In the wild, mice help control insect populations and provide food for predators like bobcats and owls. They’re a natural part of the food chain and benefit the ecosystem. But inside your house, they have no such benefits. Indoors, they spread disease and damage everything from textiles to electrical systems.

Mice can get inside houses and other buildings fairly easily. Their bodies are small enough that they can squeeze through cracks and holes as small as a dime. And once inside they can be hard to control because they’re both territorial and shy. Thus, they’ll make their nests in a variety secretive places and do their best to hide from people.

You can identify a mouse infestation through a variety of ways. Seeing a mouse is an obvious indication that pest mice have found their way inside. The appearance of a mouse during the daytime can actually indicate that the mouse population is quite large because the animals are naturally secretive and nocturnal. Mice droppings are another way to identify an infestation. Other ways to identify an infestation include footprints and tracks, nests, chewed debris, and mice odor.

If you have a mouse or general rodent infestation , the best thing to do is to call a trained rodent pest control expert. Professionals know not only how to most effectively eliminate mice populations but can stop further mice from coming inside and sanitize your home after the infestation is eliminated.

In North America, there are three kinds of mice you’re likely to encounter indoors: house mice, deer mice, and white-footed mice. All mice are nocturnal, meaning they’re most active during the night. They are also all omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and animal matter. Mice commonly eat seeds, insects, berries, bark, grains, nuts, fruit, flowers, and fungus.

Also common among mice is the damage they case. Because mice are rodents, they gnaw to shorten their front teeth, which never stop growing. Mice gnaw on wires, furniture, textiles, books, plastics, and anything else they can use to sharpen and shorten their teeth.

Furthermore, all mice are vectors for various diseases. While some diseases are specific to certain mouse species, there are a few diseases that all mice can transmit. These diseases include Leptospirosis , salmonella (food poisoning), rat-bite fever , and typhus.

“House mouse” is more than a term for any mouse that finds its way indoors. It’s actually the most common indoor species of mouse. The body of a house mouse is covered in short hair that’s gray or light to dark brown in color. Their bellies have lighter-colored hair. And their ears and tales have much less hair than their bodies. Adult house mice grow 3 to 3.9 in. from nose to tail tip.

A house mouse will rarely travel more than 100 feet from its nest. And they usually don’t stray far from buildings or human populations.

Diseases house mice spread include pox ( rickettsialpox ) and lymphocytic choriomeningitis besides diseases common to all mice.

The second most common mouse you’re likely to find in your house is the deer mouse, also known as a field mouse. Deer mice have a triangular head; pointed nose; and large, black, beady eyes. They have large ears with little fur covering them. Their fur is a grayish-brown to reddish-brown, and the hair gradually whitens at the belly and legs. Deer mice’ bodies are slender, and they grow larger than house mice. They measure 4.7 to 11 in. head to tale as adults.

Deer mice mostly live in rural, bushy areas and are abundant in forested areas next to agricultural land. They do sometimes find their way inside, however, especially as the weather grows cold. Indoors, they prefer attics, basements, and crawl spaces.

Besides common mice diseases, deer mice spread hantaviruses, which produce hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in North America. The disease is deadly. About 40 percent of people identified with the disease die from it.

The white-footed mouse is the third mouse species you’re likely to find inside. It closely resembles the deer mouse, except for a few features. The upper parts of its body are reddish-brown to brown in color, and it has a white underbelly. Its feet are also notably white, and its tail is distinctly bicolored, meaning it’s dark on the top and light underneath. White-footed mice grow 5 to 8 in. long from head to tail.

White-footed mice generally like warm, dry forests and brush lands in low- to mid-elevations. They do live in higher forests and semidesert areas, too. Some have even adapted to suburban and agricultural settings. They’re the most abundant rodent in mixed forests in the Eastern U.S.

Unlike house mice, white-footed mice are mainly solitary. They also differ from house mice in that they store food for winter.

Among the three mice species mentioned here, the white-footed mouse is the least likely to find its way inside. However, during winter months they occasionally take up residence in ground-floor walls, where they build nests and store food.

Like deer mice, white-footed mice are vectors of hantaviruses. They also carry deer ticks, which transmit Lyme disease.

If you’ve discovered mice in your house, call an expert you can trust to handle the infestation. Yes Pest Pros is located in Bloomington and Columbus, Indiana. We’re well experienced at eliminating rodents and can apply a variety of methods, from traps to tent-and-gas, to deal with them. Call or email us today to find out how we can help.

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