Let’s examine a sample scenario: a one-week vacation had just ended, and relaxation was in the air. The next day, preparations were being made to return to work. For dinner, simple sloppy joes and fries were being cooked in the oven. Now, it’s late hours and when you reached for the fries with an oven mitt, you saw mice in kitchen at night. Luckily you did not accidentally grab one of them instead of the food. And confusion probably turns to fear, as you let out a loud scream when the mice rush for safety.
There is suddenly a strong desire to ensure that this situation would never happen again. That means you have to keep the mice from returning to your kitchen, as well as discourage any hiding ones from making a nest of your home.
The good news: in order to keep nocturnal rodents out of your kitchen (even in the daytime), we identified various tricks to make your home generally an unappealing place for them. These methods also make the kitchen and oven mitts less attractive for the mice to inhabit.
Mice in Kitchen at Night: What to Do
While it can be tricky to get rid of mice in your home without professional intervention, it is possible with the methods provided here. However, if you have a severe infestation, the go-to solution would be to call your local pest control provider. That said, here is a simple to-do list to help you permanently remove the mice in kitchen at night:
1. Get Rid of All Entry Points
Did you know mice are great at squeezing through tiny holes? They can fit in spaces less than an inch wide. There are even videos that prove this.
Mice can get into small holes, especially if there’s food tempting them. This is one of the secrets mice don’t want you to know. Per Anticimex findings, a mouse can get through a small, 6-7 mm hole (about the diameter of a normal-sized pen.
Start by checking your whole kitchen for any openings that might have lured the mouse inside. Search for holes near or even inside your cabinets, shelves, behind or under the stove, and even under the refrigerator.
And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you can:
- Fill small holes with steel wool.
- Put caulk around the steel wool to keep it in place or use spray foam.
- Use lath screen or lath metal, cement, hardware cloth, or metal sheeting to fix larger holes.
2. Put your food in airtight containers
No wonder the tiny mouse enjoyed being in my kitchen – it’s got food. Are you not very good at keeping all your food properly closed, like stuff such as crackers or pasta? The truth is that you need to improve how you store them.
So, get containers and jars that seal really well. Now, the mouse will not be tempted by your food anymore. Obviously, because everything’s tightly sealed in these containers. No more snacks for the mouse
3. Maintain a Neat and Clean Kitchen
Mice can survive on really tiny bits of food each day. They only need about 3 to 5 grams of food daily, so those crumbs you see are like a perfect snack for them. Even though the crumbs might not seem like a big deal on the floor, trust me, they are enough attractants for mice in kitchen at night.
It might feel like a bother, but one of the best ways to prevent mice from coming in is to keep your kitchen neat and clean—not just every now and then, but every single day. After you finish cooking, quickly sweep the kitchen floors and give the counters (and stovetops) a good wipe.
4. Get Rid of Places Where Mice Could Build Nests
No wonder the mouse enjoyed my oven mitt; it is like a warm and comfy little house for it. Your oven mitts probably hang close to the kitchen counters, which makes for easy reach. This meant the opening of the mitt is exposed and just right for a mouse to nest in.
You have to look at all the snug spots in your kitchen where a mouse might like to nest. This also helps to get rid of places where mice might leave droppings, which can carry various harmful diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
5. Give Peppermint a Shot
Here is another surprising trick we found a few months ago to keep mice away from your kitchen at night. Some experts say that peppermint plants or essential oils work well to repel mice. That’s because they can’t stand the smell.
For our trick, we used a candle with a strong mint scent. Lighting it after cooking not only makes your kitchen smell nice and clean but it is also supposed to keep those little critters away.
You should achieve a mouse-free kitchen with these simple methods in no time. Let’s see how you can stop mice from getting into the rest of your home.
6. Trap Up
If the things you tried to stop mice from coming do not work, you can use traps to catch them in the kitchen or simply bait them.
If you have one mouse or a few mice, you can use snap traps to stop mice in kitchen at night. They work well, are not expensive, and you can put tasty things like cheese or peanut butter on them. But be careful where you put them so that pets and little kids don’t get hurt. Good spots are behind furniture, in dark corners, and along walls where mice like to hide. We professionally reviewed the best trap option for mice troubling your kitchen at night.
You could also put bait in a trap to make it work better, but it’s not a good idea for homeowners to use poison baits. Poison can be dangerous if pets, kids, or homeowners are exposed to it. Also, these baits might not work right away and could make a mouse go into a tiny space (like a wall) to die. That can cause a bad smell that stays for months as the dead body rots. But we also have a way to eliminate the smell even if you can’t find the rodent.
While you consider the methods above, you don’t want to introduce glue boards into your home to capture mice. Mice may be critters but they do not deserve the harsh and inhumane treatment that comes with sticky traps. Moreover, it can be difficult to dispose of a caught mouse in a glue trap.
Contact Your Local Pest Control
Ultimately, if you keep getting mice in kitchen at night and it seems your hard work is not paying off, you could be dealing with an infestation. Here is when you should allow professionals to step in to identify the infestation and safely get rid of the critters from your kitchen and general home.
