Mice are constantly on the lookout for food. You can use their high food drive to your advantage and use the very food they enjoy to bait and effectively rid your home of rodents. Most articles wrongly suggest that specific kinds of food can kill mice. Although there aren’t any foods that can kill mice on the spot, you can still use food as bait or as part of a poison for extermination purposes.
So what kinds of food are mice attracted to? Mice naturally feed on fruits, grains, and seeds in the wild so you can use these raw ingredients on top of processed human food. Foods with strong salty or sweet smells can also make your bait or poison more enticing.
Using Food to Eliminate Mice
There are two ways you can use food to eliminate mice. One method is to use food as bait for traps. To do this, simply set up traps around your home to catch and kill mice. Here are the different kinds of traps you can use:
- Traditional snap trap: This uses a quick trigger system to catch and kill rodents once the bait is moved.
- Glue board: This kind of trap uses a sticky surface to trap mice and other pests. The glue board has a low profile compared to others, so mice aren’t as suspicious of it compared to traps.
- Electronic rodent traps: Electronic rodent traps offer one of the quickest ways to rid of caught mice. Once the creature enters the chamber, it delivers a high-voltage that instantly kills it.
- Catch and release traps: These traps are considered to be the most humane methods to trap rodents. It works by trapping the rodent inside a cage with the help of a bait. Once the creature is trapped inside, you can release it wherever you want.
The second method involving food is to mix food with poison. Adding food into the poison makes it more enticing for the rodents and increases your success in eliminating them. Mice have a heightened sense of smell and adding food to the poison will help encourage them despite the strong chemical odors.
How to Use Food as Enticing Bait
Mice may not be the pickiest eaters but they have a preference for certain foods. Knowing which foods are most enticing to mice can help increase your chances of finally ridding your home of pests. Here are some of the foods you can use:
1. Fruits and Vegetables
Out in the wild, mice typically feed on fruits and vegetables. Fruits like berries have a strong, sweet scent that these rodents are attracted to. Homes with fruit gardens or trees tend to have a higher risk of infestation because of their natural preference for fruit.
Use the strong scent of fruits to your advantage. You may use bits of fruit like berries, apples, and peach to attract mice to your bait. You can also use pieces of vegetables like bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots.
2. Peanut Butter
Aside from fruits, mice also feed on nuts in the wild. The high-protein content in this kind of food attracts these rodents. They eat almost any kind of nut, from cashews to hazelnuts.
Mice also feed on processed nuts so this means you can use nut butters to help eliminate these pests. Peanut butter and hazelnut spread are two of the most common foods to help attract mice to your trap. You can put a pea-sized amount of these nut butters on mouse traps or mix it with some rat poison.
3. Grains and Seeds
Another kind of food that mice naturally feed on are grains and seeds. This is one of their more natural food sources.
This also means that ingredients like flour, cornbread, and bird seeds are attractive food sources for these rodents. It is important that you keep these kinds of food in your pantry safe by transferring it into airtight containers and glass jars.
4. Fresh Meat
Although mice usually feed on fruits, nuts, seeds, and grains in the wild, meat can still be a great option to attract pests. Other rodents, like rats, are more avid meat-eaters, so this kind of food makes an attractive food source. Fresh, uncooked meat already works as enticing bait, but you can also opt to cook some pieces of bacon or some beef jerky and use those.
When using meat to attract mice, it is important to remember that they don’t necessarily hunt for meat. These rodents just eat what’s readily available, so although using meat is okay, it may not be the best option.
5. Chocolate
You can use chocolate as bait for rat traps, but it can also be used for homemade rat poison. One way to do this is to mix some cocoa powder and flour with baking soda or boric acid.
Baking soda or boric acid creates a lot of gas inside the rodent’s digestive system. The mouse does not have the ability to expel this much amount of gas, so it eventually kills them. Since cocoa powder has a strong, sweet scent, it can be used to mask the scent of the baking soda. It is also more effective to use new baking soda instead of an old one. Remember to use gloves when handling this DIY poison so you don’t “contaminate” it with human scent.
6. Pet Food
If you own a dog or a cat, their food can also attract mice. The crunchy treats are enticing enough for the rodents, but you can also wet some of the pet food and place it as bait on mouse traps. It’s easier to put wet food on snap traps since its moisture helps hold it in place.
They won’t limit themselves to a cat or dog food. Hay, seeds, and fish food can also work to lure them in.
Where To Place Bait or Poison
To effectively use food to eliminate rodents inside your home, you should identify where there is high rodent activity. This increases your chances of catching and killing more mice.
Placing traps and poison in open spaces is not recommended since these rodents do not explore these places of the house. Because of this, it is better to place these near the walls, attics, or any dark places that these rodents prefer to live and breed in.
You can also put these in places that are typical food sources for them. If you have a tree in your garden that the rodents get food from, consider placing it there. Food can also be placed in garbage cans since mice are known to rummage through these when hunting for food sources.
Other Methods to Eliminate Mice
Aside from using food as bait or mixing food with poison, it can also be used to repel mice from your property. Again, these rodents have a strong sense of smell, so they tend to avoid food items that have a pungent odor.
Pantry staples like onions, chili flakes, pepper, and cloves can help repel mice. You can place these in places where there is high rodent activity. However, it is important to regularly check on these food items because they tend to rot quickly.
Aside from food, you can use ingredients with strong scents such as peppermint oil. You can soak a piece of cotton in some peppermint oil and place it in places where the pests are usually found. This scent can be sensitive to the mice, so it can keep them away for a while.
At the end of the day, the most effective way to eliminate these pests is by enlisting the help of professional services. This ensures you that your place is properly inspected beforehand.
Effective Rodent Control at Midway Pest Management
Here at Midway Pest Management, we offer professional rodent control services in Kansas City. During our first visit, Midway Pest Management will conduct a preliminary inspection to determine the signs of a rodent infestation inside your home. Afterwards, you are given a Personalized Inspection Report, detailing your needs and describing all your service options.
Our team of experienced staff members helps provide customized solutions to your infestation problems. We promise to deliver excellent service that helps eliminate pests inside your home to keep you and your family safe. Our team guarantees that your property will be pest-free for at least two years. Contact us to know more about us and our available services.
Read more: Tips On How To Protect Your Food Storage From Mice