Mice hide in boathouses, sheds, crawl spaces, pier and stone foundations, dock storage, upturned boats, and stacked seasonal gear. Waterfront properties also go unused for long periods of time in cooler weather, which is right when rodents start going inside.
Homes near the water tend to be good places for mice to call home. You can see this a lot around the New Hampshire Lakes region.
First, consider the outbuildings. Waterfront properties have a lot of them. Boathouses, storage sheds, and dock boxes are rarely sealed, rarely visited, and full of soft material. Life jackets, boat covers, tarps, and cushions all get shredded for nesting. An upturned canoe or a shrink-wrapped boat is a dry protected shelter for the whole winter.
Then there are the foundations. Older lake camps often sit on piers, stone, or shallow crawl spaces instead of full basements. That makes it easy for mice to access the underside of the entire floor and the joist bays above.
Also nearby is a lot of vegetation. Dense brush, thick ground cover, woodpiles, and stone walls all give mice protected travel routes right up to buildings.
And as if all that’s not enough, the homes often go unoccupied for long stretches of time. That means problems can build without anyone being around to notice and take action.
There are a lot of things you can do to help prevent rodent problems though. Before leaving after the summer, remove all food including pantry items and pet food. Store fabric and cushions in sealed hard containers. Then empty the trash. It’s also wise to seal up any gaps you can find around windows and where pipes and wires pass through walls. Then, outdoors, trim vegetation back from buildings and move woodpiles away from the walls.
If mice are getting into your lake property, Mosquito Squad of New Hampshire Lakes can help. Mosquito Squad finds how mice are getting in, clears them with traps and bait stations, and seals the entry points. Monthly rodent protection is also available through Complete Home & Yard coverage.
