Mice and rats are animals that have been his companions throughout the history of human existence. However, hardly anyone enjoys being around rodents; for many, encountering a pest causes a state of panic and even fear. Having chosen a particular house, animals begin to cause great discomfort and damage to its inhabitants: damaging ceilings, walls, furniture, and spoiling food. In addition, mice carry dangerous infections; mice chew the bark of fruit trees, causing the death of seedlings, and harm agricultural crops. However, these pests also have their enemies. This article will tell you about who eats mice and who animals are afraid of in nature.
About enemies
Almost the entire Northern Hemisphere is inhabited by wild field mice. Most of the subspecies of this family live in open landscapes, using grain crops and agricultural plants for food. Shellfish and various insects can also serve as food for rodents.
On a note!
Small rodents are very prolific: within a year, the size of the mouse population increases several times. Thanks to intensive reproduction, mice become easy trophies for various animals.
Animals
In nature, mice feed on weasels, foxes, and martens, for which rodents are the main food. A ferret can eat up to 12 rodents per day. Weasels, which have a narrow, long body, often climb into holes and destroy mouse pups. If there is no large prey, mammals become food for arctic foxes, lynxes, wolves, and mongooses.
Voles are the favorite and, in winter, the only food of foxes. In cold weather, the size of the population of these animals directly depends on the number of mice eaten.
The natural enemies of wild mice are domestic and forest cats. For hedgehogs, voles are not daily food, since the animals are simply not able to catch them. But if a mouse gets in the way of a hedgehog, it will be eaten.
Weasels and martens
In addition to cats, martens and weasels eat mice. In addition, they do it much faster and more efficiently, because mice are the main diet of animals. In the housing where the weasel hunted, the rodents disappear within 5-7 days.
Weasels are very active and nimble animals that, despite their cute appearance and small size, keep even larger animals at bay. The body length of predators is 20-22 cm. The long narrow body of a predator makes it possible to easily penetrate a rodent burrow and eat a vole or wood mouse hiding there.
The animal has an attractive white (in winter) and brown-brown (summer) coat, a slightly narrowed head, small ears and a muzzle. Distinctive features of the weasel are large dark eyes and a long tail, under which there are glands that secrete a specific pungent odor. It is thanks to this aroma that the animal scares away other predators.
The marten is no worse at hunting mice. The representative of the large family of mustelids has thick soft fur, colored in dark brown or brown-chestnut tones. The length of the slender, slightly elongated body does not exceed 55-58 cm. The distinctive characteristics of the agile animal are a yellow round throat spot and a fluffy tail, the length of which can be almost half the length of the marten’s body (16-28 cm). The predator has very short five-fingered paws with claws.
Who eats house mice?
For many centuries, animals have settled in houses or nearby to feed on food waste, as well as plant feed.
Cats are the favorite enemy of mice. However, most purebred cats do not hunt pests. Basically, this is a favorite pastime of the yard representatives.
The main enemy is gray rats. They settle closer to people and eat mice. In addition to gray rats and cats, the following pests are hunted :
- dachshunds;
- likes;
- domestic ferrets;
- Terriers.
An interesting fact is that some of the breeds were bred for catching individuals. Any Maltese knight could be seen accompanied by a “Maltese dog.” While on the ship with their owner, they hunted rodents.
Ferrets
Ferrets and foxes eat mice Ferrets also eat mice.
During the day, the predator is able to catch and devour at least a dozen rodents. Stocky with a flexible, elongated body, the animal has disproportionately muscular short legs, which allows them to move by jumping and swim perfectly. Long, strong claws on the fingers make it possible to dig deep holes and deftly climb trees. They are used to catch ferrets and mice.
The ferret's body length is about 50 cm, the animal has a flexible neck, an oval head and a slightly blunt muzzle towards the nose. The fluffy tail is a source of pride for the animal (in adults it can reach up to 20 cm). Near it there are special glands that secrete a specific secretion with a pungent odor.
The thick fur covering the animal's body is lighter at the base and darker in color at the tip. It is especially beautiful after the autumn molt, becoming more silky and shiny. The animal's color range can vary from light sand to almost black tones.
Plant-based treats
It is known that mice like plant foods, since in nature the animals’ diet consists of grains, tree bark, seeds, fruits, and berries (they can snack on all the strawberries in the garden beds). Snacks of animal origin (snail or slug) are consumed much less frequently by rodents in the wild.
Therefore, if the goal is to catch a mouse, then they lure the animal with fruits and grains:
- a piece of apple, plum, as well as apricot, peach, pear;
- fresh crust or crust of bread (it is better to moisten the bread with vegetable oil);
- spoon of porridge.
Mice leave their shelters to look for food up to 30 times during the night. So there are plenty of chances to catch them.
By the way! How do you make sure that the target object is a mouse and not a rat? And why is it important to know who is being hunted?
Mice love fresh bread soaked in vegetable oil (it’s better to take unrefined bread: it smells stronger). Pests may like sunflower oil, but they really love sesame oil: when they smell it, the animals lose all caution.
In addition to black bread, baked goods, sunflower seeds and other grains .
Important! If you don’t mind putting a bun or other baked goods in a mousetrap, then it should be fresh and fragrant. These animals will not take risks to eat a stale bun.
Muffins or bread have a dense consistency - this is an excellent bait for mice in a mousetrap: it is convenient to place on the trigger. The baked goods emit a strong odor, enough to make the rodent forget about caution.
Corn
Roasted seeds or rice, wheat, barley, any cereal, oatmeal cookie crumbs poured into a trap act like a magnet on pests. However, such products cannot be caught on a trigger - they are simply placed in a trap or poison is prepared from them by mixing in toxic substances.
Interesting! Traps that work without a hook are divided into three types: live traps (then you need to go farther from the house to release the animal), traps with poison, glue traps, and those that kill with an electric discharge. From a humane point of view, live traps are the most preferable: it is simply an enclosure in which mice remain completely unharmed and can also satiate their appetite. It is with such live traps that the most humane citizens begin their fight against rodents. But having received a couple of mouse surprises in the form of spoiled food or a burned-out system unit due to chewed wires, they say goodbye to illusions and move on to killing traps.
Fact! When dealing with mice, the first thing you need to do is make sure that you are dealing with them. Mouse gnawing marks and feces are similar to those left by young rats. These pests have different tastes, powers of smell, intelligence, and therefore their favorite treats. It is advisable to quickly catch at least one animal in order to recognize the enemy by sight.
Peanut butter
Make small balls from it or spread oil directly onto the working surface of the trap. Catching rodents using this product will be effective.
Interesting! Cheese is not a priority for mice. They do not secrete this product and rarely go into traps for it. After all, in nature, rodents have nowhere to get lactic acid food. Although some believe that pests are still susceptible to particularly odorous varieties of cheese.
Foxes
The fox eats mice with no less pleasure. In winter, rodents are practically the main diet of red predators.
Interesting!
The size of the fox population often depends on the number of mice eaten.
A characteristic generic feature of a fox is a slender body, a slightly elongated muzzle, relatively short limbs and a bushy tail. In winter, it serves as additional protection from the cold, and also plays the role of a stabilizer while running.
Don't risk your pet
Despite the fact that there are quite a large number of animals that will happily eat a mouse that has settled in your home, it is not advisable to let your pets near rodents.
Mice are capable of carrying parasites and various diseases that can lead to dire consequences. So, instead of risking your animal's health and yours, invest in a reliable Victor® mouse trap that will do the unpleasant job for you. The company can offer exactly what you need!
Plants
The mouse is an object of hunting not only for predatory animals and birds. Nepenthes spathulata is a plant that eats mice. This plant predator belongs to the insectivorous family and grows on the islands of Sumatra and Java. It is a stem on which there are many pitcher flowers. They emit a sweet floral scent that attracts insects and small mammals. An approaching mouse is absorbed by the flower thanks to its slippery surface, due to which the rodent is no longer able to get back out.
The length of this unique plant can reach 5 m. Like owls, the plant predator swallows insects, rodents and other small animals whole. The bones, teeth and fur of the victim are digested thanks to special digestive enzymes.
Baits for preparing poison
There are delicacy baits (for trapping, luring into live traps and electric traps) and poisoned baits. For one type or another, you need to choose the right products. Thus, the base for the poisonous filling must be mixed with the active substance until smooth.
The bases for preparing mouse poison can be porridge, dough, mashed potatoes, flavored with sunflower or sesame oil. Toxins are mixed with them - Ratid, Zookoumarin, Ratindan.
Interesting! Zookoumarin and Ratindan are poisons based on anticoagulants. They are considered long-acting poisons. The mouse dies from internal bleeding, but this lasts from three days to two weeks. At the same time, the toxin causes suffocation in the animal, so it tries to leave the room for air. However, there is no guarantee that the mouse will not crawl to die in some deep passage, where its corpse will subsequently exude a disgusting smell. Therefore, it is better to place poison with Zookoumarin in traps to block the pest’s path to escape. Ratsid is a fast poison; rodents die from pulmonary edema right at the site of eating the poison. However, mice and rats quickly learn and begin to recognize this poison and eventually refuse the bait.
Also, the food base can be beer (mice love it very much, and rats won’t pass it by), raw fish or minced meat, or a boiled egg (finely chopped).
The more fragrant the base of the poisonous bait is, the more reliably it masks the smell of the toxic substance. However, beer requires the use of additional containers (bowls), which is not entirely convenient. Therefore, the number one basis for making poison will be raw minced meat. In second place are porridges and purees seasoned with sesame oil .
A toxic agent is added to the base in doses corresponding to the instructions. The finished poison is placed in a trap, and the liquid poison is placed in a saucer.
When preparing poisonous bait, you should wear thick rubber gloves. This is necessary not only to protect your hands, but also to prevent human odor on the bait (one of the main mistakes when fighting rodents).
Of course, it is much easier and safer to buy ready-made mouse bait in a special store than to bother with homemade poisons. The assortment is varied: granules, poisonous grain, dough briquettes. There are ready-made poisons for rats and mice.
All that remains is to fill the traps with poison.
Important! Traps are placed along the path of rodents. They walk along the perimeter of the room, along the walls, but do not cross the center. Mice do not travel far from their shelters; twenty meters is the maximum range of their travel. Taking this into account, traps are set. Another useful feature of the mouse character for humans is that they are curious, so any new object in the feeding area attracts the attention of them and the rodents themselves.
Poison baits are a good way to catch and punish pests, but they are not ideal. Because, after all, the risk cannot be ruled out that a dying rodent will go deep into its shelter and die there, subsequently emitting a corpse odor.
Interesting! More preferable electronic traps are now available. They are also equipped with baits; the attracted animal comes inside and is instantly killed by electric shock. No pain, no smell, no blood. Charging the device lasts for 100 strikes, which is suitable for food warehouses and large production areas. However, the devices are quite expensive and cannot be used outdoors unattended (due to the threat of rain).
A gardener's best friend
Even the most spoiled representative of the feline elite will not let the cocky mouse-like creature pass by. It's in their blood! Of course, the best mousetraps are ordinary yard muskies and vaskas. But even among the thoroughbred old-timers of the cat catwalks there are undoubted “prims” in catching gray pests. First of all, these include:
- European shorthair cat;
- Siberian cat;
- Ocicat;
- Bengals;
- Meikuns;
- Russian Blue;
- Far Eastern Bobtails.
In any case, the presence of a cat in the house reduces the activity of mouse-like rodents by almost 100%. Even such phlegmatic people as Persians and exotics make mice hide in holes with their very appearance.
Canids
Domestic dogs generally do not have to rely on mice as a food source. But many of their wild relatives, including foxes, coyotes, jackals and dingoes, eat them very often. Wolves also frequently eat rodents and often seek them out as a food source during the winter when larger prey are difficult to find.
Domestic dogs, especially terrier types that were bred to hunt foxes and rats, will often eat mice if given the opportunity. In some cases, owners specifically train them to hunt small pests in order to limit the spread of their population.
Food in captivity
Some exotic animal lovers often keep a bat in their home. It cannot be said that such an animal would make a suitable pet. However, if a bat has settled in an apartment, the owner must know what to feed it.
The diet of an animal directly depends on its variety (carnivore or vegetarian). Predators can be treated to offal and meat, previously chopped into pieces. Vegetarians' menus should include fruit. Bats happily drink milk and water. Some people like to enjoy condensed milk diluted with water.
So, the myths that bats are able to drink every last drop of human blood are greatly exaggerated. Only a small part of these mammals in the natural environment include animal (not human) blood in their diet. Many mice are omnivores and provide all possible assistance to nature by destroying insect pests. There is also a completely harmless group of bats, whose menu consists exclusively of fruits and nectar.
Brief characteristics of mammals
Bats are representatives of the order Chiroptera mammals. The appearance and size of representatives of this family differ from each other depending on the variety. But absolutely all these animals have a number of characteristic properties, in particular, body structure:
- Bats are unlikely to be confused with any other animal on Earth. Absolutely every mouse has amazing limbs. They are a kind of calling card of these animals. The paws of the animals are united into a common flight system by one membrane. For this reason, the order was called bats.
- The body of mice is covered with thick short hair, and the hind legs really look like mice. The front ones are “sharpened” under the wings.
- The shape of the head varies among different species of bats. Some animals have long ears, while other members of the order have much shorter ears. The same applies to the features of the muzzle. For some, it looks like a pig's snout, while others even look like a dog.
- The size of bats also varies and depends on the specific species of animal. There are very miniature creatures, whose body length is several centimeters, and real giants, up to 0.5 m long. The wingspan of mice can range from 10 to 180 cm.
- The vision of bats is poorly developed, and therefore they see poorly. In addition, these consciousnesses do not distinguish colors at all. Vision problems are compensated by excellent hearing. This is what bats have developed superbly. Some of the varieties are able to detect the sounds made by insects that swarm in tall grass.
Many people are surprised by the truly bat-like habit of sleeping upside down. Meanwhile, this way of relaxation is very practical. This position helps the mice, if necessary, immediately fly about their business. To do this, you just need to wake up and unclench your paws. In this way, animals save time and energy, and in case of danger, these two resources are vital.
In terms of lifestyle, bats are predominantly nocturnal creatures. These mammals are excellent at navigating in the dark and also have the ability to echolocate. This feature distinguishes them from other living beings. Mice are able to evaluate the features of a particular area using the signals they emit and are reflected from surrounding objects. In this way, winged night owls receive a certain picture of reality.
During the day, bats hibernate, living in places where the rays of the sun do not reach. So many individuals have adapted to live in tree hollows, caves, and attics of houses.
What benefits do they bring?
After all the above-mentioned troubles from field mice, the question of their benefits may seem ridiculous.
Nevertheless, voles bring tangible benefits, being an important link in the food chain.
Without them, many animals: foxes, martens, owls, cats would be left without food. In addition, by destroying a significant part of the mouse army, these animals preserve many beneficial insects, plants, as well as a significant part of the crops in the fields and gardens.
In nature there is nothing superfluous, and so is the case with the field mouse. There is a lot of harm from it, but there is also tangible benefit.
And yet, despite their tiny size and harmless appearance, these are animals that are worth taking into account and it is better not to allow them close to your homes.
Vegetarians
Nature is so amazing that it created bats that prefer fruits and nectar. But there are very few such mice. This type of feeding is mainly preferred by fruit bats.
Important: Fruit bats also belong to the order Chiroptera, but they should not be confused with bats, since they have very significant differences in their aircraft. Almost all fruit bats are larger than their relatives, and their diet consists only of herbivorous food. Among mice, only a few prefer fruits with nuts, for example, leaf-nosed bats
They feast on insects, fruit pulp, flower nectar and nuts. Many favor pollination
Among mice, only a few prefer fruits with nuts, for example, leaf-nosed mice. They feast on insects, fruit pulp, flower nectar and nuts. Many favor pollination.
However, unlike fruit bats, leaf-nosed bats are not averse to eating lizards, and some species are even omnivores. The muzzles of fruit eaters and nectar lovers are elongated, the teeth are completely undeveloped, and the tongues are much longer than those of their relatives.
Lifespan
The lifespan of wild rodents depends on the availability of food, energy expenditure for its production, and the danger of the area. Most do not reach even 1 year. The most common species of small mice, called brownies, are close relatives of voles. They have a short lifespan due to diseases and predators.
Since mouse genes are 80% similar to humans, they are used in laboratories. Thanks to this, the lifespan was significantly increased. The difference is obvious:
- in the wild, the life expectancy of rodents does not exceed 12-18 months;
- domesticated ones can live 5 years, but the real figure is less and is 3 years.
Such differences are associated with a serious difference in diet, the absence of diseases (in domesticated animals), and the absence of predators.
Birds
Mice are a vital food source for birds of prey such as owls, hawks and eagles. Crows, jays and herons also include them in their diet. The barn owl is one of the best birds of prey, capable of catching and eating up to 10 pests every night.
Snakes play an important role in controlling rodent populations, as they play a central role in the diet of many snake species around the world.
Under natural conditions, when the mouse population increases, the snake population begins to increase. But in some areas, too many snakes were killed by humans, upsetting the balance, leading to an overpopulation of mice.
In some parts of China and Korea, young specimens of these rodents are placed in a bottle of wine. This drink later serves as a remedy. In Zambia and Malawi, kebabs made from their meat are sold at roadside stops. In Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, mice from which mice are caught in corn fields after harvest are brought home and cooked like chicken or pork.
Mice cause a lot of problems for people involved in professional agriculture. Anyone who eats mice is a priori an ally of a person engaged in agriculture. After all, these impudent rodents are able to penetrate any, even the most secure storage facility. And there their harm is expressed:
- In physical damage and destruction of grain crops;
- Contamination of the product with diseases dangerous to humans;
- Damage to grain by small parasites, which subsequently reduce quality and price;
- The fact of presence for the inspection authorities (which sometimes plays a vital role in the further development of the business).
But, annoying creatures bring much more problems to ordinary summer residents. Citizens who come to relax in the fresh air have different criteria for assessing the harm caused by mice.
