Mole Like Animals Often Mistaken for Mice

Rats, mice– what'due south the difference? Aren't they only the same little varmint scurrying around the house?

To the untrained eye, rats and mice might not await all that unlike, merely there are a number of key characteristics that set them apart from each other. Nosotros're talking about some physical distinctions equally well as differences in patterns of behavior.

Why do nosotros need to know the deviation between rats, mice, and other rodents? Mostly it'south to help with your pest control efforts– what might work for rats won't necessarily work for mice, or mayhap fifty-fifty for other rodents, for that matter.

What Are Rodents?

In that location used to be a time when whatever minor, wild mammal seen scurrying around your farm, garden, or habitation was referred to as a "varmint".

Non all varmint are rodents, however. (Though it can be argued that all rodents are varmint critters!)

Rodents belong to a nomenclature of mammals (of the order Rodentia) characterized by a pair of incisors in each of their upper and lower jaws . These front teeth are growing constantly, hence the need to just as constantly gnaw on something to somehow whittle these downwards to a more functional length.

An estimated forty% of all mammalian species are rodents, which should give yous an thought but how numerous they are.

Rats and Mice Are Both Rodents

Both mice and rats are rodents. There are dozens of different species of both rats and mice, but in the United states of america, the most mutual rodent pests are:

the Norway rat
the roof rat
and the house mouse

As far as physical characteristics go, here's a quick style to tell the difference :

The firm mouse is quite small– about half an ounce. The caput is comparably smaller than the rest of its body with a pointed snout. Ears are proportionately larger. Coloration is typically lite brownish with a bear upon of gray. Droppings are shaped like modest rods.
The Norway rat looks thick and bulky, weighing well-nigh 11 ounces. Bodies are dark-brown with shades of black. The snout is insufficiently blunter, and the ears are curt. Tails are commonly dark on acme and pale underneath. Debris are capsule-shaped.
Larger than the house mouse simply not quite as big as the Norway rat, at effectually seven ounces, the roof rat looks like the link or transition between the two. It has the characteristic pointed snout and large ears of the house mouse, with the general coloration and darker tail of the Kingdom of norway rat. Droppings are shaped like spindles.

Some more important distinctions between the rats and mice are:

Behavior: rats are generally a lot more than cautious, while mice are a lot more curious.
Feeding: both mice and rats volition eat anything, although mice prefer cereals, grains, and plants. Rats, on the other hand, will likewise have a preference for meat (including mice if really pressed for nutrient!).
Nesting: mice will prefer to take a nest hidden abroad but shut to a food source. Norway Rats will choose to live in burrows, while the roof rat volition adopt nesting in walls, attics, or trees.
Territory: mice are by and large afraid of rats, then you won't ordinarily discover mice in the aforementioned home as rats. Yous can accept both Norway rats and roof rats however, with Norway rats hanging around the lower floors of the edifice while roof rats stay towards the upper floors. These two rat species don't go along, withal, so they requite each other a wide booth.

More Mutual Rodents (Other Than Rats and Mice)

Of the varmints and critters you are probable to find in North America, hither is a shortlist of other mammals that autumn in the classification of rodents :

Beavers
Capybaras
Chinchillas
Chipmunks
Flying squirrels
Gerbil
Groundhogs
Guinea pigs
Hamsters
Lemmings
Marmots
Porcupines
Prarie dogs
Squirrels
Voles

Animals Commonly Mistaken as Rodents (Just Aren't)

To further make the stardom, here are some animals that are usually lumped together in the same category every bit mice and rats, only are not actually rodents — and are, instead, of a different category of small mammalian creatures:

Bats. They might wait like winged mice, only they're of a totally dissimilar guild, known every bit Chiroptera.
Hedgehogs. Also non rodents, and in fact, are more closely related to shrews rather than, say, porcupines.
Moles , which belong to a different mammalian order, Soricomorpha. Mole rats, however, are rodents– they live underground like moles but aren't from the same lodge.
Opossums . These critters are marsupials, which ways their young must live in a pouch inside their mother until they're more than fully developed.
Rabbits . These were at some point classified as rodents, only after 1912, animal scientists put them in their ain guild (Lagomorpha) because their teeth are different from rodents.
Raccoons . They were in one case placed in the aforementioned animal category as bears, but now have their own genus (Procyon).

A Final Word on Rats, Mice, and Rodents

Not all modest hirsuite scurrying wild mammals are rodents, and not all rodents are household pests. In fact, many rodent-type creatures are kept every bit pets, or fifty-fifty bred for scientific research or even food (in some places).

Of the many rat and mouse species in the world, three are more commonly associated as pests to be taken seriously: the large Kingdom of norway rat, the more limber roof rat, and the diminutive footling business firm mouse.

These iii rodents are notorious for sneaking into our homes and helping themselves to our food supply, even potentially causing damage past chewing on furniture or even wires or cables.

Beingness able to tell the departure is very useful for extermination professionals, as they are able to employ the best possible measures to counter or control these nuisance pests.

Floretta Whoube