All The Problems Mice Can Cause In Your San Jose Home 

Mice are cute, right? They create pretty little archways in your baseboards and sleep in their cute little mouse beds, inside their cute little mouse homes. Oh, wait, those are cartoon mice. Real mice aren't cute at all. In fact, you would probably be disturbed to know what real mice do inside the walls of your home. Here's what you need to know about mice in San Jose.

What You Can't See CAN Hurt You

Mice are rodents. Do you know what rodents do most? They chew. The reason they're always chewing is because they have incisors that never stop growing. They have to chew to file them down. When mice get into the walls of your home, you can count on the fact that they'll be chewing on things that are inside your walls, such as wall studs, foam insulation, wiring, and gas pipes. Those last two can present a serious threat. Experts believe that 20 to 25 percent of property fires caused by unknown sources are rodent-related. If a tiny mouse chews on the wrong thing, you could be out of house and home.

Exterior Holes 

When mice get into your home, they're likely to make small holes larger. They may chew on a sole plate, a window or door frame, some weatherstripping, a door sweep, a seal around an exterior wall penetration, or something else that will give them entrance into your home. And the holes they create can allow other pests into your home. There are many pests in the Bay Area that don't chew holes to get into your home. They take advantage of holes created by other pests, like mice. Exterior holes can also allow rainwater into your home. This can lead to mold, fungus, and wood rot.

Interior Holes

Once a mouse gets into your home, it doesn't stop chewing. It is likely to chew holes in your baseboards, and the holes they make won't be pretty little archways. They'll chew holes in sheetrock, paneling, plywood, studs, and many other building materials. They make these holes to gain access to stored food, and to make pathways to move in and out of wall voids.

Holes In Storage

Mice love attic spaces and storage rooms. In these secluded locations, they'll chew their way into cardboard boxes and damage the items inside. They'll chew their way into stored furniture and create a nest within. There are many stored objects that mice can damage by chewing on them, or by staining them with feces and urine. That leads us to our next point.

Mouse Waste

As mice travel around your home, they leave drops of urine and tiny fecal droppings. The waste left by rodents can cause a smell to develop, but this is minor compared to the health threat this material poses. It can contaminate your foods, your surfaces, your dishes, and voids that you may enter to make a repair. When left in air ventilation ducts, particulates can become airborne and cause respiratory illness. If you have ongoing illness in your home and don't understand why, you could have a mouse infestation that you are unaware of.

Organisms

Mice are able to pick up and spread a wide variety of organisms. Some are microscopic. Some are large enough to see. Bacteria and parasitic worms can be introduced to your food from the hairs of mice. Ticks, fleas, mice and other larger organisms can be littered about your home by an exploring mouse. A single mouse can have as many as a hundred seed ticks on its body. Seed ticks are six-legged tick larvae. If these larvae develop into eight-legged nymphs, they can drop off their first host and start searching your home for another, larger host. While ticks don't take humans as hosts, several species have no problem biting people and then falling back off. This can expose you to a long list of tick-borne diseases.

Noises

When mice start to make scratching or bumping noises inside walls, this is usually when we get a call. These noises can be annoying. Unfortunately, mice don't always make noises to let you know they're in your home.

Mouse Control In San Jose

Don't let mice live in your home with you. There is nothing cute about a mouse infestation. Contact Bay Pest and have mice removed. We're standing by to assist you with this important protection for your health and property.