Call Sho-Me Pest Control, the Best Pest Control Professionals for Rodents in Mid-Missouri. Let Us Help you with your next Pest Extermination.
Mice and rats in Missouri enter buildings in search of shelter, food, and warmth, but can easily become an out-of-hand problem. Even holes the size of a dime are no challenge. Rodents are rapid breeders who can easily invade and contaminate a home or workplace. Call a professional exterminator if you are seeing signs of rodents in or around your residential or commercial property. Sho-Me Pest Control has mice and rat control plans to help with your rodent concerns.
Mid-Missouri Rodents
House Mouse
House mice are typically dusty gray with cream-colored bellies. Fur color varies from light brown to dark gray depending on the mouse’s location. House mice have four legs and a round shaped body. Their muzzles are pointed, and their ears are large with some hair. House mice range from 2.5 to 3.75 inches long. Their tails are usually 2.75 to 4 inches long.
Signs of an Infestation
There are a handful of ways to tell if house mice have made your home their own, including the following telltale signs of an infestation:
Gnaw marks: Gnaw marks may be either rough or smooth.
Droppings: House mouse droppings may be either soft and moist or dried and hard. The droppings measure about 1/8-1/4 inch long. They are rod shaped and pointed on the ends.
Tracks: House mice leave 4-toed prints with their front feet and 5-toed prints with their hind feet.
Rub marks: House mice often leave oily rub marks on walls along which they travel.
Burrows: House mice burrow using nesting materials such as insulation.
Runways: House mice usually use the same pathways. Active runways are sometimes visible, with rub marks, droppings, and footprints along them.
Odor: The odor of house mouse urine may become distinct if there is a large number of house mice in a particular area. House mice use their strong-smelling urine to communicate with one another.
Damaged goods: Mice prefer seeds or cereals but will readily eat insects trapped on glue boards.
Actual rodent: If you see a mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor, there is likely a family of mice hiding out of sight.
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Meadow Mouse or Vole
Voles can be distinguished from mice by their short tails, stocky bodies, and short legs. They are brown or gray in color and have small eyes and almost hidden ears. They live in colonies and have networks of underground burrows, usually in pastures, fields, roadsides, and other grassy areas. They primarily feed on crops, grasses, beans, flower bulbs, roots, etc. The life expectancy of a vole is fairly short—usually about 2 months—because they are a vital food source for predators such as hawks, owls, foxes, snakes, and coyotes.
Norway Rat
The Norway rat has shaggy brown fur with black hairs scattered throughout, and a gray to yellowish-white belly. They have a blunt muzzle, small eyes and ears, and a scaly bicolored tail. Signs of an infestation are the same as those for a house mouse, but Norway rat droppings are about ¾” in length. Norway rats can exist in large numbers in and around residences, basements, stores, warehouses, docks, sewers, or dumpsters. Burrow to make nests under buildings, beneath concrete slabs, around ponds, in and around garbage and other locations suitable for food, water, and shelter. Nests may be lined with shredded paper, cloth or other fibrous materials. Usually become active at about dusk to begin seeking water and food. Eats nearly any type of food but prefers a nutritionally balanced diet, consisting of cereal grain, meats, fish, nuts, and some fruits They have litters of 6 to 12 young that can eat solid food within 2 to 3 weeks Their young become completely independent at about 4 weeks and reach reproductive maturity as early as 3 months
If you are experiencing a rodent problem, Call Sho-Me Pest to Protect Your Residential or Commercial Property. Sho-Me Pest Control services St. Robert, Waynesville, Lebanon, Rolla, St. James, Dixon, Richland, Newburg, Crocker, Stoutland, Laquey, Plato, Houston, Licking, Salem, Ft. Leonard Wood, Falcon, Roby and all surrounding areas.
Roof Rat
Roof rats are dark brown or black in color with a contrasting lighter underbelly or black underbelly. Roof rats can grow to be 16 inches in length including their tail. They have large ears, and a tail that is longer than their body and a pointed nose. Their tails do not have hair on them. In structures, roof rats prefer to nest in the upper parts of the building, but may occasionally be found in basements and sewers. Outdoors, they prefer nesting in trees, but burrows are sometimes found in vegetation around buildings. Roof rats also carry a number of diseases.
Moles
Moles, while they can get mistaken for mice or voles, are not actually rodents. These small mammals spend most of their lives underground and are rarely seen above ground. However, it's still important to know what these potentially destructive lawn pests look like, so you can tell them apart from other creatures that may be in your yard.
A mole's front feet are their hallmark feature: they are oversized, with paddle-like hands and large claws that help them dig and move quickly through the soil.
Moles are brown to dark gray, with soft fur.
They have long snouts, protruding about an inch from their faces.
They are small, only about 6 to 8 inches long and weigh less than a pound.
Moles eat mainly earthworms and white grubs, which they prefer, but may also eat other insects, snails, spiders, small animals, and rarely, plants.
They require a lot of food energy, and can eat about 80% of their body weight every day.
They create underground tunnel systems and burrows, where they travel and live for most of their lives. These burrows are what causes lawn damage.
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