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.

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