Mice

HOW TO IDENTIFY MICE

Mice are members of the rodent family. They are known to transmit diseases to humans as they carry viruses that can infect us.

Appearance

Mouse

A common mouse is brown to gray in color with a long tail. Mostly, the tail is as long as the size of the mouse or in some cases, the size of the tail is bigger than the entire mouse. Adults have an average weight of ½ ounce.

Behavior

They are very fast to move and aggressive when it comes to eating and getting a prey. That is why their front two teeth are highly sharp, they can eat and tear almost everything. They can eat almost everything we eat. They have very small hairs on their body which they sometimes drop on the food along with urine and other excretory materials.

Signs

Some notable signs indicating mice presence include mice droppings, unusual pet behavior, urine odors, gnawed holes, scratched surfaces, etc.

HOW DO YOU GET MICE

The most important thing to know is what it takes to invite a mouse to your home?

Poor sanitation

The first and most important factor is the improper sanitation of your home. Cluttered and leftovers left outside are an invitation for mice to cohabit with you.

Holes in the walls

The holes in the walls or any sort of small foreign entry area into your home could also let the mice invade into your home. This is one of the most common ways to get mice into your house. Sometimes even the cleanest home can get a mouse because of a small hole that nobody knew about.

HOW TO GET RID OF MICE

Proper sanitation

The first one is to ensure that your house is properly sanitized. Furthermore, the surroundings of your home should be cleaned, vacuum the carpets, get rid of spills, leftovers and food particles. An uncluttered house will not only keep mice away but also deter several other pests to make their entry in your home.

Sealing entry points

Next, you should need to detect the possible entry points of mice. These could be anything like breakage in the entry pipes or any sort of holes in the walls, windows or doors. Such entry points should be completely sealed.

Keep Food away

Don’t provide mice an easy access to your food sources. Don’t put open food boxes on floor or shelves. Store dry food items and pet food in tight plastic containers. Mice get attracted to trash smell, therefore use a bin with a lid and frequently take out the trash.

Mousetrap

A trap is a very old method to kill or capture mice. Put it outside or near the entry points of mice and then bait it with the things loved by mice like cheese and peanut butter.

By Dajo767 – I took this photograph using my cellphone from my apartement room at an apartment in Gokhuldam locality in Goregaon East, MumbaiPreviously published: Unpublished, CC BY-SA 4.0,

There are several other types of traps are also available in the market like glue traps and springs.

Mice exterminators

There are many pest control companies that help control the mice population. If after taking all the precautions listed above your mice problem remains it is always best to turn to the pros.

MICE LIFE CYCLE

The life cycle of a mouse is very interesting. The newly born baby comes into this world with no fur, ability to listen or to see. The mother takes care of its babies for the first 21 days. Day 4 is the day when the mouse starts to listen with fully developed ears and the body starts to be covered with fur by the beginning of day 6.

Muhammad Mahdi Karim at en.wikipedia / *derivative work: Zoohouse (talk) – Baby_mice.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0,

A mouse turns into a complete adult by day 14 and ready to go out. Still, they stick to their mother until day 21 and then start to leave their mother and go out to your kitchen for some real fun. When a mouse is 6 weeks old, the female mouse is ready for mating and for reproduction. A mouse can live from 1 year to 3 years.

ROLE OF MICE IN THE ECOSYSTEM

Every organism in this world has a special place in the ecosystem and food chain. Rodents and especially mice also play a good role in the ecosystem. They generally feed on the larvae of some small insects. Thus they play a good role in controlling the population of insects. Besides being predators of insect larvae, they also serve as prey for bigger animals, such as cats, spiders, owls, and eagles.

MICE FACTS

Whether you’re facing a mice infestation or not, these facts about mice are interesting enough to check out.

• They can squeeze through the tiniest gaps, as small as 1/5 of an inch (0.6 cm).
• Mice have poor eyesight but this deficiency is compensated by a super sensitive sense of smell, touch, and hearing which they use to move around.
• Mice teeth keep on growing till death at the rate of 0.01 in/day.
• Mice have an exceptional hearing ability and can hear ultrasound up to 90kHz.
• Mice sing love songs to their partners in ultrasound.
• They love to explore new places.
• They have impressive ability to jump to incredible heights, as high as 10 inches (25.4cm).

Types of Mice

Mice articles

[catlist name=”mice”]