Rats are a nuisance. They’re health hazards and also quite destructive. This makes dealing with them a bit complex and something that might require you to know as much as possible about them. One of the common questions is, do mice go to higher floors?
Yes, mice can go to higher floors even though they don’t often do so. They can do so by climbing stairs, going through openings, climbing walls, and jumping from trees. Prevent mice infestation by keeping your home clean, identifying signs of mice presence, sealing entry points, and getting help.
It’ll require concerted efforts of everyone in the building to get rid of mice, and it’s best to start once you notice any sign. Here, we discuss whether mice can go to higher floors and how to deal with them.
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How High Can Mice Go in High rise Buildings
Mice don’t usually go to higher floors, but they’re capable of doing so. The first floor is the most susceptible to a mice infestation. But if you don’t deal with the problem immediately, the whole building up to the highest floor might have the same problem. The more time mice spend in a building, the more they build colonies and establish themselves as they go up, and the more difficult it becomes to deal with them. Once mice have made it to a floor, the floor has become a ground floor for them, and they use the same methods for getting on that floor to get to the next one.
How Do Mice Get to Higher Floors?
There are several ways mice can get to high floors in a building. These include:
1. Climbing Stairs
These vermin can climb all kinds of stairs as long as the material isn’t something extra slippery like stainless steel and slick plastic. Such stairs rarely exist in homes, so mice have no problem climbing to the highest floors if need be, as long as they find the right grip. Beyond that, some species can easily jump up to one foot, which means they can even climb staircases faster than you can imagine.
2. Going Through Cracks
Mice gain entrance into buildings by going through any poorly sealed entrance. They can squeeze themselves through anything, and as long as they can get their head in, the rest of the body will follow. This means windows and doors with openings are easy ways for mice to get to higher floors once they’ve climbed the stairs. They might not even need to climb stairs by just going through the plumbing lines. Likewise, any poorly sealed sink or cracked drain could give them a chance to get into the upper floor. There have even been instances where mice got to the upper floor through the toilet bowl.
3. Climbing Walls
Mice are also excellent climbers, capable of going as high as 13 inches up a smooth wall. If the wall has materials that offer more grip, they can go even higher. This makes it easy for them to go up into the chimney and live there at times. Beyond climbing through the outer walls, they can go through air ducts and cross from one room to another or one floor to another. Sometimes, they even leave and nest inside the duct. They are capable of living and moving inside the wall. If you notice holes in your wall, rats are likely living inside. The interior part of the wall is where they like to breed.
4. Jumping From Trees
Another way mice can get on the upper floor is by jumping from a tree near the house directly into the building. This is why it’s not advisable to have an opening, especially when you’re not at home. More importantly, tree branches should be as far from the building as possible as they can serve as a way for these vermin to get into your building regardless of which floor you choose to stay on.
How To Prevent Mice Infestation in Your Building
Several major cities have a mice problem, which greatly affects high-rise buildings. There are ways to prevent mice infestation in your apartment, and that include:
1. Look For Any Sign of Mice Presence
The first thing you should do is detect whether they’re in your apartment. Rub marks on the wall, droppings, the smell of their urine, especially in poorly ventilated areas, and holes inside walls are telltale signs that they’ve been coming to your home. Also, you should be more observant if construction is happening around you since they’ll be looking for new homes if they’re disturbed.
2. Seal All Entry Points with The Right Material
Any small opening is a giant door for mice. As long as their head can enter, their body can, and if you can see the light through a crack, you can be sure that mice can go through that. You should look everywhere around your house for these cracks and seal them. Check the doors, windows, foundation, plumbing, wires, gas connection, etc. Where anything enters your home is a potential entry point. So, seal it. Use metal wire mesh and cement for sealing because mice can chew through several materials or force away any material that’s not rigidly in place.
3. Keep Your Home Clean
It’s important to keep the whole building, both indoors and outdoors, clean. Mice can nest in any debris, so it’s important to clear everything. Your building garbage room is a potential haven for them, so it should be proofed and as clean as possible.
4. Get Professional Help
While you may feel like doing it yourself, nothing beats a professional. You may be able to kill some yourself by setting traps and if you have a cat, kill some more. But with the average mice critter being as many as 30 mice. So, it’s almost impossible that you’ll kill them all. With mice, you can exterminate existing ones and prevent any future infestation. Once mice get into your home, they don’t leave on their own, and you’ll have to force them out.
In Conclusion
The destructiveness and creepiness of mice are the least of their problems. They also pose a major health risk. They’re carriers of hantavirus, Lassa fever, listeria, and salmonellosis. The best way to deal with them is to prevent them from even getting access into your building, but if that’s too late, make sure you prevent an infestation. The last thing you want is to deal with tons of mice in your apartment.
