Photo Album: Mice find easy entry into Middletown, NJ home
Mice entry near door
When conducting an inspection of a rodent infestation, I focus on potential access points into the home. Mice tend to make their way into a home through gaps, cracks, or other entry points around the home's foundation. Finding entry points can be a challenge because these rodents don't need much space to get it. Even an opening the diameter of a dime is enough for them to squeeze through. While inspecting the interior perimeter of the basement, I noticed some daylight around several utility lines going out through the exterior wall. Often, the sealing around lines entering the home deteriorate, which mice are happy to exploit. If you can see daylight entering through the foundation, a good rule of thumb is that the gap is large enough for a mouse (and certainly for insects) to fit through. I went to the exterior of the home and sealed these opening with chew-proof copper mesh. Rodents are powerful gnawers with enlarged chewing muscles that must constantly file down their continuously growing incisors. With their four long sharp front teeth (that are much harder than human teeth), mice can easily chew their way through caulk and silicone sealants.
Mice exclusion in brick
Nice exclusion work to keep mice and other rodents out!
Mice entry in pipe
Most of us know mouse droppings when we see them. These little pellets are about an eighth- to a quarter-inch in length, and with their pointed ends, resemble dark grains of rice. Since mice are nocturnal and do their foraging at night, we tend to not run into mice that often. They nest in out-of-the way places like basements or crawl spaces and travel thought the home in wall voids where they stay hidden. However, their signs are much easier to spot, and the most common sign of mouse activity in a home are the droppings (pellets) that they leave behind. Rodent droppings are more than unsightly. They are a serious health hazard for a home's occupants. Once droppings dry out and particles become airborne, they can trigger allergies and viruses and other pathogens, including the hantavirus. Mice can also contaminate food and transmit food-borne illnesses like salmonella. A single mouse can produce upwards of 75 droppings daily, and even a small mouse infestation can produce thousands of droppings in a short period of time.
Mice exclusion in pipe
Making sure no more mice get in.
Rodent bait station
I also places several interior rodent bait stations around the basement's perimeter, and to protect the exterior perimeter, I secured two exterior rodent bait station near the entry points I had located. I'll schedule a follow-up visit to re-inspect, but I expect that with the access points sealed and the bait stations in place, this mouse infestation will be eliminated shortly.