Mice Removal — Mice in the Attic or Walls, Sealed Out for Good

It’s the middle of the night and you can hear it again: light scratching inside the wall beside your bed, or scurrying across the ceiling overhead. It stops when you knock. It starts again an hour later. That’s the pattern that drives homeowners to call us — mice in the walls and mice in the attic don’t settle down, and they don’t leave on their own.

Regional Wildlife Services provides mice removal across Burlington and the surrounding region. We find where the mice are getting in, remove the ones inside, and seal every entry point so the next group can’t follow them in. Hearing scratching tonight? Call 905-320-8984 — we take phone calls and bookings 7 days a week.

Signs You Have Mice in the Attic or Walls

Mice are small, quiet and mostly nocturnal, so the signs are subtle at first. The ones we hear about most:

• Scratching or scurrying sounds in walls, ceilings or the attic, usually at night — light and quick, nothing like the heavy thumping of a raccoon
• Droppings — small, dark, rice-sized pellets along walls, in cupboards, or scattered through attic insulation
• Gnaw marks on baseboards, stored items, wiring or food packaging — mice chew constantly to keep their teeth down
• Nests in insulation — shredded insulation, paper and fabric gathered into hidden balls in attic corners and wall voids
• A stale, musky odour in closed-up rooms or coming from a wall, strongest where droppings and nesting have built up

One mouse in the attic is rarely just one. Mice live in groups and breed quickly, so a few scratchings this month can be a established colony by winter. If you’re seeing the signs, an inspection will tell you exactly what you’re dealing with.

How Do Mice Get Into the Attic?

This is the question every homeowner asks, and the answer surprises people: a mouse can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime. If its head fits, its body fits. That means mice don’t need a door left open — they need one small gap, and most houses have several:

Gaps around pipes and vents. Where plumbing, wiring and vents pass through walls and into the attic, the openings are often slightly larger than the pipe itself. That ring of space is a highway straight into your wall voids and attic.

The roofline. Mice are strong climbers. They scale brick, siding and downspouts, cross at the eaves, and slip in where soffits, fascia or roof vents leave even a small opening.

The foundation. Cracks, weep holes, gaps around utility entries and ill-fitting doors at ground level all let mice into the basement and wall cavities — from there, the inside of a wall is an open road to the attic.

This is why a mouse in the attic is really a whole-house problem: the entry point is usually nowhere near where you’re hearing them. Finding every gap is the job.

Our Mice Removal Process

1. Inspection. We inspect the attic, roofline and exterior of the home to confirm it’s mice, gauge how established they are, and — most importantly — find every entry point they’re using, from the foundation to the roof.

2. Removal. The mice currently inside are removed, so you’re not sealing live animals into the walls.

3. Sealing and exclusion. Every entry point found is sealed with materials mice can’t chew through. Where vents are being used as entries, those vents are covered and sealed as part of the exclusion work. This is the step that makes the removal permanent: no open gap, no way back in.

4. Cleanup guidance. Droppings and nesting contaminate attic insulation over time. We assess the condition of the affected area during the inspection and explain what cleanup or sanitation work is recommended — where work is needed, the scope is explained before it begins, with no surprises.

If raccoons or squirrels are the problem instead, we also install steel roof vent covers against raccoons and squirrels — see our Animal-Proof Roof Vent Covers page.

A Year-Round Problem That Peaks When the Cold Hits

Mice can move into a home in any season, and established indoor populations breed year-round. But calls spike in the fall and winter for a simple reason: when the temperature drops, mice look for warmth, shelter and food — and your attic and walls offer all three. A mouse that was living in the garden in September wants to be in your insulation by November. Sealing a home before the cold settles in is the easiest version of this job; sealing it in January works too, it just usually means evicting tenants who have already moved in.

The Damage Mice Leave Behind

They’re small animals, but a colony left alone does real damage:

• Wiring chewed and stripped inside walls and attics — a genuine safety concern in spaces nobody looks at
• Insulation tunnelled, trampled and contaminated with droppings and urine, losing its insulating value
• Stored belongings and food packaging gnawed through in attics, basements and pantries
• Contamination and health hazards from droppings and nesting material accumulating in hidden areas over months

Why Traps and Poison Alone Fail

Snap traps and poison bait are where most homeowners start — and they do catch mice. They just don’t solve the problem:

• They don’t close the hole. Catch ten mice and the dime-sized gap that let them in is still open. New mice follow the scent trails of the old ones straight back inside.
• Mice breed faster than traps work. A small group becomes a colony in a matter of months. Trapping alone is bailing a boat without plugging the leak.
• Poison creates a new problem. Mice that die inside a wall void or attic corner leave an odour that lasts for weeks and can’t be reached — and the entry points are still open for the next group.

Lasting mice removal works the other way around: remove the mice inside, then seal the house so “mice removal” is a job you only pay for once.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know it’s mice and not squirrels or rats?
Sound and timing. Mice are light and quick — scratching and scurrying, mostly at night, often inside walls. Squirrels are heavier, heard at dawn and dusk, and usually in the attic rather than the walls. If you’re hearing it and not sure, an inspection identifies the animal from the droppings, gnaw marks and entry points it leaves behind.

How much does mice removal cost?
It depends on the home: how many entry points need sealing, how much of the roofline and foundation is involved, how established the mice are, and whether cleanup is recommended. We start with an inspection and a free, no-obligation quote — you know the cost upfront before any work begins.

How do mice get into the attic if I never see them in my house?
They travel inside the walls. A mouse that enters at the foundation or through a gap around a pipe can climb through wall cavities and emerge in the attic without ever crossing a room you use. That’s also why sealing has to cover the whole house, not just the attic.

Will the mice just leave on their own in spring?
No. Once mice are established indoors — with food, warmth and nesting sites — they stay and keep breeding. Warm weather might make them less noticeable; it doesn’t evict them.

Can mice get back in after you’ve sealed the house?
Not through the entry points we’ve sealed — exclusion is the entire point of the job. We find and seal the gaps mice are using, from foundation to roofline, so the route they took in no longer exists.

How quickly can you come out?
We take phone calls and bookings 7 days a week. Service appointments run Monday to Friday, typically — weekend calls book in for the following week.

Do you clean up droppings and nesting?
We assess contamination during the inspection and explain what cleanup or sanitation the space needs. Any recommended work is explained before it begins.

Mice Removal Across Burlington, Oakville, Milton, Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Georgetown & Niagara

Regional Wildlife Services is based in Burlington and serves homeowners across the region. Whether it’s mice in the attic in Burlington, mice in the walls of an Oakville home, mice removal in Milton or Hamilton, a problem found in Stoney Creek, or mice moving into a Georgetown or Niagara-region home before winter — the process is the same: inspect the whole house, remove the mice inside, and seal every entry point from the foundation to the roofline. Owner Sean Thornton has 20+ years in this work, and the photos on our Gallery page are from real jobs in these communities, not stock libraries.

Hearing Scratching at Night?

Call 905-320-8984. We take phone calls and bookings 7 days a week; service appointments run Monday to Friday, typically — weekend calls book in for the following week. You’ll get a free, no-obligation quote, the mice removed, and a home sealed against the next ones.