Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Cleaning your house and sealing holes and cracks
• Tips
• Warnings

Do you have mice in your house or apartment? Mice can not only cause a nuisance, but also spread diseases and microbes, leave urine and faeces in the places where they have been and even carry fleas. Moreover, mice reproduce very quickly and often. A female can give birth 5 to 10 times per year, with up to about 10 young per litter. Fighting mice is a two-step process: stop the mice from entering your house and also fight the mice in your house. Go to Step 1 to learn how to get rid of mice quickly and effectively.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Cleaning your house and sealing holes and cracks

1. Store food in metal or glass storage boxes with lids that can be tightly closed. Mice can eat through cardboard, some plastics, and other types of storage boxes to access food. To ensure that the mice do not get any food or less food, you should not leave any food open and exposed. If you do want to leave food outside the cupboard or refrigerator, put it somewhere where the mice can't reach.
   • Do not leave animal food open and exposed. Remove any food that your pet has not eaten immediately after a meal.
   • Mice are excellent climbers; even the space on top of your refrigerator is not a safe place to store food.
2. Use traditional mouse traps. The mice will be dead quickly and you can throw the mouse and all the trap away because the traps are so cheap. While these mouse traps may seem cruel, they kill the mice quickly and are without a doubt safer than poison if you have small children or pets. An added benefit is that the dying mouse cannot crawl into your walls and die there. This causes a terrible smell that can linger for weeks.
   • Traditional mouse traps, however, are somewhat dangerous to humans and pets. They can also cause nasty mess when a mouse is caught and killed.
3. Call in a professional pest controller. A pest controller can use a variety of natural and chemical methods to control a mouse colony. If you are suffering from a mouse infestation (and not some of the retarded mice that you see walking now and then), hiring a pest control agent is probably more effective than using home remedies.
4. Use a mouse poison bait as a last resort. Mice need to eat. This means you can buy mouse and rat poison lures at most hardware stores. Once the mice have eaten, they become very thirsty and will go outside in search of water.
   • In the past, people used strychnine to kill mice. Today, zinc phosphide (Zn₃P.₂). The scent of the bait attracts rats and mice but generally chases other animals away.
   • Most doses will kill the rodent immediately after one serving of poison. However, surviving mice can build up resistance to the poisonous bait.
   • Pay attention: The disadvantage of a mouse poison bait is that it is poisonous to humans (it does cause vomiting). You will also have to deal with dead mice lying in inaccessible places. This can attract other unwanted rodents.

Tips

• Some mice love peanut butter. So try to use peanut butter to lure the mice into a trap.
• Store large bags of animal food in metal waste bins.

Warnings

• In the Netherlands it is illegal to use glue traps or boards to catch mice. So don't use them. However, the sale of glue traps and boards is not prohibited.