There are believed to be about 300 separate varieties of house mice in the United States.
Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species.
Rats rely predominantly on smell, taste, touch and hearing as opposed to vision. They move around mainly in the dark, using their long, sensitive whiskers and the guard hairs on their body to guide them.
Rats damage structures, chew wiring and cause electrical fires, eat and urinate on human and animal food, and carry many diseases.
Rats can get into your home through a hole about the size of a quarter.
Lacking a collar-bone, the deer mouse can flatten it's body so much it can squeeze into an opening one quarter of an inch high.
Mice can swim, and apparently hold their breath. Many have been reported being flushed only to reappear minutes later wet and hungry.
A female house mouse gives birth to 6 young about 19 days after mating. She is ready to mate again in two days. She can produce 6 to 10 litters a year. Each of her young is ready to mate in two month. Remarkably, all her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great, great grandchildren can have offspring in the same year. Two mice, starting to breed on New Year's Day, could theoretically have as many as 31,000 descendants by December 31.
Rats can jump 3 feet straight up, and four feet outwards, from a standing position. They can burrow three feet straight down into the ground; chew through building materials, glass, and cinder block; swim 1/2 mile in open water and against current in sewer lines; and, climb up inside the pipes with diameters between 1-1/2 and 4 inches. A rat's teeth are so strong, it can bite through aluminum, lead and other metals.
Mice are disease carriers, and can transmit diseases by biting, infecting food with their droppings, infecting food with urine, indirectly by fleas, indirectly by dying in a water supply, or indirectly via the dog or cat. Diseases include: Salmonella bacteria, tape worms, Favus (which causes bald spots), Rickettsial pox (rash, mild fever, and enlarged lymph nodes), Black Plague (from fleas recently reported in Colorado in Prairie Dogs), and Hantavirsus (Flu like symptoms that can be fatal. Cases recently reported in Sacramento and Houston.)
