{"id":24544,"date":"2024-01-29T23:37:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T23:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crittercontro.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=wildlife&p=24544"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T21:06:12","slug":"mice-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"wildlife","link":"https:\/\/www.crittercontrol.com\/wildlife\/mice\/mice-in-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Mice Get in the House?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The house, field, and white-footed mice are common types of mice<\/a> to find inside your home. However, you may occasionally find deer, western harvest, cotton, and woodland-jumping rodents. They enter through cracks and holes you may not even notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mice look for a place to build a nest where they can give birth to a litter of pups. Mice typically reproduce more than six times a year. To prevent infestations and damage to your property, you must be able to answer the question, “How did I get a mouse in my house?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Attracts Mice to Your Home?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mice in a house<\/a> are searching for food, water, and shelter. Attractive food sources include gardens, fruit and nut trees, food scraps, compost piles, garbage, pet feed, and human food. They don’t need a lot of water for survival but are attracted to bird baths, pet bowls, troughs, pipes, hoses, and water leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mice choose areas with clutter, especially outdoor wood, rocks, or debris piles. They like entering pantries, where they contaminate foods. While mice will enter a home at any time during the year, they are more determined during winter months when temperatures drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Do Mice Enter a House?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Easy access is what causes mice problems<\/a> in your home. How mice get in your house varies due to the type and location of your home. Mice get into apartments through open doors and windows. An apartment building with multiple people using the same main entrance and exit gives mice more opportunities to get in. They may also get into cracks and crevices in floors, walls, stairs, and hallways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homes with basements are vulnerable to mice infestations because they enter through cracks in foundations, poorly sealed windows, and openings around drainage pipes or air ducts. Other examples of entry points include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n