What It Takes To Get Rid Of A Mouse Infestation In Your Yakima County Home

Mice may seem harmless when pictured on T.V. screens, but you don't want a mouse infestation inside your Yakima home. If you do happen to have these critters inside your house, what should you do?

Here's what Yakima County homeowners should know about identifying the mice in their home and their signs, how mice can make you sick, why mouse traps fail, and when it's time to contact pest control in Yakima County for professional help.

How To Tell If You Have A Mouse Infestation

Whether it's brown mice or field mice, the signs of mice in your home can be similar. Mice don't always live out in the open, and it can take months before homeowners realize they are there, so here are the signs of an infestation you'll want to watch out for:

• Musty Odor: As the infestation grows, mice activity produces a musty, pungent odor that lingers around your home or certain parts of the house. This odor emanates from a combination of the mice's urine, droppings, and other biological materials that are left to build up over time within your walls.
• Scratching In The Walls: Since rodent infestations typically take place deep within the walls of structures they infest, people dealing with a rodent infestation typically report hearing scratching sounds within their walls. If you've been waking up to strange, unexplained scratching noises, mice could be the culprit.
• Droppings: Droppings are a significant indicator of a house mouse infestation. Mouse droppings tend to be small, dark, and about the size of a grain of rice.
• Urine Pillars: Urine pillars are a combination of urine, grease, and dirt that build up inside a mound. Urine pillars typically indicate heavy rodent activity around the area they are found.
• Property Damage: Over time you may also start to see the extent of property damage in a mouse infestation. Don't forget that mice will likely invade your home because they're looking for food. Mice are foragers and will chew through almost any material in search of food or nesting material, including wood, walls, furniture, plastic containers, cereal boxes, etc.
• Smudge Marks: Mouse fur is covered in oil that leaves smudges as they traverse around your home. Since they tend to stick to the same routes to traverse your home, over time, their fur can create damaging smudges to your walls and baseboards.
• Live Or Dead Mice: Dead or live mice can be another good indicator of an infestation. Even if you just see one mouse, whether it's alive or dead, you should assume that there are even more nearby. It's rare to have just one mouse in your house. Mice are primarily nocturnal, so you're more likely to see live mice at night if you see them at all. Just keep in mind that, since mice are so avoidant of humans, if you've started seeing them with your naked eye, it means that a serious infestation is underway.
• Curious Pets: Not all pets or cats will kill mice in your house, but they will usually still be curious about nearby mice. Pets have even better senses than people do, so if your pets are paying attention to a single corner or area of your home, you may want to investigate for other signs of rodents.

If you notice these or other signs of a mouse infestation, it's important to take action as quickly as possible.

You Don't Have To Touch Mice For Them To Make You Sick

While most homeowners are already aware that it's best to avoid touching live or dead mice, they may not be aware that they can spread disease without you ever physically interacting with them.

Can mice carry diseases? Yes, unfortunately. And not just some diseases, but some very harmful ones, including hantavirus, leptospirosis, and salmonellosis. When mice infest a home, they urinate and defecate within the walls, and the buildup of these biological hazards overtime can lead it to disperse into the air as dust. This dust can be very harmful if you or a family member breathes it in.

Mice can also spread disease by stepping in their own waste and tracking it across surfaces like countertops, cabinets, and other areas. Even if you don't catch a disease from the mouse, you might pick up one of the parasites they bring into your home with them. Mice often carry fleas, ticks, or mites, and these parasites have different diseases that they spread.

Not all mice carry diseases, but the risk will always be there if you have an infestation of mice. If you do see a live or dead mouse in your home, you should never try to interact with it on your own.

Most mice won't be aggressive and will likely try to flee if they feel cornered, but you don't want to get too close. If you have pets, you should also try to keep them away. Even if they don't get sick, a pet interacting with mice may give them fleas or mites.

Instead, if you find mice in your home, you should contact the pros for mouse removal and get more information about how to keep mice away.