Q. Why do I have mice, and how can I get rid of them?A. Joe Garner, an assistant professor of animal behavior at Purdue University, may be the ideal person to talk to about mice.“I spend a lot of time thinking about what it’s like to be a mouse,” Dr. Garner said. “Once you learn to speak mouse, they’re very intelligent animals.”Most species of mice will not enter a house unless a red carpet is rolled out for them, he said — if, for example, the garage door is left ajar with an open bag of grass seed, their favorite food, waiting inside.Then there’s the house mouse. “It’s a truly remarkable species because it has specialized in living in human environments, with an extraordinary degree of adaptability,” Dr. Garner said.American homes offer lavish accommodations for house mice, with cavity walls that provide the closed-in spaces, nesting materials and temperature they crave. It’s no surprise they don’t respond well to eviction. And people often have their own reservations about the process, said Vincent Errante, the owner of Universal Pest Control, a Brooklyn extermination company.

“I get clients calling, screaming that they want them out of the house, they want them dead right now,” Mr. Errante said. “When I get there, it’s a whole different story. Now they don’t want the little mousey to get hurt.”Greg Baumann, the vice president for technical services of the National Pest Management Association, an exterminators’ group in Fairfax, Va., emphasized the need to resist that sentiment. “Mice are not cute, cuddly pets,” Mr. Baumann said. If you have raw food, they’ll run through it and spread salmonella across your counter.”The allergens in their hair and urine have also been found to cause asthma.Effective mouse removal is a three-step process: getting rid of the food source; and capturing the mice. First, Mr. Errante said, determine what they’re eating. Look for gnawing marks and droppings around the kitchen and signs of chewed bags of food or garbage. Repackage food in thick plastic containers.Next, figure out how they got in, looking for holes and more droppings.

Apartment dwellers should examine the ceilings, floors and walls to see if mice could have come from neighboring apartments. As Mr. Baumann put it, “If a pencil fits through the hole, so can a juvenile mouse.”Patch or fill holes, particularly around pipes, with copper mesh covered with IPF foam, a bitter-tasting sealant. upvc back door lockAnd get a door sweep, Mr. Baumann advised, since door cracks are especially vulnerable to mice.double garage door with pedestrian accessThen comes the fun part: the capture. roll up doors 10x10“Regular snap traps are cheap and effective,” Mr. Baumann said.mdf interior doors canada

Place the traps where you see droppings, and bait them with the food they’ve been scavenging or with nesting material like cotton balls or dental floss. If you’re trapping in the right places with the right bait, Dr. Garner said, “You should hear the traps go off before you go to bed.” Glue traps, although effective, are crueler, as most mice survive longer than 24 hours in them with broken limbs and other painful injuries from struggling. sliding doggie door insertEveryone interviewed for this column discouraged their use.Mr. Errante also suggested skipping ultrasonic wall plug-ins (“After a while, the mice realize it’s fine,” he said) and over-the-counter rodenticides, which can be dangerous for pets and children. jeep wrangler 4 door for sale australiaIf there’s a large infestation, he said, hire an exterminator.car glass repair columbia sc

They may be as ineffective in real life as in cartoons. “I see this a lot,” Mr. Errante said. “People feed their cat, and then the cat’s just lying there while mice run back and forth. And the cat’s not going to do anything — because he’s already full.”Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.Garage Door Rodent Guard TV Commercial, 'Don't Let Rodents In' Inside College Basketball on CBS Sports - past 2 weeks About Garage Door Rodent Guard TV Commercial, 'Don't Let Rodents In' Garage Door Rodent Guard is a six-inch, V-shaped metal barrier that fits over the weather seal of your garage door. Mice and other rodents cannot chew through its impenetrable surface which keeps them out of your garage, and ultimately, out of your home. Garage Door Rodent Guard ThermaCell Mosquito Repellent Unit Earth Scent We’ll give you a glimpse of more of our powerful real-time ad analytics. Ready for the big time? Request a trial of the iSpot TV Ad Analytics platform.

You've hit your data view limit. Time to upgrade to the full iSpot TV Ad Analytics platform. At least one social/website link containing a recent photo of the actor. Submissions without photos may not be accepted. Voice over actors: provide a link to your professional website containing your reel. Submit ONCE per commercial, and allow 48 to 72 hours for your request to be processed. Your Email (used for confirmation)While Ratatouille might have been a runaway blockbuster film, no one wants rats in the house — or mice or squirrels or any other unwelcome rodent guests. Stopping the problem before it starts is your best line of defense. How do you keep rodents out of your space? Skip the trip to the animal shelter for a stray cat. Prevention starts at home — and in your yard. First thing’s first: Seal all your garbage in metal, closed trash cans. Then, get rid of anything in your yard that gives a rodent a place to stay. “You want to make sure that your property and yard and fence line is free of debris and clutter,” says Mark ‘Shep’ Sheperdigian, vice president of technical services for Rose Pest Solutions in Troy, MI, which includes keeping your landscaping minimal.

While ground cover can be attractive, it also provides shelter to rodents and their families. Make sure your semi-outdoor storage areas, like garages and sheds, aren’t potential homes for rodents, either. “A cluttered garage can hold a large number of rodents,” says Sheperdigian. “If you have a garage that has 20 years of yard sale stuff in it, maybe you should have that yard sale.” Not only will keeping this clutter bring rodents closer to your home, but the rodents will most likely chew through and leave excrement on the stuff you’re storing anyway. If you’re keeping a garden, or really like that ground cover, consider adding one of the next generation of decoys to your garden decorations. Think beyond the plastic owl from the hardware store. “Pests don’t even pay it any mind because they realize that it can’t move — let alone hurt them,” says Mona Zemesky, marketing manager of Bird-X Inc. in Chicago. Instead, she recommends the Prowler Owl, which is life-size and made of lightweight Tyvek material, so it moves and floats in the breeze.

“If you hang it from a tree, it takes the motion of the wind and looks alive,” she says. You can also try Irri-Tape. To your neighbors, this two-inch wide holographic strip will look like a pretty ribbon direction. To a rodent, though, it looks like the sheen of a snake or the eyes of an owl, which will scare off the rodent. No matter how clean you keep your yard, any open space is going to invite critters, and they’ll try to get to the warmth and food in your home. Cover any crack and hole in your house down to the smallest of gaps. “The only thing that limits them from fishing through a crack is the size of their skulls,” says Sheperdigian. For rats, that’s the size of a quarter. For mice, that’s the size of a dime. Pay special attention to gaps and holes around pipes. Leaks can widen any holes and create entranceways. The best material you can use to cover and fill in those holes is copper wool, because rodents will chew through foams and caulks, and steel wool rusts too quickly.

You can also use an aluminum window screen or hardware cloth. But don’t jam up every hole in your house or your home won’t be able to breathe, which means using those aluminum window screens over openings like windows, door sweeps, vents, and chimneys. Another option worth considering is sonic and ultrasonic repellants; however, pest control pros disagree on their effectiveness. Some swear by these plug-in boxes; Bird-X reports that these repellants are their second biggest sellers after Irri-Tape. Other professionals call them junk. The theory behind sonic and ultrasonic repellants is that they emit sounds that humans can’t hear but pests can, which is why they keep out. If you’re going to give it a go, try a professional machine, which runs about $95, over the $3 version at the hardware store. The professional-grade machines, which are available commercially, can cover up to 4,000 feet. Plug it in your basement, which is where rats and mice are most likely to be found.