The Winter Vacancy Checklist: Leaving Your Tahoe Home Empty All Winter

The Winter Vacancy Checklist: Leaving Your Tahoe Home Empty All Winter

This is your checklist for leaving a South Lake Tahoe home vacant all winter — what to seal, what to remove, how to monitor, and what to do when you open the place back up in spring. Do it right, and May is a pleasant weekend. Skip it, and May is a cleanup project.

Empty homes are the highest-risk homes up here — see our second-home rodent protection in South Lake Tahoe before the first snow.

Call (530) 203-0122 · Free Pre-Winter Inspection

Why an Empty Winter House Is the #1 Target

Here's the thing. Mice don't prefer vacant houses because they're nicer. They prefer them because nobody's home.

In an occupied house, you hear scratching within days. You see a dropping on the counter. You act. In a vacant house, a pair of deer mice moves in during the first October snowstorm and breeds undisturbed for six months. By May, you're not dealing with two mice — you're dealing with 60+ offspring, chewed wiring, ruined insulation, and droppings on every surface.

Winter vacancy overlaps exactly with peak rodent season: October through March. Your house is empty during the only months mice desperately want to be inside.

Part 1: Seal What You Can Before You Leave

You won't find every gap — that's the honest truth, and it's why professional exclusion exists. But closing the obvious ones before you lock up cuts the odds significantly.

Garage door seals. If daylight shows through around the door, mice walk through. Replace worn seals — it's a $30 part and twenty minutes.

Dryer vent. The exterior cover should close fully and latch. A vent flap stuck open is a mouse door with a welcome sign.

Pipe and wire penetrations. Gaps around pipes, cables, and AC lines entering the foundation are the most common entry points we find. Seal small ones with steel wool and sealant — not foam. Mice chew through foam in hours.

Vents and screens. Crawlspace, attic, and foundation vents — every screen should be intact. Patch tears with hardware cloth, not window screen. Mice chew through fiberglass screen.

Doors and windows. Every exterior door should close tight with intact weatherstripping — including the shed and crawlspace access.

The honest caveat: a deer mouse needs a hole the size of a nickel, and the average Tahoe cabin has dozens of gaps you'll never see — roofline joints, sill plate separations, gaps behind siding. What you seal yourself helps. Professional exclusion with steel mesh, metal flashing, and hardware cloth (starting at $349) is the real fix.

Part 2: Remove Every Food Source

Mice come inside for warmth, but they stay for food. A vacant house with food in it is a long-term residence.

The pantry. Take it all — cereal, rice, pasta, crackers, baking supplies. Mice chew through cardboard and plastic like they're not even there. What's left should be in sealed glass, metal, or hard plastic.

Pet food and birdseed. The two biggest mouse attractants in any Tahoe garage. Take them with you or store them in metal trash cans with locking lids.

The fridge and freezer. Clean them out. If you're shutting the fridge off, clean it thoroughly and prop the doors open — an unplugged fridge with food residue becomes a mouse restaurant.

Garbage. Every can emptied, cleaned, and latched. No bags in the garage "until next time."

The barbecue. Clean the grill, empty the grease trap, and store the cover separately. Mice love grill covers — dark, undisturbed, smelling like food.

Crumbs and residue. Vacuum the kitchen, wipe counters, sweep pantry shelves. Don't leave a winter's worth of food scent behind.

Part 3: Set Up Monitoring

Here's where most second-homeowners go wrong: they seal, they clean, they lock up — and then they have no idea what happens for seven months. Monitoring is the difference between catching a problem in November and discovering it in May.Snap traps — with a warning. A trap that catches a mouse in November sits there rotting until May. If you set traps, someone needs to check them.

Have someone check the house. A neighbor, a friend, a property manager — someone who walks through every few weeks, checks for droppings, and empties traps. The single most valuable thing you can arrange.

Exterior bait stations. Locked, tamper-resistant stations knock down the outdoor deer mouse population before it pressures your house. But they need servicing — an empty station does nothing.

The monthly plan. Our winter monitoring plan ($49–$59/month): scheduled visits through the winter, station service, entry point checks, interior walkthroughs, and a report with photos after every visit. If we find activity, you hear about it now — not in May.

Part 4: Spring Re-Opening — Do It in the Right Order

May arrives. You drive up, unlock the door, and walk in. Before you start unpacking:

1. Ventilate first. Open every door and window. Let the house air out for at least 30 minutes. After seven months closed up, dried droppings are a dust hazard.

2. Walk through before you clean. Check kitchen drawers, pantry shelves, closets, under beds, the garage, and the attic access. Know what you're dealing with before you start.

3. Clean up safely. Deer mice carry hantavirus. Never sweep or vacuum droppings dry. Wet everything with disinfectant or a 1:10 bleach solution, wait five minutes, wipe up with paper towels, double-bag it. N95 mask and gloves on. Full protocol in our hantavirus safety guide.

4. Check for damage. Chewed wiring, gnawed PEX lines, damaged insulation. If mice chewed electrical wires, get an electrician before flipping breakers. Check for slow water leaks before turning the water fully back on.

5. Get the exclusion done. If mice got in over winter, the entry points are still open. May is the ideal month for sealing work in Tahoe. Removal plus full exclusion starts at $349.

The Complete Winter Vacancy Checklist

• Garage door seals replaced if worn or gapped
• Dryer vent cover closes and latches
• Pipe and cable penetrations sealed (steel wool + sealant, not foam)
• All vent screens intact (hardware cloth patches where torn)
• Exterior doors close tight, weatherstripping intact
• Pantry fully emptied — remaining food in glass/metal/hard plastic
• Pet food, birdseed, grass seed removed or in locking metal cans
• Fridge cleaned out (or cleaned and propped open if off)
• All garbage removed, bins cleaned and latched
• Grill cleaned, grease trap emptied
• Kitchen vacuumed and wiped down
• Woodpiles and brush cleared away from foundation
• Monitoring arranged — person checking, or monthly plan in place
• Water shut off or monitored (ask your plumber)
• Thermostat set to prevent pipe freeze
• Lockbox code or key arranged for whoever's checking the house
• Our number saved: (530) 203-0122

Winter Vacancy FAQs

Lock Up Right, Open Up Happy

Seven months is a long time to leave a house alone at 6,225 feet. Do the checklist, set up monitoring, and May is a ski weekend — not a cleanup project.

Call (530) 203-0122 · Free Pre-Winter Inspection · Monthly Monitoring from $49