More mice in Ottawa homes this summer thanks to weather, food

Mice driven inside by the region's cold winter are staying put over the summer, keeping someexterminators busier than they've ever been.

Todd Babin said he's never seen mice numbers like this in his 15 years in the pest control business.

"We've been experiencing really high capture rates where we're dealing with 10, 20, 30 mice that are being captured in homeownertraps,"he said.

Babin said he's getting up to eight calls a day for mice this summer, up 30 per cent from last year.

Carleton University naturalist Mike Runtz said a bumper crop of seeds and berries kept more mice alive over the winter.

"Small mammals, like the deer mice, depend upon these seeds for winter survival,"he said. "With a lot of winter food, you get high survival rates and high reproduction rates.

"We call this pretty well the perfect storm due to the amount of food, water and shelter,"Babin said.

Mice can get inside a holethe size of a human thumb, so it's recommended homeowners seal cracks and openings to keep them out.Keeping food sources such as bird feeders as far away from houses as possible is another way to keep mice away.

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