The Biology of House Mice

House Mice

There are many varieties of mice in the World, but house mice have adapted to living inside people’s homes all throughout the New England area. The house mouse, or mus musculus, is a slender rodent that has a slightly pointed nose. A house mouse’s eyes are small, completely black and bulging from its skull. The mouse has very little hair on its large ear and scale-ringed tail. Adult house mice weigh 11 to 13 grams, with fur that is ranges from gray to brown. Mice have poor eyesight, and rely on their hearing and excellent sense of smell, taste, and touch. House mice travel over 30 feet in diameter from their nest in search of obtaining food and water. Mice constantly explore throughout homes behind walls, crawl spaces, and small crevices, memorizing pathways and obstacles. These animals are extremely common, and can do a lot of damage to your home.

House Mice Nesting

House mice are nocturnal, so although sighting a mouse in your home may not occur, they very well may exist in your home. House mice tend to dig for shelter, and may burrow into the ground of fields, or around structures when other shelter is not readily available. Nesting occurs once a shelter has been established. House mouse nests are constructed of fibrous materials and take on the appearance of a ball that is four to six inches in diameter. Litters of mice can amount up to six offsprings, and are born after three weeks. Infant house mice rapidly grow into full sized adults after just two weeks. This is the age house mice make short excursions from the nest in search of solid foods. At the age of six weeks, house mice become sexualy mature, and begin to mate. Mice breed year-round and females can give birth to ten litters per year. This causes rapid growth of a colony, and can cause massive destruction to your home.

Prevention of Nesting

In order to prevent house mice from infesting your home so that you don’t have to call us in the future, we have some tips. Sanitation is a major factor in keeping house mice from nesting in your home. House mice need a source of food, so be extremely cautious about storing food where mice cannot access any of it. Traps are an effective way to control a mouse population, but are only good for small colonies. The most successful, and permanent strategy to get rid of your mouse infestation is to build them out. This is the construction technique of eliminating all openings through which a mouse can enter.

Mouse-Proof Construction. The most successful and permanent form of house mouse control is to “build them out” by eliminating all openings through which they can enter a structure. All places where food is stored, processed or used should be made mouse-proof. Dried grain and meat products should be stored in glass jars, metal canisters or other resealable airtight containers.