You may have friends that keep mice as pets and you may do so yourself. As pets, they can be very cute and sweet. However, wild mice are not as welcomed, and can easily carry diseases into your home. However, unlike pests such as wasps or termites, you can work on taking care of a mice infestation on your own - there are just a few things to remember.

When it comes to preventing mice from running amok in your home, you should work on protecting your home before simply going after the mouse or mice in question. Make sure to eliminate food sources - especially grains, pet food, or birdseed - and place food in heavy plastic containers. Fruit should be kept up, or in the fridge, keep a lid on your trash can, do not leave out any uneaten pet food, and make sure there are no holes in your foundation for mice to get in. 

If you see a mouse in your home, you want to work on setting these traps immediately. There is rarely such a thing as only one mouse - unless he’s literally just entered your home! Mice will always bring friends, and female mice can have up to 60 babies per year. While it may seem like preventing a mice infestation is easy, these tiny pests can be quite sneaky. It isn’t difficult to work on trapping mice on your own. Whether you choose to use kill or no-kill traps, bait them with food that mice love: nut butter, soft cheese, seeds, and even chocolate if you want to be quick. 

Kill traps are obviously those traps that kill the mice that are caught in your home, and they are typically a cheap snap trap. These are often used to catch mice with the bait mentioned. If you feel as if you have multiple mice, you can place “fake mice” to attract real mice, and position the traps with bait on opposite ends. Once you’ve caught a mouse, you may leave any dead mice in the traps to help attract other mice.

For live traps, you can use the same bait. A live trap means that mice crawl in to and get stuck in, but these catch-and-release traps keep mice alive so they can be released into the wild. These traps should be placed against the wall and parallel to any tunnels in which the mice enter your home. Of course, we do not all have the time or patience to work on catching the mice, call a professional. Especially if you’ve seen one or more of these furry pests, you’ll want to contact a commercial exterminator in Bremerton right away.