A mouse needs a hole the size of a dime.
That’s not a slogan, it’s anatomy — a mouse’s skull is its only rigid structure, and if that fits, everything else follows. The gap where the AC line enters, the corner of the garage door seal, the joint where an addition meets the original house: all of them are front doors. Exclusion is the craft of finding every one, and it’s the difference between a fix and a subscription.
October is when the calls start, and there’s a reason. The first hard frost ends the easy outdoor living, and every field mouse in Stark County starts looking for a warm void with a food source nearby. The houses that get sealed in summer take no calls in November. The ones that wait for the scratching spend the winter trapping against an open door.
About the damage: it’s not just the pantry. Rodents gnaw constantly to keep their teeth worn down, and wiring is a favorite — chewed insulation in attics and crawl spaces is a documented fire risk, not a scare line. Add the contamination of insulation and stored goods, and a “couple of mice” earns a faster response than most people give it.