Mice

Latin Name: Mus musculus

Months of Activity: January - December

Originally from Asia, the house mouse has an amazing ability to adapt to most environments, and will readily move in to your home if given the slightest opportunity – a gap of just 7mm is enough for them to squeeze through.

Mice can cause extensive damage to property as a result of their gnawing activities. In addition, they are often carriers of fleas and a wide range of diseases, which can be passed on to humans and household pets.

Appearance

Distinguished from rats by their smaller size and longer tail, adult mice are brown to grey in colour and weigh between 10-25g.

Lifecycle

Mice are very versatile when it comes to building their nest. Utilising many different materials, a nest can be made from twigs, shredded paper and even loft insulation. A house mouse is able to reproduce when it is between 8 and 12 weeks old, and the gestation period will typically take just 3 weeks.

Litters can contain as many as 16 kittens, but largely depends on environmental conditions such as food availability and outside temperature. Mice are totally omnivorous, in other words they will eat anything, even down to the soap in the bathroom or the candles you keep under the sink.

Mortality rates are high, but mice will still typically live for 8-12 months, by which time, a breeding pair could have produced up to 2000 offspring.

Pest Control

Areas favoured by mice are food storage and preparation areas such as kitchens and pantries. If you are choosing to use traps, then these are the areas to target along with airing cupboards, and enclosed spaces such as underneath your bath and behind the sink.

Baits may also be used, but should be applied with extreme caution and advice should be sought from a professional pest control company so as not to put your family or pets at risk.

The ability of mice to squeeze through very tiny gaps means that if you want to keep your pests away, then a thorough inspection of your property is necessary to pinpoint any potential access areas, and to block these up at the earliest opportunity.

Mouse Pest Control News

Plague of the Bin Pests
If you live in the city, they say you are never more than a few feet from a rat. Now it seems mice, grey squirrels and foxes are creeping a little too close for comfort as well. In fact the number of pests plaguing homeowners has gone up by more than...

Avoiding An Invasion
They crawl, they fly, they swarm, they scurry - in short, bugs are pests. This year is a lot worse for infestations as we've had so much rain. The ants are trying to come in so they are not drowning; and the fleas and ticks are likely to be really ba...

Fine For Pesticide Misuse
At Sheffield Magistrates Court on 12th March 2008 Mr John Allison pleaded guilty to four offences of not taking all reasonable precautions in using an insecticide containing bendiocarb. He was fined £200 for each offence and a further £20...

Get Control Of Pests
Spring is the time when many insects and rodents begin to stir and go in search of food following the cold winter period. They are also keen to find potential nest sites and will quite happily venture inside your property to see the facilities you pr...

Mouse In The House
I asked a friend of mine if he could come up with a maths equation that could tell me just how prolific mice really are. He was the kind of guy who scored A-grades throughout high school so I figured he was the right person for the job. I gave him a ...

2006 – 2007 – 2008

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