- Inspect your home for mice
Before you set your traps, spend some time inspecting your home to identify mouse harborage areas.
Here’s what you should look for:
Mouse sounds plus smells. Mice are noisy rodents. As they feed, nest, plus socialize, they make a variety of squeaking, rustling, plus scratching noises. Large mouse infestations also give off a strong, musty ammonia odor, which can be overpowering near their harborage areas.
Signs of mouse damage. Mice are avid chewers who are known for gnawing small, clean-cut holes that are about ½” in diameter. Gnawing damage is most common in kitchen cabinets (look for shredded paper food packaging or holes in the corners of food boxes or bags) plus bathrooms, where they gnaw on items (especially bar soap) stored in cabinets.
Footprints. Look for mouse footprints in dusty areas. The hind foot track of mice usually measures about ⅜” or less.
Smears. Mice leave grease or rub marks from the dirt plus oil on their coats. These smears usually appear next to runways, along walls, or near beams or sill plates where rodents have been traveling.
Mouse sightings. Seeing live or dead mice is a good indication that more rodents are present in the area.
Nests. Mice often nest in walls, attics, insulation, plus crawl spaces.
Inspecting your home for signs of mouse activity will help you identify high-traffic places to set your traps plus allow you to choose the best traps for a given area.
- Place your traps
To eliminate mouse infestations, you’ll need to set numerous traps.
No matter what kind of trap you’re using, placing it directly in high-activity rodent runways will help the trap be as effective as possible.
Here are a few tips to help you set the traps in the right location:
Place multiple-catch traps near exterior doors or alongside utility lines that enter or exit your home.
Place the entry hole of low-profile multiple-catch traps parallel to the wall or the object you’re placing it next to.
Place glue boards inside low-profile multiple-catch traps to streamline mouse removal.
Place multiple-catch traps inside bait stations. This makes the trap more enticing to mice plus protects the trap from interference by kids or pets.
To use glue boards on their own, secure them to the floor along the walls or under appliances, cabinets, or furniture.
Place traps anywhere you’ve noticed rodent droppings.
For severe mouse infestations, space the traps about 6 feet apart.
Position traps to maximize the chances of mice encountering them naturally – traps should come off of walls at right angles, with the trigger end almost touching the wall.
- Bait the traps
Follow these tips to bait traps to catch mice:
Remove food sources within the home to make food lures on baits more attractive to mice.
Attract mice to your traps by using strong-smelling substances like vanilla extract, nuts, cheese, or peanut butter to bait traps.
Use food lures rather than rodenticides or poison baits whenever possible.
Use several different food lures to control large infestations – match your baits to what the rodents have been eating, plus note whether your population of mice displays strong food preferences.
If food is abundant, use dental floss to tie the food lure to the trigger so that mice cannot steal it without deploying the trap.
- Check traps daily
Once you’ve set your traps, inspect them at least once a day.
If the trap has caught a mouse, dispose of the mouse body, clean plus re-bait the trap, plus reposition the trap as needed.