Date Posted: February 15, 2018
Category: Mice And Rodents
Here in South Portland, winter can get pretty cold. While mother nature rages on outside, you might have seen a few signs of winter inside your home too. As we know, when the weather is bad, pests like mice are glad to let themselves in to find somewhere warmer and safer to stick out the seasons. It's awfully tempting to just ignore the minimal signs you've noticed so far. It's not so far from spring, after all, and you may have heard that mice will leave on their own once it warms up. The truth is, they won’t.
Mice are an extremely dangerous pest, and getting rid of them should be an absolute priority. Once a mouse is inside your home they chew endlessly through wires, insulation, pipes, and walls, creating major fire hazards as well as causing water damage to interior walls and the structure of your home. The problem is, if you don’t know what you are looking for, you may never know you have a pest problem unless you see the rodent itself, so let’s take a look at some of the more common signs of rodent activity.
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Mouse droppings: Mouse droppings are likely going to be your first sign of an infestation, and oftentimes the worst one. Mice spread disease when they leave droppings and urine behind, and with droppings being small, sometimes they can be hard to spot. Mouse droppings will be brown, oblong, and about 1/4” in length. Droppings are likely going to be found by a food source.
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Mouse nests: A sure sign of a mouse infestation is finding its nest. It’s here that mice breed large families, reassuring that the damage and infestation are ongoing. A mouse nest is usually built from things it finds throughout your house, such as newspaper and cardboard, and can commonly be found in lower traffic, darker areas of your home.
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Chewed up belongings: Take a step back before you blame the dog. Mice can be extremely destructive. As mentioned, when forming a nest, mice will resort to just about anything that shreds easily. You could come to find that this includes clothes, furniture, toilet paper, and even walls. Mice have teeth that never stop growing, and in order to keep them at a reasonable length, you guessed it, they chew.
Mice can be extremely difficult to completely eradicate. There are a lot of DIY options out there for getting rid of the mice. There are the hardware store versions of pesticides and mouse traps, but what really works? The answer is that most over-the-counter or DIY methods are not very reliable. Sure you catch a mouse here and there, or you see fewer droppings in spots you noticed before, making it fair to say you have made somewhat of an impact, but at the rate that mice reproduce, and their ability to find ways into places that most people would never notice, it’s unlikely you got them all. The knowledge a professional comes equipped with is essential in locating and taking care of the nest, as well as making sure to prevent re-entry. Professionals also have access to tools and equipment that many folks will not be able to get their hands on, making the professionals a much better choice.
At Big Blue Bug Solutions, we offer extensive and proven home protection plans against pests. Our home protection plans provide year-round service by offering three service visits per year, and if pests come back in between visits, so do we...at no additional cost to you! We also understand the importance of a clean home, which is why our pest control professionals wear blue gloves and booties when entering your home. By taking the extra step, we ensure that your home is cleaner when we left than when we got there! When we arrive, we will make sure to focus on both the inside and outside of your home, cleaning up pests and fixing their entry points as we go. Doing so reassures you that pests won’t be a problem in the future. Want to know if our services are right for you? Call us today for a free home inspection and a technician will be happy to show you what you are up against! Let us help you keep your South Portland property pest free.
