Why Are There Mice In My Plano Home?

When you start to find evidence of mice in your home, it can make you wonder why on earth those mice are coming inside. There are many reasons. Some might surprise you. Let's take a quick look into the mind of a mouse.

There Is A Reason They're Called House Mice

There are no known populations of wild house mice anywhere in the world. These animals live with, or in close proximity, to humans. While you can find a house mouse living in a field, and a house mouse can be classified as a field mouse, that field is going to be near man-made structures. This mouse species prefers to live off our generosity. So, you should never be surprised to find a house mouse in your house.

A Mouse Will Be A Mouse

When a little mouse explores your property and comes near to your home, it naturally finds its way inside. Why? Because it likes to explore tight cracks, gaps, and holes. If you have a gap in the weatherstripping on a door, a mouse is likely to explore that gap. If you're missing a door sweep on a door, a mouse is likely to squeeze underneath. It only takes a hole the size of a dime for most adult mice to get into your Plano home. If a hole isn't large enough, it is equipped with teeth that can make small holes larger.

Mice Love Spring And Fall

While a mouse can be found scurrying across a layer of snow, it doesn't prefer the cold days of our Plano winters or the times when we get a little snow on the ground. It would much rather be in a wonderful, magical place where the temperature is always spring or fall—a place, like the interior of your home. As a mouse explores your exterior, it will notice any heat that is coming out. This can inspire mice to do the hard work of chewing an entry point. This might be why you have mice in your Plano home.

Mice Prefer Your Food

A mouse can subsist on many things, including insects. If you know this, you might wonder why mice would prefer to be in your home rather than outside where all the bugs are. The reason is quite simple: they prefer to eat what you eat. They enjoy fruit, bread, crackers, cereal, and seeds. If you have kids that sometimes leave a piece of fruit in the bathroom trash bin, a mouse will quickly take notice of this. If you make toast in the morning and crumbs fall onto the floor, you're going to have happy mice in your home. If you make a sandwich with multigrain bread or a hamburger with a seeded bun, those little seeds can fall to the floor and become mouse food. A cheese and cracker snack while watching television on your couch can make the gaps in your couch a mouse paradise. Do you see how it works?

Mice Don't Have To Wait For You To Feed Them

The incisors of a mouse aren't just efficient at creating holes in your home's exterior or chewing through the wires in your walls, they can chew holes in your paper, cardboard, and thin plastic food packages. They are prone to do this in pantries where grains, rice, cereal, sugar, and other desirable food sources can be found. They love your pantry food so much, they'll even establish a nest in the void of your pantry wall and chew a hole through sheetrock, plaster, and other building materials to create a little access hole near the food source.

Mice Need A Drink

This is one that most people don't think about. While mice will definitely like living with you if they can find a bite to eat, they'll also prefer your home if there are water resources. They'll get a drink from water droplets in a tub or sink that has a dripping faucet. They'll get a drink from your pet's water dish. They'll drink condensation droplets on pipes and other surfaces. A home with plumbing issues will be more desirable to a mouse. But, keep in mind that mice can get water from the foods they eat, and they can go a very long time without a single drop of water to drink. How long? It has to do with the foods they're eating, environmental conditions, energy consumptions, and other factors.

That's About It

We hope you've learned something about why you have mice in your Plano home. Remember that the team here at All-Safe Pest & Termite is always available to help you get those mice out and keep them out. Contact us anytime to schedule a service visit.