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Autumn is the time when rodents, such as mice and rats, are looking to head into your home to seek shelter from the cool weather. As you protect your home against them, consider getting help from a rodent control expert to get rid of mice and keep your family safe.

Take a look at these myths and facts about mice to see how much you know—and what you can learn to protect your home.

Fiction: Mice love cheese

It’s not that they’ll turn it down if it is sitting right in front of them, but cheese is not necessarily a favorite any more than any other food. Any kind of food that you leave accessible will be gobbled up, including crumbs of carbs, fats, or proteins. If you’re thinking of the quintessential mouse trap loaded with cheese bits, a better draw for them might be peanut butter because of the scent, or even chocolate.

Fiction: Mice have hollow/empty bones

While they are able to squeeze through the tiniest of holes and spaces (as small as the size of a dime), mice don’t have hollow bones. Like humans, mice are vertebrate animals who are held up by complex musculoskeletal systems. One factor that allows them to squeeze through tiny spaces, cracks, and crevices is the fact that they don’t have collarbones.

Fiction: All you need to keep mice away is a cat

While some cats do act as “mousers”, it is unlikely that getting a cat will be an effective form of pest control. First of all, some cats are averse to mice and have no interest in catching them. Plus, cats can catch many diseases from mice, making them ill and even possibly passing germs onto your family. Only get a pet cat if you want one for its own sake, not as a form of getting rid of mice.

Fiction: Mice don’t eat much

Mice eat a lot—and they eat often. Up to 20 times per day! Although they prefer to be awake and forage for food under the cover of darkness, they’ll drag food back to their nests and eat all day long. In time where food is scarce, mice are able to survive for long periods of time without food if needed, but their preference is to eat much and often—sort of like many humans!

Fact: Mice squeeze through holes as small as a dime

Although there bones aren’t actually hollow as some have suspected, these little rodents are bendy little things. They can sneak through the tiniest of cracks and crevices in order to get into your house or kitchen pantry. Mice are great gymnasts, too, so they can climb, swim, and even jump up to a foot into the air to make their way into your food sources. Keeping cracks in doors, windows and cabinets sealed, and all of your food tightly sealed in plastic containers, should prevent a new infestation.

Read More: Where Do Pests Hang Out in Your Home

Fact: Mice are nocturnal

Sleep all day and party all night. Sounds kind of like teenagers, right? Mice prefer to forage for food under the cover of darkness and this is often when you might hear squeaks, pitter pattering, or gnawing inside your walls indicating that you have an infestation. Mice can come out in the daytime, but this is less likely. If you do see them during the day, this probably means that you have a major problem and should make plans for rodent control right away.

Fact: Mice spread filthy germs

Indeed, mice can make you and your family (and your pets!) very sick. Common diseases such as Salmonella and Hantavirus are just for starters. In fact, mice can carry up to 200 human pathogens as well as spreading diseases to your pets through their urine and feces. With the ability to cause serious harm to your family, a mouse problem should be dealt with as soon as it is discovered.

For pest control in Houston, contact Cypress Creek Pest Control to make sure your home or business is fully protected from mice and other unwanted critters.