Metuchen, NJ Pest Control Expert & Exterminator

I was called out to a homeowner in Metuchen who had the unfortunate and startling experience of finding mice droppings in her kitchen. If you have a mice infestation, you’ll find pellet-shaped droppings are found where mice are most active —  near where they are exploring for food or nesting material and where they breed and nest. Mouse droppings are about 1/4” long and black or brown in color. A single house mouse can deposit 50 to 75 pellets daily! Mouse droppings can carry harmful pathogens, and serious chronic diseases can be contracted by touching or even inhaling particles of contaminated feces. Droppings should only be handled with personal protective equipment, and they must be carefully removed so the dried feces particles are not “kicked up” into the air. 

Upon arrival, I conducted an inspection of the kitchen to determine the points of entry of these small pesky rodents and where they might be nesting. I always start with the most likely “hotbeds” for mice activity — under the sink, behind the stove, and behind the refrigerator. Mice especially like to nest in areas that are warm and dark, so they are attracted to heat sources such as the warmth of a stove or the compression motor in a refrigerator. During my inspection, I observed that piping from the floor or wall was not properly sealed during construction of the kitchen, and this was the likely point of entry for the mice. And they don’t need much of a gap — mice can squeeze into a hole the size of a dime. 

While talking with the customer, she explained that her dog did not like eating out of a bowl, so she left dry dog food directly on the kitchen floor. Unfortunately, by doing so, she was feeding not only her dog, but a colony of hungry mice as well. The customer was surprised (and maybe a bit horrified) when I pulled out the oven drawer and showed her dry dog food that was inside the drawer where the mice were nesting, The mice had created their own secret stash of food with the dog kibbles! 

I performed an exclusion of the entry point by sealing up the gaps around the piping, With any rodent or other wildlife infestation, it is critical to find and seal the access points for a long-term resolution of the infestation. Also, the homeowner now understood that she could not simply leave out dog food on the kitchen floor. Any uneaten food had to be removed immediately or she would be potentially feeding other animals besides her own pet. Finally, I placed rodenticide bait boxes in the appropriate areas to control the rodent infestation.