If you hear strange noises like scratching or pattering in the walls or attic of your home, you likely have unwelcome rodent roommates. Mice and rats make distinct sounds as they squeeze through narrow spaces and navigate walls, insulation, and infrastructure. Recognizing these noises is key to identifying a mouse infestation early so you can address it before major damage occurs.
Here is Bay Area Rodent Solutions’ list of common signs indicating that mice or rats have infested the infrastructure and walls of your home.
Common Signs of Mice Infesting Your Infrastructure
Once mice find a crack or hole–no matter how small–to exploit, they can slip deep inside the walls of your home, traveling through voids in drywall or infrastructure. “Exclusion” refers to sealing all possible openings that allow mice external entry access. The most effective long-term elimination strategy focuses first on full exterior exclusion repairs around the home before attempting the interior removal of mice from within walls and voids.
Below are the most common sounds made by mice and rats infesting wall spaces in your home.
- Light rapid scampering or pattering noises as rodents run through narrow cavities.
- Frenzied scratching against wooden studs, piping, and electrical wiring.
- Occasional loud squeaks or shrieks when startled or communicating.
- Strange “chewing” sounds from gnawing wires or wooden structural elements.
- Noises that worsen at night since rodents are most active in the dark.
The scratching happens as mice use their sharp claws to climb, grasp, or otherwise traverse materials in vertical spaces. The pattering is caused by mice running through horizontal voids within walls or ceiling spaces. Squeaking occurs when mice encounter each other or get startled by loud noises within your home.
In severe cases, you may even hear mice fighting fiercely over territory and resources within crowded wall voids. Finding small black droppings around baseboards is another clear warning sign a mouse colony has moved into your home’s infrastructure. However, these distinctive scampering, scratching, pattering, and occasionally squeaking sounds are often the first and most obvious indicators of an active mice infestation within walls or attics.
Safely Removing Mice from Walls & Attics
Attempting a DIY removal of mice infesting the insides of your walls is extremely difficult and unlikely to fully solve the problem. At Bay Area Rodent Solutions, we use specialized tactics perfected over years of responding to mice in walls to completely remove them. This humane multipronged approach includes:
- Using remote surveillance cameras and sensors to monitor activity.
- Installing small one-way exclusion doors in strategic locations along walls and ceilings to encourage voluntary departure while preventing re-entry.
- Using proprietary natural sound/vibration repellents to safely convince mice to leave infrastructure without using any chemicals or poisons.
- Physically placing copper mesh, steel wool, galvanized steel, and other gnaw-proof barrier materials across every possible point of entry, including utility lines and vents, around your home’s perimeter.
We fully remove all mice from your property through capture and eviction while also cleaning and disinfecting areas. Most importantly, our exterior exclusion repairs and sealing prevent mice from being able to chew their way back into your infrastructure. This integrated approach focused on targeted trapping, voluntary encouragement measures, total exclusion, and complete cleanup/prevention is the only way to get mice out of your walls and attics long-term.
FAQs on Safely Removing Mice Infesting Walls
How do mice originally get into walls and is exclusion enough to keep them out?
Mice can squeeze through incredibly tiny gaps of just ¼-inch diameter thanks to collapsible skulls and spines. They’re also skilled climbers. Any small cracks, gaps, or openings around fixtures, utilities, foundations, rooflines, etc., can enable initial entry. But professional exclusion sealing of all gaps with durable sealants and materials prevents re-entry effectively when done properly by experts.
Will mice leave wall voids and attics on their own?
No. Mice view these areas as ideal shelters with warmth, available food from inside your home, nesting cavities, and security. They will not voluntarily vacate an established nest within your walls, and due to their expansive reproduction capabilities, the infestation will only grow worse over time without removal. Within as little as two months, two mating mice can spawn a colony of hundreds without action.
What specific dangers do mice colonies living in walls pose to families?
Beyond loud noises and emotionally discomforting activity within home infrastructure, mice spread serious contagions. Mouse urine, droppings, and nesting materials contain hazardous pathogens that can cause respiratory illness, gastrointestinal conditions, lyme disease, leptospirosis, and other harmful infections in humans. Rodent bites are also potential rabies vectors requiring immediate medical intervention.
Trust California’s #1 Mice & Rodent Control Experts
Don’t live another day with incessant scratching and pattering in your walls. Bay Area Rodent Solutions offers the complete removal of mouse colonies along with cleanup and professional exclusion sealing. Request a quote online or call (877)-301-7826 today to speak with our mice removal experts proudly serving the entire Bay Area region.