What Kind Of Mouse ‘Hunter’ Are You?

Hunting season is a popular time in Haliburton county. Moose, deer, fowl, bear… but one critter is always in season for many home owners – mice.

Here are some tips for keeping mice OUT when the cooler temperatures have them trying to move IN to your

home or cottage.

According to Eco-Choice Pest Control based out of Minden, the deer mouse is the most common kind of mouse intruder in Haliburton County. They are hearty, crafty and opportunistic little disease ridden squatters.

Number one, you should ensure that any holes around the exterior of your house are sealed off. Mice tend to come in around the pipes and wires, but any opening that you can fit a pencil through, a mouse can fit through. An effective way to seal these gaps is with thermo-plastic sealant or steel wool because you don’t want to use anything that the mice would be able to chew through. 

Eco-Choice Pest Control also recommends pruning branches within 6 feet of your building, raking leaves, keeping grass trimmed and managing vegetation so they have no coverage around your home.

Next you need to set traps. There are many different kinds of traps that you can use, both kill traps and live traps (box methods or glue traps). Though you may feel live traps are more humane, keep in mind mice starve very quickly so you must empty them frequently to prevent a very inhumane death. There is also poison that they can ingest or sonar devices. We have tried a number of methods recently and have had success with the basic wooden traps baited with peanut butter, but are finding the plug in sonar mouse devices to be a bit useless... A trap set directly across from one of the plug-in sonars catches a mouse almost daily.

Something that’s surprisingly been working well for us is peppermint essential oil in little dishes on the countertop. I read that it repels mice and since we’ve put them out we haven’t had any ‘mouse signs’ (shudder) in our kitchen. We also put all of the food in places where it can’t be accessed - for example our bread now goes inside of our microwave instead of sitting on our counter.

Regardless of your trap choice, the kind of bait you choose is very important for catching mice. They like anything strong smelling, high in fat or protein and things that are sweet. Peanut butter, strong smelling cheese, sticky candies or maple syrup are all good choices. Like any nocturnal party animal, mice also love Sambuca so it makes a great bait! To completely cover your bases, you want to use multiple kinds of traps with multiple kinds of bait and place them in high traffic areas where you’ve seen signs of mice - along baseboards, countertops and in cupboards - because these unwanted house guests are smarter than you think and may know to go around certain traps. 

For some great assistance with eliminating mice in your home, the Haliburton Feed Store always has cats looking for a home, and Eco-choice pest control have many local happy customers using their mouse program so if you want to enlist the help of an expert, give them a call at 705-286-BUGS to discuss options for having them take care of your mouse problem for you.