Do the Mouse Math!

Mouse math is simply the calculation of how many young mice one pair of mice can have over a year. Mice can produce 6 to 8 babies per litter, sometimes as many as ten and to make matters more complicated, they have many litters each year. One male and female mouse alone can produce up to 139 babies in one year. Multiply that by the fact that each litter starts cranking out babies within 9 weeks of birth and you can see how quickly a couple of mice can get out of control. In one year, a pair of little house mice could ultimately produce thousands and thousands of offspring.

According to the American Fancy Rat & Mouse Association (yep, there really is such a thing). . . “Start with 2 baby mice, one of each sex. At 6 weeks old the female can become pregnant. Gestation is 3 weeks, and under optimal conditions the female can become pregnant again immediately after giving birth. Assume a litter of eight, four male and four female, which are paired and bred when they are 6 weeks old. Theoretically you could get: 131,258 in 52 weeks.”

Granted this is theoretical only and doesn’t take into account baby mouse fatalities, deaths by cat and other unfortunate demises that little mice may encounter during their short lives. But the fact remains: a pair of mice, left unchecked, can result in potentially thousands of individuals, all hungry to keep their population sustained and multiplying.

So, the bottom line is. . . . Don’t assume that, if you see a mouse in your house or business, it’s the only one! As fast as they multiply, it’s likely that there are MANY more! Give us a call for our expert rodent control services. We’re good at mouse math and mouse extermination!!

Interested to know more? Visit http://www.afrma.org/.