When Are Mice Most Active?

Mice like warm safe places

Hearing scratching or rustling in your walls? Wondering why mice are suddenly so active? Believe it or not, there are times when mice become more active. Like many animals, mice have daily and seasonal trends. We’ll answer the question “When are mice most active?” and tell you what you can do about it.

Mice grow more desperate as temperatures drop. Come fall and winter, your home looks pretty inviting to a shivering mouse. Make sure your home is mouse-proof and that you know who to call if mice do get in.

Are Mice Active During the Day?

No. Mice are nocturnal creatures that prefer the cover of night for a variety of reasons. Mouse eyes are sensitive to bright lights, and they navigate using smell or touch more than sight. They’ve also learned that foraging is safer when predators aren’t active – i.e., while you’re in bed.

To know if mice are running rampant during the wee hours, look for these signs of mice in your home:

  • Chewed food packages or containers.
  • Mouse droppings.
  • Grease trails along baseboards.
  • Footprints
  • Squeaking and scratching sounds.

Mice maintain a small territory and usually nest 10-30 feet away from their food supply. Keep close watch around your kitchen and pantry and look for signs of nests.

Can Mice Survive Freezing Temperatures?

Mice and rats don’t hibernate. To survive winter, they have to find a warm place to live. In the wild, mice build burrows beneath the snow. They create a network of tunnels to travel through but maintain a low level of activity.

If mice can find a better option, say a nice warm home with plenty of food, they’ll likely take it. By November, mice are feeling an understandable pressure to get a move on. If they’re not already in your home, then they’re trying to get in. Late in the season, mice may become bolder and stay out longer in a last-ditch attempt to find shelter.

Unfortunately, mice also reproduce and rear offspring in their nests all year round. That mouse that snuck in can easily become a family of mice. They also continue feeding and teething all year, damaging your food and home in the process.

Bread crumbs left by mice

How Mice Survive the Winter

A mouse’s top priority in November is simply to keep warm. The minute they sense temperatures dropping, they’ll start actively seeking out sources of warmth. That being said, Mice can’t survive winter just by keeping warm; they also need to keep eating, drinking, and growing.

Unsurprisingly, mice are not picky eaters. They’ll chow down on just about anything, and they don’t need much. Mice have incredibly keen noses. They can smell dry goods through packaging and walls. You can assume mice know pretty much exactly where food is at all times. They can subsist on crumbs, garbage, or unsecured dry goods very easily. Finally, mice need a tiny amount of moisture and a place to hide. If your home provides these things, it’s the perfect winter destination.

How mice get into your home

Mice not only smell food through walls, but they can also follow the scent it produces. Often, mice will catch a tantalizing whiff of something and follow it to a tiny opening. They only need a hole the size of a dime to squeeze their way into your home. In some cases, they can even make an opening if there is soft material to gnaw.

Mice don’t just smell their way in, either. They’re also extremely attuned to changes in air pressure and temperature. As they make their way around a home, they can actually feel tiny drafts created by holes. They can follow that sense of warmth all the way through a hole and into your home. Mice are also surprisingly proficient climbers. Given an opportunity, they’ll crawl up to any opening they can get–even if that opening’s on your roof!

preventing mouse infestations by sealing your home

How to prevent mice infestations in Your Home

Mice get into homes by following small drafts back to their sources. Preventing them means finding these sources before they can. Start in your basement and look for any cracks, gaps, or holes in and around your walls. Pay special attention to window and door frames, areas around utility lines, and baseboards. Patch up holes with caulk or steel wool, which will help deter rats and mice. Remember: any hole that’s big enough to notice is probably big enough for mice to use.

Keep mice from getting to food by storing all pantry foods in airtight, hard plastic containers. Consider keeping these containers in elevated shelves, rather than near the floor. Keep your food preparation and dining areas clean, especially during the winter. Vacuum and/or mop regularly, clean surfaces after every meal, and don’t let crumbs accumulate. Make sure you don’t let garbage pile up, either.

Mice Control for Michigan, Indiana and Ohio

The bad news: there’s never really an “off-season” when it comes to mouse infestations. But we have good news, too. No matter how relentless or desperate the mouse, we can keep them out of your home for good.

If you do end up with mice activity in your home, give Griffin a call. Mice never take a season off, so neither do we. We’re always happy to help you leave pests out in the cold.

What Do Rodents Want This Fall?

Rodent near a pumpkin. What do rodents want this fall?

Autumn is a lovely time of year. The overbearing heat of the Midwest summer leaves us alone as the temperatures start to shift. Leaves change color, pumpkin spice becomes the flavor du jour, and everyone starts wearing socks again. In the middle of these positive changes comes one not-so-positive change, however. Rodents start finding their way inside homes and businesses. 

Just like you pull sweaters out of storage as the temps turn, rodents start looking for similar, reliable warmth. If you’re not careful, they’ll find it in your home. This is what attracts rodents to your home this fall, how they get inside, and how to keep them out.

What attracts rodents in fall?

The simplest answer is food and warmth. Cooling temperatures trigger a response in rodents and mice to seek out warmth and shelter. Rodents are extremely sensitive to temperature and pressure fluctuations, so they may sense the changing season before you do! 

When rodents sense cooling air temperatures, they also start fattening themselves up. They’ll seek out high sugar and fat foods, and in larger quantities than usual. Both rats and mice have an exceptional sense of smell. They can smell all the food they want while its inside your home–often while it’s still in its packaging! If they smell the food they want in your home, they’ll try to get it. Fall is a time of survival for rodents. Any place that provides them the things they need to last the winter is a target.

How do rodents get inside during fall?

Rodents are clever creatures. They’re capable of fitting into breaches as small as a quarter. If rodents get into your home, they found one of these breaches. The pests commonly enter homes via crumbling foundation, broken screens, vents, attic insulation, window and door frames, and pipes. You should see all areas that you need to monitor regularly. 

Monitoring entry points doesn’t take much work. We recommend simply conducting a weekly or bi-weekly inspection of your home. Check for any damage such as torn screens, gaps between utility lines, or torn insulation. By minimizing potential entry points, you’ll significantly you significantly lessen your chance of any infestation, including rodents.

How can I keep them out?

Not letting them in in the first place is the first step. After that, you want to be cognizant of the things that draw pests like rodents. They’re not just looking for shelter, they’re looking for food and water as well. Clean and well-maintained garbage cans are less likely to draw pests than dirty ones filled with food waste. 

Fix dripping or leaking pipes immediately so they don’t have a chance to create pest-adored standing water. Maintain your landscape to avoid giving rodents hiding places they can use to approach your home. If they have cover to hide in close to the perimeter of your home, they’re more likely to take the jump indoors. 

 

If you suspect you have a rat or rodent problem, get in touch with Griffin Pest Solutions immediately. Our integrated approach to pest management will draw unwelcome visitors out and keep them from returning. That way you can get back to enjoying the fall properly: in flannel, pumpkin spice latte in hand.

The Late Summer Rat Problem

Outside rats move inside when temperatures fall

We don’t like it any more than you do, but it’s time to face facts: summer is ending. Fall will be here before we know it, whether we’re ready or not. If you pay attention, you’ll notice the whole world preparing. Squirrels are busy gathering food, ants are reproducing, and bees are swarming.

Unfortunately, some of these fall preparations might be a problem for you. Rodents like mice and rats are gearing up for fall and winter like everything else. The first item on any rat’s fall preparation list is finding a warm place to stay. If you’re not careful, that place could be your home. The only way to keep rats out this late summer is to beat them at their own preparation game. Here’s what those rascally rodents are up to and how to counter them at every turn:

Looking for Food

Rodents have an incredibly keen sense of smell. Rats can interpret all kinds of information from different scents. This sense of smell helps guide rodents toward accessible food supplies. Rats can smell food through walls, even if it’s dry and stored. They can even smell how easily they’ll be able to access it. Rats literally follow their noses to sources of food, letting scents guide them to vulnerable access points.

Rats are looking for consistent sources of food they can access easily. They want to be able to sneak into boxes of food to chow down without anyone noticing. Make that as hard as possible. Store all your dry goods in airtight plastic containers. Clean up your dining and kitchen areas after every meal. Take your garbage out every night. If you can make your food hard for rats to get at, they’ll be much less interested in trying.

Rats start building nests in late summer and fall

Building Nests

Rodents aren’t picky about nesting material. They build small, tightly-packed clumps of various debris, which they rest and eat in. Rats build their nests of paper, insulation, stray fabric, and other trash. They gather these materials by dragging them into dark corners. Often, rats will rip paper or other objects to shreds to use as nesting material. Rodents also rear their young inside these nests, where they can stay safe and hidden.

Rats build their nests in dark, secluded, and warm areas. They want to be able to rest and forage for food without fear of being spotted. Consequently, if there’s a rat nest in your home, it’s probably in your basement, attic, or crawl space. Look for nests in corners or beneath furniture. Rats often build nests into damaged insulation, walls, or other nooks and crannies. Prevent rats from building nests by taking care to keep your basement clean and tidy.

Teething

Rat and mouse teeth never stop growing, so the rodents never stop teething. Rats and mice have to gnaw on something constantly to keep their teeth sharp and healthy. They’re not particularly picky about what they chew on. As long as it’s soft enough to bite down on safely, rats are all over it. Teething is a big reason why rats can be dangerous inside homes. When rats bite down on wiring, they could start dangerous electrical fires.

Rats gnaw on soft materials that they can access while they’re sneaking around. Usually, they’re chewing on boxes, storage materials, fabrics, or wiring. The best way to keep rats from damaging your stuff by chewing on it is to elevate it. Keep vulnerable stored materials in an elevated place where rats can’t reach it. Replace your cardboard boxes with hard plastic ones. Conceal and protect electrical wiring whenever possible, and consider affixing it to the wall.

Rats sneak into homes to find shelter in late summer and fall

Looking for Shelter

Rats have extremely keen perceptive senses developed over centuries of hard-won survival. One of the main reasons why they have these developed senses is so they can prepare for environmental changes early. When they start sensing a season’s change, they start looking for warm shelter right away. Rats use several senses to start searching for shelter. Their whiskers help them locate drafts and warm breezes, which they can follow into structures.

Rats use their heightened senses to find all kinds of access points. Once they find these access points, they can twist and squeeze their way in through surprisingly tiny openings. Rodents frequently squeeze through openings in door and window frames, utility lines, and small foundation cracks. Many rodents can climb surprisingly well to access openings, but most get in via access points close to the ground. Finding and blocking off these access points is the most important thing you can do to prevent rodent infestations.

Rodents are very, very good at preparing for cold weather. One of their most dastardly techniques is sneaking their way inside before we know to look for them. If they’re safely ensconced in your home before the temperatures even drop, they won’t have to worry about your fall defenses!

If rodents start this early, we have to start preventing them this year, too. Follow these tips starting now to keep rodents from infesting your home this fall. It’s not too early to start thinking about winter! If you do end up with rodents now or later, however, remember that you can always give Griffin a call. No matter how prepared your rodents are, we’ll prove we’re even more prepared.