Mice travel over their entire territory daily, investigating each change or new object that may be placed there. Mice have poor vision, hence their activity patterns rely heavily on smell, taste, touch, and hearing.
Mouse Facts
- Mice travel over their entire territory daily, investigating each change or new object that may be placed there.
- Mice have poor vision, hence their activity patterns rely heavily on smell, taste, touch, and hearing.
- Mice use the long sensitive whiskers near the nose and hairs on the body as tactile sensors. The whiskers and hairs enable the mouse to travel in the dark, adjacent to walls in burrows.
- Mice also have an excellent sense of balance, enabling them to walk along telephone wires, ropes and similar thin objects.
- Mice are excellent jumpers, capable of leaping at least 12 inches vertically.
- Mice can jump against a flat vertical surface using it as a spring board to gain additional height.
- They can run up almost any vertical surface; wood, brick, weathered sheet metal, cables, etc.
- They can easily travel for some distance hanging upside down.
- Although they are good swimmers, mice tend to take to water only if left with no other alternative.
- Mice are basically nocturnal in nature.
- House mice breed throughout the year and can become pregnant within 48 hours of producing a litter.
- There are usually about 6 mice to a litter and females may produce as many as ten litters (about 50 young) per year.
- It takes 18 to 21 days for gestation, and 35 days for a mouse to mature. Most mice live anywhere from 15 to 18 months.
- They make their nests out of the same types of soft materials as rats, and as many as 3 females may use the same nest.
- They commonly nest in insulation in attics, also in stoves and under refrigerators.
- Mice do not travel far from their nest, about 12 to 20 feet.
Feeding Habits
- Mice normally feed 15 to 20 times per day and will eat pretty much anything a human will eat.
- Food preference is cereal or seed, but also gnaw through insulation or wires, sheet rock, storage boxes, etc.
- Mice are nibblers. They do small amounts of damage to many food items in "home range", rather than doing extensive damage to any one item.
- While mice are nibblers and feed many times in many places, they have two main feeding periods, at dusk and just before dawn. They have to consume about 10% to 15% of their body weight every 24 hours and require extremely small amounts of water. Disease & Sanitation Factors
- Mice droppings sometimes are confused with droppings from the larger species of roaches, such as the American roach.
- Mice droppings are smooth with pointed ends, and are 1/8th to 1/4 inch long.
- In six months, one pair of mice can eat about 4 pounds of food and during that period produce some 18,000 fecal droppings.
- Deer mice are a primary vector of Hantaviral infections which cause hemorrhagic fevers.
- Mice may infect food with their droppings transmitting such organisms as salmonella and the microscopic eggs of tapeworms.
- Mice transmit disease in a number of ways including biting, infecting human food with their droppings or urine, indirectly via the dog or cat and bloodsucking insects.
The most common way mice transmit disease organisms is by contaminating food with their droppings and/or urine. The most threatening organism spread by mice is Salmonella, a cause of food poisoning, spread via droppings. Other transmittable organisms include tapeworms via droppings, rat-bite fever via bites, infectious jaundice/leptospirosis/Weil’s Disease via urine in food or water, a fungus disease (Favus) of the scalp either by direct contact or indirectly via cats, plague and murine typhus via fleas, Rickettsial pox via the mite Liponyssoides sanguineus (Hirst), lymphocytic choriomeningitis via droppings, and possibly poliomyelitis (polio). Another problem is house mouse mite dermatitis which is caused by these mites when they feed on humans. Prevention & Control Good sanitation is essential for effective long term control. Mice can enter any opening larger than 1/4 inch, making it virtually impossible to completely mouse proof a building. The control of mice can be widely varied, depending on the individual situation. It may range from physically altering the conditions allowing the infestation, such as covering holes, filling cracks, etc. to baiting or trapping.
Disease in North America that rodents may harbor or disseminate
(Purdue University Cooperative Extension). Disease Agent Rodents Implicated Bordetellosis bacteria rats Encephalomyocarditis virus rats, mice Leptospirosis bacteria rats, mice Pseudorabies virus rats* Salmonellosis bacteria rats, mice Swine dysentery bacteria rats, mice Swine erysipelas bacteria rats Toxoplasmosis protozoan various rodents Trichinosis nematode rats Mice and rats transmit diseases to poultry, hogs and other animals. They consume and contaminate feed, and their constant gnawing causes extensive structural damage to buildings, including fires. All resulting in financial losses to you. To compound the problem, rats and mice breed at an alarming rate. Livestock and other farm facilities provide ideal conditions for rodents to breed with abundant supplies of food, water and harborage. A small population of rodents, left unchecked, could explode to thousands in just a few months. The inspection serves three useful functions:
1. Identifies the rodent species involved. The most common rodent pests in livestock operations are the house mouse, Norway rat and roof rat. The house mouse is easy to recognize, generally 5-7 inches in length and gray in color. The common Norway rat, a large rodent usually 13-18 inches in length, weighs 12-16 ounces with reddish brown fur. The roof rat, found primarily along the west coast and in the southeastern United States, is a smaller black rat weighing between 6-9 ounces. Rats and mice have unique behavioral characteristics. By identifying the species you can select rodent control products and strategies appropriate to that particular pest.
2. Determines the severity and location of the problem. During the inspection, note where you've seen signs of rodents, which include burrows, droppings (rat droppings are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in length; mouse droppings are 1/4 inch), gnaw marks, and rodent pathways. This information helps you determine the size of the infestation and where rodents are living and feeding. In that way, you have a better idea of how much bait to use and where to place it for optimum results. Rats and mice are nocturnal and are most active from dusk to dawn. Seeing them in the daylight usually indicates a heavy infestation.
3. Identifies where sanitation and rodent proofing are needed. Look for the rodents' sources of food, water and harborage indoors and out, and wherever possible, get rid of them. Also note areas or entry points where rodents are getting into buildings, and, wherever feasible, fix or eliminate these entry points to "build rodents out." Sketching a diagram of your facility that indicates problem areas is useful for keeping track of your baiting efforts. It'll help you evaluate what is working or where adjustments are needed in your rodent control efforts.