Mice

Similar to the common rat in many respects.

The house mouse, Mus domesticus,, like rats, contaminate foodstuffs and cause serious structural damage. However, unlike rats, they can survive with very little water are almost unknown in sewers, are far more erratic in their behaviour, have a much smaller foraging range and are not afraid of new things.

Being so small they are very easily carried, unnoticed, in egg boxes, food packaging, laundry baskets, etc. Entering a new location through gaps as small as 6mm, mice build nests which are hard to find, populating an area with new colonies quickly with devastating effect. Because mice can reach sexual maturity 42 days after birth, populations grow much faster than those of rats, which take about twice the time to reach maturity.

The difficulty of preventing access, coupled with the rapid population growth and natural dispersal of mice, means that a large building may contain a number of colonies, each of which must be treated as a separate infestation.