If you live in the Sumter area, you might be familiar with several different rodents. Ranging from Norway rats to field mice, these walking dumpsters of disease are looking to make your house their home for the holidays. Yes, with the cold weather moving in, tiny mice and rats will be on the hunt for warmth.
In Sumter, like most places in the country, rats and field mice are at the top of the list of common pests. Mice can grow to be eight or so inches long, tail included. So while they might be thought of as tiny mice, once they breach your Sumter home, they look massive!
When The Rats Are Away, The Mice Invade
Norway rats can be very intimidating, growing up to sixteen inches in size. However, if you have rats, you will rarely have mice. This can typically apply the other way around too. Rats and wild mice love to make their mark and don’t like sharing. Because of this, they normally won’t team up to hit a house.
Both groups of rodents will generally avoid each other if one group is already there. Rats kill mice if fights do break out, but this is primarily due to their larger size. Wild mice are smaller, but they are still a powerful force of destruction if left unchecked.
Brownish-gray in color, there are many reasons as to why mice don’t make great houseguests. If you notice one mouse, there might be several that you can’t see. Mice are prolific breeders, able to reproduce at alarming rates within your walls. If you don’t find out the quickest way to get rid of mice in the early days of a growing infestation, you’ll be overrun.
Tiny, But Dangerous
Whether you have one mouse or one hundred, the situation is still dangerous for you and your family. Rodents can carry over 30 different diseases on this, and they can transmit them to you. This is typically done through saliva, i.e., mice chew your food, clothing, furniture, thus contaminating everything.
However, the contamination doesn’t stop at their saliva. Here are a few other things from mice that can cause adverse reactions:
- Urine
- Droppings
- Greasy rub marks
- Hair follicles
- Nesting materials
If you have a pet and they ingest a dropping, they could become very ill. Furthermore, breathing in hair follicles can cause a rash or an allergic reaction. Either way, it’s not a healthy environment to be living in.
Traps Don’t Always Work
When you see tiny mice footprints around your home, you might think the hunt is on! Setting up traps is a given for most people. While a snap trap or a poison block might catch one or two, it could be impossible to say if they are all eradicated.
Mice are tricky, and as long as their skull can fit, they can squeeze through any small holes. This, along with the fact that they are prolific breeders, makes them challenging to deal with. Traps are never a guarantee and if you leave even one left, it’s like leaving the doors open. If you don’t want any more chewed furniture or mice footprints, the quickest way to get rid of mice is to call in the experts.
Full-Service Pest Control
The best way to ensure total eradication is to call our team at Sumter Pest Management. We provide professional rodent control that will ensure you get your home back! Count on our team at Sumter Pest Management, as we have over 25 years of experience to back us up.
We pride ourselves on being family-owned and operated. Our pest-free guarantee means that no pest is too small for us and no job too big. At Sumter Pest Management, we care about our customers, working together towards a pest-free home.