Do you have mice scratching in the walls of your home, or are they other animals you might be dealing with? How do you know what animal it is? How can you tell if it’s mice or not? Well, there is help. You will find a few different ways to know if you are dealing with mice scratching or something else in your walls like bats. 

When You Will Hear Mice Scratching

When it comes to mice, they are most often heard in the morning and late at night when the house is quiet. When you hear a mouse most of the time, you will hear them going through your walls and vents or even through your ceilings and walls. But how do you really know if it is mice or something else? You will also hear a scuffling sound as well when mice are in the walls of your home. You might also start to see droppings, gnaw marks on things, and unexplained holes that will begin to show up.

Things to Look for if You Have Mice Scratching in the Walls

Mouse Footprints

Another way to tell if you are dealing with mice or some other animal is to look for footprints. When it comes to mice, look for a line or where it seems like a tail had made a mark. If you think you are dealing with mice, just put some flour down and see within a day or two if it is indeed mice you are dealing with. Another way to tell if you are dealing with mice is to look for droppings that are slimy and very dark in color when fresh; they will turn hard and can’t be smashed very easily.

Chew Marks

If you see things being chewed up or it looks like there are bite marks in your stuff or on your furniture, that is a very good sign that it would be mice. They love to chew anything they can, whether it’s food or not. You will find pieces of gnawed food or debris on the floor throughout the house. It is simply because they are taking parts of what they chewed up back to their nest. They use the material that they pick up to build their nest bigger.

Rummaging Through Food

You will also see where mice will get into your food as well. If you start to see pieces of food everywhere in your home, that is a good sign that you are dealing with mice and not other animals. Mice will get into your cupboards and into just about any and all of your food. Mice do not care what it is; they will eat it or even just chew it. One good way to get rid of mice is to put out mouse traps. If your trap gets a mouse, it is more than likely you will have more to deal with.

Pet’s Can Help Catch Mice

Another good way to tell if you’re dealing with mice or other animals is if you have a pet of your own, then watch your pet. If you see your pet sniffing around areas that they normally don’t pay attention to, there is a reason for that. Or if you see your pet pawing excitedly at walls, or cabinets, or even the area around the refrigerator or stove and won’t stop, then that could be a very good sign that you have mice as well. Pets can pick up on the smell of mice well before humans can. One other thing to look for is any odd lumps or holes in the ground around your home’s foundation. If you see anything like this, fill them in and put some stuff down to stop the mice from coming into your home through your foundation. Mice can get in through your home just about anywhere; it only takes a hole the size of a dime for a mouse to fit through. They can and will flatten themselves out and go right through any hole that they may find.

When You Would See Mice

Another way to tell if you are dealing with mice or other animals is if you actually see them. Yes, with mice, you can see them during the day. If the house is quiet enough, mice will come out; it is only if it is loud that mice stay quiet and still. Mice don’t like movement or loud sounds. It will be really fast that you will see a mouse move most of the time. Rarely do you see a mouse sitting out in the open during the day. Mice like to stay hidden the best they can from predators.

How do you know if the mice problem is taken care of?  You have to do the first few steps and then once you have gotten pest control out, you will start to see a decrease in activity. You will begin to see fewer droppings. You will also notice less scratching at night, if any at all, once the mice have been removed. You will also notice your pets will not be scratching at things or obsessing over a room area anymore. You will start to see that there are no more bite marks in things or things torn open from a pest.

How Do Mice Get in Homes?

One of the most common reasons people end up with mice in their home is piles of trash, organic waste, or other food that mice may want to eat or even use as nest material. If you have any of this close to your home, you need to inspect it to make sure that there are not any mice living in it or starting to make a home in there. You can tell if mice are getting into the bags due to small chewing marks in the bag. Over time the hole may get bigger due to mice continually chewing in the same spot. If you do end up having this stuff in your yard or close to your home and mice live in it, you most likely have mice in your home. If you do not see anything living in that stuff, then mice are not coming into your home that way.

You want to walk around your entire house to check for spots that mice can and will get in through. If it looks like a hole, you need to get it sealed up. No hole is too small for mice to get through. It doesn’t take long before you can end up with an infestation of mice if you do not stay on top of it and take care of the issue right away. In just three months, a family of six mice can quickly grow into 60! That is crazy fast but shows how quickly you can become infested with them.

So, how do you tell if it’s mice or not in your house?  Watch for the signs, and listen to where the sounds are coming from, and most importantly, what time of day is it that the sounds are happening. Remember that mice move around during the night as opposed to other animals that move around during the daytime.