Facts About House Mice

Created by Julie Villarreal

The house mouse belongs to Genus: Mus, Species: musculus . Its Binomial name is Mus musculus.

They received their name “house mouse” because they tend to live in your home, but do they as pets?

Yes. These creatures are indeed domesticated to become pets.

Not to mention, they are used as test subjects as well since mice are much like

humans in how their bodies and minds work.

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ENERGY TRANSFER

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ECOLOGY As illustrated in the previous section, mice are more of a prey although

they are omnivorous.

Where do mice live? Mice are hardy creatures that are found in 

nearly every country and type of terrain. They can live in forests, grasslands and manmade structures easily. Mice typically make a burrow underground if they live out in the wild. Their burrow helps protect them from predators. Their natural predators are cats, birds, wild dogs and foxes. 

 

What do mice eat? If you believe what you see in cartoons, you would think that mice eat cheese. Actually, they like to eat fruits, seeds and grains. In winter weather, or if fresh fruit is nowhere to be found, plant­eating mice will devour tree bark, roots, oats, corn, or even root vegetables like potatoes. They are omnivorous, which means they eat both plants and meat (such as worms, centipedes and crickets, and even snails), and the common house mice will eat just about anything it can find. In fact, if food is scarce, mice will even eat each other.  

  

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Evolution

Given a stable environment with plenty of food, mice can

remain within a small area of up to 10 yards. However, in many

urban cities, exponential mouse population growth forces mice on to

search for new food sources and more desirable habitats. Mice have

been tracked as moving more than half a mile in one night as

they set out to discover new locations to infest.

Mice are not commonly seen outside buildings, so ‘hitching a ride’ on packaged goods or using underground

passageways in urban environments are the main means by which they enter a new site. Once inside, mice will

start to explore the many internal ducts, voids, raised flooring and ceilings that allow them access to the entire

building – from the basement to the top floors.

Mice are very neophilic, which means it is in their nature to investigate new areas and objects in their

environment. This is part of their foraging strategy as they explore their environment, sampling anything that

may be of food value as they roam. A mouse needs only around 3 grams of food a day, but will often pick this up

from multiple locations rather than just one source – up to 40 different points in 24 hours, as demonstrated in an

experiment. If mice find moist food (containing as little as 15% water by weight), they do not need to drink.

While exploring and feeding, mice leave behind some rather unpleasant signs of their presence. Although there is

no truth to the myth that mice have no control of voluntary urination or defecation, they do leave little ‘dabs’ of

urine wherever they explore and feed.

Safe shelter and a relatively

small amount of food is all it

takes to sustain an infestation

of mice.

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Fun Facts About House Mice  

 

You Probably Never Knew. 

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Mice have big appetites.   

 Despite their tiny bodies (and even smaller stomachs!), mice               eat between 15 and 20 times a day. Because of their frequent                       eating habits, they prefer to build their homes near food                 sources.   

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They are little gymnasts…. 

  

Mice are good jumpers, climbers and swimmers. In fact, mice can jump a foot into the air, allowing them to easily climb up 

onto kitchen counters or into pantries to access food.  

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Mice can squeeze through openings as small as the size of a dime. 

     

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They have relatively short lifespans. In the wild, mice usually only live for about five months, mostly because of predators such as cats, snakes and foxes.

          

      

    

In a lab setting, mice can live for up to 4 years, and in homes, 2 years.

 

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A house mouse produces between 40 and

100 droppings per day.

 

Mice use urine as markers to determine where they have been. So, house mice constantly give off micro-droplets of urine as they travel around their territory every day.  

  

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A female house mouse can give

birth when they are only two

months old, and they are able to

have to up to a dozen babies

every three weeks.  

   

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References

Dr. Jim Fredericks. Tuesday, January 15, 2013. Eight Fascinating Facts You Never Knew about Mice. Retrieved from http://www.pestworld.org/news-and-views/pest-articles/articles/fascinating-facts-you-never-knew-about-mice/

 

Alicia. April 4, 2012. 12 Facts You Didn’t Know About Mice. Retrieved from http://www.rentokil.ie/blog/12­facts­about­mice/  

 colugo10. 2006. Mus Musculus, the House Mouse. Retrieved from http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4297    

Bradford, A. June 26, 2014. Mouse Facts: Habits, Habitat & Types of Mice. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/28028­mice.html  Newkirk, C. 2015. What Do Mice Eat in Nature?. Retrieved from http://animals.pawnation.com/mice­eat­nature­2618.html  Ehrlich Pest Control. Jan 15, 2015. How Urban Mice Adapt to Their Environments. Retrieved from http://www.jcehrlich.com/blog/how­urban­mice­adapt­to­their­environments/ 

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