Mice are a complicated infestation. They have been with humans for over thirty thousand years and that means they know us, likely better, than we know ourselves. For instance, mice will actually wait by a door to a human home and when the door opens they will take their chance to race inside. Often times the mouse that enters your home will be a pregnant female looking for a cozy warm spot to give birth to her new mice children who reach maturity in weeks. The house mouse is a very specific animal. There is quite literally nothing else like it. It will enter your home permanently, with no intention of ever leaving for any reason what so ever. They will live off crumbs under baseboards and the little bits of food you left on your plate last night but didn’t wash off in the sink. That being said if your sink is full and you have a garage outside that is not stored properly then there is no one to blame but yourself for a mouse wanting to come in. Bird feeders are also a major draw for mice. They are essentially parasites that feed not off human bodies but off of human homes. This was not always the case. Wild mice still exist and are very common in Ontario. They have no interest in humans, their food or their doors but come the winter they suddenly get the urge for warmth. Where will they find that warmth? In the only warm thing they can find, your home. Now they are not here for food or to share your space. They enter through the attic and make nests in the insulation. They will then leave and hunt outside every day and bring the food back to the store or feed their young. This will continue until the spring when they will leave of their own volition.
These two distinct situations start with one question. How many are in there? The answer may surprise you. The one mouse you saw last night on the dining room table. Or the tiny mouse you found wandering around aimlessly. These are not closed incidents. Mice are terrified of being found as they know we will try to kill them right away so they take enormous effort and preplanning to avoid you, using mouse runways and travelling in walls, waiting for you to go to sleep to come out and find food. That is why you will only see a mouse if you change your normal schedule. If you think you have mice pretend to go to bed. Stay there, motionless for maybe half an hour to an hour. Then tiptoe downstairs and flick the light on. You may see any number of mice, one maybe or a dozen in your sink. They will scatter right away, do not try to catch them you just hurt yourself. But this is why you are not seeing them and why there are so many mice that can so easily hide from you.
