How to Control Field Mice

Field mice can be a problem for your garden, orchard or the home. Although poison is tempting, you risk poisoning other animals and, if used in your house, a mouse may die and create quite a stink.

Things You'll Need

• Weed whacker
• Pesticide
• Spray foam
• Re-organization
• Mouse traps
• Cat
• Electronic mice controller

Instructions

1. Control a field mice problem in your home by taking a couple precautions. First off, seal off any entry points. Search out any narrow cracks, mouse droppings or areas that look like they have been chewed through or around. Apply thick spray foam in these cracks and areas that field mice could slip through. This will seal off the entry and mice do not like to chew through the spray foam.

2. Remove any objects or clean up areas that look as though they could be possible nesting areas. This includes packed closets that are full of clothing, especially on the floor, and craft materials (such as yarn, paper shreds and cloth). A good idea is to pull back dressers from walls to make sure no field mice have chewed through the thin plywood to live in drawers or inside the dresser. Add cedar blocks to closets, clothing chests, dressers and corners, as mice do not like cedar.

3. Invest in an electronic pest repeller. These use ultrasonic sound waves to repel mice from your home's perimeter. These may be expensive but worth the mice-free environment.

4. Use traps to help control the field mice if nothing else works. You can use snap traps or sticky traps as your best bet. If you catch mice, you must release them far from your home so they do not just come back to your household. If you have a large mice problem, it is important to take action because they reproduce quickly.

5. Control mice outside by controlling the materials for nesting just as you did in your household (to a certain extent). Use a weed whacker to remove tall brush and grass that provide nests for field mice. Other nesting materials include piles of leaves, grass and sticks. If you have a shed, place traps in this area as well since mice will create a home within a pile of bricks or garden tools. Check the outside of your home's foundation for cracks and entries and seal these with spray foam.

6. Get the area around your house sprayed for bugs and termites on a regular basis, because these make great food for mice.

7. Get a cat for an outside orchard or large garden. Field mice will smell the cat urine and avoid the area, plus the cat will kill the mice and usually eliminate most of the problem.

References

• Controlling Field Mice
• Ways to Get Rid of Mice in the Home