Something seemed off about your home in the last few weeks. All of sudden, there are grease marks on the wall, and your dog is barking at the walls out of nowhere. You’re not quite sure what is going on. Soon enough though, you see it – it’s a house mouse. It’s not that big a deal though, you can take care of one mouse using traps or poisons. But can you really be sure that there is only one?
Unfortunately, you can’t. Odds are that if you see one mouse, there are a lot more around, especially if you see it during the day. The house mouse is a paranoid creature that likes to roam at night and stay as hidden and quiet as possible. When you see one out in the open, or being reckless, it means that the nest it’s from is quite large and that the mice feel comfortable enough in your home to roam around. The nest may also be overpopulated, and the mouse you’ve seen is looking for new nesting locations.
Since mice have many natural predators, they have to reproduce fast and often in order to survive as a species. As such, a house mouse is capable of reproducing when it is six weeks old, and a single female can give birth to almost 100 mice over the span of its two year lifetime. On top of that, mice have very short gestation periods, and each litter averages at about six babies. In a single year, you can expect ten different litters, which adds up to about 60 babies a year, and 15 over the span of three months. And the math so far is for just one female.
So to conclude, the sight of one mouse should be a lot more alarming than it would seem on the surface. However, you should keep an eye out for signs of an infestation before you see any actual mice running around. Look for grease marks on the walls, gnaw marks on various surfaces and tiny black rice-like droppings behind furniture and appliances. If you spot these signs it’s time to take action – you can either try to deal with the infestation yourself, or you can call over a pro. Contact us today if you would like us to perform a rodent inspection, or if you already have an infestation and you would like to get rid of it.