About Nuisance House Mice
Biology
Body
House mice are normally gray in color with a cream color belly. The fur color, how light or how dark, will depend on a few factors such as where the mouse lives. The mouse has a round-shaped body with four legs and a pointed nose and big ears. They can be anywhere from 2.5 inches long to 3.75 inches long.
Habitat
Mice can adapt to different climates depending on how easy it would be to find food and shelter. They can live in grasslands as well as forests. They can also make a home underground and in man-made structures such as homes and buildings.
Habits
Mice are very sneaky rodents that are able to hide to protect themselves from cats, foxes, dogs, and birds. They are small enough to fit into the smallest of places and can make themselves at home just about anywhere. When they run, they are quick on their feet and like to bounce around in order to make it difficult to be caught.
Mice like to roam around at night and sleep during the day when the rest of the world is awake. When you lay down at night, you may hear them in the attic or in the walls of your home. They are searching for food and sometimes new dwellings if their current dwelling is not safe or they cannot find enough food close by.
Problems Mice Cause
When mice make a home, they don’t care what they tear up in order to build their home and raise their family. They can do a lot of damage to the structure of your home, apartment, office, gym, barn, or outbuilding on your property. They constantly gnaw in order to build their nest.
What damage do they do?
- Mice can chew on anything including paper, wood, books, cloth, and more
- Mice chew on furniture that has been upholstered in order to make a warm nest within
- Mice will dig through insulation in order to make a nest or to use the insulation to build their nest
- Mice will chew into wires which can cause a fire
- Mice can defecate anywhere and everywhere
- Mice can chew on paintings and expensive cloth items
- Mice can spread diseases through cross-contamination
Prevention Methods
There are a few ways to prevent mice from making a home on your property. Here are a few suggestions:
- Keep all food in an airtight container. Glass jars are a great thoice.
- If you have leftover food from a meal, immediately put it in a container or bag and place it in the fridge for storage.
- Keep your home, including your counter tops, clean all the time. Mice will find a way in even if you do the best you can to keep foods up and out of their way
Professional Removal Tactics
When you find that mice have entered your home, business, or other building, you need to do whatever you can to get rid of them. There are a few things that professionals will use to remove the mice from your home.
- Make sure your property is mouse-proof. You can do this by making sure there are no openings to the home. A mouse can get through the smallest of holes including the tiny hole made to run the satellite dish into your home or the internet box. Anywhere pipe or cables enter your home, mice can find.
- Traps are also used by professionals. If there are just a few mice, this method is preferred because it’s fast, safe, and fairly quick. With this method, there isn’t a hazardous poison that domestic animals can eat and get sick from. The owner can see that the mouse has been killed so that reassures him or her that the mouse problem is under control.
- Electronic sound devices can be used to scare mice away. Place these electronic devices near the path you feel like they are taking to get into your home. The device will make a loud sound that turns the mouse around and they soon learn that they are too scared to enter. However, there is a chance they will one day become accustomed to the sound and will not pay any attention to it.
- Cats and dogs in the house is another way to prevent mice from entering. Mice consider cats and dogs to be predators and they can smell them, thus discouraging them from going any further.
