Have A Mouse In Your House? You're Not Alone
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you talk to pest control technicians and hardware store employees, they'll tell you the same thing. A lot of people are having troubles with mice.
Kris Kelly still cringes when she recalls seeing a mouse scurry across the floor.
"I saw one one night run across the living room, while we were watching TV, and then my husband, while we were in bed one night, saw one scurry across our bedroom floor," she said.
Kelly and her husband have two young daughters and live in South Minneapolis. They worried that 7-month-old Lillian might encounter a mouse or mouse droppings while crawling across the floor.
"All of it freaked me out," she said.
Kelly's husband set a few traps.
"A few days went by, and we didn't catch anything, and I wanted the problem taken care of," she said.
That's when she called Rainbow Pest Experts.
As soon as Scott Dorn arrived, he started looking around. The master licensed technician asked, "Kris, have you noticed any droppings around the house?"
"I haven't," she said.
Dorn says his mouse calls are up 25 to 30 percent this winter. He thinks mice sensed a big winter coming and moved indoors early. Weather-wise, last summer was good for mice. The right amount of sun and rain meant they had plenty to eat.
"Now, I'm trying to determine where these mice originated from," said Scott as he walked down the steps to South Minneapolis basement. He looked and looked, but couldn't find any sign of mice. Then he went outside.
"There's a hole down here that I can literally stick two fingers into it," said Dorn. "This is wide open."
He found a few different spots along the foundation where mice has been entering and exiting the home.
Using copper mesh and 100-percent silicone caulk, Dorn started sealing up the holes. He says that's something everyone should do unless they want a mouse in their house.
"It's warmer in there than it is out here," he said. "So they're coming in. It's that simple."
Dorn finished up by setting traps and baits up in the Kelly house. That's necessary to catch any mice now trapped inside the home.
Some more advice from Dorn: Keep dog food inside a Tupperware-type container. Don't leave dog food in the dish overnight. If you hire a pest control business, make sure you ask them to seal foundation cracks and set traps in the attic.
Paula Engelking, Producer
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