Were you aware that mice store food for later consumption? Unlike other scavengers and rodents, mice will not gorge on food until they physically can’t eat anymore, but they will steal some of that food and save it for later. This is actually a very smart trick when you think about it — the animal won’t run out of food even when the source does.

This can wreak havoc on your home, however. If you are not aware that you have a mouse infestation in your home, you could have nests all over the place, all containing stashed food. If this food is food that turns bad quickly, you’ll have mold growing on it, increasing moisture and health problems, and this will also lead to large insect infestations. As if a mouse infestation wasn’t bad enough by itself ...

It’s not just food that this animal will store and eat, either. Products that contain some sort of animal fat content are also appealing, and this can lead to nibble marks on bars of soap and even bottles of household glue. What the mouse prefers, though, is food that is high in sugar, high in fat, or high in protein. This means nuts, butter, bacon, chocolate, and plenty of other foods that are lying around in your home.

When human foods aren’t available, mice will eat and store grains and rice — their second favorite meal-type. If those things aren’t available, mice will eat pretty much anything — moldy food, dead animals, cockroaches, caterpillars, plant roots, seeds, bird feed, plant stems and leaves, the larvae of beetles, other insects, and more. They don’t need a lot of food in order to survive — only around three grams daily — but there is never just one mouse in a house. Most communities consist of a few females, all of which are taken care of and mated with by one lone male, and they’ll have babies. Incest is not typical with mice, but just ONE breeding female with a male can have as many as 100-150 babies in a single year. 150 times three grams per day is a lot of food.