Best Ways to Get Rid of Mice in Walls & Vents

Mice – tiny creatures can cause a lot of damage.

They can easily get to the top of your shelves, chew up everything they come across: cheese, cables, clothes, or doors. Apart from damaging your stuff, they also carry pathogens of a lot of infectious and lethal diseases, such as Cholera, Lyme’s Disease, and Colorado Tick’s Fever.

In this article I will teach you everything you need to know to get rid of mice from your walls.

How to Know if There are Mice in Your Walls

Walls are ideal for mice to stay in. For two reasons particularly:

  • First, because they offer a warm housing.
  • Second, they offer them good protection – making it the perfect spot for hiding and nesting. With that said, how do you go about sensing the presence of mice in the walls?

There are some guaranteed sings signaling you that, and I’m mentioning some of them below:

  1. Scratching sounds – If you keep hearing scratching sounds from the inside of walls, it should give birth to a healthy amount of suspicion. If you find sounds in your ceilings, chances are, mice are having a good time at your place. Getting rid of them from your walls can be hard, because you can’t see it happening from the outside. Which makes it even more crucial that you don’t ignore the small signs.
  2. Droppings – Mice usually drop feces near where they live. So if you spot tiny, black seed-sized things near the walls, it’s crucial you take immediate action.
  3. Nest – If you start spotting shredded clothes or papers at the corners of the house, put everything aside, and do a good check if they’re really there. Chances are, you’ll find multiple nests.
  4. Smell – If there’s an awful odor if your house, you may want to get down to some investigation.

How on Earth Do They Get Inside the Walls?

how to get rid of mice in walls

Majority of the houses have some kind of wall openings.

Often near gas lines, utility pipes, ductwork, cable networks and dryer vents. And if these holes are as big as a dime, mice can easily squeeze through them.

Mice usually get inside walls from these points:

  1. Holes made for gas lines, cable networks, duct works, and utility pipes are perfect entrances for the mice
  2. Compartments made for your AC units, chimney pipes, and roof vents
  3. Poorly or entirely unsealed door & window frames
  4. Cracks in the home foundations

How to Get Rid of the Mice Living in the Walls

Before trying to get rid of them, let’s study some of their behaviors because that can help us do the task better and easier.

  1. Mice always keep searching for food, meaning that drawing them to your trap won’t be much of a hassle
  2. They constantly nibble on any sort of food they come find
  3. They like staying close to their food sources

All this entails that you can bait the mice into falling for the traps.

Before trying exterminating methods, people should make sure the pests at question are mice.

Since other pests are known to live inside walls and can require a customized approach to be taken care of.

You can get rid of them in 2 different approaches. I’m explaining them below.

Getting Rid of Mice in the Wall Without Killing

If you don’t want to use poison, then humane traps are your best option when eliminating mice.

These are generally built with wood, metals, or plastic. Check out my complete guide about the best mouse traps and how to choose the right one.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use this method:

  1. Place a piece of cheese or peanut butter as bait at the inner end of your trap.
    The moment the mouse touches your bait, the lever on the trap shuts off and ultimately, trap the mouse.
  2. Place these traps at where mice actually frequent.
    It’s best to place them at night because mice are most active at that time.
  3. Check your traps. Once you’ve set the trap, no need to check them every other minute. Just leave it overnight, and see if you caught anything in the morning.
  4. Release catched rodents. After you catch a mouse, you can release it to the wild if you want, but don’t forget to check what your State laws tell about rodents release.

eliminate mouse in the wallPlanning to use poison? Before you do, know that they may not affect right away – mice may have enough time to get back to their wall before dropping dead – which translates into a smelly, messy problem that can turn out harder to eliminate.

But if you still want to use poison I recommend to check my guide on the best mouse poisons.

One of the best humane traps out in the market are CaptSure Original Humane Mouse Traps.This is a smart humane mousetrap capable of catching mouse live. It’s also safe to use around your children and pets. It is reusable, and you can easily clean this using a brush.

How to Kill the Mice Inside the Walls

  1. how to kill mice inside the wallElectric mouse traps are great, because, with them, the mouse dies out of electric shock the moment they touch the bait. Some cheese or peanut butter is placed as bait at the inner end of traps. The moment the mouse comes in contact with the bait, the trap’s lever shuts the door, ultimately, trapping the mouse inside. You have to place these traps where you suspect the mice hang out. Once it’s dead, you can wrap it in a plastic bag and trash it.
  2. Glue traps are another effective way of killing mice inside the walls. With these, the mice get stuck because of glue, and ultimately dies because of no food or water. I do not recommend this method, because it’s really non-humane.
  3. Here’s how to get rid of mice in walls using poison:
    • Find a spot on your drywall 3-5 inches away from the floor and drill a small hole there.
    • Take a cardboard box with the hole in it.
    • Fill the box with a rat poison bait (be careful with poison and use it only how it meant to be used), cover the top of the box with transparent cellophane and secure the box against the wall.
    • Check your trap regularly to see if a critter has gotten the bait. If yes, then get box outside, clean it or replace with the new one.
    • Put a dead rodent in the zip bag and throw away. (Don’t forget about gloves and safety precautions!)
    • Clean your hands.
    • Repeat the process until there are no more mice in your wall.
  4. That being said, nothing beats hiring an exterminator to get rid of the mice mess. Because exterminators don’t only kill the mice with chemicals. They also clean up the corpses after a certain time.

How to Prevent Mice From Invading in the Future

While “Prevention is better than cure” may sound like a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true. So if you want to keep mice away from the walls, make sure you don’t invite them altogether.

Here are some things you can do to prevent mice infestation:

  1. Seal up all the holes using steel wool. Cement any drainage or vent (AC vents especially) because they are easy entrances for mice.
  2. Keep your kitchen foods covered, the trash can closed, and keep the can out of your house.
  3. Don’t feed the outdoor birds (if it’s only not a raptor) until you eliminate the mice issue entirely

How to Get Rid of Mice in the Vents

Mice inside vents can cause big issues as their poop and urine can be very bothering. Look at the 2 effective methods of getting rid of mice in the vents below:

  1. Switch off and remove the grates to bring the central cooling & heating system to room temperature
  2. Put a snap traps at all the vents, meaning, anywhere you track mouse droppings or footprints by placing food like cheese peanut butter, chocolate, etc. as the bait
  3. Next, put the grates together again and turn on the heating & cooling system
  4. Check the traps in the morning. If you find a mouse, trash it inside a plastic bag
  5. Always sanitize your hands after you put the trap back in the vent
  6. Rinse and repeat until there’s no mouse in your vents

Another excellent way to remove mice from the vents is by hiring an exterminator – because, in all honesty, professionals can take care of it far better than you.

They’re very reliable because they take care of the entire thing. Meaning, they won’t of off just when they’ve killed the mice. After a certain time, they will come back and take the dead bodies away. Otherwise, if you want to find dead bodies once they’re dead, you have to actually sniff them out.

How to Remove Dead Mouse from the Walls

While poisons do a great job of killing the mice, they still leave the dead bodies inside your house.

Which can be a massive drag. And before the smell goes at, it will get more intense first. So it’s crucial that you throw them out fast. However, there’s no magic tool to find such dead bodies, other than sniffing them out. The only alternative is, a thermal camera as it’ll generate a bit of heat.

Here are some tips of tracing down dead bodies in the walls:

  • Smell around to trace down the exact spot where the stink is coming from. Drywall is a great point to start.
  • Be wary of the stink is getting more intense as you move. If yes, then you’re moving to the right direction.
  • Use a saw or a drill to create a hole at a specific part of the wall.
  • Put on gloves before touching the dead thing. Put the dead mouse in a zip lock bag and trash it
  • Even though you had gloves on, make sure to wash your hands later on regardless
  • Wipe and use a strong disinfectant at the death spot
  • Next, fix the hole on the wall using a drywall patch so mice can’t get inside your wall anymore.

Getting Rid of the Smell Inside Your Walls

The odor of dead mice is a combination of methane, sulfur dioxides, and other noxious gases produced while the tissues start decomposing. And how to get rid of it? Simply put – you find the source, you neutralize the source.

There can be two possible reasons for your walls to stink: mice urine scent or decomposing corpse odor.

Here’s how you eliminate the mice urine scent from the walls:

  • Spray disinfectant liquids to neutralize the stink
  • Wash it using vinegar and baking soda
  • Use coffee grinds, charcoals, onions, or some commercial odor absorbents
  • Use non-wax polyurethane or shellac

With that out of the way, now let me show you how you can eliminate the smell of dead mice from walls:

  • Once you have removed the corpse, use bleach and water at that place
  • Allow fresh air to get into the room
  • Use smell absorbent materials and
  • Use air fresheners and light scented candles to eliminate the bad smell

How Exterminators Deal With Mice in Walls

hire exterminator to get rid of mice in the wallsExterminators are professionals who know the basic habits and behavior of the mouse. They’ve got perfect solutions for controlling mice in your home. They do a thoroughly job of inspecting your house to trace down and seal the entrances.

Exterminator teams usually follow the following steps to keep mice away:

  1. Locate the traps strategically – Exterminators trace down the spots for mice to sleep and place the traps accordingly. They generally place the traps at the attics, basements, and crawlspace instead of the kitchen counter.
  2. Travel the routes – Exterminators look through places where mice hang around mostly. Even if the mice reside in your crawlspace, the experts know where it’s ideal to put the poison.
  3. More poison, less traps – Exterminators prefer poison above traps because they’re far more effective.
  4. Traps – Exterminators set the traps beside the walls. These are undisturbed corners where mice generally hang out because there’s less human activities there. Some traps are scattered around without setting up so mice don’t start avoiding the unknown objects altogether. Once they make the mice comfortable with these, they plant the real traps.
  5. Mouse proofing – The experts charge extra for this, and it’s well worth it. They’ll cement all the holes and dents of your residence, so mice don’t return ever again.
  6. Staying consistent – The best way to fight these tiny creatures is being consistent. Be it filling the traps using baits or just emptying them. Also, give natural remedies a try, cloves and peppermint for example.

Mice extermination services cost $200 – $325 in the USA on average.


Wrapping It Up

You can easily fight these bothering creatures if you follow the advice I have you.

Let’s take a recap:

  • Keep an eye out for the initial signs of mice being around and take direct action to stop them right there
  • Kill them yourself using poison or take help from exterminator professionals
  • Trap the mice with humane methods and release afterwards
  • Disinfect the death spots thoroughly and neutralize the odor
  • Seal up holes, dents, and things alike for no future mice troubles
  • Always keep your house clean

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