House mouse is a common species that shares habitat with human beings. The animal can be pest for one person and pet for other; all because of its multidimensional role. House mice have capacity to invade the residential locations and cause damage to property. Perhaps, this is the reason why they are more famous as pests.
Usually, offensive to a huge human population, house mice play a key role in ecosystem. They have tendency to feed upon harmful pests and weeds that can affect crop growths. Wild mice usually live in forests and fields by making burrows in grounds. House mice who are not available with ground soil, utilize household material; main reason why people look to get rid of them.
All the issues apart; mice have some unique and interesting built in characteristics.
Here are the prominent traits and interesting facts about a house mouse.
1. Appearance
Mouse is characterized as rodent, with small body size, pointed nose, hairy body and long hairless tail. With fat centralized body, and small head, mice have large ears. They have features adapted to have strong senses. Very often mice and rats are said to be synonymous; in reality it is not so. Rats have large, cylindrical, hairless and scaly bodies.
They also come up in various sizes and colors. White, brown and grey are more common colors.
2. Biological classification of house mouse
Common house mouse is Mus Musculus. They are pests as they eat stored grains destroy crop roots and feed upon vegetables.
As far as biological classification of house mice is concerned; they have following order.
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Rodentia
• Sub order: Myomorpha
• Family: Muridae
• Sub-Family: Murinae (for old world) and Sigmodonitinae (for new world)
• Species: Mus Musculus
3. Interesting facts:
It is common to find scientists conducting tests on mice; the reason is that their bodies and senses work much like human beings. Even their dietary habits match with those of humans.
4. Habitat:
House mice are quite happy to live around human beings. That’s why houses and office buildings are their favourite residences. In houses they look for hiding places like cervices, wood piles, debris, garages, attic, and drawers, under furniture, crawl spaces, sheds and barns. It is not all about junkyard, well maintained interior of a house, provides perfect places for mice.
Even within homes of human beings, house mice live by making their homes. They use a soft material like paper or shredded cloth to make their nests. Apart from this, their home has specific areas, each for the purpose of living and storing food. Further, house mice’s nests have multiple entry and exit points as a precautionary measure to escape predators.
5. Eating Habits
There is hardly anything that house mice can’t eat. They are omnivores; they eat the vegetables as well as meet. They feed upon fruits, vegetables, tree leaves, roots, nuts, seeds grains and every eatable they find. In fact stealing food is their hobby; a habit that can be traced to the etymology of their name. House mice have also the habit of storing food. Whenever they sense some eatable, they readily move to grab it. Given their eating habits, granaries and grain storage centres make an ideal residence for them.
6. Behaviour
Mice are nocturnal in nature; they are active at night. They rarely come out of their hidings in day light. During exposure to external environments, they only use agility and speed as their weapons. House mice are not able to distinguish between colors but they have higher insight just like cat. Their ability to sense danger is marvellous. While moving they often leave 1/4th inches of droppings that have very disgusting and filthy impact on homes. On personal level, mice love cleanliness and pay attention towards their personal grooming. They also keep their nests clean.
House mice are not a big problem in summers; because they love to leave in ground burrows during this season. In winter, they prefer cozy places and hence move inside. Hence,, pest role of house mouse is more prominent in fall.
7. Lifecycle
Mice have very short time spans. A wild mouse can live only one year, because he is more entrapped in fear or predation. A house mouse can live up to four years, if remain protected. Female mouse gives birth to the babies after keeping it for 19-2 days. She can give birth to four to twelve babies at the same time. New born baby weighs only 0.03 ounces, with tiny, hairless body. An average baby house mouse takes 10 days to become conscious and open eyes.
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How to Kill Mice page.
