Winter is a very cold season in Canada and mice are very fond of warmth. They hate being cold and while they can make a den and sleep through most of the winter they would rather be active. As temperatures drop most rodents are drawn to a source of warmth and food, and most people’s homes offer both. I mean, honestly. Who can say they have a home so clean mice would not want to live there. Crumbs can fall in places you may not realize and can’t reach, but a mouse can reach it, and it’s exactly where a mouse would look for food. If you have a winter mouse infestation then you will have to deal with it, on your own or with the help of professionals.
A major problem with many people’s homes is that most people have their gardens right up against their house, with no space between the home and the plants. Or worse, some people don’t care for their lawn and let it fill with tall grass. This tall grass is the perfect hiding place for mice waiting to get into your home. They can hide for as long as they want while they search for an entrance into your home, that is if they don’t just get in through an open back door or a garage door that doesn’t meet the ground. You need to inspect your home for every winter, check the weather stripping and look for cracks in walls and the foundation, anything as big as a quarter is enough for a mouse to enter.
You also should take precautionary measures. No reason to wait for a mouse infestation, take initiative and start the process yourself. You can clean your home regularly and that helps prevent rodents, if your house is sparkling and free of food particles then mice will have nothing to eat. Make sure you don’t store anything in boxes, especially food, if you have to store food items store them in tightly sealed sturdy plastic containers that won’t budge when you shake them. The mice will not be able to penetrate that container.
Now if you have mice in your home you will need to take action after cleaning the house top to the bottom go outside and remove any food sources. Vegetable gardens must be excluded with steel mesh to protect them from rodents. Fruit trees, bird feeders and accessible garbage are all rodent attractors. If you have bushes on your property with berries or any kind of seed or nut you will have animals and rodents all over your yard. Having nothing edible on your lawn is a very effective way of preventing rodent infestations. You can also inspect the outside of the home for possible entryways into the home. This can be difficult and confusing but if you do the work and seal the holes you will be able to treat the problem with domestic poison and the mice will have nothing else to eat and will be forced to eat the poison. They will die and you will be mouse free, permanently.
You can also make use of other methods of killing mice. Snap traps work well baited with peanut butter and if you want to do it humanely you can capture them in cage traps and relocate them to a natural habitat. You also have the option of zap traps to kill them with technology and every kind of poison you could imagine. Take a look in your local grocery and hardware store and you will find everything you need.
