The house mouse came originally from south western Asia from whence it has spread all over the earth, mainly with the help of man. It has the amazing ability to adapt and it now occurs more or less where man has settled. In most cases the mouse is associated with buildings, often moving outside in the summer, but always retreating indoors come the autumn. In buildings mice will live anywhere and they are very difficult to keep out. If you can push a Biro (about 7mm) under a door then a mouse can get in...!! Mice are also 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 in case of a power cut, but their favourite foods are cereals and cereal products. For their size, they don't eat much but the damage that they can do, both with gnawing and soiling products with their urine and droppings is tremendous.

Interesting facts about mice:-

They eat about 3 grams a day..not a lot..!!

They don't need to drink as there is enough moisture in the food, but if they do..then about 3 ml

These guys don't need laxatives, they do about 80 droppings per day...WOW..!!

Again, lady mice are pregnant for 3 weeks (Gestation Period).

Madam can have between 4 to 16 in a litter, depends on food availability etc.

She also can have 7 to 8 litters per year, some have been known to have 10.

Sexual maturity of the young is about 8 to 12 weeks and then they are off again.

Mortality rate is again approximately 90%. And a good job too..!

The diseases carried by mice are as follows:-

1. Salmonella

2. Hantavirus

3. Lyme Disease

How do we know that we have a problem, you may laugh, but lots of people have mice or rats, and don't even know it.

Listed below are a few indicators:

Finding droppings in your cupboards etc. As you can see from above, if they have been there for any length of time then there will be quite a few.

Smell, distasteful as this may be to some people, an infestation of rodents in say your roof space will be accompanied by quite a strong urine smell, especially if they've been there for some time.

Damage, in the form of chewed articles in your cupboards, chewed insulation on the wiring in your roof space, this latter one can be quite dangerous as it can be a fire risk. Really rodents will chew anything because their top and bottom incisor teeth grow like our finger nails do. Consequently rodents chew to wear them back to the correct length, otherwise they would eventually starve to death.