It's That Time of the Year

It's mid-October, the weather is getting colder, and all those mice living outside are sensing it, too. They want a warm place to spend the winter and what could be more inviting than your home. It's nice and warm, especially under the insulation in your attic, or behind the furnace in the basement. "Yeh, I know, but my house is sealed up tighter than a drum, no mice can get into my house". Do you have a garage attached to your house? Well, last Friday night when you came home from the football game after dark and you pressed the remote to open the garage door, did you notice that pregnant mouse that was right outside the door and ducked inside when the door opened? You now have mice in your house. They can't be kept out. If your house is really sealed mouse tight and they want to get in they will just chew their own hole. Deer mice, which normally live outside are the most common mice that move into homes for the winter. Their droppings have been linked to Hanta virus, a serious and frequently fatal lung infection. Although there have not been any cases in Connecticut, do you want to take that chance? They also are major carriers of Salmonella bacteria. One of the more common ideas is that the mice move in, in the Fall, and then go back outside in the Spring, but once they get inside they find out there are no hawks, owls, red foxes, or snakes in the house and realize that your home is a pretty safe place to live and decide to stay. Permanently! Now is the time of year to do some kind of treatment to clean out the mice already in your home and take care of the occasional mouse that will be moving in over the winter.