No one actually wants to deal with a pest control problem like mice. The simple reality though, is that most people do struggle with getting rid of these pests in their house at some point. There are lots of DIY solutions, and while few people simply do nothing, not many reach for the phone immediately to contact local rodent control services. But they probably should, because mice are a far more serious problem than you might think they are.

Here’s a hair-raising list of mice facts that may have you on the phone to your favorite pest control company now:

  1. Mice are more acrobatic than you think. They can navigate something as thin as an electrical wire, and they’ll be happy to use it to get into your home. This sense of balance can have them moving through almost any part of your home, even when you don’t realize it.
  2. Mice are incredibly small. If their heads will fit through an opening, their entire bodies will. Typically they need an opening the width of a number two pencil to make it into an area, and once they’re in, they can create additional openings to navigate through a space.
  3. A single mouse can live up to two years under the right conditions. In ideal conditions, it can live even longer than that, and given that mice are only happy when they’re with other mice, you can typically bet that not just one mouse has taken up residence in your home.
  4. Mice are baby-making machines. A female mouse only has to be two months old to give birth to a litter. They can give birth to up to a dozen baby mice at a time, and they can do so every three weeks because the gestation period is so incredibly short.
  5. Mice can jump! They can reach a height of nearly eighteen inches, and once they reach their destination, they can crawl vertically and even upside down to get what they want.
  6. Their hungry little bellies are almost never full. A mouse can eat up to twenty times a day, and because they’re hungry so often, they tend to nest closest to a food source.
  7. One mouse can carry up to 200 different human pathogens. While these can be relatively harmless, they can include Hantavirus and Salmonella just to name a few.
  8. Mice don’t use toilets! A house mouse will produce up to 100 droppings per day, and they continually give off small droplets of urine as they make the rounds each day.

That mouse infestation may be a much bigger deal than you initially thought. Your best bet if you’re dealing with mice, or working to keep them out of your home, is to contact a pest control professional immediately.