The winter is a great time of year to spend time with friends and family. However, there can sometimes be unwanted guests at the party in the form of furry little pests.
Here are a few ways that you can prevent mice from joining the festivities this winter:
- Keep your home clean and tidy. It’s a little bit more work during the winter to keep your home tidy. The hustle and bustle of the holiday season and the extra people in the house can create a little bit of chaos. However, it is essential that your home stay clean and tidy all year around – especially during the winter months. Mice come indoors looking for warmth, water and food. If your home provides all three – they will stay. However, if they can’t find food, they will move on to another house.
- Make sure that all cracks and crevices are sealed. An adult mouse can crawl through a hole that is the size of a dime – no hole or crack is too small to fill in with sealant. Check the weather stripping around the doors and windows of your home also to make sure that there isn’t any pieces missing or cracked. Check the cutout holes around any utility cables that are running into the side of your home and make sure that the basement vents are covered with mesh screens or wire
- Keep your eyes peeled for signs of an infestation. Mice will hunker down during the winter months and burrow into anything that they can find. Look for bits of chewed paper or cardboard, ripped cloth and torn pillows – all of these items make a cozy little nest for a colony of mice. Two adult mice will spend the winter months reproducing and in the spring – you will have a full blown infestation! It is best to catch these little critters sooner than later.
If you think that you have a mouse infestation it is important to call a professional exterminator right away for an inspection. The sooner that you find the next and get rid of the colony the less damage they can do to your electrical system – and cause a fire in your home.
