How Much Does a Mice Exterminator Cost? (2023 Guide)

If you suspect rodent activity in your home, there are signs of mice you can look out for. Recognizing a rodent infestation early is one of the most effective ways to keep your pest control expenses low during removal. Sometimes, depending on the severity of the mouse infestation, you may be able to perform DIY rodent control in your home to eradicate the infestation if you catch it early enough. However, with large infestations, it’s always best to call in a professional pest control company.

A pest control treatment plan differs from a rodent extermination plan. You can find the best option for your home by discussing your rodent problem with professionals from pest control services and extermination services. These experts can help define the specific pests in your home and recommend a care plan that will produce the results you need.

Contact any of the providers below for a free quote on mice extermination services.

What is the Average Cost of a Mice Exterminator?

The national average cost of mice exterminators is $339. Treatments on the lower end of the spectrum start at about $130, while the most expensive appointments range from $800 to over $1,000. It’s typical to pay between $400 and $600 for a moderately severe pest problem.

What Factors Affect The Cost of Mice Exterminators?

Why is there such a wide range of prices for the cost of mouse removal? There are several factors that go into how pest control companies calculate the cost of their services, all the way from the initial visit to the follow-up treatments.

• Severity of infestation
• Location of infestation
• Size of your home
• Removal method used

Severity of Infestation

The severity of your rodent infestation plays a major role in the cost of your pest control services, with more severe infestations coming with higher price tags. If you only have a few errant mice on your property, you’ll pay a lower price for removal services. You might even be able to handle the problem on your own with a few DIY traps. However, if you have a full-blown colony multiplying in your attic and chewing on all your wiring, your removal and restoration services will be significantly more expensive.

The greater the number of mice living in and around your home, the greater the amount of droppings and urine, which present an increased risk of disease for exterminators coming to solve your pest problem. More mice also means that your exterminators need to remove more bodies, which increases the risk and the price of services.

Location of Infestation

The easier the mice in your home are to access, the easier they are to remove. This will result in a lower cost on your final invoice. If the mice are living within your walls, the exterminators may need to open an access point so they can apply the rodenticide or traps and remove them. They then have to clean up the feces, urine, and corpses. Removing an infestation behind your washing machine is going to cost less than doing the same to one in your attic walls.

Size of Your Home

Most pest control companies recommend that homeowners let them treat the perimeter of the home as well as the interior. Some common exterior solutions include bait stations, rodenticides, and repellents. The larger your home is and the more rooms inside that are infested, the longer the treatment will take and the more it will cost.

For example, a preliminary treatment from a pest control company that only takes 45 minutes and covers one or two rooms will cost around $150 to $200. But a full house treatment after inspection that takes several hours and then weeks of return visits may cost upwards of $500.

Removal Method Used

The first step that exterminators perform when they begin the critter removal process is determining where the mice are entering your home. They then place traps in those areas. Once the traps have begun working (this can take a few days to several weeks before you stop seeing them go off), the exterminators will then seal off any entry points the mice have been using to access your home. This could mean repairing baseboards, caulking up and sealing cracks and crevices, or replacing seals on windows and doors.

Besides snap traps, exterminators will often employ bait stations to fight off mice. These rectangular devices have an entry and an exit, with a soft brick of bait with poison inside. Once a mouse consumes this bait, they are poisoned, and any mouse they come into contact with also gets poisoned. When the poison begins to take effect, it’s common for the mice to go outside your home to die. Thus, bait stations lead to fewer bodies you or the exterminators have to dispose of.

Pest management methods also use live traps, which capture the mice humanely. The professionals then take them to a location at least two miles away from your home to release the pests. While this method is more expensive than basic snap traps, eco-conscious homeowners may believe it’s worth the extra expense.

If traps alone aren’t enough, exterminators spray liquid or foam rodenticide (often in tandem with traps) wherever the mice have nested. This method is pricier than simply setting traps, but it targets the mice and works within a few hours.

The most expensive and intense mouse eradication method is fumigation. You and your family must leave your home for at least 48 hours during the fumigation process, along with your pets and anything you might need. Exterminators, wearing special protective gear, use plastic tenting to seal up all the openings in your home, and then they pump rodenticide in aerosolized form into the affected rooms. Fumigation costs anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000. Thankfully, it’s extremely rare that you will have a mouse problem so severe that it requires this method.

Professional Mice Extermination vs DIY

Mice and other pests like roaches are easiest to get rid of before making it into your house. DIY mouse repellents include fresh dryer sheets, essential oil sprays, moth balls, and cotton balls dipped in chili powder replaced regularly where you suspect mouse activity. If you seal up all food containers, including pet food, and mice can no longer find a steady food supply, they will leave your home on their own. However, you still need to clean up what they’ve left behind, ensuring that you’re using the correct safety gear.

If the mice are still calling your place home after you’ve attempted treatment, the safest thing for you to do is to call in an exterminator to handle the problem. They have years of specialized training, experience with all manner of rodent infestations, and the proper chemicals and tools. They’re also efficient. Pest control companies will come back to make sure their methods have been effective and that the mice have not returned to your home. This provides a safeguard if your first treatment fails to take effect.

Today’s pest control companies are adapting more long-term solutions to completely eliminate pests in residential spaces without the use of so many chemicals. Orkin and Terminix employ pesticides made from chrysanthemums, and they also come back to see if their treatments worked, unlike other one-and-done extermination companies. Make sure you choose a company that has a guarantee that if you see activity after treatment, they come back and do a subsequent treatment.

So When Should You Call an Exterminator for Mice

If you see a mouse in your house, don’t panic — you have plenty of options to fight against mice that don’t require professional intervention. You can set mouse traps around your home in places you suspect mice are gaining entry, like your basement, window frames, or even in your attic. You can also make a DIY mouse repellent by mixing water with peppermint, orange, clove, cinnamon, and capsicum essential oils, then spraying it around those same areas. If you use this method, focus on spraying especially well along the perimeter of your home.

If you notice mouse droppings, don’t sweep them up. Mouse feces and urine can carry diseases, and sweeping them up could cause those pathogens to become airborne. If you do see droppings, you can do a clean up session with a face mask, gloves, and a bleach solution. Apply the bleach solution to the feces thoroughly and let it all set for at least five to ten minutes. Wipe everything up with paper towels and double bag it after the mixture has had time to sit.

If mice have multiplied in your home to the extent that there is a colony (or two) living within your walls, your attic, or your basement, these DIY treatments won’t be enough to eliminate mice. In order to save the integrity of your electrical system and your walls, you need professional pest extermination.

Top names in pest control like Terminix and Orkin have been developing environmentally sustainable pest control methods, and they have decades of experience eradicating all types of pests. Professional pest control providers are commonly called for bed bugs, cockroaches, mice, rats, and termites. You also know it’s time to call pest control professionals when mice have squeezed themselves into areas of your home you didn’t even think it was possible for any living thing to get into. For example, if you can hear mice inside your walls, it’s best to skip the DIY methods. The pros know how to apply pesticides and traps in areas of your home that would normally be inaccessible.

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