Do mice chew polyurethane foam? What do owners say?

The question of whether mice chew polyurethane foam is relevant for everyone who wants to use this product when carrying out repairs. Some people are afraid that rodents will break the seal of the treated surfaces, while others want to protect themselves from uninvited long-tailed guests using foam. The author of the site VredStop.ru has figured out the issue and is ready to share information with readers.

How and what was used to insulate a house to prevent mice from getting in it?

Today there are different types of modern insulation on sale that we have never heard of before.
Old proven methods of thermal insulation are considered to be the use of expanded clay, slag and ordinary sawdust mixed with quicklime (fluff). Rodents will never enter a house insulated with such materials. The use of polystyrene foam, mineral wool or polystyrene foam will not protect your home from pests. Ultrasonic repellers, poisonous baits and mousetraps will help keep your home safe.

The harmful effects of ultrasound are not felt by humans, but this does not mean that it does not affect them. The safety of such devices for people has not been fully proven. Spreading poison poses a danger to pets and children, and mousetraps are ineffective. Interestingly, rodents are afraid of the smell of wormwood, so you can add leaves and stems of this plant to the insulation, but you will need a lot of them.

Recommendations for building a house

If the owners plan to use foam plastic as insulation in the walls of their home, it is better to prevent the possible penetration of mice than to repair or replace it later.

To avoid damage to the foam, the following is recommended:

• at the construction stage, it is better to use a strip foundation, and for greater reliability, lay a strip of concrete around the perimeter, adding glass fragments;
• to protect the lower part of the insulation, experts recommend making insulation up to 30 cm high from galvanized iron;
• Place a fine-mesh metal mesh over the entire outer surface of the polystyrene foam, through which mice will not be able to crawl through, and if they try to gnaw through it, they will break off their teeth;
• outside the house, it is necessary to seal all the cracks and holes through which pests can crawl.

There is often information on the Internet about rodenticides that can be used to treat foam and thus protect it from mice. However, the impregnation is very short-lived: the chemical components gradually evaporate, and rodents will begin to consume the material with great appetite.

The question of how to impregnate polystyrene foam with toxic drugs yourself is also not relevant. After all, applying chemical insecticides over the entire area of ​​the walls will be a big problem. It would be optimal to choose an alternative option by installing traps with poison in the habitats of pests to destroy them.

Pests in the barn

Rodents try to penetrate not only the house, but also any buildings in search of food. Therefore, residents of private homes are interested in how to get rid of rats in the barn on their own. In such a room they either keep large quantities of food for livestock, or for themselves. Therefore, there is always something for rodents to profit from.

Important! Their presence affects the health of birds, and as a result, productivity. Therefore, you need to get rid of impudent pests immediately

Chemicals

The easiest and cheapest way: just buy a pesticide and pour it into the place where it penetrates. However, everything is not so simple: pets can also be poisoned. It is unlikely that it will be possible to transfer animals from the treated area for 2-3 days, so this approach is risky. However, you can prepare traps: for example, put the poison in boxes where chickens, for example, will not climb.

There are several types of chemical poisons:

Use force

Rats are larger and much more dangerous than mice, so it is advisable to know how to get rats out of the barn using folk remedies before they cause trouble - these rodents take great pleasure in strangling chicks. Placing traps near their holes and installing special traps is a sure and effective way to catch pests. You can have several cats that are capable of hunting and killing rats: this ability does not depend on size at all. Fluffy mousetraps can be very miniature - it's all about speed and resourcefulness.

Traditional methods

To get rid of rodents, you need to make their stay in the barn unpleasant. This is even more effective than direct destruction - rodents multiply quickly and do not stop in front of traps.

• Stove ash scattered on the floor guarantees mice digestive problems;
• If no one lives in the barn, you can use mothballs or kerosene - this is a sure way to get rid of rats and mice in the barn.
• Holes in the walls need to be filled with broken glass and then filled with concrete. No polyurethane foam!
• Cruel method: a mixture of clay and flour will attract rodents, so water is placed nearby. The liquid causes the plaster to harden and the mouse dies.
• You can hang and arrange bunches of herbs - black root, the second name of which is rat-eater, is not felt by humans, but is destructive for rodents.
• Tansy, wild rosemary and peppermint - any of these plants will help get rid of rats and mice in your area.

Rodents destroy crops and livestock year after year and cause harm to humans

Being careful and taking timely measures will help protect yourself and your home from rats and mice.

Regarding small damaging inclusions that can injure rodents

In places where rodents appeared previously, small fragments of sewing needles can be embedded in the foam. Regardless of whether mice chew through the construction foam in this area, the needles will be a good deterrent. As soon as a rat or mouse feels a prick and blood on its snout, it will run away without looking back.

Broken glass is also a good remedy. It is also capable of causing significant damage to rodents. By sealing it between the rows of injected foam, you can rest assured. Mice are unlikely to move in this area.

Protecting foam from pests

Polystyrene foam is a very convenient material for thermal insulation and sound insulation. But it is various foam plastics that are most susceptible to attack by mice and rats. These are materials such as extruded polystyrene foam, polyurethane foam, penoizol, penoplex. These materials are artificial, so they are not suitable for mice as food, but they chew them and turn them into dust. In the resulting voids, rodents make nests for themselves. To protect it from rodents, you need to take certain measures:

1. 1. You should choose dense types of foam for insulation, since it is inconvenient for mice to gnaw on dense material.
2. 2. Proper installation of the foam is necessary. It must be carefully puttied and sheathed using special materials, selected individually. The goal of proper installation is to prevent the appearance of cracks, since rodents enter the home through the cracks.
3. 3. All holes must be sealed with polyurethane foam.
4. 4. It is advisable to provide metal sheathing along all walls at pest entry level. They won't be able to handle metal.

These measures must be taken into account at the construction stage. If they have not been accepted, all that remains is to take actions aimed at repelling rodents:

1. 1. The easiest way is to get a cat. Just the smell of a cat in the house repels mice.
2. 2. You can install an electronic repeller, but if the area of ​​the house is large, one device will not be enough, you will have to install several. Such repellers emit ultrasound of various frequencies, which causes fear in rodents and forces them to leave the building.
3. 3. All food supplies must be kept out of the reach of rodents.
4. 4. The home must be kept clean.

Folk remedies are effective to protect polystyrene foam. They are based on the use of various plants that repel rodents with their smell. These are plants such as pine needles, tobacco, mint, wormwood. These dried plants can simply be scattered in corners. During the construction phase of a house, you can treat the foam with lime or red pepper.

Some people use boric acid to repel pests, but its effectiveness in controlling rodents has not been proven.

If none of the above methods help, you need to contact the sanitary and epidemiological station, whose employees will come and carry out a complete disinfection of the premises and the elimination of all rodents.

Mice control methods

If the mice have managed to settle in the construction foam and make labyrinths, you need to start fighting them. There are different options:

• Get a cat at home. Mice smell the cat, and if the cat encounters rodents several times, they will leave. Sensing danger, mice run away to a quieter place for them.
• Install an electronic device in your house or apartment that repels parasites. To completely remove parasites, you need to use 2-3 devices simultaneously. This device works with ultrasound, which is emitted at different frequencies. This is how the psyche of mice becomes irritated and they develop a strong desire to leave the area.
• If there is a strong infestation of mice, it is better to call disinfection services, which will professionally disinfect the premises, allowing you to quickly get rid of rodents.
• Sprinkle boric acid in areas where mice appear.
• Mice do not like the smells of some herbs: wormwood, medicinal chamomile, peppermint. You can place dried plants around the house. You will get a pleasant and healthy aroma in the house and a mouse repeller.

Disinfection services will help you forget about the mouse problem for a long time.
Source

How to protect the thermal insulation circuit from damage

If you got a house with a ready-made thermal insulation layer, or the mouse population suddenly began to increase, you need to take measures to protect the insulation. Otherwise, within a couple of years, heat loss will increase, and with it, heating bills will increase.

There are several options here that I would recommend implementing comprehensively:

1. We protect all thermal insulation layers with dense material, preferably one that is too tough for a rodent.
2. We fill the cavities and discovered passages with broken glass, wood shavings soaked in copper sulfate, or push glass wool.
3. We store all food products and seed in a place inaccessible to mice. No food means no incentive to gnaw and seriously settle down in the insulated walls.
4. We place poison behind the casing and in the corners, and install ultrasonic devices that repel rodents.

Well, and the most effective method, which, in addition to getting rid of rodents, has a bunch of other useful effects. Finally, get a normal cat, and every morning you will find several gray carcasses on the porch. Sooner or later the mice will run out and your insulation will be safe.

The cat, however, will stay and ask for food, but it seems to me that this is a completely acceptable price for peace and order in the house.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CgTf7-OkKXE

Preventive measures

Therefore, adhere to simple rules:

• They constantly carry out general cleaning, during which they find and throw away all found garbage that is not of household or other interest;
• do not leave scraps on the table, under the table, but promptly put them in a trash can with a lid;
• do not clutter the house and apartment with unnecessary things;
• all products are kept out of reach in tightly sealed containers;
• They periodically inspect the residential area, seal up any mouse holes found, having previously prepared an unpleasant surprise for the rodent using poison or a mousetrap.

Fighting mice is not an easy task, but you can cope with the task. The main thing is to approach the issue with ingenuity and knowledge of the matter.

Additional ways to protect yourself from mice and rats

If the thermal insulation layer has already been installed, and the problem with rodents has appeared recently, additional protective measures must be taken

It is important to prevent mice from accessing the interlayer. This can be done without dismantling the insulation

To create additional protection, it is recommended to use the following methods:

Installation of steel mesh. It is installed in front of the insulation. The method is expensive, but effective. The use of chemical compounds - “Rat”, “Goliath”, “Mortorate”. Processing is done in accordance with the instructions

It is important that the properties of the insulation do not change. The use of alternative thermal insulators. Rodents are afraid of sounds, so a layer of fallen leaves will scare them away.

Read about how to completely get rid of mice here.

Ultrasonic rat repellers: is it worth buying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytdevru

From our experience, we can say that ultrasound can scare away rats only temporarily. Warehouses and food enterprises, before turning to our company for help in fighting rats, tried to fight them on their own and resorted to installing ultrasonic rodent repellers. Yes, for some time (about 1 month) the effect was visible, and then a new invasion of rats adapted to this ultrasound.

And even those ultrasonic repellers that claim that they change ultrasonic frequencies to prevent rodents from becoming addicted, in fact they also work very poorly. There were also complaints from the staff, who spent the entire working day among the installed ultrasonic rodent repellers. Mostly it was irritation, bad mood and headaches.

Personally, our company does not install ultrasonic rat repellers. We just shared our third-party experience, which our objects give us in feedback. Therefore, if you still decide to use ultrasonic rat repellers, then you need to carry out barrier protection, otherwise all your efforts will be in vain. The rodents will soon return.

Insulation that will resist rodents

There are a number of criteria by which mice choose insulation material: low density, lack of moisture, warmth and the ability to be used as food. Therefore, to protect against rodents, these factors must be excluded.

Insulation that can resist attacks from rats and similar animals must have the following properties:

• High density. This is the main obstacle for rodents.
• Treatment with special agents, the concentration of which is safe for human health.
• Loose insulation structure. It prevents pests from making nests in the material.

These requirements are met by a number of thermal insulators, which need to be considered in more detail.

Foam glass

For the production of foam glass, broken glass is used, which goes through a heat treatment stage. To create voids, foaming agents are added - anthracite, coke. Subsequently, the formed hollow granules can be used as bulk material. To make blocks, they are poured into molds and then subjected to pressure and repeated processing at high temperatures.

When choosing foam glass as insulation, you need to take into account its properties (see all characteristics here):

• High specific gravity. Depending on the manufacturing technology, the density of the material varies from 100 to 600 kg/m³. This is a high indicator, which negatively affects installation and processing conditions.
• The thermal conductivity coefficient is one of the lowest among insulation materials - from 0.043 W/m*C. For bulk types of foam glass it is higher, since close contact of the granules with each other is not ensured.
• Fire safety and sound insulation. They are determined by the properties of the material of manufacture and its structure.
• High price. The average price for 1 m³ of block foam glass is 17,500 rubles.

This insulation is chosen if the problem of rodents is urgent and a high degree of protection against them is required.

Expanded clay

Expanded clay is made from special types of clay using a technology similar to foam glass. But unlike it, the formed granules cannot be compressed into a single block, since they have low mechanical strength and elasticity. This insulation is not chewed by mice and rats due to its flowability.

To analyze the relevance of using expanded clay, its characteristics are taken into account:

• The nominal thermal conductivity for one granule is from 0.01 W/m*C. But in fact, for the expanded clay layer it is higher, since “cold bridges” are formed between the components. It all depends on the density of the backfill.
• Compaction factor – 1.15.
• Fraction 10-20. It is this size of granules that is used for insulation.
• Water absorption from 8 to 20%.
• The average cost is from 1300 rubles per 1 m³.

Expanded clay can only be used as loose insulation on horizontal surfaces.

Ecowool

It is made from paper industry waste. After processing, ecowool is treated with compounds of brown salt and boric acid. Their concentration is dangerous for rodents, but does not affect human health. To apply ecowool to the surface of walls or floors, special pneumatic equipment is used. The final drying time of the protective layer varies from 2 to 4 days depending on its thickness.

Main characteristics of ecowool:

• Insulation belongs to the category of moderately flammable materials. When exposed to open fire, it does not melt; if the source of ignition is removed, attenuation is observed.
• Average density – up to 55 kg/m³.
• Thermal conductivity - up to 41 W/m*S.
• The price includes work on applying the material - from 600 rubles. For 1 m² with a thickness of 100 mm.

It is advisable to use ecowool for large volumes of insulation.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CgTf7-OkKXE

How to get mice out of the house: the reason for their appearance

Mice live everywhere. They consider themselves our full neighbors. It is difficult to find a private home where rodents do not visit from time to time. Mice usually enter city apartments through garbage chutes and basements, but for such dwellings, rats are the most common guests.

You may ask: “Why do mice like our houses so much?” The fact is that these small animals in the wild are constantly forced to look for food and escape from predators, but in a human home they can feel calm.

Mice are also attracted to homes where food is left uncleaned on tables and dishes left unwashed in sinks. Garbage, dust, lack of grilles on ventilation openings are factors contributing to such a neighborhood.

Where do mice come from? Usually they peek in from their natural habitat - fields and forests. If there is a mouse in your city apartment, do not rush to reproach yourself for being careless; very often rodents come from garbage chutes and basements. If this is really the case, and mice also attack your neighbors, then you won’t be able to drive them away using simple means; you will have to call sanitary services, who will clean not only your apartments, but also basements with garbage chutes.

If you want to get mice out of your house, you can get a cat.

How to determine the presence of rodents in the house:

Pay attention to sounds. If there is something scratching in your closet or wall, it will almost certainly be a mouse.

If you hear mice squeaking, then most likely you have become the owner of a whole litter of mice. Pay attention to sudden movements. Mice rarely leave their burrows when there is daylight. However, if you often see flickering shadows in corners and near walls, then you may have mice crawling around. The surest sign of the presence of mice in the house is their droppings. It looks like shiny black oblong grains. If you find such traces in corners or in food cabinets, then mice are already in your home. Look for mouse nests. Rodents usually build their homes in warm and quiet places. You can find such a home in a closet with clothes that you don’t wear, in a closet or in the attic, and mice can also make a hole in the wall, in sawdust, in sand or in expanded clay. A specific musty smell may also indicate that there are mice in your home.

Based on all these signs, it will not be difficult to identify the presence of mice in your home. Once the problem is discovered, all that remains is to kick out such neighbors.

Bitterness from mice

In Europe, a few years ago, polyurethane foam was developed with an extremely unpleasant taste for mice. It is also avoided by other unpleasant guests: bedbugs, cockroaches and rats. This miracle cannot be found in Russia, but you can try to make an analogue yourself. Of course, it is much better to immediately use the right and reliable materials, but situations vary.

Interesting! To protect the polyurethane foam, after hardening it is enough to spray it with a special aerosol, the range of which is always wide in hardware and construction stores. Such a simple protection system can work if the insulation does not constantly get wet, otherwise the entire effect will disappear very quickly, also spreading an unpleasant odor.

Repelling rodents with bitter substances

If mice chew through the foam in some places, you can give them an unpleasant surprise. After each passage of foam, sprinkle its layer with bitrex (denatonium benzonate). The foam, having hardened, will still contain this extremely bitter substance in its mass. Having felt it in the mouth, a rat or any other rodent will lose the desire to bite into the polyurethane foam in this place for a long time.

Why do mice chew inedible things, including different types of insulation?

Some types of insulation are considered conditionally edible for rodents, for example chipboard, reeds and polystyrene. By eating them, rats compensate for a long absence of food. The organic materials from which the insulation is made are perfectly digested and absorbed in their stomachs. Mice can chew polyurethane foam, fiberboard, MDF, and polyurethane foam, and this is due to their physiological characteristics. Rodents' incisors grow throughout their lives, so they have to be ground down regularly.

Not only thermal insulation materials are damaged, but also shoes, clothing, furniture, and wiring. Most of all, mice like to live in jute, inside mineral or basalt wool. The soft material holds its shape well, is ventilated and retains heat well. Treatment with special chemicals or boric acid will help protect the insulation from damage. Plywood and DSP boards, which are excellent for insulating a frame house, are not always susceptible to mouse teeth.

How to prevent mice from getting into construction foam?

If rodents have made their way into the foam, where they are warm and comfortable, it is not easy to drive them out. What to do? Before using polyurethane foam, you need to think about a barrier for mice in advance. There are materials that are not perceived by rodents, but their effect is similar to polyurethane foam. These include:

Now the most effective building material that mice are afraid of is ecowool. This is not to say that the name matches the quality. About twenty percent of the substances that make up ecowool are not beneficial to human health (boric acid, borax). It is these components that cause suffocating attacks in mice.

There is an opinion that mice do not tolerate the substances penoizol, foam styrene. But there are facts when individuals used these materials to build and improve their burrows.

If you have already bought foam and there is no way to change it to anti-mouse material, you can add small broken glass to the freshly treated area.

Foam concrete is absolutely unsuitable for mice

Mice chew on polyurethane foam, what to do?

Sometimes people amaze us with their shortsightedness, bordering on stupidity. For example, there are those who are sure that using ordinary polyurethane foam you can protect your home from mice. They selflessly clean cracks and holes, and rodents not only do not disappear, but also multiply exponentially.

In fact, mice chew on polyurethane foam not because they are hungry and want to eat something before getting to more edible human reserves. There are more prosaic, but still vital reasons for this.

The first reason lies in the physiological characteristics of all rodents, without exception: the front incisors are constantly growing and, so that they do not interfere with normal food intake, they must be periodically ground down. So mice grind everything, including polyurethane foam, but don’t eat at all, as many people think.

The third factor is the simplicity and ease of gnawing through passages. For safety reasons, domestic pests move around the house in a maze of their own making. It’s much easier to make a path and create a hole in polyurethane foam than in brickwork.

What to do

If mice get into the insulation, then it is problematic to smoke them out. Therefore, it is better to think about thermal insulation, which at the same time can serve as a barrier for rodents, in advance.

Experience suggests that pests do not favor the presence of the following materials, which in terms of useful properties are in no way inferior to polyurethane foam:

• expanded clay,
• foam glass,
• foam concrete,
• glass wool

Ecowool is considered the best anti-mouse material in construction today. Why it is called that is unclear, because 20 percent of it consists of components that are not the most healthy for health: boric acid, borax. It is these toxic substances that cause suffocation attacks in rodents.

There is an opinion that rodents are afraid of penoizol, styrofoam and the usual polystyrene foam, but as practice shows, mice not only gnaw it, but also use it perfectly to organize their own home and labyrinth.

If the foam has been purchased and it is not possible to replace it with an alternative material, then in this case there is a way out: during the work, the treated area is generously flavored with glass broken into fine crumbs.

Foam that mice are afraid of

By the way, news recently appeared that a certain European company has released polyurethane foam that can repel not only rodents, but also other household vermin such as cockroaches, bedbugs, etc. It does not contain pesticides hazardous to humans.

Miracle foam appeared abroad in March 2012, but it never reached the Russian construction market.

Although, if you try, you can make such foam yourself, because the bitter ingredient is not a secret, it is denatonium benzoate. The foamed surface is generously treated with the solution, and rodents may not want to try it on their teeth.

To the question: do mice chew polyurethane foam, the answer has been given. But whether to use it in construction or not is up to each individual to decide.

Option with a physical barrier

On construction forums on the question of whether mice chew polyurethane foam, reviews contain advice on strengthening the middle part of the opening (crack), which needs to be sealed with a reinforced barrier. A simple galvanized metal mesh with small cells is best suited for these purposes.

If the slots are narrow enough and it is not possible to install it across, you can also install it lengthwise. No matter how strong the teeth of rodents are, they have not yet learned to cope with metal. A rat (or mouse) will chew off the foam from the back side, but, having stumbled upon a metal barrier, will be forced to retreat, no matter how much it would like to restore its previous move.

About the use of insulation

One of the reliable insulation materials for the home, which retains heat well, absorbs noise, is non-flammable and inedible for rodents, is expanded clay. It is made from clay, which is cleaned, wiped, then granules are made from the resulting plastic solution, which are hardened at a certain temperature.

As it cools, expanded clay acquires light weight and is at the same time durable. It has small, medium and even large fractions – 10 – 25 mm in size. Mice and rats will not be able to exist in such material, since they will drown in the thinness of its particles. Expanded clay is used to insulate interfloor and attic floors and basements; it can be used for walls.

Foam glass, which is produced in slabs and in bulk, is also not eaten by rodents. In the loose version, it is similar to expanded clay and is used to insulate walls, floors, and ceilings of a house. It is customary to mount the slabs on the walls from the inside or outside, lay them on the floor, concrete, bitumen, construction adhesive or expanded clay having small fractions.

Foam glass is made by melting and foaming glass. The material is strong, durable, environmentally friendly, and has good resistance to moisture and ultraviolet radiation.

Ecowool is a fairly new material. Rodents do not like ecowool because it contains phosphoric acid, which causes dehydration and suffocation. Ecowool is made from cellulose, harmless to humans, antiseptic, fireproof, releases moisture when heated, muffles noise well, is not subject to rotting and decomposition, and is durable. Can be used both inside and outside the house.

Foam concrete is produced in mortar and blocks. Rodents don't eat it either. The blocks are suitable for construction and wall insulation. The composition of the material, which is used to insulate a house from the outside or is poured into the middle of the masonry during construction, includes water, sand, cement and a foaming agent. Used for thermal insulation of floors and ceilings. Light in weight, environmentally friendly, easy to process, non-flammable, and not subject to rotting.

Penoizol is foam plastic in liquid form. Spraying on the walls is carried out using a special compressor. Mice and rats happily chew this type of foam. In ordinary foam plastic, pests make nests and gnaw passages.

Penoplex is resistant to high and low temperatures, chemicals, possible deformations, resists moisture, transmits light, is environmentally friendly and safe for human health. Extruded polystyrene foam is strong and lightweight, used for thermal insulation, sports fields, ice arenas and refrigeration equipment.

Rodent mesh

To protect a frame house from mice, a fine-mesh metal mesh is used. It is laid during construction and prevents mice from entering the home.

Rodent screens may vary in size and thickness

If the house has already been built, then the mesh can also be used by burying it underground near the concrete base; an earth mouse cannot crawl through the small cell.

Which mesh should I choose? Of course, metal, with small cells. It is necessary to make protection against mice at the construction stage of the building; such a device is laid under the insulation on the floor and on the walls. After installing such protection, you can even decorate your house with plasterboard.

What mice and rats rarely chew through

There are a number of thermal insulation materials that are rarely damaged by rodents. But this depends on the thickness of the insulation, its actual density, and the structure of the wall (ceiling). If you apply additional protective measures (treatment with special compounds), then mice will not chew the following types of heat insulators:

• Mineral wool or glass wool. The material attracts rodents due to its low density; they can use it to make nests. Glass wool negatively affects the health of rats, which is why they are afraid to come into direct contact with it.
• Extruded polystyrene foam. Unlike polystyrene foam, it has a higher density, which prevents rodents from making moves in the material.

Mice and similar animals love to chew polystyrene foam, fiberboard, chipboard, and penoizol. This must be taken into account when there is a high concentration of rodents.

Anti-mouse foam

Recently, a composition from the Great Stuff company called Pestblock appeared on the market. It not only seals cracks, but also repels mice and rats.

Important! The foam contains no harmful substances that, when evaporated, could harm a person. It only contains a bitter substance, so mice will definitely not chew on the foamed areas.

Among the proposed options, it is quite possible to choose those that can be implemented in specific conditions and get rid of pests at minimal cost.

Source

What is the reason

Mice even chew plastic, but the reason is not only the constant search for food: their front teeth grow throughout their lives, so they have to be ground down. Polyurethane foam is also included in their “therapy” due to its porous structure. It does not contain harmful substances, but has no nutritional function for mice: they gnaw building materials for other reasons. Among their “victims” we can mention a dozen seemingly durable raw materials:

• Thick paper, cardboard;
• Plastic and plastic;
• Rubber, even the most durable;
• Polyethylene and burlap;
• Even bricks!

Firstly, many people naively fill the gaps between the door frame and the opening and the gaps around pipes facing the street with foam. This decision is wrong, because miniature rodents will quickly chew the material and get inside. But even this is not the most unpleasant thing: mice are distinguished by good intelligence, so they use foam crushed by sharp teeth to build a cozy nest.

Why do mice appear?

To prevent mice from appearing in the house and chewing construction foam or polystyrene foam, you need to keep the house and garden clean. Systematically remove trash from the yard. Mice can eat both cereals and various wastes. They begin to chew construction foam when they need to arrange their home or it becomes an obstacle to achieving their goal: to make a move in search of food. Mice are dangerous to humans, as they can contaminate food with their paws.

• Do not leave leftover food;
• block access to food;
• throw garbage out of the trash can every day;
• remove debris from the attic.

We suggest you read: What does a moth look like that eats clothes?

Where it is clean and tidy, there will be no mice. It is better to systematically carry out preventive measures against mice.