Mice move in when it gets cold. Beat them to the door.

Every fall, the same pattern repeats across Hampton Roads: as nighttime temperatures drop, calls about mice start climbing. It's not that mice suddenly appear from nowhere — they've likely been active outdoors around the property all along. What changes in fall is motivation. Food sources outdoors become scarcer, and a warm, dry indoor space becomes a lot more appealing than a cold yard.

How little room a mouse actually needs

A mouse can fit through a gap about the size of a dime — roughly a quarter-inch. That's smaller than most people picture when they think about "sealing up the house." Common entry points we find during fall inspections:

• Gaps around utility lines and pipes entering the foundation
• Unsealed gaps where siding meets the foundation
• Damaged weatherstripping under exterior doors
• Vents and crawlspace openings without proper mesh covering
• Gaps around window air conditioning units, especially left in over winter

Why one mouse becomes many, fast

Mice reproduce roughly every three weeks, with litters averaging six to eight pups. A single pair that gets indoors in September can realistically become a real infestation by the time winter sets in — which is part of why "I saw one mouse" calls in October often turn into "there are mice everywhere" calls by December if nothing's done in between.

The two-part approach that actually works

Removing mice that are already inside and sealing the entry points they used are two different jobs, and both matter:

• Trapping and removal for the current population
• Exclusion work — sealing identified entry points with steel mesh or hardware cloth, not just foam, which mice can chew through
• A pre-winter inspection timed for early fall, before the migration indoors ramps up, catches gaps while they're easier to find and fix

Older homes throughout Hampton Roads — particularly in established neighborhoods with original foundations and older utility lines — tend to have more of these gaps simply due to age and settling, which is why a fall inspection tends to be worth more the older a home is.