Rodents like rats and mice bring several problems into your home like gnawing through walls and furniture, carrying diseases, and going through your food. There are several ways to deal with rodent infestations, but one of the best methods is to call professional rodent exterminators. Experts ensure that a property is rodent-free by incorporating different methods that they have learned and practiced.
So what do exterminators do to get rid of mice? Before anything else, exterminators learn about mice behavior and their habits. Afterwards, they inspect your property and determine which strategic action to take to eliminate the pests. Exterminators clean and sanitize the property properly and follow up exterminations may happen to maintain the property’s rodent-free condition.
How Exterminators Eliminate Mice
Exterminations aren’t a simple task — it requires a lot of work and knowledge to effectively eliminate all the mice in a property. It’s also important that they carry out the methods properly to avoid any problems that stem from mice infestations like diseases and the risk of returning rodents. Exterminators also require extensive training before they’re able to eliminate rodents and other pests. Here’s how exterminators effectively eliminate mice:
1. Learn About Mice Behavior and Habits
Before even going to your home to check the problems you have regarding rodents, exterminators already know how mice behave. It’s important that they understand how these rodents behave because not only does it make exterminating mice easier, it also helps them come up with the best methods to control the mice population in the property.
Some mice behaviors that exterminators learn about is where mice usually live, how they move around the house, and what attracts them to a property. For example, exterminators learn about how often or how fast mice can breed, so they’re able to estimate how many mice are possibly living in a household.
If an exterminator chooses to use traps to eliminate mice, this knowledge is helpful since it helps them determine the best areas to place the traps and what kind of bait best attracts rodents.
2. Inspect the Property
When you call for professional extermination, one of the first things they’re going to do is inspect your property, both indoors and outdoors. This provides them with an overall view of the severity of the rodent infestation. It can also help determine where the rodents stay in the property and if they have built any nesting sites. This information is extremely helpful for exterminators because it helps determine what kind strategic action to take for the problem.
Inspecting the property also allows them to identify the different access points the mice have to your home. Any cracks and gaps in your home provide rodents with easy access to enter and infest the house. Exterminators are also going to check the different factors that make your property attractive to the pests. For instance, your kitchen may provide mice with plenty of food resources and allow the pests to live in your house for a longer period of time.
3. Strategic Actions
After inspecting the property of rodent infestations, an exterminator determines their strategy on how they will eliminate mice. There are different strategies that exterminators use when dealing with rodents and some of the strategies include:
- Setting Up Traps: Setting up traps around the house is an affordable yet effective method to catch and remove mice. Exterminators know more about how mice behave, so they know the best areas to place the traps. Your attic, basement, garage, and other crawl spaces are a few areas where mice usually find shelter and build their nests. Mice also move near walls and avoid open spaces, so exterminators may place several traps near these areas. There are also several kinds of traps professionals may use: there’s the snap trap, the glue board, the live trap, and more.
- Sealing Entry Points: Mice are small creatures that can fit into even smaller spaces — these rodents can fit into cracks or gaps as small as a dime. These creatures are also known to have strong teeth that are able to gnaw through walls and floors. Because of this, exterminators are particular when it comes to sealing entry points and only use the best materials to ensure that no mice can chew or gnaw through. Some materials that they can use to seal entry points are the following:
- Caulk and Steel Wool Compound: A compound of caulk and steel wool is great for sealing any small holes that mice can squeeze through. When combined, caulk and steel wool is able to smoothen out almost any surface. It is also a compound that rodents find difficult to chew through.
- Hardware Cloth: For larger entry points, exterminators may choose to place a sheet of hardware cloth instead. This material is commonly made from metal or plastic and covers areas like the windows and doors. Since windows and doors allow your house to breathe, it’s better to seal these larger entry points with some hardware cloth.
- Strong Materials: There are other strong materials that can be used to keep mice away from your home. Some of these materials are metals, strong cement, hard plastic, glass, and stone.
- Fumigation: When faced with a larger infestation, exterminators fumigate the area. This is a method that should be used as a last resort and can only be carried out by professionals. Fumigation also uses chemicals to eliminate pests, so it’s best to prepare for it, especially if you have children or pets. Here are some things you may want to know about fumigation:
- How to Prepare for Fumigation: Since fumigation can be a toxic process, it’s recommended to find somewhere else to stay. Before fumigation, remember to leave your interior doors open. Doors that lead to other parts of the house like the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms should be kept open so that the mice cannot stay in these areas and hide. You should also remember to have your gas turned off and to seal all food and consumables.
- Chemicals Used for Fumigation: Some chemicals that an exterminator may use for fumigation are the following: magnesium phosphide, methyl bromide, aluminum phosphide, and calcium cyanide. It’s best to ask your exterminator what kind of chemical they’re using to fumigate your house so you can avoid any problems in the long-run.
4. Cleaning and Sanitizing the Area
Cleaning and sanitizing after a rodent infestation is very important when it comes to mice exterminations. Your floors and walls aren’t the only areas of the house that can be possibly contaminated during a rodent infestation. Beddings, clothes, old books, and carpets can also be contaminated and would need special cleaning to be disinfected.
Failing to clean properly after a rodent infestation may put you at risk of problems like diseases and pungent odors. Even if all the mice are gone, their feces and urine still carry a variety of viruses that can cause different diseases. Some of the diseases you may get from mice feces and urine are hantavirus, leptospirosis, and rat-bite fever.
Aside from using traditional cleaning and sanitizing methods, exterminators may also help you remove everything that provides resources for mice. Professionals recommend that you transfer food in airtight containers or glass jars to make it rodent-proof. Cleaning up your garbage and reducing clutter also helps prevent any future mice infestations.
5. Follow Up Exterminations
A single extermination probably isn’t enough if you’re dealing with a more serious infestation. Bigger places like buildings and high-rises offer the rodents with plenty of room to find shelter and breed. Mice can also breed exponentially, so follow up exterminations are likely needed to eliminate all the rodents. During a follow up extermination, an exterminator is able to see if there are any remaining mice or if there are any places that still need to be exterminated.
Follow up exterminations also help the experts look at any new nesting sites that are building up or if there is anything in your home that provides the rodents with the resources they need to live. Professionals can also provide you with more tips on how to prevent any further rodent infestations from happening.
Eliminate Mice With Midway Pest Management
Calling professional rodent exterminators is the best way to ensure that all mice in your property are eliminated. Here at Midway Pest Management, we offer professional rodent control for all our clients in Kansas in Missouri. Our team consists of experts who take proactive approaches in eliminating pests.
During a visit from Midway Pest Management, our technicians conduct an initial consultation of the property to determine the customized pest control solutions. We promise to deliver excellent service to provide you with pest-free properties. Schedule a free consultation with us today to know how we can help you.
Learn more: Glue Traps vs Snap Traps: How Are They Different?