Identifying A Mouse Problem In Your Chicago House
Mice are fairly elusive little rodents. When indoors, they will gravitate to more secluded areas like wall voids, cluttered attics and basements, and storage rooms. Typically, it is only at night that house mice leave their hiding spots and scavenge through homes for food and water. Keeping this in mind, here are six signs of mice to look out for around your Chicago home:
- Fecal droppings in the backs of cabinets, pantries, and cupboards
- Gnaw marks on furniture legs and other objects around your home
- Holes chewed through boxes of food
- Holes chewed through walls
- Torn up insulation, paper, fabric, or other materials that might make a good mouse nest
- Random electrical outages due to chewed electrical wires
What Can Mice In Chicago Chew Through?
House mice have extremely strong front teeth. From the moment these incisors grow in to the day the mouse dies, these teeth never stop growing. To keep them at a reasonable length, mice chew on whatever they can. Often they use their biting ability to gnaw holes through things like walls, boxes, and wires. What can mice chew through? They can chew through materials like plastic, wood, cardboard, vinyl siding, rubber, fiberglass screens, and low gauge aluminum siding, among other things
Are Mice Dangerous?
Something we are regularly asked by locals is: are mice dangerous? The short answer to this is, yes, mice are dangerous. These pests can make people sick by eating bacteria-ridden items, living in dirty areas, and then spreading disease-causing organisms throughout homes. Sometimes they carry parasites on their bodies. Mice fleas in particular spread diseases like murine typhus, the bubonic plague, and tungiasis. Mice ticks can spread Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and ehrlichiosis.
What's The Best Bait For A Mouse Trap In Chicago?
If you are looking for a way to get mice away from, or out of, your Chicago home, one thing on your mind might be mouse traps. Some common store-bought traps are snap traps, sticky traps, and rodenticides. Of these three options, we only recommend snap traps. Sticky traps are inhumane in the way they leave mice trapped but alive to break their own limbs and eventually starve to death. Rodenticides are often more dangerous to humans and other animals than they are to mice, especially if they are used improperly—which is easy to do. Snap traps baited with peanut butter are a good and humane option for smaller infestations. They do not, however, work well to solve larger problems.
How Do I Control Mice In My Chicago Home?
It does not take long for a couple of adult mice to produce baby mice. If you have recently discovered these furry rodents inside your Chicago home, do not hesitate to get a professional involved. At Aerex Pest Control, we offer detailed options to remove rodent infestations. We are working relentlessly to free as many property owners as we can from rodent problems here in Chicago. If you want to join the family of safe and satisfied Aerex Pest Control customers, let us come out and inspect your home and property today.
Call now to learn more about how we treat mouse infestations and find a time to have your Chicago home thoroughly evaluated for rodent problems.