House Mice
What are House Mice?
House mice are small-eared, grey 3½ inch rodents (plus another four inches for the tail). They can squeeze through a hole or crack ¼ inch in size (about the size of a dime). They love food, especially seed and cereal products. Excellent climbers. They will easily nest anywhere from attic and subfloor insulation to kitchen and bedroom cabinet drawers and interior upholstered furniture.
Clues that you might have them:
Small (up to 1/4 inch) fecal droppings or urine spots where they have been (floors, cabinets, countertops, etc.), shredded cardboard or packaging where mice have made their way into food or taken material to make nests.
If you leave them alone…
One male/female pair of mice can result in up to ten generations of mice in a single year, potentially as many as 8,000 mice if they all survived in one year. Each individual mouse can leave behind up to 100 droppings a day, contaminating food and property and creating an acute health hazard.
When do I call Leupitz Pest Control?
Call Leupitz Pest Control immediately at (503) 362-8100 to establish a comprehensive eradication and exclusion program to rid the home or commercial building of mice.
What can I do?
Prevention & Control
- Sanitation: Keeping homes and business properties clean by not allowing anything to attract them. This includes eliminating birdseed and other seeds that they can eat, sealing dry pet food containers, keeping food sealed in plastic or other rodent-resistant containers, etc.
- Eliminating places to nest: To the extent possible, keep the environment in and around a structure free from areas where mice may hide and nest.
- Rodent proofing: Installing screening, flashing, and other mechanical guards to keep rodents out.
More Details
The house mouse (Mus musculus) and other species such as the smaller dark grey and white-tailed deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) in more rural areas can invade both residences and commercial establishments. Their urine and excrement can spread disease (including the potentially fatal hantavirus in the case of deer mice), and contamination to foodstuffs poses a serious health and economic threat to humans.
It is important to first determine whether the invader is a house mouse, deer mouse or rat to properly dispatch the pests. Mice are curious creatures and will explore their surroundings, as opposed to rats that typically exhibit shyness, which can affect the method of treatment. Call Leupitz Pest Control at (503) 362-8100 for professional solutions in excluding and eliminating mice infestations in your home or commercial property.