House Mouse
House Mouse – The common house mouse weighs less than one ounce and is from 1 to 1 1/2 inches in length. The body is grayish-brown above and lighter, never white, below.
Generally, it is a permanent resident in homes and other buildings. Wild mice enter dwellings in late summer or fall, spend the winter, and leave in the spring. All mice are excellent climbers and can be found at all levels of the house from the basement to the attic. Mice can be controlled. Excluding the spread of food poisoning, house mice are not as important as rats as carriers of disease and parasites.
Yet their potential cannot be overlooked. House mice and their parasites are implicated in the transmission of a number of diseases. Bacterial food poisoning, salmonellosis, can be spread when some foods are contaminated with infected rodent feces. Mice are probably more responsible than rats for the spread of this disease.
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis is a virus infection of house mice that may be transmitted to people (mainly to children) through contaminated food or dust.
