HOUSE MOUSE
APPEARANCE:
The adult house mouse is small and slender and about 1-2 inches long, excluding tail. It has large ears, pointed nose and small eyes. The tail is as long as the head and body combined. The fur color varies, but it is usually a light grey or brown, but could be darker shades.
DIET:
Mice will eat almost anything, but prefer cereal grains, seeds, or sweet material. They require very little water, obtaining most of their water needs from their food.
HABITS AND BIOLOGY:
If there are good living conditions (food, water, and shelter), they can multiply rapidly. They sexually mature in two months, producing about 8 litters in a one year life time. Each litter has 4-7 pups. A house mice in a city environment may spend it's entire life in buildings. In rural and suburban settings, it may not only live inside, but be found outside near foundations, in the shrubbery, weeds, crawl spaces, basements, or in garages. They survive well on weeds, seeds, or insects, but when their food supply is shortened by the colder months they move inside nesting closer to a food supply. They make their nest from soft material like paper, insulation, or furniture stuffing. These nest are found in many places including: in walls, ceiling voids, storage boxes, drawers, under major appliances, or within the upholstery of furniture. Outside the nests are found in debris or in ground burrows.
Mice while being "nibblers" eating many times at different places, they do have two main meal times...just before dawn and at dusk...they simply "snack" at other times at intervals or every 1-2 hours. They can eat about 10 to 15% of their body weight every day, the adults weighing about 5/8-1 oz. They get much of there water from food products.
NORWAY RATS
NORWAY RATS AND CONTROL/KILL MEASURES
The Norway rat is larger and more aggressive than the Roof Rat.
APPEARANCE:
As an adult the Norway Rat can weigh between 12-16 oz. with a body length of 6-8 inches long. The nose is blunt with small ears, and small eyes. The fur is shaggy and coarse with variation in colors. The tail is shorter than the head and body combined, and scaly.
GRAY SQUIRRELS
Gray squirrels are about 18 inches long, including their 9 inch tails..
larger than the flying squirrels.
They weigh about 1-1.5 lbs. as an adult.
Their coloration is usually gray, salt and pepper, but can have tan hairs in the fur as well, white belly.
The winter coat is grey above with a white underside;
the summer coat is shorter, sleeker and brownish grey above.
Red squirrels have red/brown upper parts in summer but may show some grey on the back in winter, leading to some confusion.
Reds are smaller, lighter, have ear tufts, prominent in the winter coat and brown on the legs and tail.
Natural habitats are wooded areas in tree cavities, can be found near hardwoods like oaks and hickory trees.
Will construct feeding shelters out of leafs.
Generally have 2 litters a year,2-4 young per litter. They normally breed in midwinter and late spring. Gestation is about 44 days.
Diet consists of bird eggs, insects, berries, fruit, vegetables, nuts and nestling birds. They like to hoard their food.
Gray squirrels are active during the day, expecting to hear them during the daytime.
Can inhabit the attic areas as well as crawl spaces. They like to enter the attic areas from your gutters
and nearby trees and bushes.
Installing gutter guards, or down spouts with screen may
prevent them from climbing up to the roof through a down spout.