Title: Mice, Voles, and Moles
Headings: Field Rodents: Mice, Voles, Chipmunks, and Moles
Field Rodents: Mice, Voles, Chipmunks, and Moles
Control

Content: In six months, a pair of house mice can eat about four pounds of food while excreting some 18,000 fecal droppings or pellets. Although mice are not blind, they do have poor vision and are unable to see clearly beyond six inches. In considering control measures for mice, it is important to know where they live and how they feed. Mice live in grassy or bushy areas, nesting underground in shallow burrows or aboveground in densely vegetated or protected areas. Also, they can build nests in thick hay or leaf mulches in the garden or cropping areas. Nocturnal feeders, mice are active throughout the year. They forage along narrow surface runways from their nesting areas to their sources of food. In addition, they travel and feed underground via old mole tunnels. The bark and roots of young trees are gnawed and severely damage by mice. Ripening tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas and other fruit close to the ground are bitten into.