Deer Mouse in Seattle, WA
Deer mice are also quite common in the Pacific Northwest. They are generally two-toned in appearance, with a lighter (often white) underbelly. Most will have a bi-colored tail. They may grow to around 7″ in length, and can also access areas roughly the size of a dime because of their smaller frames. Deer mice are accomplished jumpers, and skilled runners as opposed to the house mouse. The common name of “deer” mouse refers to these abilities.
Deer mice use their sharp teeth to eat just about anything they can find — they can chew through hard shells and will eat anything from vegetation to snails. Deer mice will also cache their food, often utilizing attic or crawl spaces to do so. In many areas, winter cold is a chief cause of mortality; however, due to the Pacific Northwest's mild climate, they tend to thrive.
Deer Mouse Habits
Rodents are problematic inside of any structure. While rodent issues will generally be more pervasive in areas where construction may be older and sanitation may not be ideal, rodents can infest any building. Recognition of a rodent problem is not necessarily a reflection on one’s tidiness or cleanliness; it is unfortunately a byproduct of living in the Pacific Northwest and requires expertise and care to manage.
Rodents are well-suited to the Puget Sound region. They have a high reproductive rate and compete well for resources with other scavengers (they have been known to attack other animals such as fish, birds, and other mammals).
Rodents can burrow long distances to obtain food and shelter from predators. Most rodents can survive a fall of up to fifty feet, making them fearless climbers and able to travel across power lines and tree branches.
Rodent Control
Rodents are not a simple pest to eradicate from a structure; they are intelligent creatures with an imperative to survive at any cost. Comprehensive rodent control should consist of four steps:
- Inspection. Thorough inspection is absolutely imperative to effective rodent control. The most important consideration in a rodent inspection is to identify all access points that rodents are using to gain access to the structure(s). Without a thorough understanding of how the rodents are entering and/or exiting the structure, effective control is nearly impossible.
- Exclusion. Once the access points have been identified, structural improvements must be made to correct the gaps or holes. These repairs can range from the simple to the complex, and should be checked regularly as they will often break down with time and/or increased rodent pressure. Exclusion should be performed by a trained professional with the most appropriate material(s) for the situation. Our service technicians bring their expertise and their knowledge of rodent behaviors, which is the ideal combination for effective rodent exclusion.
