Mice Leave "Presents" Under a Sink in Ocean Grove, NJ

Challenge

Recently, I got a call from a homeowner in Ocean Grove, NJ who came across mouse droppings underneath her sink. This is a clear sign that you have mice in your home.  In order to do a proper inspection, I had to remove all the contents from underneath the sink. Once I did that, I came across a large amount of mouse droppings. Mouse droppings are a HUGE health concern to humans and require the utmost care when cleaning them up. Mice feces contains the Hantavirus which can cause the lung disease Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome— a severe respiratory disease which can be fatal. This is the perfect example of how something so small can cause a big impact.  

Solution

So, needless to say, I cleaned up all the droppings properly. Also, you NEVER want to sweep up mice droppings! Doing so will break up the contents of the droppings and then the Hantavirus is now airborne. After I cleaned up the droppings, I continued my inspection and found a good size hole where the drain pipe goes down. As I inspected the hole it looked like the mice made it bigger. So I got some copper mesh and filled the hole tightly with the mesh. Mice absolutely HATE copper mesh because they cannot chew through it.

I noticed that the homeowner had a low profile (LP) bait station already under the sink, but there was no bait in it. It’s called a “low profile” bait station because it’s small enough to use indoors under pallets and in other tight baiting locations. The bait is placed in the station and the mice will enter one end, feed on the bait, exit through the other end, carry the bait back to the nest and then lights out! So I put the LP bait station in the corner of the sink — where it'll be more effective.

After I was done with the sink, I continued my inspection outside the house and in the crawl space to make sure I covered every inch of the home. Just to be thorough, I placed two RTU's bait stations (which is very similar to an LP bait station) in the crawl space and on the exterior of the home as well.  Mice only feed in a 20-foot radius and once they discovered a food source, they will continue to return to the same location over and over again. This makes it easier for us to remove them from your home.  Soon, the homeowner will be rodent free! I’ll return to conduct another thorough inspection of the property to make sure there aren't any more mice.