Mice can access your roof by climbing brick, siding, downspouts, vines, and nearby trees. Once on the roof, they can enter through roof and gable vents, seams along the roofline or soffits, chimney flues, and cable or pipe gaps.
You probably think of mice as scurrying along the ground. If you’re like most people, you don’t think about mice getting on the roof. But they can do it, and in fact, the roof of many homes can be easier to access than the ground level because the cracks and gaps up there are a lot easier to miss. There’s only the matter of getting up there in the first place, and mice happen to be good at climbing.
Once mice reach the roofline, they have plenty of options to get inside. Roof and gable vents with torn or aging screens are good places to enter. There are also often seams where rooflines meet soffits and gutters as a house ages. Chimney flues work, as do dryer and exhaust ports. It’s useful to remember here that full-grown mice can squeeze into holes the size of a dime. A gap that allows one to enter your home doesn’t have to be very big at all. And even if a gap is on the small side, mice can often chew until it’s larger.
An attic is a pretty good place to live if you happen to be a mouse. It’s warm and there is plenty of thick insulation for nesting. You’ll likely have near-total privacy to go about your business undisturbed. This is why homeowners often notice mice through secondhand signs like scratching and scurrying overhead, the presence of chewed insulation, or by finding droppings along the framing.
You don’t want mice to have a run of your attic for long. They’re a fire hazard. They can chew insulation and wiring. Getting them out and keeping them out is important. To do that, a professional can find their entry points and block them. Then traps and bait stations can be used to lure out current tenants. Once the rodent infestation is addressed, then annual inspections will be done to make sure there are no new ways to enter and to deal with any additional rodents who may have managed to get in.
If you think you may have a rodent infestation in your attic, Mosquito Squad of Franklin-Framingham can help. Mosquito Squad's assessment finds the entry points and blocks them while treating the existing rodent population. From there, they do annual inspections, with monthly rodent protection available through Complete Home & Yard coverage.
