Do My Own Pest Control - DIY Mouse Control
This lovely 18 year old home has housed several families including humans. That’s right it has also been home to a few raccoons, and probably 30 to 50 mice and 3 wasps nests (all in the past 4 years since the new human owners moved in). Fortunately, since 2012 the home has only knowingly allowed humans to enter. Go here to learn more about Raccoons in the attic.
Problem Mouse In The House
While the house is built to perfection and is gorgeous both in and out, mice were getting in without much resistance. The wildlife control folks informed – where you have mice you attract the interest of Raccoons – and so this house quickly became a multiplex with humans in the main living space, Raccoons eating mice in the attic and mice in all the passage ways of all the walls from basement to attic. Think it can’t happen to you! Look in your phone book at the Wildlife control listings. This is a thriving career and for a good reason!
Rodent Removal
After spending $900 to rid of a Raccoon and keep it out – that was cheap since this house was frequented by a Male Raccoon as a bachelor pad thank goodness. If a family with babies was present the removal cost and damage assessments would have risen significantly.
After spending $900 to rid of a Raccoon and keep it out – that was cheap since this house was frequented by a Male Raccoon as a bachelor pad thank goodness. If a family with babies was present the removal cost and damage assessments would have risen significantly.
Another $1000 to Caulk Brick/Soffit Gaps (that is a tube of exterior caulking for every few linear feet of soffit meeting brick) to keep out Bats and Mice who scale the exterior brick walls and waltz into the attic and rest of the house.Totally worthwhile and necessary prevention. Hire the pros for this as it involves working on a ladder and is very physical.
The home owner thought this solved and cured the wildlife issues. It did not.
Dealing With Mice
Their daughter moved back from university and took up a room in the basement, soon she complained of mice droppings in the closet and carpeted floor of her room. The invasive and disturbing noises in the walls heard for the months the daughter was away began to be understood by the home owners. So out comes a second Wildlife Control company. They performed an inspection that you can see on the left (click to enlarge). The previous company came to remove a Raccoon in the attic and suggested they caulk the soffit to save on future damage and prevent mice and bats. This guy was right and the second company picked up on this in their assessment. For field mice in house however, the home owners still had other preventative measures to perform as well as the need to extract the current house mice. The quote came in at $2,200 to do all this work and the home owner just didn’t have the coin. They paid for the assessment, stressed about what laid ahead and started to investigate ways to do it themselves. In the process they discovered Rid-O-Mice. They bought enough to install the device in all of their Weep Holes minus the ones they could not get at which were buried behind their deck header board. It cost them less them $50 to buy the product and they were able to insert them by themselves. They also examined some areas in the foundation and wall that needed caulking and filled those in. From the inside of the house they used store bought devices to eradicate those that remained.
The mouse problem stopped, no further work has been done and this family is now wondering what the squirrels and birds have up their sleeves which may lead to a future Wildlife Control call to the Pros who will know the next move.
And that is how this family saved over $2,000 on their ‘problem mouse in the house‘ budget.
Note:
Whether you are aware of having mice in your home or not this family advises you install the weep hole inserts as a preventative measure. Doing so can lead to saving your money, and the hassle of dealing with disturbing noises in your walls and attics, damage to your home, unsightly destruction and droppings, potential health risks and the fact that once you have them they have an amazing survival mechanism you will have to reckon with – when they sense they are being trapped and killed – rapid reproduction kicks into gear.
