The common house mouse is a slender little rodent usually coloured brown to grey, with large rounded ears and bulging eyes. They have one pair of chisel shaped incisors with yellow enamel on the front surfaces. The body ranges from 60-100mm and the tail as long as 75mm-100mm. They are excellent climbers, jumpers and swimmers although they prefer not to swim. They are so successful because of their ability to adapt and utilise their resources. They live commonly in urban areas and live in the more secluded parts of buildings, making nests of shredded materials or in shallow burrows in the ground.

Their population size can increase rapidly and the female can reproduce from two months of age having up to eight in a litter at a time. They will feed on animal feed, nuts, grains but despite what you may have been told cheese is not a favourite food. They don’t need a lot of water, only one millilitre per day. They will eat very small amounts of food but at various locations. Telltale signs of mice in the home are small droppings, urine stains/smells, gnaw marks on food products or even sighting them out in the open. Mice like to explore and can be seen running through a room.