Homeowners have a common misconception about mice: They infest people’s homes during the winter and then disappear during the hot season. This is not entirely true. 

Mice in the summer have the natural tendency to forage for seeds and other food out in the fields and yards. But if they find a viable food source in or near your house, they will build a nest inside your home and stick around. 

When the cold season comes, they leave their summer burrows and flock to warmer places to survive. With adequate heating, food and water, our homes become a prime target. 

The attic is a favorite place for mice to seek refuge in. But as soon as the weather starts to get warmer, attics can become hot and humid, so they transfer to cooler areas in the house like cabinets and the basement. 

Summer is the Perfect Time to Mice-Proof Your Home

Because mice tend to be outside during the summer, it’s the perfect time to begin implementing preventative measures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends four basic strategies to control rodents, including mice. 

Eliminate food sources. Mice have voracious appetites, eating around 15 to 20 times per day. They’ll typically consume 3 grams of food daily and can subsist on crumbs. So it’s important to maintain a clean home and practice solid waste management, i.e., proper storage, collection and disposal, to keep these pests at bay.

Remove breeding and nesting places. Being territorial creatures, mice will typically search for food no more than 10 to 50 feet from their nest. So if their food source is in or near your house, this means removing rubbish, including firewood and excess lumber, near your home. You should store these and similar materials 18 inches off the ground because mice can jump as high as 12 inches. 

It also helps to leave some space, maybe a couple of feet, between your house and any vegetation, where mice can hide. Remember: A clean yard keeps the mice away.

Mice-proof your home. Mice have small slender bodies that can squeeze through openings slightly more than ¼ inch (6 mm) in diameter. So, it’s important to cover any cracks, holes and openings in doors, windows, gratings and walls. Do an annual perimeter check in late summer or early fall just to make sure you didn’t miss a gap.

Use a mouse trap. You can use either live traps or kill traps, but ensure to place them near runways and burrows and along walls. For maximum effectiveness, monitor the traps and remove any mice it might catch. Otherwise, the rodents may avoid the traps altogether.

Prepare Your Home for the Winter Mice Invasion

These annoying pests can be persistent in invading your home, so consider getting the help of pest control experts. If you have mice in the summer, call the pest control professionals at On The Fly Pest Solutions. Their fully licensed and trained team will take care of the problem in a safe and sustainable manner.

Raccoons are notorious wildlife pests. They break into your yard or house and wreak havoc on your property. Typically coming out at night, they sometimes venture out of their dens in the daytime searching for food. 

You’ve probably tried different ways to keep them off your premises but to no avail. They’re smart creatures after all, with a series of studies in the mid- to late 20th century showing raccoons can solve problems and remember the solutions up to 3 years later.

So how do you outwit these intelligent creatures? The first step is getting to know them. 

Raccoon Habitat and Diet

Raccoons are native to North America, and in the U.S. can be found almost everywhere, except in parts of the Rocky Mountains and southwestern states. They are adaptable and live in a wide range of habitats—from mountains  and forests to farms and cities. However, since the first urban sighting in Cincinnati in the 1920s, they have become more prevalent in suburban areas than rural areas due to the abundance of food and shelter, lack of predators and restrictions in hunting and trapping.

A raccoon’s diet is also adaptable. Being opportunistic feeders, they’ll munch on anything from nuts and fruits to insects, reptiles, fish, birds and eggs—even worms, bird seed, pet food and garbage. 

You’ll likely catch raccoons “washing” their food, but they’re actually feeling it with their very sensitive fingers, removing unwanted parts in the process. (Raccoons have poor eyesight but have well-developed sensory nerves at the bottom of their feet.)

Raccoon Damages and Diseases

A threat to a homeowner’s peace and wellbeing, raccoons leave telltale signs, so depending on where you live, look out for these common indicators that a raccoon has been in your premises.

• Damage to shingles, walls, insulation, electrical wiring or other parts of your house or building
• Droppings, urine stains or a nest made from built-up materials
• Dispersed thrash and/or raided and tipped trash bins
• Raccoon paw prints 
• a lot of holes in your lawn or mulch pile
• wrecked garden
• injured or dead chickens or birds, missing or eaten eggs and disturbed nests
• toppled stalks and ripped or half-eaten ears of corn (or other crop)
• empty bird feeders
• devoured pet food

In addition to causing damage, contact with raccoons or their waste also spreads diseases that pose serious health risks to people and their pets. Raccoons are a primary carrier of rabies in the U.S. and are responsible for 60% of the rabies cases in Maryland. In 2018 alone, the Maryland Department of Health recorded 704 rabies cases. They can also transmit parvovirus and canine distemper to domestic dogs, plus roundworm, leptospirosis and Salmonella or E. Coli.

Long-term Raccoon Control and Removal

Because racoons are not only a nuisance but also a potential health hazard, it’s understandable why homeowners are itching to remove these pests from their properties. However, dealing with these nocturnal pests requires proper training, protection and equipment. (If you do this on your own, you could be bitten, scratched or worse, exposed to diseases.)

Your best bet for a long-term solution would be to contact a pest control professional. 

Are raccoons wracking your nerves tonight? Contact On The Fly Pest Solutions so you can sleep soundly again.