Minnesota is an awesome state to live in! It is a little-known fact that the only other place on Earth that has more extreme changes in the weather is Siberia! Yes, Minnesota’s weather fluctuates a lot! When the materials on our homes expand and contract with those extreme changes, it causes holes and cracks to develop around the exterior. During the colder months, the heat starts to escape out of those holes and cracks, which attracts mice and other pests to come inside. The opposite is true in the summer when the air conditioning is running and the colder air is escaping out of the openings, which can draw pests inside as well.

“Walked us through exactly how mice were getting into our house, how they could be stopped, and what to expect after sealing their access points.”
-Mark in Richfield

Now that you understand why our homes become susceptible to allowing pests to come inside, let’s take it a step further so you can really understand why mice keep coming back. Mice have very similar behavior to a dog, in the way that they navigate around with their noses. They use their VERY keen sense of smell. A mouse will urinate a micro-sized droplet of urine approximately once every 18 inches as they travel. They use their own urine to communicate with each other and to mark their territory. You keep setting the traps or place bait to kill the ones that are currently in your home, but all it takes is for a new mouse to come to the outside and find that urine trail. That will lead them to wherever they need to go from there. They will follow the trail wherever previous mice have gone before inside your home.

Trapping mice may help to control them, but it doesn’t take care of the problem. The key to solving the problem is to find all of their entry points and repair them with long-lasting materials that they cannot chew through. Also, it is important to limit their access to food. They will steal food out of your pet’s bowl, particularly at night, or go outside to the bird feeder if it is within 30 feet of your home.