House Mice vs Deer Mice: What’s the difference?

House Mouse

Source: 247pestcontrol.co.uk

The best-known mouse species is the common house mouse. If you have a pet mouse, it is most likely a house mouse. They prefer to stay indoors with humans, although they can also reside in fields. This is why people sometimes confuse house mice vs deer mice.

House mice have a small body, not exceeding five inches. House mice are usually gray in color, with some members of the species fading to a darker shade. They mostly invade houses during cold seasons since most of their food, plant roots, and seeds are gone. The goal of their invasion is to find new food sources.

When you are talking about them, both mice are disease carriers and need to be removed if they are anywhere near your home. While rats are perceived to be more dangerous to humans than mice, mice cause far greater harm to clothes, wooden furniture, papers/books, and many other household items. Both house mice vs deer mice may live alone or in clusters. After six weeks of life, female mice are usually ready to breed. The breeding age for males is around 8 weeks old.

Deer Mouse

Source: PCT Online

The name deer mice comes from their close color resemblance to the deer—a brownish color fading to black with a white belly. Their staple foods are grains, leafy vegetation, insects, and fruits.

Urban environments are more suitable for house mice vs deer mice who prefer rural areas and wooded buildings. Most of these species have adopted a polygamous lifestyle. Deer mice love the outdoors, where they live in tree holes, hollow dug logs, under stones, branches, or caves. In the few occasions where they stay indoors, you can find them in the quieter areas of your house such as attics, garages, basements, and unfinished wall spaces.

Deer mice are nocturnal. During the day you can find them in hideout locations, hibernating in their houses and nests they have built out of plant matter. Although deer mice live in individual home structures, in order to protect themselves from the environment and predators they build nests. Birds of prey and snakes are their natural predators.

House Mice vs Deer Mice Characteristics

Physical traits

Coloring is one of the areas where you can easily see each type’s uniqueness. A house mouse possesses a sharp nose accompanied by small spherical ears and a long, hair-free tail and comes in a wide, solid color range, including tan, brown, black, grey, and rare cases white. Deer mice bodies are grey or brownish-orange accompanied by white underside (its most noticeable physical trait) and white feet. Their tails are usually shorter and covered with fine hairs.

The short stature of house mice vs deer mice is also a good indicator of which mouse you might be facing. In length, House mice are approximately five inches from the nose to the tail. A deer mouse is around seven inches.

Feeding habits

House mice vs deer mice are opportunists, taking advantage of any food sources that arise. They will gather and search for food in homes and eat whatever is available; grains, clothes, and plastic pieces. Deer mice are gatherers. They will collect food and stock it for future use. This adaptation makes it very difficult to lure deer mice into traps compared to more easily controlling house mice.

Movement patterns

When it comes to movement behaviors, the award for best jumper goes to the house mice vs deer mice. House mice have a 12 inch vertical jump. Deer mice, on the other hand, are good climbers. They can access food sources and shelter by ascending over a tree and using the tree branches as a transitional path, or by climbing gutters and water pipes to gain access to the roofs.

Disease carriers

The type of diseases carried by house mice vs deer mice are distinct. House mice are linked to the spread of lymphocyte related meningitis and rickettsial pox. Deer mice are major carriers of Hantavirus. This virus is found in the saliva, urine, and feces of mice. It is spread to humans mostly via inhalation of airborne particles.

Both of these mice are capable of ferrying fleas, lice, and other organisms in their hairy bodies, but deer mice are more predisposed to it because of their outdoorsy movements.

Both of these can propagate disease-causing bacteria, but they do vary. House mice vs deer mice are generally found indoors and cover a larger surface area, they can disseminate disease-causing organisms in wider places compared to the deer mice. But deer mice frequent outside garbage pits, trash cans, and other outdoor areas, making them likely to bring filth and other debris indoors.