Mice are a common household pest all over the world. If you have or think you have a mouse problem in your South Portland home, you do not want to let it get out of control.
Here are some very good reasons to keep your home free of mice: they carry diseases, they can cause fires, and they can cause structural damage.
A surefire way to tell if you are infested with mice is when you find small black, rice-shaped droppings under baseboards, along walls, and in your pantry. You may also find nests in dark, quiet places (made of odds and ends chewed up like paper, fabric, and cardboard). Gnawing and scratching sounds coming from attics, basements, ceilings, and walls could also be a sign you have a mouse taking up residence in your home.
Mice can do some undesirable things that make keeping them out of your home difficult. They can squeeze through spaces as small as a dime. They can breed quickly (a female mouse can have up to 6 babies every 3 weeks) and adapt to changing conditions (including surviving a mouse famine through cannibalism). Mice can gnaw on things and cause damage to structures or cause a fire if live wires are chewed. A bite from a mouse can be painful to a human, and their droppings can cause allergic reactions, diseases like the Hantavirus, and illness from bacteria such as Salmonella.
You may want to try these Do-it-Yourself tips, but using a professional pest control service is advisable:
- Make sure there are no entry points into your home: cracks, holes, vents, gaps around pipes…
- Store food in airtight containers and clean up food spills quickly
- Keep trash, old boards, and woodpiles away from the outside of your house
- Use traps (poison bait is not good for homes with pets and children)
Even if you trap a few mice, you can't be sure you are rid of all of them. It will inevitably end up being a constant battle pitting you against them.
If you would like a better, long-lasting solution to prevent and treat an infestation, you can contact the South Portland, Maine, professional pest control technicians here at Big Blue Bug Solutions. Our highly trained rodent experts have the tools, technology, and expertise to safely and efficiently eliminate mice from your South Portland home, and the protocols to keep them from returning. Don’t let mice get the upper hand in your home; give us a call today.