Leaving food out encourages mice.
Mice scurrying through your closets and nibbling at your food is as unhygienic as it sounds. Mice leave droppings and urine behind them and may carry diseases. The rodent habit of gnawing things, including electrical cables, can be dangerous. Poison certainly kills the mice but carries its own problems. It is an inhumane way to kill a mouse. Poisoned mice also crawl into walls to die, leading to numerous decomposing mice in inaccessible places. The smell of dead mice adds little to the appeal of a home. Alternatives to poison exist, including a variety of deterrents, which are often effective in preventing a mouse problem developing at all. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Scrub your kitchen. Vacuum up any crumbs, including below and behind furniture and appliances. Examine your kitchen closets and transfer any dried food, such as pasta, to glass or ceramic storage containers. Mice can easily chew through plastic wraps.
2. Introduce meal times for pets. A bowl of dog kibble or cat food lying around all day attracts pests. If you have little pets in cages, such as birds or gerbils, acquire spill-proof feeders or sweep up any spilt seeds several times a day. Just moving a food bowl to the center of a cage makes spillages less likely.
3. Soak cotton bowls in peppermint oil and distribute throughout your house, especially alongside walls, in closets and in sheltered places, such as underneath the sink.
4. Borrow a friend's carnivore pet, such as a dog, cat or ferret, for an hour or two and let the animal investigate your home. The smell of a predator might deter mice.
5. Block mouse entrances. Examine your walls, with a flashlight if necessary, and block all gaps wider than 1/4 inch with the appropriate building materials. Wire wool is also effective -- mice cannot chew through it.
6. Employ live traps or snap traps in the event of a serious mouse infestation. Live traps don't hurt the mouse, although it might not survive long outside the home, while snap traps are effective and fast. If using live traps, release the mouse at least a mile from your home. The Humane Society says that live traps or snap traps are reasonably humane as a last resort, unlike poison or glue traps.
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