Rodent excrement. Some rules for getting rid of rodents. How is mouse droppings different from rat droppings? Determining the type of rodent by the type of spoiled food

To a person who has never encountered rodent control, all rodents seem the same. A grayish color, a nasty squeak, short legs and a long tail are sufficient characteristics to determine whether the animal belongs to a certain order. But as soon as it comes to deratization, it turns out that the same bait acts on rodents in completely different ways. It is then that the question arises: “what is the difference between a mouse and a rat?” Below are characteristics, which will help determine the type of rodent.

There are only three types of rodent pests that are not afraid to settle near people. Due to the ability to adapt to the human environment without becoming domesticated, this type of animal is called synanthropic.

IN residential buildings and in grocery warehouses you can find:

• brown rat;
• gray rat (pasyuka);
• house mouse.

All other types are either afraid of humans and settle in wild conditions, or are considered “pure”, domesticated (white rat, decorative mouse).

How to distinguish mice and rats by external signs?

The simplest distinguishing feature is size: the house mouse grows up to 10 centimeters in length, and gray and brown rats can reach 30 centimeters. It is worth considering that a large adult mouse can easily be confused with a young rat. Therefore, it is imperative to pay attention to general structure body, color and tail.

Table 1. Comparative characteristics animal body structure

Determining the type of rodent by droppings

It is not always possible to carefully examine pests, because they are very nimble and come out in search of food mainly at night, when people are sleeping. But rats and mice always leave behind traces of their vital activity. Litter different types Rodents vary in size, shape, and even location.

If there are brown rats in the house or warehouse, you will find dark brown excrement, the size of a round grain of oats. But black pasyuki leave behind long (up to 12 mm) and thin feces of a very dark color.

Mouse droppings look like small, slightly pointed black granules, up to 6 mm long. You can also identify the pest by the location of the droppings: rats usually defecate in one place, and single mouse excrement will be scattered over the entire floor area.

Identification of a pest by type of spoiled food

Both mice and rats are omnivores, but only in cases of extreme hunger. If rodents get into a residential building or a large food warehouse, they will first rush to destroy what they think is most delicious.

Thus, a house mouse will give preference to grains, nuts and cereals, while pasyuki will destroy fruits, vegetables and foods with high content moisture.

Careful examination of spoiled products will help determine the type of pest. The mouse will constantly look for food in the same place (for example, only one bag/package of cereal may be damaged, although there may be the same one in the next compartment/box). The animal will always try to “clean” the grain rather than eat it completely (as a rat would do). After eating, the mouse will leave a lot of husks. Another difference between a mouse and a rat is that the latter never eat in the same place for several nights in a row.

Therefore, damage from rats is always more significant and noticeable:

• imprints of elongated incisors remain on vegetables or fruits;
• Several bags/products in different boxes may be damaged at once;
• Sometimes you can see teeth marks on wooden furniture, torn food packaging;
• if there was a container with open water in the room, then wool can be found there. This is due to the fact that the rat must drink 30-50 ml. water per day.

The above signs will help not only identify rodent pests that have entered the house, but also select correct method fight them. For example, liquid poison will be effective in fighting rats, but will not attract mice (after all, they can go without water for several days). The location of the mousetrap or poison should also be affected by the fact that mice always feed in one place, but beekeepers do not. In general, it is always much more difficult to fight rats, because they have high intelligence, highly developed reactions and even intuition.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYhzRIA9Dgg

Ivan Pavlovich, the summer season begins with cleaning the house and putting the area in order. What does it mean for summer residents?

If you do not follow generally simple precautions, then summer residents have a fairly high risk of developing some severe infectious diseases, namely: leptospirosis, yersiniosis, pseudotuberculosis, listeriosis, tularemia, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. These are similar heavy acute diseases may occur after contact with rodents. Last year, in 2014, leptospirosis caused the death of two St. Petersburg residents.

There is now an outbreak of tularemia in the Chelyabinsk region, usually by spring they report high level morbidity in Samara region. Is the number of people hospitalized with fevers transmitted by rodents growing in St. Petersburg?

The incidence of tularemia is growing and, fortunately, in our country, it is not as large as in other regions. If in 2012 we treated 4 people with this diagnosis, in 2013 - one, then last year there were already 13 such patients. In St. Petersburg, “imported” fevers from other regions are now more common: Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda regions, sometimes - from Leningradskaya. Last year, 1 person became infected in the Astrakhan region.

Just a few years ago, by the end of winter and into the summer, several departments were overcrowded with patients with yersiniosis and pseudotuberculosis. Why has infection in the city become such a rarity now?

Apparently, it is due to the fact that last years The city regularly carries out deratization - the destruction of rodents, which are the main sources and carriers of infection. When 10-15 years ago it was not carried out in a timely manner, indeed, patients with yersiniosis and pseudotuberculosis filled almost a third of the hospital beds. But the peak of infection occurred at the end of winter - the beginning of spring, and this was earlier than the beginning summer season. City residents mostly did not become infected at their dachas. At that time, there were huge vegetable warehouses in the city, where they practiced long-term storage vegetables And in these vegetable warehouses, mice and rats felt at ease: they gnawed vegetables and left their excrement on them. By the end of winter, the contamination of vegetables with bacteria became critical. When such vegetables got into public catering, they became infected " mouse diseases"just amateurs fresh salads from cabbage and carrots. They were hospitalized with a severe fever, often in serious condition.

- Nowadays, patients with such diagnoses are not admitted at all?

Since the beginning of 2015, two people have been admitted with pseudotuberculosis and one with yersiniosis. Over the entire last year in St. Petersburg, pseudotuberculosis was diagnosed in 4 people and yersiniosis in 38 patients. With listeriosis, a similar spreading disease, we had 4 patients.

- You named 6 fevers that occur among us. Which of them are the most difficult and dangerous for humans?

Leptospirosis is in first place in terms of severity of the disease and possible adverse complications. Yes, infections are happening less frequently now because there are fewer rats in the city. After all, they are the main carriers of infection. Now city dwellers are more likely to suffer from a type of Leptospira - the bacterium Leptospira canicola, transmitted through contact with dog excretions. The disease caused by it is milder and is not considered fatal. However, dogs also get leptospirosis, and their owners should vaccinate their animals against leptospirosis. In other regions unfavorable for leptospirosis (Pskov, Novgorod regions), another type of bacterium affects people - Leptospira icterohemorrhagica, spread by rodents. Infection with this type of bacterium leads to a very serious condition - hemorrhagic syndrome, people die from bleeding. Last year, two of the eleven patients with leptospirosis admitted to the Botkin hospital died.

In second place in terms of severity of the disease is hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), or hemorrhagic nephrosonephritis. During illness they are affected blood vessels and kidneys. Last year, 56 people suffered from this fever - they were infected in the Leningrad, Pskov, and Novgorod regions.

- How do St. Petersburg residents most often become infected with “mouse diseases”? And can they be avoided?

Now the most common source of infection is one’s own dacha or country house. At the beginning of the summer season, everything in the house should be thoroughly washed with alkaline solutions - furniture, floors, and dishes especially thoroughly. It is extremely important to do this if mice excrement is found in the house. Before you start cleaning, you should wear gloves - even the smallest injuries on your hands can cause infection.

They say that while working in the garden you can also become infected: the infection, entering the lungs with earthen dust, also causes illness.

Such cases are described in the literature (aerosol route of infection), but in practice I have never seen this. Probably, the concentration of infection in the soil should be extremely high; this is rarely found in nature. Still, the main source of infection is the surfaces of objects - furniture, floors, things, dishes - contaminated with the excrement of infected mice. Upon contact with infected objects, microorganisms enter the bloodstream through wounds on the skin. In summer, you can become infected by swallowing water while swimming in lakes and reservoirs. The mucous membrane of the oral cavity is often injured and has defects. And then the infection can enter the human bloodstream, and an infectious process develops. It is important not to get injured while out of town, to work with gloves, and not to swallow raw water from sources. In general, water must be boiled.

Southern fevers are spread through insects (West Nile fever, Crimean fever). Are our mosquitoes safe?

In our geographical latitude There are no diseases of tropical climates - West Nile fever, Crimean hemorrhagic fever, Dengue fever and others.

In natural foci of the Leningrad, Novgorod, and Pskov regions, leptospirosis, tularemia, listeriosis, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, tick-borne infections. The vectors that support the existence of pathogens in natural foci are ticks, mosquitoes and horseflies. These insects bite rodents, which become infected and, in turn, can transmit the infection through their bites to other animals, as well as people. Our mosquitoes are generally harmless, but the climate is gradually changing, and the situation may change too.

- How do the common “mouse diseases” manifest themselves?

They all begin with a high fever - an increase in body temperature to 38-40°C. At the very beginning of the disease, symptoms of intoxication appear - along with fever, weakness, fatigue, headache, aches in muscles and joints, loss of appetite, nausea, and sometimes vomiting. After a few days, clinical symptoms are differentiated according to each specific infectious disease. Thus, with yersiniosis and pseudotuberculosis, the gastrointestinal tract is affected, joint pain occurs, a rash appears, abdominal pain, mushy stool, and a jaundiced coloration of the skin is possible.

A rash, as well as jaundice, also occurs with leptospirosis, but, in addition, with this disease a person experiences severe pain V calf muscles, the kidneys are affected, the amount of daily urine decreases, up to its complete absence. This is already a serious complication.

A decrease in the amount of urine is also characteristic of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. In general, the symptoms of leptospirosis and HFRS are very similar.

The peculiarity of tularemia is that patients develop a significant enlargement of a lymph node (lymphadenitis) in the inguinal or femoral or axillary areas (or elsewhere) within 2-3 days after the onset of the disease. Pneumonia may develop.

It turns out that the first symptoms of these serious diseases are very similar to the flu. And not everyone goes to the doctor with this disease. So, call " Ambulance“necessary if the temperature has risen after cleaning the dacha?

Indeed, the onset of these serious infectious diseases with high fever can resemble the flu. True, as a rule, there is no cough or runny nose. However, if a person has been to forests and summer cottages, the temperature rises to 39-40°C or higher and it does not decrease for two or more days, you should definitely consult a doctor. It's impossible to figure it out on your own. The sooner the diagnosis is known and treatment is prescribed, the greater the chance that the disease will not be severe. And since all fevers - diseases transmitted through rodents - have many similar symptoms, a comprehensive laboratory examination is necessary, which can be competently prescribed by an infectious disease specialist. And the most detailed studies can be performed only at the Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital named after. S.P. Botkin, since there is a full range of diagnostic equipment, and high-tech methods for identifying various pathogens of infectious diseases are used.

Irina Dontsova

What to do to avoid becoming a victim of “mouse” diseases?

There are a few important recommendations, mandatory for implementation. Opening the season in country houses and hunting lodges, gatehouses and any other premises that you use only in warm time year, be sure to do it wet cleaning using disinfectants;

Use protective clothing (robes, boots, mittens, masks) for cleaning and clear the area summer cottage from garbage, dead wood, dead wood - burn or take to authorized landfills;

In the same protective clothing clean out old hay or straw, basements, attics, sheds, garages;

Do not catch or handle rodents or their carcasses;

Make the premises impenetrable to rodents: close cracks and openings in residential and outbuildings, country houses If your home has vents or other openings that are low to the ground, close them metal mesh, into which “the mouse will not slip”;

When working with soil, use gloves, and then be sure to wash your hands, never forget to wash your hands before every meal;

Never drink raw water;

Do not leave food (cereals, etc.) in places accessible to rodents for the winter; store food in tightly sealed containers inaccessible to rodents (in closed cabinets), throw away spoiled food;

Avoid the spontaneous formation of spontaneous landfills near gardening cooperatives, residential and outbuildings. They become a breeding ground for rodents.

Doctor Peter

Since childhood, I have been afraid of all kinds of rodents. As soon as I see it, the hair on the back of my neck will stand on end! Of course, an unpleasant sight. And what can we say about their harm? Everyone already knows this. One day, with my peripheral vision, I saw something dark and small slide along the wall and hide behind the closet. Oh God! It was a mouse. I immediately began to find out among my friends and on the Internet how to deal with them. It turned out that effective methods and there is a lot of money. How to exterminate rodents - I’m sharing all the methods I know!

Why are there mice and rats in my house - I understand the reasons

Before you take action, it’s worth figuring out why there are mice or rats in the house.

Let me start with the fact that these are, first of all, living creatures, and they are driven by the instinct of seeking food. That is for them the object of increased attention will be the home where there is free access to products . Even if they settled with neighbors, sooner or later they will go to inspect other properties. And if they find something edible, they will gain a foothold in this territory.

Where do these mammals even come from? They breed in places where they live well: where no one will bother them. Landfills, trash cans, warehouses - These are habitats. Mostly bad ones can be traced there sanitary conditions, and rodents cannot be destroyed.

They can get into our homes in many ways: migration from other homes, transportation of things, delivery household appliances from warehouses.

For mice and rats the most favorite places – individual houses, where there are cellars, undergrounds, outbuildings with domestic animals and grain reserves. The last place is generally a paradise for them, there is always something edible there.

Mice are very brave rodents; they settle next to humans in apartments. And they are not limited to the first floors, rising much higher. Although the first one is more convenient, since it is easier and easier to reach You can get there faster from the basement . Dwellings in which there is open access to food or due to poor cleaning, dirt and pieces of food remain , become places of active development for mice.

From everything that has been written, I draw one conclusion: often a person and his actions cause the appearance of rodents . And all because many of us are lazy. Scattered crumbs of bread and a pile of dirty clothes are the most favorable environment for uninvited guests.

How did I know that these were rodents after all?

Before I saw the mouse moving around the perimeter of the room, I used to suspect that someone besides me lived in the house.

A number of signs indicated this:

1. Chewed food and things . This is easy to see, the main thing is to conduct a thorough inspection of the house. Before handling suspicious objects with traces, you must wear gloves. Two imprints remain from the teeth of mice and look like two parallel holes with superficial grooves.
2. Excrement . Mouse ones look like grains, rat ones look like piles of different sizes. If such an unpleasant thing is found, it is necessary to immediately begin their destruction!
3. Stains . Rodents, as a rule, move along the same paths, so-called paths along the same route. Rubbing wool and floor surfaces leaves stains. By following these spots, you can easily find the “den” of pests.
4. Paths . Clearly visible on dusty surfaces. From them you can determine who settled at home and the number of such guests.
5. Rodent corpses . They simply cannot appear in the house. This means that a whole troop of animals has settled somewhere.
6. Specific odor similar to ammonia . A rather dubious sign, but if there are other indicators of rodents, then you should sound the alarm - whiskered-tailed pests have indeed taken up residence in the house.

How dangerous are mice and rats for humans?

I had never even thought about the danger of rodents to humans before. It turns out they are carriers of many diseases .

An acquaintance who works at Rospotrebnadzor told me more about this.

Here's what I learned from our conversation:

1. Rodents are sources and carriers of many infections . For example, they carry plague and pseudotuberculosis. They also take part in the spread of leptospirosis, salmonellosis, typhus, encephalitis, fever, anthrax, and trichinosis.
2. Spoiling supplies products, vegetables, grains.
3. Their actions damage the buildings, warehouses, houses, pollute them with excrement.

Mice, rats, and other rodents are regulars in unclean places; they live in landfills, warehouses, and abandoned premises. They do not sit in one place, they constantly move to different buildings, houses, where they pollute them with their waste products. Thus, rodents are a kind of repository of harmful microbes.

Human infection occurs very easily in several directions:

1. Eating foods containing pest feces.
2. Touching contaminated things.
3. Drinking untreated water, such as from wells.
4. After insect bites that had contact with sick rodents.

An employee of Rospotrebnadzor gave me a small reminder:

• If rodents appear in the room, immediately take measures to destroy them.
• Do not eat foods that have traces of mice or rats, do not collect vegetables, berries, fruits, and mushrooms damaged by them.
• Keep the house clean, local area, remove garbage in a timely manner.

How to destroy mice and rats in the house - proven means and results

Very simple! The main thing is to be fully armed. Everything will come in handy - the experience of friends, information from the Internet, tips from sellers from gardening and dacha supply stores.

After all, everyone remembers what problems rodents can bring with them:

1. The old-fashioned method, the most proven and ancient - the well-known mousetrap . A unique invention of mankind, so simple, but so effective. People have been using it to destroy rodents for several hundred years. There is a mouse in the house - you need to buy a mousetrap without delay. I can tell you from my own experience – it’s an effective thing. No matter how many times I used it, I always found a trophy in it in the morning. The bait for the mousetrap is a piece of food, I put sausage, meat - the mouse definitely won’t refuse such foods!
2. Trap soaked in glue . When a mouse comes into contact with such a trap, it simply sticks to it and can no longer move. You can also install such a device yourself using cardboard and special glue (sold in hardware stores). Glue is applied to cardboard and installed in areas frequently visited by rodents.
3. Ultrasound . Modern remedy In addition, it will help in the fight against many insects. The operating principle of the device is simple. It transmits electromagnetic pulses. They, in turn, act on rodents in a certain way - they cause anxiety. It should be installed in places where mouse activity is high. Excellent, effective remedy, although it is not cheap, it is guaranteed to rid the house of pests.
4. I . Let me point out right away that it is not suitable for everyone. I have a small dog at home, and I did not resort to this remedy. Modern toxic substances They work in two directions: they kill the animal and promote its rapid mummification, that is, the body will not emit putrefactive “odors”, but will quickly dry out.
5. Special services . They specialize in removing a variety of pests. Professionals will do their job quickly, efficiently, and safely.

Most important point– do it without putting it off until later.

These methods and means are the most effective and affordable; they will 100% rid your home of mice and rats.

Preventive procedures against rodents

To prevent rodents from getting infested, you need to follow a few simple rules:

In the evenings, someone’s squeak is often heard under the floor or behind the walls. In the morning, someone's droppings are found in the kitchen. You won't be able to tell from just one squeak what kind of rodents have bred within the confines of your home. Is it possible to find out what kind of rodents they are by looking at their droppings? And what mouse droppings different from a rat?

Steps to take before purchasing mousetraps

Before you bother buying mousetraps, you should really first establish what kind of rodents have settled in your home. This is done in order not to waste money. Not every mousetrap is suitable for catching a rat, just as not every rat trap can catch a mouse.

As was said, you won’t immediately recognize by squeaking who is raging in the space between the walls or behind the baseboard. But you can determine the owners by their stool.

How to identify a mouse

The properties of mouse droppings are as follows. Each individual mouse “poop” rarely reaches dimensions greater than 6 mm. Basically, within 4-5 mm. Mice rarely grow to large sizes. But they take it in numbers. Often, small feces, up to 3 mm long, can be found next to large ones. This means that a brood has already occurred within the boundaries of your house and the family contains both adults and young animals.

What does mouse droppings look like based on geometric data? Most often these are oval granules, somewhat similar to oats, only with rounded edges. Their color may vary depending on whether it is cereal or bread, then their droppings are light gray in color. It can be a little darker, it can be a little lighter, but it is never black. This is already the color of rat droppings.

Rat droppings

Even a relatively young rat will have significantly larger and thicker droppings than a mouse. What does it look like rat droppings in color format? The color of rat feces also depends on the food they eat. But most often it is black with various shades. So the pellets of rat droppings differ from mouse droppings in both color and size. If you find feces on the floor in the morning that are larger than 6 mm and dark, it means that you have rats in your house. If they are light and less than 6 mm, then they are mice.

Another distinctive feature

You can never have too many rats. Therefore, although their feces are large, they will be small. But if there are mice in the house, there will be a lot of mouse droppings. A rat can leave its feces in one or two places. Mice “put” their granules anywhere, and in exorbitant quantities. If there are a lot of pellets, this is direct evidence of the presence of a family of mice in the house. Rats may not leave their “feces” at all. A couple of large black feces are confirmation that rats are cohabiting with you.

Rules for exterminating rodents using mousetraps and rat traps

When you have managed to recognize from the droppings who has settled in your house, you can go looking for traps and traps. Spring mousetraps against rats - very good remedy. Think about where you most often saw mouse droppings. This will help trace the rodent's path from the burrow to the feeding site. Most often, its role is played by an open or not tightly closed garbage can. But mice will not mind gnawing and back wall kitchen set.

Do not try to seal a gap that allows rodents to enter your home. This will only make them behave more carefully. In addition, they will gnaw holes for themselves in another place, and this again means damage to the baseboards and other finishing, and therefore a waste of money. Therefore, try to catch them through one initial gap.

It is best not to place mousetraps directly near the crack. The mouse will smell the bait from a distance. And if one of the mouse relatives constantly dies near the gap, this will alert the rest of the brethren. During the night, you can catch only one mouse near the crack, since it will simply scare away the rest with its death squeal. If you place mousetraps around the entire perimeter of the room in which they feed (usually the kitchen), you can catch up to 3 - 4 pieces per night. The same is true with rats.

About the poison

Another effective way to rid your home of mice is mouse poison. It smells very attractive to mice. And they die from it very quickly. The main thing, again, is not to place the poison too close to the gap from where rodents come out to hunt for food. Otherwise, the mouse, having eaten arsenic, will have time to crawl somewhere under the floor or into a wall and die there. You won’t believe how much their bodies, which have begun to decompose, stink. Sometimes you have to dismantle the walls to get rid of their corpses. And if there were a lot of mice, and they all crawled away to die in different directions, you will have to dismantle half the house.

Therefore, quick-acting poisons should be poured away from the treasured gap so that the mice die before they have time to crawl to it. If the poisons are weak and the mice, crawling away, die somewhere at home, you yourself understand what will happen then.

Cat in the house

This is also an option. But it is not always effective. People love their pets very much and often feed them so much that they lose the desire not only to chase mice, but also to move in general. And not all breeds are prone to this activity. The urge to catch mice is in their genes and is inherited. If the mother cat was not inclined to this activity, her offspring will be 50% just as lazy.

And even though your cat will constantly wait for prey at the trash can, it is not a fact that he will be able to catch the mouse. Mice are very resourceful and are able to hide and crawl through the smallest cracks. Therefore, a cat will not always be able to help get rid of mice 100%.

Conclusion

This is why experts recommend using mousetraps to get rid of mice in your home. Caught and thrown away. And that's all.

Rats and mice belong to the order Rodents. If you don’t know the difference between them, it’s easy to confuse the animals. This will lead to an erroneous choice of means of destruction. Adults are characterized different sizes: A rat is larger than a mouse. On initial stage The development of young animals is more difficult to distinguish. To understand who is found in the house, they first study the features of the rodent’s body structure.

Small animals of several species are found in residential buildings. A house mouse lives near a person, as well as a gray, black or red rat.

The difference between rodents becomes noticeable if we evaluate each body parameter separately:

1. Dimensions. When thinking about what ordinary rats look like, the image of a large-bodied animal immediately comes to mind. The body length of this rodent reaches 30 cm. The mouse is smaller in size, the average individual is characterized by a length of up to 10 cm.
2. Weight. Given the difference in size, it is logical to assume that the mass of animals also differs. For example, a mouse weighs between 30 and 50 g, while a fellow rat reaches 900 g.
3. Tail. Differs in length and thickness. This part of the mouse's body is shorter. You should also pay attention to the thickness. The mouse has a thin tail, while large rodents have a thick tail, which is more noticeable at the base. In addition, it is not covered with fur. The mouse tail is also different: it is hairy, and the color matches the color of the body.
4. The eyes of the mouse are larger.
5. Rodent ears also vary in size, shape and location. For example, in a mouse they are round, wide, and directed to the sides. Rat ears are flattened and distinguished by a small base.
6. The shape of the head is also different. The muzzle of a rat is elongated, while that of a mouse is triangular in shape.

Relative to the head, the rat's eyes are small. Mice have more expressive and slightly convex black eyes.

In addition, pay attention to the wool. In addition to color, there are other differences. The rat is characterized by hard hair, and the mouse has softer hair.

Rats, unlike mice, are able to jump high - up to 2 meters in extreme situations. They are highly intelligent

Differences between a mouse and a rat

The main feature of a newborn rat pup is its larger body size. This is noticeable upon birth. The mouse is always smaller. The main characteristic differences between rodents are the same as in adults: the shape of the ears, the color of the emerging fur, etc. Sometimes a baby rat is confused with an adult mouse.

To avoid this mistake, you should find out how they differ:

• A rat at an early stage of development is characterized by a blunt snout, while a mouse has a pointed head shape.
• The baby rat's tail has not yet developed enough, which means it is shorter than that of an adult mouse.
• The ears of baby rats are still small and smaller in size than the hearing organs of adult mice.
• There are still skin folds on the soles of the baby rats, while they are absent in the mice. This feature allows you to determine the difference from rodent tracks.

A distinctive feature of the rat pups is their blunt-nosed, as if chopped off muzzle.

Baby rats and adult mice have similar paw sizes, but the placement of the toes is an additional characteristic that can be used to distinguish rodents.

What do the tracks look like?

What do rodent tracks look like?

The imprint of a rat's front paws on wet ground or snow is approximately 1.5 x 2 cm in size. You can see traces of 4 toes, which are widely spaced. The hind legs are larger (up to 4 cm), however, during movement, a small imprint remains - 2x2 cm, i.e. the mark is only partially visible. If the animal moves slowly, a thin chain of prints will remain on the surface. During the jump, the rat leaves rare traces - at a distance of up to 1.5 m.

The paw prints of mice during a jump are characterized by a smaller step (up to 30 cm). The tracks form a kind of trapezoid: when moving, the mouse places its hind legs wider, pushing off with its front, closely spaced legs. As a result, the tracks of the hind paws remain in front, and the tracks of the front paws remain behind. In addition, a thin line is visible behind - from the tail.

Difference in behavior

A rat may differ from other rodents in its behavioral characteristics. Given the constant growth of their incisors, these animals need to constantly chew something. However, mice and rats have different preferences. So, if hard objects or wires are constantly being damaged at home, it means there is a bug. Mice usually chew soft materials: cellophane, polystyrene foam, paper.

The rat moves, pressing against the walls, which gradually leads to the appearance of visible abrasions. Mice do not have this feature. Eating habits in rodents they also differ. For example, mice prefer to spoil food plant origin, and a rat is capable of destroying literally everything that gets in its way: things, pieces of furniture or food, garbage. Rodents are not all aggressive. Mice are cowardly and hide in dangerous situations. However, if they find themselves in a hopeless situation, they will certainly attack. The rat always defends itself and is in no hurry to run away.

Intelligence

When thinking about how else a mouse differs from a rat, you need to take into account the ability to assess the situation. Different types of rodents are characterized by different intellectual abilities.

Rats are smarter, more developed. They choose a habitat after first assessing the object. Dangerous places, including traps, are avoided. Their colony is based on its own laws and has a hierarchy.

Litter

When solving the problem of how to distinguish a house mouse from a rat, you need to pay attention to the products of their vital activity, since this is often the only thing that reminds you of rodents. The differences between rat and mouse droppings are the shape, size and location. Rodents of different species leave waste products that differ in color and size. Thus, black rat droppings are large formations up to 12 mm in length, dark in color.

The red counterparts leave behind droppings that resemble oat grains in shape and are brown in color. Mouse feces are small, outwardly similar to pointed granules no larger than 6 mm in size. In addition, mice defecate chaotically, and rats usually leave droppings in one place.

Interesting video: Smart Rats

Determining the type of rodent by the type of spoiled food

Preferred foods are affected first. For mice these are cereals. And they leave behind a large number of rubbish, husks, but the rat eats the whole grain. In addition, large rodents do not feed in one place for several days, so the damage they cause is always greater. If the mouse returns to the same place every time to eat (for example, a bag or bag of cereal), then traces of the rat’s teeth remain everywhere: on furniture, food: cereals, fruits, etc.