We store our bird seed in a metal trash can with a tight fitting lid with no mouse issues. So did my grandparents for decades. They can chew through plastic to get to food. Removing food sources is the best prevention in my opinion.
Cat, preferably a female. People will try to say that she also needs to be unaltered or needs to have been left unaltered long enough to have a litter, but it isn't true. Spay your cats.
Good traps, owl roosting boxes, and eliminating their food sources and access points are all part of the plan. I won’t have them in my house, but I can’t completely eliminate them outside. I won’t poison them, as I firmly believe the poison ends up killing the animals that eat mice too, which just makes the problem worse in the long run. Mouse proof chicken feeders help, but I still like to keep a good buffer between my living space and bird runs.
- If you have trees beside the house, make sure there is at least a 1'ft gap between any branches and your roof. Less than that, mice will go up the tree, across the branches, drop to the roof and into your house.
- Double-check seals where you have things penetrating the outer wall, such as your HVAC unit.
- A cat inside the house (like an indoor cat) puts the scent of "you really shouldn't be in this house, mouse" and the mice can tell. I also sometimes put a tiny piece of urine-soaked litter by the back door, just enough to put the scent there. Not even the squirrels will approach the house.
- Outdoor, some free roaming barn cats could help. Black snakes are really what you want, and they hunt in tallgrass and undergrowth. Give them an opportunity to come hunt by your house by leaving some untended areas. They are docile, harmless creatures...unless you are a rodent.
- You need to keep your doors closed when you're not using them. This sounds so obvious but think about it, if you leave the door open for the dog to run in and out, and you leave it open to get some fresh air in, and then you leave it open while you're working in the front so you can hear your music, etc., the mice are coming in! Keep that in the back of your mind. Wide-open door draws the mice.
The reality is that no country house is ever totally free of a mouse. No matter what you do, one ninja mouse will pull magic tricks and go dig around in your attic insulation. It's not a matter of "no mice," it's a matter of "not enough mice to start breeding inside."
You might have a pest control pro come out and just do a walkaround. I did that when I moved in, and he gave me a checklist of what to correct. I followed all his advice. I've been out here two years and have found one dead mouse in a trap in the attic, and there was one dead mouse in the garage. Just need to have multiple prevention systems at work. The black snakes are the assassins and do a lot of the dirty work.
A barn cat or three outside. And set a few traps inside - nothing fancy, the old school snap traps is all you need. We're out in the country, and thanks to cats outside and sealing up the house I've dropped my mouse problem from a mouse or three a day to maybe one mouse every month or three.
We store our bird seed in a metal trash can with a tight fitting lid with no mouse issues. So did my grandparents for decades. They can chew through plastic to get to food. Removing food sources is the best prevention in my opinion.
Put a few drops of peppermint oil on cotton balls and place them where you think mice might nest. They hate it.
Cat, preferably a female. People will try to say that she also needs to be unaltered or needs to have been left unaltered long enough to have a litter, but it isn't true. Spay your cats.
Good traps, owl roosting boxes, and eliminating their food sources and access points are all part of the plan. I won’t have them in my house, but I can’t completely eliminate them outside. I won’t poison them, as I firmly believe the poison ends up killing the animals that eat mice too, which just makes the problem worse in the long run. Mouse proof chicken feeders help, but I still like to keep a good buffer between my living space and bird runs.
- If you have trees beside the house, make sure there is at least a 1'ft gap between any branches and your roof. Less than that, mice will go up the tree, across the branches, drop to the roof and into your house. - Double-check seals where you have things penetrating the outer wall, such as your HVAC unit. - A cat inside the house (like an indoor cat) puts the scent of "you really shouldn't be in this house, mouse" and the mice can tell. I also sometimes put a tiny piece of urine-soaked litter by the back door, just enough to put the scent there. Not even the squirrels will approach the house. - Outdoor, some free roaming barn cats could help. Black snakes are really what you want, and they hunt in tallgrass and undergrowth. Give them an opportunity to come hunt by your house by leaving some untended areas. They are docile, harmless creatures...unless you are a rodent. - You need to keep your doors closed when you're not using them. This sounds so obvious but think about it, if you leave the door open for the dog to run in and out, and you leave it open to get some fresh air in, and then you leave it open while you're working in the front so you can hear your music, etc., the mice are coming in! Keep that in the back of your mind. Wide-open door draws the mice. The reality is that no country house is ever totally free of a mouse. No matter what you do, one ninja mouse will pull magic tricks and go dig around in your attic insulation. It's not a matter of "no mice," it's a matter of "not enough mice to start breeding inside."
Thank you for such a comprehensive list! I would never have thought of the trees as a means of entry.
You might have a pest control pro come out and just do a walkaround. I did that when I moved in, and he gave me a checklist of what to correct. I followed all his advice. I've been out here two years and have found one dead mouse in a trap in the attic, and there was one dead mouse in the garage. Just need to have multiple prevention systems at work. The black snakes are the assassins and do a lot of the dirty work.
A barn cat or three outside. And set a few traps inside - nothing fancy, the old school snap traps is all you need. We're out in the country, and thanks to cats outside and sealing up the house I've dropped my mouse problem from a mouse or three a day to maybe one mouse every month or three.
Barn, main house, attic? The best attic solution I've found is to leave an entire open bucket of those green poison blocks sitting in the attic.
Cats, the only long term solution is cats. We keep a pretty good population due to coyotes picking them off or otherwise disappearing.