Getting rid of mice in sofas, beds, and furniture

Mice in my sofa! Are you kidding me? It's true and more common than you may think. Mice in sofas furniture, and beds occur because these items are perfect nesting sites for mice and rats. So how do you get rid of the mice once they infested your furniture? I would suggest first and foremost to eliminate any crumbs from the area. If you are a snack muncher I would stop this practice of eating on the couch to make a fast meal for the mouse impossible. Then you want to buy a bunch of snap traps. Why not just throw some bait packs under the sofa and hope for the best? Well the best reason not to do this is what if the mouse or rat dies in your sofa? Now you have to deal with a rotten odor and a carcass rotting under your butt. Mix up some peanut butter and chocolate syrup on a spoon and then put a smear of this on your trap to make the mouse have to work at getting a taste. This will optimize a catch. Then, at night before bed, take the cushions off of the sofa of chair, put a newspaper down to protect the upholstery, and place the snap traps on top of the paper. Put out many traps to optimize your chance of catching the mice. Also place the traps behind the sofa or chair and if the trap clears the underneath of the sofa I would place a few under there. You might not have success right away, you may have to repeat this process for a few nights, especially if you are dealing with rats. Be sure to always wipe off the trigger and place fresh peanut butter each night. Now if you are unfortunate enough to have the rodents infesting your bed I would recommend just placing a ton of traps under bed using the same process. Having said all this you will have to take some things into consideration. IF you have had a rodent infestation for a long time and the mice have been infesting your furniture for a long time then there is a chance that there are droppings in the sofa or bed area. If this is the case then you have to think about the dangers of the mouse droppings. It may be safer to throw away the furniture. If this is not an option than at least the mice are caught and the increase in mouse dropping will stop. So good luck with the trapping and happy hunting!

Why do mice come into my home

Here is a question that many people ask. Why did mice choose to come into my house? Am I dirty? Am I messy? The answer is yes and no. A mouse can be running by your house just as you are going in and hop in as your door is open. That mouse might be with children. Now there are many. Sometimes you have a hole or a gap under a garage door and the mouse feels the heat escaping and follows the heat into your house. You can have the cleanest house on the block. It won't stop mice from coming in. What a clean house will do is make it uncomfortable for mice to live in which will increase your chances of catching them. If you have a messy house with lots of clutter (hiding and nesting spaces) and lots of crumbs then you have made it welcoming to mice and they can survive easier. After all, if you had a choice between dried up peanut butter on a trap trigger or crumbs from a chocolate cookie that fell to your floor, which would you choose? Keep things tight and sealed and you will decrease chances of them entering in the first place.

New Bedbug Book Hits The Shelves!

After much anticipation it has arrived. It's fresh and it's new and it finally shipped! The new Bedbug Handbook: The Complete Guide To Bed Bugs and Their Control has hit the shelves and I have to say that it is worth the money! Bedbugs beware! It is written by two of the hottest experts in the pest control business, Larry Pinto and Sandy Kraft, and it has the most up to date information about this topic you can find. If you are having a bed bug problem, I would recommend it if only to get a better grasp on what to expect from your situation and the best way to proceed getting rid of it. If you are a professional, your library should not be with out this book. I have to give it five stars out of five! A good read for any professional and consumer alike.

Red and Black Bug

The red and black bug is what we call in the industry...well...a headache! It's the boxelder bug and here in the northeast we are going to be having some pretty warm temperatures. They are saying that we might hit the 60 degree mark tomorrow and this will mean one thing, all the red and black bugs will be coming out of hiding to get a breath of this warm fresh air. Boxelder bugs will emerge in peoples homes and pest controllers will get calls to get rid of them and everyone will scramble like crazy until the next freeze. There really are no do it yourself pest control products on the market for these bugs specifically on the inside. What I would not recommend is smashing them with a newspaper as they will stain your walls and some may leave a bit of a foul odor. My suggestion would be to use the good old fashioned vacuum. Suck them down as they appear and this will eliminate them from the house for good!

Mold, it's control, and it's dangers!

Funny topic to find in a blog dedicated to pest control, but believe it or not, mold is a pest and many pest control companies parallel their business with inspection and control of mold. With the floods and massive rains and storms that have been hitting the west coast, I thought I'd just touch upon this complex topic. Mold is one of the hottest topics when it comes to litigation and insurance lately because so many people are afraid of it. I think their fear is a legitimate one because mold can cause all kinds of problems from a bad cough to death in severe cases. I think the best way to approach writing this blog entry is to try to stress that any kind of moisture can develop mold. Not all molds are dangerous, but it doesn't hurt to have your home tested to see if the mold is in fact a health issue. If it is then remove the mold. A simple, common sense approach to this problem is the best avenue when dealing with a mold issue. It is not something to take lightly or to ignore.

Kill Mice and Kill Rats

Kill rodents the old fashioned way if you have mice or rats infesting your home. The good old snap trap can be your best defense against these intruders and using the old stand by peanut butter or cheese will work just fine. The trick is in the placement. I know folks who will put out a few snap traps in the kitchen when they saw it run across the living room wall, thinking that mice always will visit the kitchen. This is of course true, they have to eat, but if you see a mouse following a path across a certain wall or under a piece of furniture then you have to place that traps there. Another trick is to put out plenty of traps, not just two or three. Over kill is OK in these situations. Also be sure to place plenty of traps in areas where you find mouse droppings. This is an obvious area they visit.