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Those pesky mice! They’ll find ways to enter your home, even if you think you’re not in the danger zone. They’re resourceful little creatures that are quite skilled at entering even the smallest of spaces.
If they think there are food and shelter to be found, you’ll be looking at an infestation. Now, even though infestations happen often in some areas and can be relatively large and difficult to take care of, there are some tricks you could use.
Okay, so you might be wondering what you should do if an infestation happens to your home. You needn’t worry! Once you know enough about mice and their habits, you’ll be ready to take care of the issue yourself (if it isn’t a large-scale infestation, in which case it’s better to call the exterminators).
However, if there are only a couple of mice in your home, then a couple of traps and other equipment will be enough. So, what do you need to know about mice that will help you out? Well, there’s a good old saying which goes “Defense is the best offense”.
Understanding your prey completely and defending your home go hand in hand when it comes to proper house management and protection against mice infestations.
10 Mice Facts that Will Help you With Mice Control
Mice are interesting creatures that don’t always follow the rules. They can outsmart other predatory animals with ease and can make themselves ‘invisible’. Although, this happens much less once they enter your home.
They will still cause you headaches and sometimes leave droppings around your house, mainly where they run around. Don’t think that this will help you out immensely; after all, you’ll only know where their pathways are.
However, this is a great first step toward figuring out where their hiding places are and exterminating them for good. Once you find something such as droppings, you’ll be able to start your search.
Here are a couple of mice facts that should help you understand them better and make it easier for you to get rid of them.
1. Mice Vision
Mice vision is often thought to be bad (mostly because hamsters and similar rodents/house pets have bad visions too). This is only partially true. Yes, their vision isn’t the best, but it’s not as bad as people think. They can see pretty well and use their whiskers to complement their vision.
Whiskers are highly important when it comes to exploration as mice use them to feel the surfaces that they move on, as well as checking the air for any changes. If you’re planning on using traps, make sure that you’re using the ones which won’t appear obvious to the mouse.
Some traps work better than others, depending on the situation and other factors such as temperature, size, “way-of-disposal”, etc. Mice might not see well but if they sense danger, they’ll bolt out of the trap instantly.
Glue traps are generally not very effective as they depend on the temperature; very hot and very cold temperatures basically render the trap useless as the glue changes its state and is less sticky.
Some glue traps (the ones that are of low quality) sometimes use glue that has a scent (to save money) which the mice can sense and will avoid the trap altogether (although, some curious mice might come and explore the new scent).
Mice love to run next to walls for safety reasons. Their vision is useful, but it’s not their primary sense. Be sure to place traps next to walls and in tight corners to maximize the possibility of success.
Often, the mouse won’t have anywhere else to go except through the trap (which it might not even notice) and you’ll be able to catch it.
2. Mice Hearing
Even if you’re quiet as a ninja, there’s a high chance that the mice you’re hunting will hear you coming from a mile away. It’s just how they work! They have a very sensitive hearing and can easily detect noises from all around them.
Another interesting tidbit about mice is that they can hear sounds that humans normally can’t. They even communicate with high-pitched squeaks that you might hear (if they aren’t too high pitched), but usually, it’s way out of our hearing range.
This is the reason why it’s difficult to get rid of mice that have a ‘strategic’ advantage, meaning that they are hiding at a location from where they can detect various noises.
Due to their incredible hearing, people have opted for ultrasonic pest repellers; small devices that emit high-frequency noise which is supposed to bother the mice so much that they leave.
However, their effectiveness and use have been debated over the last couple of years and the general consensus is that they aren’t quite good. They do work when the conditions are perfect, but you’ll rarely get perfect conditions that are present in a research lab.
3. Scent Trails
Cleaning up mice scents is a tedious job but it will reward you by preventing other mice from visiting your home once you take care of an infestation. However, what you need to know about mice scents is that they communicate with scent. Namely, they use pheromones to communicate directly or indirectly with other members of the same species.
So, if a location in your home smells like mice to other mice that were never in your home, they might come to visit in hopes of finding a mate or shelter. This is why you need to take precautionary measures to prevent another infestation from happening.
You can also figure out where they’ve left their scent by searching for places where they like to run around. There will almost always be the main trail that the mice use to move around your house and a couple of secondary ones.
Find the main one, place traps, and capture them. Once this is taken care of, clean the entire house as even the slightest sign of a scent might bring in other mice.
4. A Nocturnal Life
Mice, as well as most other rodents, are nocturnal animals. They are very rarely active during the day, except in rare cases when they have to protect their young or move out of a shelter due to a threat.
They can sleep up to 12 hours during the day, which is why you might not see a lot of them running around your home at that time. However, once night falls, they become much more active. That’s the reason why most mice get trapped during the night.
You should check on the traps first thing in the morning, as soon as you wake up. This is because your traps might have caught a mouse or two, but there’s a small chance that they might escape (you also don’t want your pet fiddling around with a dead mouse or one that isn’t dead yet).
5. Jumping and Climbing
If you thought that monkeys are great climbers, you’ll be surprised when you find out that mice are even better! They are very light and have limbs that they use similar to humans.
They can easily climb up almost anything, as long as there’s something to grab on to. One shocking fact is that mice can easily climb up and into an apartment that is on the second or third floor by using the outer brick layer or the inside of your walls!
They’re also great jumpers, although not all species share this trait. They won’t have problems jumping from a foot or more while trying to reach some food. Placing food on a higher shelf simply won’t have an effect since they’ll climb that as well.
Secure your food and be mindful when eating; you don’t want to leave crumbs all over the place!
6. Squeezing Capabilities
Mice have very light bones and their body shape allows them to squeeze into comically small spaces. They don’t even have to work hard to achieve this – their head is the only thing that needs to fit in order for the rest of the body to follow.
Think of them as cats – cats are known for being flexible and able to squeeze almost anywhere; only cats are quite large and easily noticeable (and aren’t a pest), whilst mice are small and difficult to notice.
Oftentimes, this is exactly what they will do – squeeze into small places that they’ll use as shelter, which is why you need to take great care with keeping your home clean and, in the event of an infestation, prepared to deal with the mice.
7. Many Offspring!
Unsurprisingly, one single mouse mom can have approximately 50 mice babies each year! Their lifespan is around 4 years, depending on life quality (and if they aren’t eaten by a predator).
Now, imagine “only” 5 mouse moms giving birth to 250 mice! That is a staggeringly high number that most people don’t know about.
Everyone knows that they can have a large number of offspring, but even mentioning this number causes surprise on people’s faces. The usual litter size is 5-8 and they are born only 20 days after mating.
That is incredibly quick! Also, they reach maturity after 6 weeks. You wouldn’t believe how fast a mice population can explode!
8. Territorial Creatures
Most animals will defend their territory to death, and whilst mice might not follow this rule, they do mark their territory. Instead of attacking invaders, they will usually be wary of any new changes to their territory.
If they realize that there’s an inevitable threat to their litter and shelter, they will either flee or if there’s no other way – fight to the death.
Mice mark their territory by peeing in strategic locations. As you know, mice (and rats especially) can carry diseases, and peeing isn’t healthy either. You don’t want mice pee all over your kitchen floor, or anywhere else in your house for that matter.
Word of advice: Don’t place traps near the locations where they pee as they will notice it’s a new object and will avoid it together. The smarter alternative is to place traps where the mice don’t usually go, but, don’t set the traps yet.
Let the mice come and explore so they can be sure that the trap is safe. Once they realize this, activate the trap and simply wait for them to come. They won’t think twice about using the trap (since they’ve made sure it’s safe) and you’ll finally catch them!
9. Living Areas
Why are mice so difficult to get rid of, you might ask. Well, there are a couple of different reasons behind this, although it almost always comes down to difficulty finding their shelters.
Mice love living in small, secluded areas and tight spaces. This is why they will absolutely do their best to find shelter in your home, your walls, or anywhere that they deem good.
25 feet is the most that they will travel from their shelter in search of food, although they have been known to travel greater distances if the going gets tough.
So, if you run into mouse droppings that are more than, let’s say, 30 feet away from a shelter, in separate areas, you might have more than one mouse family invading your home!
10. Group Life
Mice are social creatures that live in groups, so it’s very rare to find only one mouse in your home. The general rule that applies here is that if you find one mouse, there’s a high chance there’s more of them.
So if you catch one, don’t stop hunting; investigate your entire home until you are certain that there are no more mice in your home.
Conclusion
All of these facts will help you understand mice and their way of life better. This will give you a pretty good head start and an advantage over them.
Keep all of these facts in your mind and use them properly – they will assist you in keeping your home clean and safe from a mice infestation!
