Best Non-toxic Ways to Rid Your Home of Mice
The change of seasons often brings mice indoors. Poisons used on mice can be harmful or fatal to their natural predators. You may not want to use poison in your home, especially if you have young children or pets. How do you get rid of mice in your home without using toxic solutions? Why is having mice in your home so bad? Is it always necessary to kill the mice? Is there a method that doesn’t involve harming them?
What’s so bad about having mice in the house?
Disease
If for no other reason, you should be concerned about the long list of diseases carried by mice.
Mice in food
Do you really want mice chewing a hole in your cereal box, climbing in and doing what mice do? In other words, do you want to find mouse droppings in your food?
Home damage
Mice chew holes in your walls. They also have a habit of chewing on electrical wires. This can pose fire danger.
What are the dangers of poisoning mice in the home?
Pets and kids could get into the poison.
Small children and pets tend to eat whatever they can get their hands on. They might mistake poison pellets for some kind of treat. Even if they spit it back out, the poison could mix with their saliva and find its way to their stomachs.
Pets might eat poisoned mice.
Once a mouse eats poison, anything that consumes it, consumes the poison. If your family cat is fond of mice, this could be a serious issue.
What are some conventional non-toxic solutions for mouse infestations?
Conventional traps
Old fashioned mouse traps, while not very humane, are poison free. The trap is designed to snap when the mouse nibbles on the bait. The arm of the trap kills the mouse in most cases. Unfortunately, traps that don’t kill the mouse force it to die a slow and painful death by starvation or whatever injury the trap caused.
Glue traps
While glue traps are less traumatic for humans, they’re not so wonderful for mice. The mouse gets stuck in the glue, guaranteeing the same slow, painful death described above. There is no quick death with these.
Cats
A cat in the house will almost always rid the house of mice. Unfortunately, your pet cat does not hunt humanely. It will also bring you the gift of its mangled prey on occasion.
Is there a way to rid your home of mice without harming them?
The only humane way to rid your house of mice is to trap them and release them outdoors. This can be done in a variety of ways. Some are quite ingenious. Catch and release traps are designed to catch the mice without harming them so they can be returned to the outdoors where they belong. The only drawback is that the mice will often return to the home and have to be caught again and again. Still, it’s worth it if you have no wish to harm the mice.
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