Mice are among the most common (and among the most obnoxious) pests that can find their way into our homes. Mice are seemingly harmless rodents; some people may even keep them as pets. However, when they enter your home without your permission, you’ll soon find piles of droppings littering your house, your pantry items perpetually ransacked, and squeaking and scratching noises that permeate from your walls keeping you up at all hours of the night. Left unchecked, these uninvited guests can reproduce to levels that make them difficult to deal with, so it’s essential that your start your efforts to exterminate them as soon as you become aware that an issue is present.
The most effective way to deal with a mouse infestation is the tried and true professional exterminator. TermiGuard’s four-step integrated pest management practices are a surefire way to make sure your mouse problem becomes history. So, how does it work?
TermiGuard’s Integrated Pest Management Process (IPM)
Step 1: Inspection
An initial inspection is essential to address any given situation where pest control is necessary. We use our inspection process to determine exactly what pests are present, and the scale of the problem they present. Our inspections also serve a preventative purpose: we can point areas in which your home may be susceptible to future infestations. Even without an active infestation, inspections are an important way to maintain a safe, pest-free home, and we recommend that you have at least one general pest inspection every year.
Step 2: Identification
Before we treat your home, we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with. During the inspection stage, we identify exactly what kind of pest we’re dealing with. Once we know that, we can use our expertise in pest biology and ecology to create a treatment plan that best fits your unique situation.
Step 3: Treatment
Treatment is where our method truly shines. Our arsenal of battle-tested treatment solutions range from proactive, to reactive, and cater exactly to your particular needs. Through treatment, we aim to address the infestation at hand and to leave your home in the best possible shape to prevent further infestations. Our process is collaborative, and we want to work with you every step of the way to ensure a pest-free home.
Step 4: Prevention
By this point, the pest problem you had called us about will have been dealt with. We will have provided you with the tools and knowledge to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, but it’s up to you to safeguard your home against future infestations and to do what you can to prevent needing to repeat the extermination process. Prevention is at the very heart of our process, so it’s important that you understand exactly how you can take action to prevent mice from re-entering your home, and stick to the plan. It is the first, and most important step in protecting your home.
What Can You Do Today to Prevent A Mouse Infestation Tomorrow
Many of your non-professional prevention options are simply DIY common-sense solutions:
- Seek out openings to your home. All it takes for an infestation to begin is a family of mice finding a spot to slide through under your door. Install door sweeps and repair any weather damage to stop pests from entering through your front door.
- Seal up any holes you may find in your home’s pipes. Patching breaks with caulk will stop mice from entering through them, and mice can enter a hole of less than an inch in diameter
- If the vents of your air circulation system’s slats are on the wider side, you can covertly cover them with mesh to deny any mice trying to enter through your air ducts. AC units are a common point of entry.
- Repair any damaged roofing to seal off your home from the outside.
- Trim any overgrown vegetation around your home, as it can serve as a breeding ground for mice and other pests. In addition to breeding there, mice might use overgrowth as a means to approach and then enter your home.
- In addition to ground vegetation, you’ll also want to trim tree branches so that they don’t provide mice an opportunity to enter your home from above.
- Pests love hiding in the dark, so it’s a good idea to keep areas in and around your home tidy and free of clutter.
- Clear gutters and downspouts around your house to prevent water from gathering. Mice are attracted to water and moisture, along with other pests like insects.
- Make your food supplies hard to reach. Keep food in sealed containers after you’ve opened or cooked it. Wipe down your kitchen regularly to avoid collecting any crumbs and attracting mice.
Exterminators’ Methods of Dealing With Mice
While prevention is great and should prevent outbreaks of mice, sometimes more direct methods of intervention can be necessary. Professional methods of mouse extermination, are discreet, calculated, and most of all effective. When working with experts, you’ll have no reason to fear mousetraps covering your kitchen counters or turning your home into a dangerous obstacle course. After a thorough examination of your home, during which the exterminator will identify how exactly the mice are entering, they will begin strategizing how to deliver results in dealing with the problem at hand.
No two infestations are the same, so your exterminator will select what methods and tools to employ from their expert’s arsenal.
One of the most common methods used to exterminate mice is through mousetraps. Your exterminator will place them in areas away from the most actively used areas of your home, and maximize their effectiveness against the mice in your home. Mice don’t like to hang out on kitchen counters or tables; in fact, they tend to stay pretty close to the entrances of their nests, their escape routes, and away from people. Professionals will place traps in areas like basements, attics, and crawlspaces.
Traps do a solid job, especially when placed effectively, but for more complete extermination you’ll want to mount multiple sources of attacking power. Rodenticide can be a potent addition to your mouse extermination efforts. Applied judiciously to the outside entry points of your home, Rodenticide can stop an infestation in its tracks. As important as the initial intervention is the follow-up. A true professional will make sure to check back in with you routinely to ensure the success of their plan.
End Your Mouse Problem for Good
TermiGuard’s Integrated Pest Management process can help you attain peace of mind, as well as a home completely free of mice. Call today to schedule an initial consultation and we can begin to craft a personalized response to your mouse problem. Always remember that a good defense is worth more than a great offense; you can do the lion’s share of the work required to stop infestations long before an infestation occurs. However, if an infestation still occurs, we will walk with you every step of the way – from our initial consultation through our follow-up.
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