As a homeowner, you are used to dealing with unexpected problems within your home. Problems like your water heater breaking, or your window being smashed by a neighbor kid’s fly ball. You do your best not to let these things bother you, but let’s be honest, owning and maintaining a home can be a stressful job. When mice are added into the equation, it can seem like your world is caving in around you. To save you some hair pulling, we have put together a comprehensive mouse control handbook. Your solution is just a few paragraphs away.
How To Identify A House Mouse
Mice are small rodents that are about five to seven inches long, including their tails. They have pointed snouts, large rounded ears, and a long tail. Mice can have a wide range of fur colors and can be anywhere from light brown to gray. Although mice are similar in appearance to rats, they have several distinguishing characteristics that set them apart. For one, mice are much smaller than rats. Mice also have more triangular snouts, while rats have blunter, more rounded snouts. You can also spot the difference between mice and rats by looking at their tails. Mice have fuzzy hairs on their tails but the tails of rats are hairless and scaly.
Problems Mice Cause for Homeowners
Mice are one of the most common household pests that Dallas homeowners deal with every year. If mice manage to invade your home, it won’t be long until they start to cause serious problems for you and your family. Some of the issues mice can cause when they infest your residential property include:
Property damage. Mice like to chew on just about everything in order to wear down their constantly growing front teeth. Unfortunately, mice will often chew on structural beams, wires, piping, personal belongings, and many other items in your Dallas home.
Disease. Mice look cute, but these small rodents are more dangerous than you might think. Not only can mice contaminate food items and trigger allergic reactions, but they can also spread many harmful diseases. A few of the diseases linked to mouse infestations include salmonella, hantavirus, and bubonic plague.
With all the problems mice can cause when they invade your Dallas home, it’s important to understand why they invade and how you can keep them out.
How to Avoid Mouse Problems in Your Home
Keeping mice out of your Dallas home isn’t always easy, especially when they can invade through the smallest cracks in your foundation and exterior walls. In fact, mice can squeeze through gaps the size of a nickel! In other areas, mice invade when the weather starts to get cooler, but here in Texas, mice invade while foraging for food and water sources. The best way to keep mice out of your home is to reduce factors that could attract them and eliminate easy entry points. Avoid finding rodents in your Dallas home by following these rodent-prevention tips.
Find and seal any cracks or crevices around the exterior of your property.
Keep your garbage cans sealed with tight-fitting lids.
Clean your counters and floors regularly.
Avoid leaving out pet food.
Store all leftover food items in airtight containers or in the refrigerator.
Reduce clutter on your property.
Mice are dangerous pests that should be dealt with immediately before they can multiply. These small rodents have a fast reproduction rate, which means your infestation can become very large very quickly if they aren’t eliminated. The safest, most effective way to deal with a mouse infestation is to contact the professionals here at DANCAN The Pest Control Expert. We can provide you with modern rodent control solutions that will keep your residential property rodent-free all year long. Give the pest technicians at DANCAN a call today to request your free estimate!