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Field Mice (Diptera)

Field Mice (Diptera)

Pest advice for controlling Field Mice

Outdoor cousins of the House Mouse, which tend to move indoors in the winter seeking their creature comforts.

It’s important to understand that pest management professionals will avoid controlling field mice unless they are presenting a public health risk.

Field mice are small mammals of the order Rodentia.

The dangers

Although mice are often considered to be cute by some people, they are a public health pest and can cause serious harm.

Mice have been known to spread nasty diseases – such as Salmonella and Listeria – to humans through their urine, droppings and bedding.

Mice have a need to mark their territory with their urine and due to their sporadic eating habits, build nests near food sources. This puts anyone with an infestation at risk of food poisoning.

As they scurry around, they carry dirt and bacteria with them, transferring it to your counter tops, cabinets, pantry and anywhere else they travel.

These nibbling nuisances can also cause a lot of property damage, due to their compulsive need to gnaw to maintain their teeth at a constant length.

Appearance

A field mouse has sandy brown fur with a lighter underside.

As it mainly lives outdoors, it has bigger eyes and ears than a house mouse. This is an adaptation to avoid predation.

Field mice also have long tails, making them quite agile climbers.

Juveniles are greyer overall, still with larger ears, hind feet and tails than house mice.

How to prevent field mice

Prevention is better than cure, so let’s take a look at how we can accomplish that.

Field mice only need a gap of 5mm to gain entry (roughly the diameter of the eraser end of a pencil).

You will need to search for any potential entry points and seal these up with wire wool embedded in quick-setting cement.

Getting rid of field mice

For any mouse infestation, we would always recommend contacting a professional pest control company.

They are trained in mouse control and will have access to a range of professional use rodenticides which are not available to the public.

Knowing how much, where, and when to deploy products is where professionals are able to take control of situations efficiently.

Professional pest controllers will take an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to tackling your infestation.

A pest professional will have access to monitoring equipment, which they will use to confirm entry points into your property, the size of the infestation and to track the mouse to its harbourage (nest).

They can then recommend a proofing strategy and decide on the best course of action in terms of control; this could be traps, rodenticides or a combination of both.

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