How to Get Rid of Mice in Walls

Mice are known for making their way into your home, but did you know they can squeeze themselves into your wall space? Despite their tiny size, mice carry with them great dangers and need removing immediately, so how can you get rid of mice in your walls?

Signs of Mice in your Walls

Having mice in your home is distressing enough as it is, but if those mice find a way into the structure of your home, your problem just got ten times worse! 

Not only is it challenging to get rid of them, but it can also be tough to identify their presence.

Use these telltale signs for identifying a mice problem:

Droppings

A mouse can, on average, lay up to 80 droppings a day. Wherever they go, mice will leave their excrement behind. Of course, it’s not the nicest thing to see in your home, but it’s a surefire way of identifying a mice problem. Look out for small, dark brown coloured, rod-shaped droppings in hard to reach areas, like the back of cupboards, around pipework and skirting boards, and your loft space. 

Noise 

Mice are constantly on the move unless they’re sleeping. As they run around your home, they will make rustling and scratching noises. Whilst you usually wouldn’t expect to hear this, it’s important to mention that mice are nocturnal animals. This means that they’re most likely on the move when you’re asleep. People suffering from mice in their walls often complain of being woken up by these noises, but it’s an easy way to identify a pest problem! So listen out for rustling and scratching noises coming from your walls during the night.

Smell 

Not only do they leave behind excrement, but mice will also urinate wherever they go. If this occurs in the hard to reach places mice often visit, it’s almost impossible to clean up – or even find! Unfortunately, stale urine has a foul odour that will only strengthen over time. So if you’ve noticed a terrible smell in your home that you’ve never smelled before, then there’s a good chance you’ve got a mice problem.

Bite Marks

Mice are, of course, rodents, meaning they need to be constantly chewing on things to grind down their front teeth. Once in your home, mice will make use of anything they can find to chew on, including plaster to gain access into your walls! Look out for tiny teeth marks on your furniture, skirting boards, wooden beams, even cardboard and food packaging.

Signs of mice in your walls often overlap with the indications of rats. If you’re unsure of the type of rodent causing problems in your property, why not visit our helpful rat vs mouse article! Don’t forget, holes and damage appearing in wooden objects around your home could also be due to woodworm.

What Causes Mice in your Walls

If you’re unfortunate enough to discover one or more of these signs in your home, you’ve got yourself a mice problem.

Now you’re thinking to yourself, “but why has this happened to me?”…

Despite common beliefs, mice are not more likely to enter ‘dirty’ homes. Instead, they will enter anywhere they can to find food, shelter and warmth. 

You can make your home less appealing to mice by keeping food stored correctly and ensuring there aren’t crumbs left all over the place. 

Take a look around your home’s exterior and check for any holes that may be used as access points. Don’t forget, mice can squeeze through a gap as small as a 1p coin!

Mice are great climbers, so don’t just check your home at ground level. Fascias and guttering are often chewed through in order to gain entry, so have a look around your roofline for damages and seal them if necessary.

Most importantly, look out for signs of wear or holes in your walls, as this is how they enter your wall space. 

If you do spot such holes, seal them up ASAP with metal-based products that mice won’t be able to chew through.

How to Get Rid of Mice in your Walls

Now to answer the most important question: how do you get rid of mice in your walls?

If you’ve successfully identified mice in your walls at home, we’ve got some tips & tricks to help you get rid of them.

Are you suffering from mice all over the home, but not specifically in your walls? Then, check out our article on how to get rid of mice for some more generic tips that you can use all around the home! 

Avoid Poisons

If you have a mouse (or mice) in your wall, then the absolute last thing you want to do is kill it while it’s still in there!

If a mouse dies in your wall space, the body will begin to decompose, and unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about it. 

The smell of rotting flesh will fill your home, maggots will appear, and bacteria and diseases will spread rapidly, placing you and your loved ones in danger. Overall, not a pleasant experience.

Upon noticing signs of mice in your home, many people’s first thought is to buy poison. However, we strongly advise against this for these reasons. 

Locate the Mice in your Walls

To properly get rid of them, it’s essential to know precisely where in your walls they are hiding. 

This is the most challenging task in the process of getting rid of mice in your walls.

You can try listening out for them during the night to try and narrow down their location in your home.

Once you’ve done this, you can then:

1. Carefully drill a small, penny-sized hole in your wall between 5-10cm off the floor.
2. Then grab a small cardboard box and make a similar-sized hole on one side. Place a mousetrap in the box before covering the top of the box with cling film. 
3. Place this cardboard box against the wall, making sure the hole lines up with the hole you’ve made in the wall before securing it in place.
4. Regularly check the box and the trap to see if the mouse has taken the bait.
5. If you have multiple mice in your walls, you will need to repeat steps 1-4 until all signs of mice have gone.
6. Once you’re satisfied that you no longer have a mice problem, seal the hole up with sealant or plaster. 

Placing Traps to Catch Mice in your Walls

If you’re unable to follow the suggested method above, or perhaps you simply don’t want to drill holes in your walls, there are other options.

Purchase multiple mouse traps and place them along your skirting boards in areas you believe the mice to be. 

Live Traps

You can use live traps if you’re looking to carry out this task humanely; however, it can be difficult to then deal with the circumstances.

If you successfully catch a live mouse, you should aim to release it more than 100m away from your home to prevent them from returning. 

Baited Traps

If you want to use traps as a solution, then baited traps are the best way to go.

We suggest using high in sugar foods, like chocolates or sweets, as mice can smell these from a distance. In the same vein, you could also use ‘smelly’ foods, like a strong cheese that would get their attention. 

Many homeowners have also found dog food to be an effective bait!

You may need to give a couple of different foods a go before you are successful. Don’t forget, mice are neophobic creatures who will avoid anything new in their environment – so be patient.

If your traps are successful, please be careful when disposing of a dead mouse. They carry with them a whole bunch of bacteria and diseases that can be life-threatening.

Make sure you wear protective equipment, like gloves and a face covering, and wash your hands repeatedly. Then, disinfect the area and any equipment using bleach and water to kill off the bacteria.

Use a Professional Mice Controller

Getting rid of mice in your walls is a difficult task, especially when you’re trying to do it yourself!

To save your time and effort, the best solution for getting rid of mice in your walls is to use a pest control professional.

Not only will they have more knowledge and experience on the topic, but they will also have access to professional-grade equipment to get the job done swiftly and adequately.

At Integrum, we offer mice extermination services across London and the South East of England, guaranteed to get rid of mice in your walls.