Mice are some of the most bothersome pests you'll encounter as a homeowner. They can be very destructive since they gnaw on everything. Their ability to gnaw through weak areas of your home makes it difficult to keep them outside. Plus, they're so tiny, they can squeeze through very small gaps. Mice are noisy, smelly, and can spread diseases, so you want to keep them out of your house. Here are some tips that might help you seal your home to prevent mice entering.

Seal Gaps with Strong Materials

You'll need to seal your home inside and outside to keep mice from getting in your home. However, you don't want to use anything ugly that mars the appearance of your home. Look for materials that you can stuff into a gap and then cover with caulking. Things like hardware cloth and steel wool can block mice even if they chew through the caulking. Larger holes may need to be covered with metal or cement. Remember that mice leave scent trails behind, and once they've established a way inside your home, you'll have to secure it with materials they can't gnaw through such as metal or cement over hardware cloth.

Seal Inside Your House Too

While you'll want to seal all the gaps around your foundation, roof, and siding, you'll also want to seal inside gaps too. That way, if a mouse does manage to squeeze through a gap and get in an exterior wall, the mouse won't be able to slip through a gap around a pipe under the sink and have easy entry into your kitchen. If the mouse has to gnaw through a wall to get inside your kitchen, you'll at least hear it and be able to set traps. Otherwise, mice can operate in your house without you knowing it. Look for areas where plumbing pipes go through the walls under sinks and in the laundry room and stuff them tightly with steel wool to block mice.

Also, use a metal door sweep on doors that have small gaps under them and fill gaps around windows and elsewhere in your home. You can often find gaps by examining your walls and inside cabinets for daylight shining through on a sunny day. Even tiny holes and gaps should be filled, or warm air and food odors can waft out and entice mice to start gnawing their way in.

It takes patience and determination to examine the exterior and interior of your home for entry points that need to be sealed, but the effort is worth it. Mice can be determined too, and if they can, they'll squeeze inside your home and ransack your cabinets for food or tear up your attic to make comfy nests. Once they're in your home, you'll have to deal with setting and emptying traps, so sealing your home against mice is the best way to deal with the pests.

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