It’s dusk and you see something small and dark scurrying across the floor of your garage, deck, backyard patio, or one of the rooms in your home. You don’t have an indoor or outdoor pet, it isn’t a flying squirrel, and you don’t have any critters that may have gotten loose from their pen like a guinea pig or rabbit. So, you’re asking yourself, “what is it.”
You might think it’s a baby possum or a raccoon but they’re are too big. Then it hits you, the animal is probably a rat or a mouse but you don’t know how to tell the difference, until now.
- First, rats and mice are considered rodents.
- Both have similar features making it difficult to determine one from the other.
- There are many species for both rats and mice.
- Size-wise, rats are medium in size and have tails that are thin and long.
- Mice also have long, thin tails but they are much smaller.
- A baby rat is larger than an adult mouse. Other distinguishing characteristics for a baby rat is it will have a wide muzzle, small ears, broad head,short, thick tail and big feet whereas an adult mouse has large ears, small feet, narrow muzzle and a triangular shaped head.
If you have scurrying critters around your yard or home and not sure if they’re rats or mice, contact Allison Pest Control and we’ll figure it out.