What To Do First If You Suspect Mice

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Cheryl Hanson

What is never an easy discovery, when you see chewing marks, scat from their droppings, and shine a UV light and find a urine stained highway on your floors (GASP!) what can you possibly do?  When you understand that you have a mouse, or er, MICE in your home is an age old problem.  As long as you have a crack in the wall, you can certainly expect to have an entry point for these very tenacious and smart rodents.  They are one of the few creatures that exist on every continent of the planet, with new family traits being created with the growth of human transportation.

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image17002211No mouse is by themselves, they have family!  Lots and lots of family.  Why, even one female mouse could come into your home, leave to meet her date, and come back to your home to start a happy home.  Each year, in the fall and autumn, expecting and pregnant mice wait for the chance to nest in your warm walls and cupboards, until the last possible moment.  If winter would be warm enough for them to live in a spot outdoors between 55-75 degrees, they would not come into your home.  They know that the space they invade is not their own.

Outdoors is Mouse Approved

Most mice yearn to stay and nest where the food, water, and temperature is perfect.  A dark dirt hole near a water source, next to a field of grain is the perfect world for a mother mouse.  So, moving into your walls is just so darn inconvenient, and is really the last resort for a mouse.  They would much rather not live in your noisy home, with your pets, and your smells.  They do have a problem with all the lights you use, and the loud noise that you create, and the temperature is just too warm…by the way, can you please try to increase the humidity in the house too?  This is the best way to ensure that your house is mouse free, by making outside more alluring than inside.

Try to build a mouse house on the edge of your Yard

Old wood stacked in a thick wall, next to a heated bird bath, and a bird feeder in the tree should be a perfect way to lure your home mice away.  Then, make sure to keep your home drier than 55 percent humidity, with a low temperature of at least 62 at night.  Keep water and food inaccessible, and if you a going away on a trip, cover your toilets with saran plastic wrap to ensure no access to water.  A bright light in storage areas at night is another good idea, ultrasonic repellents in dark areas like your bedroom, kitchen or living areas, with an occasional burst of music and radio during the day.  Use a ultrasonic oil mister to continue the good inconveniences, in your day, with use of peppermint oil.  Another great idea with peppermint, place a tablespoon of the essential oil in a small water bottle, and spray the outside of your home, near the ground liberally.  Mice hate strong smells!

Once Outside Prevent Return Appearances

If you make the outside nesting spot happy, you can ensure that most mice will take leave of your home and will be evacuated quickly.  It will only take a couple of nights to rid your home of the family.  Don’t accept return to the spots they loved before, by preventing reentry and begin a process of caulking all the open areas around your home.  A mouse can slip through a crack the size of a 1/4 inch, and even 1/8″ of an inch if they are very small.  They can enter through pipes, broken foundation, chimneys, under stairs that meet the walls, or under siding.  Often, siding is topped with a cover of flashing, but the bottom near the ground is left exposed.  Use silicon caulk for small cracks, and check your caulk lines frequently.  Or, if you have larger areas, use a spray foam to create the barrier you need to keep them out.  For this reason, you may need to assess your home’s security through insulation.  There is much you can do by prevention versus proactive trapping and habitat insecurity measures.

 

 

Posted in Pest Control | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Are you ready for a UV Light?

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Cheryl Hanson

When you are hearing noise at night, and seeing signs of mouse activity in the mornings, ask yourself if you are ready for a UV Light.  The reason is, this light will show you what is there, but to be honest, you may have a hard time sleeping when you do use it.  The light is something that will show you signs of protein and enzymes that are left on the floor, and sometimes it is referred to as a black light.  The signs of mouse activity will always be confirmed by a UV Light.

How a UV Light Works

dreamstime_8554534The human eye is more of an upside down camera lens, which our brains use to flip images and color patterns right side up.  We are amazing creatures, but we do not see the light spectrum of ultraviolet light.  UV Light is often a great way to see the things that make our habitats less than healthy, as stains, urine, vomit, blood, or any kind of biological protein or enzyme will appear when it is invisible to the human eye.  With the UV light, we can see what a mouse smells.  The trail of pheromones, left in the urine and sweat of the mice who have traveled along the walls and cabinets in your home, will be a mouse highway of sorts, that will guide them to essential items they need to eat, drink and sleep.

With the addition of a UV Light, you can see what a mouse “sees” with its high sense of smell.  They are not good visual creatures, but they do have great sniffers.  The proteins and the active enzymes you see will be smell tools for new mice, or reminders for existing mouse populations.  The increase in smells can be really alluring or even draw in mice from the outdoors, if left in your home.

Remove Smell and Bio-hazards with a UV Light

How do you know it is there, if it is invisible to you?  You could get down on your knees and smell areas, but the fact is not all humans have the sense to smell these collective offensive odors.  The smell could be detected, but it would be more easily removed and seen, with a UV Light.  When you are using a UV Light, or a black light, you can always see the protein or the less than easily observed enzyme.  The trick is to do the search in early dusk, or when the room is completely dark.  Then, with some masking tape, section off areas that are needing a good cleaning.  This can take some time, and will be emotionally draining.  Do one room at a time, and do not look in other rooms, unless you are ready to spend a full day cleaning.

Cleaning with a UV Light

Natural Enzymatic cleaners, vinegar and water, hot water and soap, and a good stiff brush are a great way to clean the protein out.  Prepare to spend some time marking the areas with a UV light, then getting down on hands and knees to scrub.  The process can take longer than you would expect, and can be a workout if you tackle more than one room.  Sometimes, you will want to toss boxes, stored papers or other items that you cannot scrub. Without the removal of such items, it will be impossible to not find the rodent population attracted to the smells.

Posted in Plan | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Stop Mice From Entering with Steel Wool and Spray Foam

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Cheryl Hanson

It has been really rainy in Minnesota this spring, and things are super wet outside, which has created a need to discuss home entry divergent tactics by using a new technique:  Steel Wool and Spray Foam.  With a little crack, mice or rodents can sneak through a 1/4″ crack in the walls or foundation of any home or business, very easily.  The best way to remove mice from your home, is to prevent them from inviting friends and relatives on the outside to the warm and comfortable indoors.  The trick is really ingenious, as it takes care of the dumb mice and the smart ones too with two trustworthy materials :  Steel Wool and Spray Foam.

Steel Wool and Spray Foam Use Together for Strength

Why these two materials work so well is because one will physically block the crack or hole completely, and the other will ensure blocked access if the critter decides to chew through the foam anyway.  What will happen is our dedicated rodent will busily chew and remove and eat that foam, but when they get to the steel wire wool, they won’t be able to remove any more foam, and any of the steel wool.  The combination of the steel wool and spray foam is a pest control technique for the modern day.

Steel Wool and Spray Foam : Combination of Old and New

Why would an old material like steel wool and a new material like spray foam be a good project plan to follow?  Often it would be difficult for a mouse to gain access with a properly installed steel wool material stuffing, but the issue is, steel does rust(unless it is stainless steel), and over time, it can be pushed and moved easily without any real effort.  Mice are tenacious little creatures, and if they want to follow a urine marker, or a trail that another mouse has left, they will do everything they can to make sure to remove a barrier.

After all, the mouse before has gotten in, so it must be possible, right?

Sometimes, just blocking the area, and not removing the scent or urine marker, can be just the ticket for a mouse to keep at task, and get it to a point of obsession.  Urine and scent hormone markers are often impossible to remove, so don’t beat yourself up, if you install a steel wool piece for obstruction, and the rodentia of your area, remove it.  They love a good challenge.

Steel Wool and Spray Foam Fights the Smart Mouse

You know the old saying, there are dumb mice and smart ones…well, this is the barrier that works for both the dumb and the smart mice.  When you block an entrance with foam, you are blocking for the easy going dumb mouse, and when you add another layer of strength with Steel Wool and Spray Foam, you are blocking for smart mice.   They will tear through anything they can, but when the foam seeps into the steel wool crevices, and sticks to the sides of the crack or hole, they are powerless.  Eating to the steel wool will be the resistance that your smart mouse needs, to move on to the next house.

Posted in Prevention | Leave a comment

Mice and their Commensalism

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Cheryl Hanson

Commensalism or the ecological term for cooperative relationships among animals, is often a discussion when analysis of natural habitat or behaviors.  For mice, the commensalism between themselves and humans is fairly evident. This complex term, not used much in common speak or vernacular, does explain our relationship with rodents and especially mice.  A mouse in early human existence had an ability to often be a superior benefit for agriculture, and at the same time, a biological risk as well.  Thus began our complex yin and yang with mice and rodent populations.   Being nocturnal creatures, mice use commensalism with humans, who are daylight dwellers in most part.  Having space between ourselves and mice with this one variant, mice have been able to coexist with humans quiet naturally for centuries.

The History of Mice Commensalism with Humans

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image17033672Being more parasitic than commensalism in human habitat, mice have existed with humans over the years on an even playing field for as long as humans have found a way to store food, keep themselves warm in a dry habitat, and began a agricultural lifestyle.  Movement from hunting and foraging, humans began this relationship with mouse populations years ago, as they are often short in their lifespan cycle, and need to reproduce quickly to survive.  With the advent of farming, mice found a great new ally with humans, as the amount of warmth, dryness and food became abundant.  Mice require the following habitats to continue their progression for survival:

  • Warmth of 70-75 degrees
  • Darkness and no bright lights
  • Perfect humidity of around 55%  and access to clean drinking water
  • Dry food stuffs of seeds or high starch proteins
  • Low frequency environments that do not offer loud noises
  • Ability to sleep during the day with their nest of little ones

With the production of agriculture, and farming, humans offered all of these effects, and mouse populations soured.  Even with the access of local natural placements, like woods and forests, mice found it difficult to have all the components of survival, and many perished with heat, excessive cold, and lack of food and water.  Even a natural location near water, is too much noise and frequency for a mouse, and they perished near this natural diversion.  Being able to parasitically tag to humans, the commensalism between mice and humans began the explosion of humans and mice.

Commensalism or Parasitic

Mice often are called parasites, as they leach off the positive gains of humans.  When we give our food and water and habitat to a local mouse population, are we seeing a true parasitic connection?  Not so, as the mouse can adapt and survive without humans, but it is not advantageous for them to do so.  The best description is commensalism, or the ability for both parties to see positive gains.  This is seen in sharks and feeder fish, that eat the sea lice that parasitically adapt to the sharks.  Without the feeder fish, the lice could kill their host in times of stress.  The relationship with mice and humans is truly commenalism as well, because mice do often introduce disease and pollution to our environment, but they offer the most effective and natural fertilizer to our fields as well.

Mice in Commensalism in Agriculture

Mouse populations are emerging and growing in human early days of farming, and often bring our crops forward with their constant urine and solid waste.  The early days of farming surely saw gains from mice being present in the fields with their natural fertilizer.  Oddly, human population is unaware of this benefit, until only very recently, when fertilizer is discovered as a tool of agriculture during the early 20th century.  Without the discovery of fertilizer, mice would have been the only architect of this necessary element of farming.  Not only do mice offer fertilizer for crops, but their tunnels and routes of access to the fields offer loft and natural root growth through their travels.  Not all mice tunnels were beneficial for humans, but the commensalism of agriculture and rodent populations is a fact in some parts of the world, where soil was spare and limited.

 

Posted in Facts | Leave a comment

Effective Rodent Control in 5 Steps : How to Do it Yourself and Remove Mice from Your Home

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Cheryl Hanson

How do you remove mice from your humble abode; by following a plan!  The do it yourself 5 step plan is here!  Mice are sneaky, tricky, and hard to capture.  They enjoy a good chase, and are quick to learn.  For this reason, you can remove the easier and more curious mice from your home or office, but the observant, reserved, and smarter mice will be hard to capture.  The plan below is built for the smart survivors in your home.

Remove Mice with a 5 Step Plan

Remove Mice with A Colder House

So what is the 5 step remove mice plan?  The best way to think about this plan is to break it into the ways that mice exist in our homes.  They are almost blind, have great hearing and a sense of smell, and can feel with their whiskers and fur in the dark.  They are very sensitive to temperature changes, and humidity levels, which can work in your favor.  Knowing this, your five step plan to remove mice should be as follows!

1.  Add Ultrasonic Waves to Your World to Remove Mice

Installation of some high ultrasonic wave emitters can make a mouse crazy, and will drive some from the the areas that they are used.  You can use the emitters as a way to chase them from one area of the home, remove them from the storage room or garage, and they will then move to quieter areas of your home.  A plan for the emitters is to place them in all storage locations, and bedrooms.  The emitters will not bother your pets, unless you have pet mice, gerbils or rats.  Having an ultrasonic emitter is like moving in next door to the rock band who never stops practicing.   Be sure to use this as your first step, as it can be a very effective eviction technique.

2. Lower the Thermostat to Remove Mice

Dropping the thermostat to 64 degrees or colder in your home is a great way to drive mice to other places.  Mice are most comfortable in areas of 68 degrees or warmer.  They are very sensitive to cold.  The remote cool of a fan that makes noise can be another way to combine temperature sensitive rodents from your home.

3.  Light up the Night to Remove Mice

Rodents are the creatures of the night, doing all of their habitat movement, cleaning, and food sourcing during the nighttime hours.  The only way you can find out if you have mice, is to set traps or other food offerings during the night.  Once you have confirmed that they are feeding on unset traps, and eating from your food, you can set up a series of bright desk lamps in areas they may be nesting.  This could be under stairs, in dark closets, pantries, cupboards, or storage areas.  If possible, a cool bright florescent light in the attic or basement, will be a great way to remove mice.

4.  Buy and Use a Large Dehumidifier to Remove Mice

Reducing the humidity level in your home or office will be a great way to send a mouse population packing!  Reducing rodents means having a low humidity level in your home, as they are not healthy in a low humidity area.  Plan to remove mice by keeping your humidity levels lower than 30%, as a humid room or 55-75% is preferable for mice.  With lowered humidity, they develop a virus like ring worm, but all up and down their tails.  This is a highly effective technique, as they do not have the ability to live in a home with low humidity levels.

5.  Install Snap Top Lids on all Stored Food

The food in your home is under attack!  Buy some tightly fitting snap top lid containers, and store all your food in these containers.  The mice are unable to eat, and will quickly and quietly depart.  If you feed pets, be sure to feed only when you are present, and remove food when they are not eating. The food removal and container system you develop, will be dependent on how your family functions, but it is important for you to constantly be aware of food, and ensure that it is always unavailable for your mice.

Remove Mice with a Plan of  Trapping

Now that you have the five step plan, to make your home more of a “lets leave” house, versus a “lets stay” home, you are now on the way to starting your trapping techniques.  Keep searching our site for the ins and outs of trapping, as it is a outwitting plan of attack, and with the combination of habitat improvement, you are going to have more mice leaving, and less will decide to tuff it out.

Remove mice with knowledge, and you are on your way to a mouse free home!

 

Posted in Plan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mice in Insulation in Your Home’s Walls and Foundation

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Cheryl Hanson

You may sometimes hear scurrying, or movement in your walls and down in the basement in your home, and most often that is mice in insulation in the walls and foundation in your house.  They love insulation!  It is warm, dark, usually the perfect humidity level for their needs.  Mice in insulation can be removed, but they must be coaxed out, with some tricky methods.

Mice in Insulation in the Walls

Capture your Mice in Insulation

The comfy cozy areas in your walls are not ok spots for mice to stay!  Imagine the food parties they are building in your walls.  Storing dry foods, peeing and pooping all over the place, raising their babies, and creating more mice is what is happening.  This is a serious health situation that needs your full attention.  Removing the walls would be a good idea if you have lots of mice.  The percentage of homes that have mice in insulation areas is almost 99%.

Mice in Insulation in Foundation Areas

Not only are they having food and bathroom parties in your walls, but they do love to travel down the walls, to the even warmer areas in the foundation.  The mice in insulation in the foundation areas are even harder to remove, because this area is often walled off by concrete or stronger walls that are blocks.  With careful removal, you can get to these areas, but it will be real work, and is best left to professionals.

A much better idea is to use the mice removal project plan, and think about trapping them over the next few weeks.  When you hear them, is it at night? More than often that is the most active time for mice in your walls, and foundation. They love to move when it is dark, as they have poor eyesight, but use the night to move and maneuver around their habitat.

Remove Mice in Insulation with a Plan

The best way to remove mice in insulation in your home, is to have a plan of trapping them.  Create an obstacle course near the areas where they enter your home, and seal off the outer areas so they cannot invite new guest to stay. The plan is simple, use light, sound, and humidity changes to your advantage.  Dry out your basement with a dehumidifier, and use some ultrasonic repellers in a strategic way to herd your mouse population to the traps.

Buy an electronic trap, and do not turn it on, but bait it for a couple of days.  Build an ever useful bucket and drop line obstacle course, and capture a couple this way.  Keep using spring traps in paths that they use to get to food sources.  Cover and store all food in snap top plastic containers, that they cannot get into.  Better yet, put all your food in the fridge if you can!

Making the plan work takes diligence and persistence.  You are going to find the results effective and it will not cost you a lot of money if you keep up with the progress.  Even if you do not trap immediately, do not worry, as it takes time to capture the smartest of rodents, and remove mice in insulation.

 

Posted in Plan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why a Cat is not the Best Mouse Trap

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Cheryl Hanson

If you love cats, you may believe they are the best mouse trap you could possibly have, but the fact is, they are not really the best.  They do hinder mice from locating your home as the preferred habitat, but most house cats are well fed, and not too interested in pest management.  The best mouse trap is always your plan, and making the game a challenge for your mouse population.  The best mouse trap is understanding your pest, and why they are motivated to stay in your home.

The Best Mouse Trap is Variation

Like any population, there will always be the smarter mice, and the middle run of the mill problem solvers, and the rest are simple followers.  The genetics of any species works to weed out these mentally challenged pests, by simple everyday living and predation.  Cats are great predators, and are natural rodent control.  Our modern day cats however, with their tasty kibble and soft foods, do not need to hunt, locate, and capture their dinner.  If you think your kitty crew will be the best mouse trap for your home, you are going to be missing that smarter mouse of the population.  The cats are just not that hungry to locate the entire habitation.

Cats are Not the Best Mouse Trap

Cats are always on the prowl, and find the hunt elusive and fun, but often they catch and release. And, as is the case with my two cats, they often capture mice, but let them go.  When we moved into our home, we had a large mouse population, and every home in our cul-de-sac was vulnerable to the many rodents around. The best natural predators are not cats, but owls, and if you are interested in adding them to your natural setting, be sure to visit how to build the best mouse trap.

Cats are often too well fed to be the best mouse trap

The mice are caught and released, and before you know it, you have a very experienced set of mice who are aware of the predator in their habitat.  The nervous and willing healthy population will vacate with the addition of a cat, but there will always be a couple who will be willing to live with the constant threat, as the benefits of warmth, food, and water are available.  These survivors, will adapt to capture and play dead, learning to make themselves less appealing when captured by kitty.

Cats often walk away from a non-responsive rodent, and will find the next activity to appease their predator instincts.  We experienced this first hand with our mice, and eventually moved on to a systematic program of trapping, sound, light and temperature changes.  Even the simple bucket with food was a great way to capture the mice in our garage.  They learned that the bucket was ok, as it was easy to get into, and out of, and then we removed the exit.  The first night we used it with entrance and exit, we had no food removed. The second, all food was consumed, and the third night we captured 5 mice.  This was a great success, as they were the very last of our population, and so far, this year, we have not had any return this year.

Best Mouse Trap by Far is a Plan

Most mice who are smart, nervous or unsure of the variety of pest management tools used, will not be captured at first.  They could be the mice that are lucky and got away from a cat, a snap mouse trap, watched their buddies run down a bucket and get stuck, or ran into an owl.  They have survived the many different varieties that you have used as a best mouse trap plan ensures, and maybe they will be smart enough to evacuate the noisy lit home you create for them.  For whatever reason, their are always mice that will be happy to leave on their own, and that my friends is the best mouse trap of all.

 

Posted in Plan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Christmas Mice

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

At our house, christmas mice have always been apart of the holiday celebrations-or, our holiday plans.  We have a home that was built in 1975, and it is in a quiet suburban area of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  The circle is a series of 9 homes, and we all are constantly evolving our pest removal plans, and especially like to do it during the beginning of fall.  In the fall, there seems to be lots of activity, and many new signs of our little rodents, in our neighborhood.  We have no mice inside our home, at least none that I can tell, but we have many on the outside of our home.

Christmas Mice Party

Christmas Mice are Sneeky Mice

We have always loved our neighborhood, and so do the many Barred Owls we have in the big large Red Oaks that frame our cul-de-sac.  It is a common quiet sight early in the morning, if you are up walking the dogs, or just leaving for work.  They float above you, letting you know they are there, hunting away, near your area.  I can hear them often, and their call is who-who-who cooks for you???  We are happy these magnificent birds have our backs!

The reason they are around is when we bought our home, there were many mice in our home.  We added the following to our pest removal plan:

  • Ultra Sonic Pest Repellers
  • Mint and Peppermint
  • Planned Trapping and Non-Trapping
  • Bucket Traps in Garage
  • No Poison or Glue Traps
  • Lights on in High Traffic areas
  • Chocolate in Traps
  • Electronic Traps in Storage Room
  • Electronic Trap in Kitchen Cabinet
  • Plastic Storage Containers for all Food
  • Vinegar and Constant Cleaning to Remove Urine
  • A new Cat

A few years later, we continued with barrier proofing our home.  Caulk, foam, and new outside siding improvements, have been great solutions to remove the mouse highway into our home.  Now we continue this process each fall, by removing little open areas, and filling with caulk and foam.  We had a new pest move in, in 2008, in the form of chipmunks, and they left, once their home was filled in with foam.

The reason we always see more of them, around thanksgiving and christmas, is because the weather is getting sharper, colder, and snow usually moves in.  This makes the food in the yard harder to locate, and find.  They are more active, trying to find the right place to stay warm, and this usually means a quiet, dark and warm dry space.  With all of the mice on the outside of your home, any time you can remove the areas they may want to live, the better off you will be.

Christmas mice are always looking for a way to move in, so do your best to keep them on the outside of your home.

Christmas Mice can be Stopped

The best way to check for mice is to look for them after they have moved around in the snow.  Here is a video that we put together of our areas that we need to change, as we have a christmas mouse house right next to our home!

Christmas Mice Fun

Another way to keep your christmas mice on the outside of your home, is give your goodies to your friends and family!  Here is a great post on how to make chocolate christmas mice, with maraschino cherries, and hershey kisses…so cute!

 

Make your Own Christmas Mice

Here is the link for your recipe!

Christmas Mice ala Chocolate

Posted in Plan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Barn Owls are Great Mousers

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

Our friends the barn owls, are great predators, and much more of a mouser than most cats.  They are flying mousers on high alert, looking from above with uncanny knowledge of where mice live, and travel.  The best mouser for your area are a group of Barn Owls, as they can down up to 10 in a single day!

Barn Owls are Nest Queens

Barn Owls Keep Mice Populations Down

One of the most amazing mousers, are Barn Owls.  Because of their high metabolism, and their great eyesight, they hold the advantage over rodents, who are often very bad at seeing this kind of enemy in there sight.  Mice are very blind, and can be often only careful scent benefactors, and cannot detect the quiet but sleuth y barn owl.  Mice have excellent hearing, smell from a mile away, but their poor vision creates a positive edge for the barn owl.

Barn owls, like barred owls, great horned owls, and other sight driven owls, are quiet, and prey on rodent populations from the air.  The distance of 1/4 mile or more can be easy for these birds, as they can safely watch and prey on rodents from tall trees and wires, all the while without any sign of their presence.

If you are looking to add some owls to your land, you would be very wise to add a nesting box.  The mother barn owl will have as many as three different nesting times in a year.  Little barn owls are called owlets, and there usually are two or three or as much as five can survive, given the circumstances and the surroundings.

If you have an active rodent population, owls will selectively choose to mate, as the food sources are plentiful and common.  A series of events have to occur for active nest boxes to be either vacant or occupied:

  • Trees or Nest Boxes need to be present
  • Rodents are plentiful
  • Fish, bugs and other vermin like snakes are abundant
  • Wet areas to keep the trees and grass growing, to allow food for the vermin
  • Temperate areas are better than extremes of heat or cold
  • Noise is not an issue, either man made or natural
  • Wild areas are not touched by humans often

Barn Owls are Big Birds

Often weighing more than a crow, barn owls are around 18 inches long, and weigh about the same as a crow, around 20 ounces.  Their eyes, a dark and beautiful brown, are roughly 4% of this weight, and are as large as any of the larger grey owls or snowy owls.   They are often on the nest, waiting for the day the owlets emerge.  The length of time is around 30 days, and during this time the female works to keep the eggs warm, and then to keep the newly hatched owlets fed and warm. The male will help the female with bringing food, and keeping other predators from the nest.

The appetite of the barn owl can range from any rodent it comes across, to snakes, slugs, frogs, small fish, and even some ground birds or human garbage.  The habitat of owls has become even more dire, with logging and many trees dying to various new disease.  It is estimated that over 65% of the owls in population from the middle of the 1950’s have reduced to small protected forests and woods.  The large forests in Canada and the Upper Midwest and Western Parts of the United States have been the best locations for spotting these owls.  Despite their name, they are much happier in a quiet and natural setting, but have been known to frequent graveyards, or old abandoned buildings in a pinch.

Building a Home for Barn Owls

If you are looking for a great fun family project, and have some areas where rodents have become a real nuisance, there is no better way, than to add a barn owl nest box.  The many owls of North America will in turn provide you with natural predation, adequate protection from many forms of vermin, and a natural appreciation of the beauty of these owls.  Build a nest box for your Barn Owls in your area, and place a web cam inside to watch the growing owlets!

 

Posted in Predators | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Simple and Best Ways to Get Rid of Mice

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Cheryl Hanson

Rats are nuisance to anybody’s life. They are notorious carriers of deadly diseases. When one gets poisoned, it could be one causes of the person’s death. These pesky rodents live in areas like cupboards, garages or any place where they could find boxes or clutters. And so, if you truly care for your loved ones, you need to find ways as to how could find a best way to get rid of mice. What will be written below are some examples as to how one could eliminate these annoying rodents:

1. Make sure that your place is clean. Avoid clutters. In your garage, ensure that all boxes are being neatly arranged as they are every rat’s favorite hideout. A clean house not just makes your place attractive and inviting but it’s also a great nest for a safe place for your family and loved ones to live in.

2. In your kitchen, make it well-arranged too. Try to wipe or clean off the crumbs as they could get lured when they could sniff the presence of food.

3. If there are already rats in your home then you could put up mouse traps as this is a classic way of snaring rats.

4. You could also buy rat poison balls or rat sprays. However, this could be quite risky especially if there are kids in your house. They might be able to mistakenly think of it as food and for sure, if their system gets poisoned, it would be bigger issue then and could put their lives to risk.

5. Try to check on your walls if it has holes in it since rats could also thrive in that area. They love to be living inside the walls as they feel safe and secured especially at those really hidden and dark areas where nobody gets to see.

6. If you could no longer handle the problem, it is time to call the help of the experts as they are more knowledgeable when it comes to this kind of concerns. Call the mice exterminators and for sure, in time, they could eliminate these pesky rodents.

If you are serious in making your place a safe place, free from any rodents or any other insects, then you need to follow these simple steps. It is for your own good and your family too. To get additional information, you could check the internet for other ways as to how you could eliminate rats.

Finally, the real truth about the best way get rid of mice! Find out what really works and what’s a waste of money! You can move those pesky house mice right on out the dgoor!

More Best Mouse Trap Articles

Posted in Mouse Traps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment