We often get the question of “are there more mice in the winter?”, the truth may surprise you since winter is usually when people notice rodent issues in their homes.
Mice and rodents have more numbers in the spring and summer
Most mice in the wild do not breed during the colder months, they do however have a very fast breeding cycle when they are active. The common house mouse for example has a typical gestation cycle of about 21 days. Each time a female mouse gives birth they can have anywhere from 3 to 14 mice, but they usually average around 6 to 8 every time.
This means that mice can go from a small problem to a big issue rather quickly if they decide to start breeding in your home. For the most part, people don’t need to worry about this during most of the year, the problems really start from fall and last to beginning of spring.
Most rodents will continue to live outdoors unless they find a way into your home. Since mice in the wild typically only are breeding during warmer weather their numbers are actually higher during the spring and summer. The reason we see them less in homes at that time is because there are plenty of food sources and livable temperatures outside during the spring and summer.
Protecting your home from mice and rodents
With mice and rodents having such a quick breeding cycle, your main focus should be keeping them from getting in your home in the first place. Once they are in, they breed quickly and in great numbers. If you see one mouse there are probably more where that came from. If there isn’t a lot already, there probably will be more soon unless something is changed about how the first one gained entry.
Exclusion is going to be your first defense against a mice and rodent issue in your home. This means sealing off entry points into your home where pests can get in. The number of pests would be significantly lower in your home if you make an effort to keep them out to begin with.
Many of these pests get into your home during the fall vs winter. Obviously if it is winter already you should still seal the holes and entry points you may have around your home, but mice and rodents will start to head into your home as soon as temperatures start to drop outside.
Mice are year-round pests
As food and shelter sources start to deplete in the wild mice and rodents will start to try and get into your home to find food and shelter for the winter. This is why it may seem like there are bigger numbers of mice and rodents during the winter because you don’t really tend to notice them outside in the wild.
There are a variety of traps and baits you can use to capture mice and rodents in your home, but rodents can be one of the trickiest pests to get rid of. Mice and rodents are mostly nocturnal so you will rarely see them if they are there and if you do they tend to dart back into whatever crack or crevice they were hiding in your home.
This makes trapping difficult as a misplaced trap can yield little or no results. In addition to that finding and sealing holes around your home can be a tedious and expensive process on your own if you don’t know what you are doing. For these reasons we really recommend reaching out to a pest control service if you are experiencing any mice or rodent issues.
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