Mouse-proof Your House

Did you know a mouse can squeeze through a gap the width of a pencil? If you think your house is mouse-proof and nothing can get in, you may want to think again.

The first line of defence in making sure you aren’t troubled by mice is to prevent them from getting in to begin with. They tend to be more prevalent from September through until March, when the weather is cold and wet. They will try and find ways into houses and other buildings in order to seek shelter. You may occasionally get a stray mouse finding its way through an open door in the summer months, but this doesn’t usually cause a major problem.

Unfortunately, having all your doors and windows shut and locked in the colder months isn’t enough to make your home mouse-proof. It pays to look both inside and outside your home for any small gaps they might try to squeeze through. Oftentimes, mice will get into a property via the kitchen. This room will naturally have several pipes going from inside to the outside, to feed waste water out to the drains. If the gaps around those pipes aren’t properly sealed, you could end up with a mouse getting through them.

Another key area to look at is one that may not initially occur to you. Look under all your kitchen cabinets. Is there a small gap between whatever flooring you have and the walls? Since there are rarely skirting boards that go along underneath the cabinets, this can be a potential area for the mice to get in.

The ideal way to prevent this from happening is to pack the gaps with steel wool and seal them over with sealant. Move around the kitchen and look for any sort of gap around pipework, or where the skirting doesn’t quite meet the floor properly. If you think a mouse could possibly get through, block it up.

Sometimes you can smell ammonia if mice have been around; another tell-tale sign is the presence of droppings. These are only very small, but a mouse can produce quite a few of them every night. Keep your kitchen clean, sweep the floors of any dropped crumbs and get rid of any potential food sources they might be able to get to.

Mouse-proofing your home might be easier than you think – and it’s better than having to deal with an infestation at a later date.