane of the modern household. As these pests prefer to live in the attic of your house, making it hard for you to identify that you have uninvited guests. The attic is a perfect shelter for these pests – a  warm, safe, dry place in which to go and make a home. Mice infestations in attics have negative implications.  

How Mice Infestations Can Impact Your Life

First of all, mice are well known for reproducing at an astronomical rate. Just one pair of reproducing mice can lead to a growing colony of hundreds in a matter of a year. Your attic can become overrun with mice if not controlled. Here are a few signs of mice that you should be on the lookout for.

Like all rodents, the house mouse is a chewer, and can gnaw on electrical wires and other structures. This may cause outages or pose fire hazard risks to your property. Mice are well known not only to harbour blood-feeding parasites such as mites, fleas and ticks but also are known for carrying and spreading pathogens such as Hanta virus and Salmonella. They can transmit these pathogens directly to you by contaminating food, drinks or contact surfaces via their droppings, urine and saliva or indirectly by you inhaling airborne particles of dried mouse droppings. Parasites brought in by the mice also carry and transmit pathogens and they pose health risks to you and your pets. Not only that, their bites can be painful and irritating. Learn more about mice here.  

As you can see mice can cause havoc in the home, but you may be wondering what can be done to stop these pests if they do move into your attic and home. Well, here are a few diy (do it yourself) tips to help rid your home of a mouse infestation.

Steps You Can Take To Get Rid Of Mice In Your Attic

 1.   Find and Close All Entry Points

Inspect your entire house or building, and find all  open holes and gaps both at ground and roof level that mice might use to get in. This can include vents, eave gaps, rooflines, worn-out door seals, missing bricks in wall etc. Check the entire roof, as well as any vent or other small access points to the attic.

Remember that mice are able to squeeze into the tiniest of areas. You need to look for VERY SMALL holes/openings, like a quarter of an inch or where you can put the tips of your fingers through. Using a durable and appropriate sealant, fill in these holes to ensure mice cannot get into your home. Make sure the sealant is rodent proof because mice can chew through some sealants such as foams. 

2.   Trim Trees & Shrubs near Your Home

Mice are well known for their climbing abilities, along with also being able to jump about 8 foot downwards (depending on the height of the tree). By trimming overgrown tree branches and shrubs close to or touching the house, you are essentially taking away the “ladder” for those mice.

By trimming your shrubs, you are also taking away any hiding spots mice use during the day. Thereby, ensuring that they do not have a path into your home or more specifically your attic.

3. Practice Proper Sanitation/Food Storage Techniques

Now this is a bit of an additional prevention tip, but is still effective nonetheless. By ensuring that your food is properly stored and that food is not left out in the open, you can take away any food source that may attract mice.

Given that mice can survive on 3 grams of food a day, you need to make sure that even small messes like crumbs or stains are cleaned up immediately. This will make sure that the mice are not able to grow their colony, or get the adequate supplies to survive in your attic.

4. Lay Out Traps In High Activity Areas

This is probably the most critical part of getting rid of mice in your attic. The success of your trapping efforts depends on the type (live traps, snap traps, number and strategic locations of your traps. Laying out traps in the strategic locations can be all the difference. The best way to identify where these mice might be travelling is by following the droppings.

As mice are cautious creatures, as such you need to ensure that you are covering enough area with traps. Set your traps along the walls and corners to ensure that you are effective in capturing the mice and getting rid of the problem.

5. Check Your Traps Regularly

As may be the case, sometimes the elusiveness of mice may dodge or set off the traps . Checking your traps regularly, sometimes even once a day might be just what is required to get rid of your pest. As checking regularly can ensure that you are able to reset traps when necessary, while also being able to quickly and safely dispose of trapped mice if your traps have worked.

If you would like to learn more about the habits of mice, our pest library is perfect for you.

Now if this seems daunting for you to do on your own, do not worry. Our team of expert Orkin Canada technicians are here for any mouse/rodent control needs you may have. Feel free to reach out via our contact form, or by phone at 1-(844) 263-7722.

rodents mice mice in my home

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Alice Sinia Quality Assurance Manager – Regulatory/Lab Services

Reviewed by Alice Sinia, Ph.D., MSc on March 30 2020.

Master of Science Degree in Pest Management (MSc.) – Simon Fraser University; BSc. (Hons) Biological Sciences (Entomology & Parasitology) – Makerere University; Advanced Level Certificate of Education – Trinity College; Ph.D. – University of Guelph)

With more than 20 years of experience, Alice is responsible for the management of the Orkin Canada Quality Assurance Laboratory located at our GTA Training Centre. She performs analytical entomology (investigates product adulteration using biochemical and comparative tissue methods), and provides technical support in pest/insect identification to branch offices and clients nationwide. In addition, Alice also prepares scientific reports for Orkin Canada clients, updates Orkin management on any changes or updates to any government regulations pertaining to the pest control industry. Alice also performs quality assurance account compliance audits.

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