How can you tell if you have mice nesting in your attic? Read on to learn four common signs.

1. Sounds in Your Walls

For most homeowners, the first sign that alerts them to the presence of mice in their attic is hearing sounds coming from inside the wall. Your attic likely doesn't have a suitable food source for mice in it, so they'll leave during the night to find one. You'll most likely hear the noises coming from the walls between your attic and your kitchen since kitchens are the most common places for mice to find food. Mice are small, so the noises will sound fairly faint—however, you can usually hear them if you listen closely at night.

2. Mouse Droppings

Fresh droppings are a reliable indicator of a mouse infestation in your attic. However, you probably won't find droppings in the attic itself—mice typically leave their droppings next to food sources to alert other mice to the presence of food. Thus, you'll most likely find droppings in your kitchen. Check in the backs of your kitchen counters and behind your oven or fridge, as these are common areas where you will, unfortunately, find mouse droppings.

3. Smear Marks

Mice are skittish creatures and they're always trying to avoid predators. One of the ways that they avoid predation is to run along solid objects to reduce the number of angles predators can attack them from. When mice brush against these surfaces, the natural oil on their fur rubs off on them. It leaves behind a yellowish residue known as a smear mark. If you have boxes in your attic, you'll likely find smear marks along the bottom. You may also find them along the baseboards in your home when they run next to your walls.

4. Nesting Areas

One of the reasons why mice love to take up residence in attics is that attics typically have massive amounts of nesting material. Mice love blown insulation because it's easy for them to burrow into. If you have blown insulation in your attic, check for small tunnels that have been dug into them. Mice love fiberglass insulation as well, so they'll burrow underneath the edges of the fiberglass panels to nest behind them. To see if any mice are nesting in your fiberglass insulation, check for bite marks in the edges of the panels where mice have chewed through to get behind it.

If you notice any of these signs of a mouse infestation, the best solution is to hire a mice control service to handle it. Your attic needs to be sealed off to prevent more mice from coming in, and a mice control specialist knows how to examine your attic for tiny gaps that mice can use to access it. A professional can also tell you how to store your food properly to prevent mice from gaining access to it—with no food source, mice will be uninterested in entering your home. Your existing mouse infestation can be controlled using multiple capture traps that can catch multiple mice at once, which allows the mice in your home to be rapidly removed.