3 Signs You Have Mice In Your Walls And How To Get Rid Of Them
Mice in the walls of your home can be a nuisance. It happens to most homes so you are not alone. Read up on ways to identify mice and what to do about it.
Here are 3 easy ways to figure out if you have mice living in your walls
3. Sounds
a. Scratching and Chewing
Mice scratching and chewing in the walls can sound as if the source of the noise should be bigger than a raccoon rummaging around in there. It is very deceiving. And they are so persistent it drives homeowners batty. If you hear these types of sounds and want to be sure what it is, bang on the wall close to the source. If it stops and goes silent, waiting for you to go away, you likely have a mouse. If it puts distance between itself and your pounding, you likely have something else lurking in the dark
b. Drumming or Vibrating
If you hear a vibrating sound in the walls and it has you completely stumped on what it could be, look no further, you have a talented white footed mouse. Watch this handsome mouse demonstrate.
c. Sleep Around
Depending on the size of your home, you may have noisy mice in your walls and never know it. How is this possible? Well, while you are tucked away in your bedroom in the wee hours of the morning mice are active. Try sleeping on the sofa in the different rooms of your home and see if you get a rude awakening.
The risk of not knowing, is not doing anything, in this circumstance mice reproduce rapidly, sooner or later you will see visible signs of mice in your living space as they branch out to forage for food.
2. Visible Signs Of Mice
By visible signs we are talking about mice feces, smudge marks and actual mice sightings. Here is a mouse that lived in the walls and vacationed in the kitchen. Look at this tiny hole chewed where a new kitchen cabinet was fastened to the wall. Since it was behind the stove, no one would know.
You may have closets and utility rooms where mice feces are quick and dirty signs of problems. Just look at this glaring stash hiding behind the water heater. These mice retreated to the safety of the walls in the day and came out to party at night. If you look close you’ll find slick smudge marks from where the mice rub up against building materials.
Check your attic for trails in the insulation. A strong correlation exists between mice in the walls and mice in the attic. Often times mice enter the home at lower entry points and from there go up or down.
1. Entry Points.
A quick inspection of the outside of your home can give you a good indication of whether you have mice in the walls. If you can find holes as big as a dime then we’ll bet you all the wealth in the world mice found them well before you. If you have a brick exterior home here is the classic entry point. Take a good read of this page about Weep Holes.
Uhggg You have Mice in your walls, now what?
Its time assemble a mouse eviction squad and employ the following tactics. Note: mice are cute so make sure your team members are not mouse sympathizers. You don’t need any eviction sabotage taking place behind your back. Having said that the best methods always involve exclusion techniques. This means filling cracks and holes with proper mesh and foam sealants. But always make sure you differentiate holes that have a function from those that should not exist. For example weep holes need to breath and expel moisture. Your best solution are stainless steel weep hole covers.
After that set traps on the inside of your home in the spaces you have seen signs of mice. This way you can remove them from your home. Not to fret if mice die in your walls. It happens all the time whether the home owner is aware or not. They don’t tend to cause much issue as their carcass dries up pretty fast. Its when rats die in the walls that you want to avoid. A decaying rat carcass can be a nasty nuisance. Read up on mouse prevention.
