Fall Weather Prompts Mice to Seek Indoor Shelter

Posted on 09.15.11 in Rodents

With the weather turning chilly, New Jersey home owners aren’t the only ones reaching for a toasty blanket at night. As soon as temperatures start dropping, mice begin seeking shelter from winter’s coming cold inside New Jersey homes and buildings. New Jersey mouse control experts say mice typically begin invading northern New Jersey homes in mid-September. Invading mice are looking for both shelter and new food sources. Your New Jersey home offers an enticing supply of both.

During the fall, evidence of marauding mice is often found in New Jersey garages where birdseed, pet food and garbage cans are frequently stored. Home owners may find mice feces (which look like small black grains of rice) along garage walls, near pet food or birdseed bags and on garage shelving. Pet food or birdseed may be scattered about and food storage containers may show evidence of gnawing or even holes where rodents have successfully gnawed through the container. Paper stored in the garage (old newspapers, lawn equipment manuals, etc.) may be smeared with yellow urine stains or shredded for nesting material.

It’s hard to keep mice out. Just 2 to 3 inches long, mice can slip their supple bodies through a hole or crack as small as a dime. Once inside your garage, mice start looking for a protected place to nest. They will gnaw through storage boxes to create nests, nest behind or in stored equipment or slip under wallboard to nest inside garage walls. A serious mouse infestation can develop in a fairly short time, NJ pest control companies warn. Mice typically have 5 litters of 6 to 12 pups during their one-year lifespan. Offspring reach maturity and begin to breed in just 3 months.