The mice population in the UK boomed during the Pandemic, as the lockdowns, lack of people, and public pest control allowed them to breed uncontrollably. Today, several estimates calculated there are more than 5.4 million mice in the UK, as the bulk of them live in London. Interestingly, due to the high rat population in central London, mice are more commonly seen in the capital’s outer areas, as they can’t compete with the bigger rodents for sustenance. However, the competition for food and the scarcity due to the exploding population of rodents all together force mice to seek survival in your home. As they are scavengers and are predominantly food-motivated, you will most often see the pesky creatures crawling inside your kitchen. While mice are unlikely to attack you, they still carry many unpleasant diseases that can be transmitted through their droppings, bodily fluids, or fur. So, to help you take care of this pest, we created a list of things you need to do to mice-proof your kitchen.
How do you know you have a mouse in the kitchen?
Although mice operate during the night and are pretty stealthy when making their way around your kitchen, they are not the cleanest thieves out there. So, while you probably won’t have the displeasure of meeting one in person, you will undoubtedly notice their presence. The first thing you will notice is the marks on the food they’ve eaten. If there are some bite or claw marks, it’s 100% sure you have a rodent in the house. Depending on the bite’s size, you can determine whether it’s a mouse or something bigger.
Moreover, mice will leave droppings everywhere. You will usually find between 50 and 80 droppings after a night of feast for the pesky pests. The droppings look like small dark rice grains. In addition, you can be sure that if there is a mouse in your home, you will find urine emitting a pungent smell.
Furthermore, if you have a pet, don’t take out your camera when they start scratching your floorboards. Instead, check out what they are smelling. It may be mice. House pets have a perfect sense of pests like this. On the contrary, if you don’t have pets with mice in your home, you will constantly hear scratching and crawling, which, although terrifying, at least has its explanation.
Finally, the worst way you can find out you have a pest problem is by actually finding a dead mouse in your kitchen. In the best-case scenario, the mouse will be somewhere in the corners or on the floor. In the worse case, it would have drowned in a container filled with food.
They are food-motivated
While mice look for more than food, they are predominantly sustenance-driven. This means that if you leave your food out in the open, mice will accept that as an invitation. So keeping food sealed and out of reach is the first step toward preventing mice from making your kitchen their home. Still, food alone won’t sway mice to come into your home. They also value their safety, so if you make your kitchen as hospitable toward the crawlers as they come, mice would probably
restrain from helping themselves to your food. So, having a pet is an excellent way to deter mice from entering your home. Moreover, keeping your place clean and organised will also present a challenge for the mice to stay hidden. However, the most significant advantage these pesky crawlers have is their agile body, which gives them easy access to almost everything.
How to pest-proof your kitchen
We may have left you with the impression that having mice in your home is inevitable. This, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. Several proven methods exist to eliminate mice without ever needing to resort to violence. Moreover, following our advice will help you avoid seeing unpleasant creatures while they are snacking on your food. So, how do you make your kitchen mice-proof?
Keep your food in the fridge or the freezer
One of the things a mouse looks for in your home is warmth. That’s why you will typically notice these pesky pests during the coldest months. So, keeping your food sealed is a good idea – keeping it in a cold, unforgiving place, like your freezer, is even better. Naturally, you can’t store all your food in the freezer, as you’d want to eat some of it, and constantly freezing and melting food will spoil it. So the least you could do is put all your food in the fridge. This way, it will be in a giant box, stopping mice in the first place. Moreover, the conditions inside the refrigerator are not favourable towards mice, so that they will avoid it.
Fix any present leaks
Along with food, mice also need water. That’s hardly a surprise, so naturally, if you make the water supply scarce, mice will probably prefer to check another kitchen for their winter home. So, all you need to do is to fix any leaks in your kitchen (and in your house as a whole) and try to keep all water sources down to a minimum. For example, if your pipes are clogged and the water doesn’t drain completely, you must also take care of that.
Stock up with pest-proof containers.
Keeping your food in carton boxes is just an invitation to all sorts of pests. So, instead of trying to mice-proof carton boxes, just buy some pest-proof containers. Glass jars, metal containers or plastic boxes will do the trick every time. Indeed, a hungry mouse will probably chew through metal and plastic all together, but the point is to make it as hard for them as possible to get to your food, so they’d prefer seeking food elsewhere (your neighbours, perhaps).
Clean and declutter your kitchen
As we already mentioned, mice look for safety, and a cluttered and dirty home is the best place for them to seek food. Moreover, the clutter will give them a lot of great places to establish their nest, so once that happens, you will undoubtedly see a lot more of them.
Most importantly, remember always to throw out any trash before bed. The bags should be sealed and kept outside the house. This way, there will be no food left for them to attack.
Pet food is also attractive
Another source of sustenance is pet food. It’s usually the weak point in any house, as we forget that pet food is also pest food. If you leave food for your cat or dog and you don’t clean their bowls regularly, they may attract mice. True, mice won’t go near the food if there is a housepet around. But they will undoubtedly attack whenever you go out for a walk or have the pet locked elsewhere.
Seal up any openings and entry points
However, the only way to prevent your kitchen from ever getting a mouse problem is by sealing all entry points. Mice are very agile and can fit through minor cracks. So make sure you fill them all up with the proper materials. Also, make sure to fill the gaps near windows, doors, water pipes, and any external cracks.
Pest control to help you
If all else fails and you already have a mice problem in your kitchen, you may try to battle it yourself. Still, a far better idea would be to let the professionals take care of the problem. Getting rid of mice is not an easy task, and disposing of them humanely and according to the law is even more challenging. So, instead of wasting your time with unproved DIY methods, just call a professional mice control team to solve your problem in a matter of hours. Of course, it will cost you a bit extra, but it will be well worth it.
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