Here are the best ways to tell if you’re dealing with squirrel poop vs rat poop or rat poop vs mouse poop or squirrel poop vs mouse poop. Once you’ve determined what’s been around your house, you’ll be able to take the appropriate action. Clearing your home of unwanted pests is very important to your health and safety.
A Mouse About the House
It’s time to play dungtective and identify those mouse droppings! Here’s what to look for.
Size
Mouse droppings are identifiable mostly by their shape and size. Mouse poop can range from 1/8 to 1/4 inches in size. Please, just eyeball it, taking your ruler to the specimen is not recommended!
Shape
If you’re not sure about the exact size, let’s move on to shape identification. Mouse poop resembles little mini pellets. Droppings are oblong, thin, and pointed at the ends.
Color
Mouse excrement is black or dark brown in color. squirrel poop vs rat poop
Location And Pattern
Mickey and Minnie’s relatives like to leave their trademarks in kitchens or anyplace food is commonly left. Be sure to clean up your clubhouse so as not to invite unwanted relatives!
You will find mouse poop in groups, rather than scattered throughout a certain area or areas. This is an important identifying factor from their rat relatives, who have a different defecation pattern.
What To Do
After you’ve gotten over the yuck factor of seeing animal scat in your home, look around. Are there any other rooms or areas with unpleasant little calling cards?
Once you’ve determined the poopetraitor and location(s) of their droppings, you have a few options.
1. Contact a pest control professional to help you.
2. If you believe this to be a small, isolated incident, you can set out humane traps for the mouse. Once captured, release into the wild, away from your home.
3. Options one and two.
Beware that one mouse turns into many mice very quickly. Mice procreate at alarming rates so it’s best to re-home your little counter bomber ASAP. If you’ve completed the capture, call a professional to make sure they haven’t told their friends about your MBNB (Mouse Bed and Breakfast).
Mice also carry many potentially dangerous diseases. Some of these illnesses are spread by contact with their urine and/or droppings. If you should decide to clean up the mouse mess yourself, always follow CDC safety guidelines and never have direct contact with mouse poop.
Oh, Rats
It’s likely your language is a bit stronger upon the discovery of rat scat. Believe it or not, it’s different from mouse droppings, and here’s how.
Size
Rats drop slightly bigger kids off at your pool. Droppings are approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inches long and 1/4 inches thick. Again, it’s best to use your best judgment to estimate the size.
Shape
Rats leave behind pellets similar to their mousey relatives. Rat pellets, however, have a small curve to their shape.
Color
Freshly dropped rat poo is dark brown in color. After a few days, however, it hardens and becomes slightly lighter in color.
Location
While mice have the decency to leave groups of poops, rats dump on the run. Rats can’t be bothered to stop for much of anything, and their bathroom habits show it.
As unpleasant as this is for you, the home dweller, it can help you distinguish rat poo from mouse poo. These little tidbits can also help you see where your unwanted visitor has been.
Common rat playground sites are garages, attics, basements, sheds, and anywhere they find food or shelter.
What To Do
Your options are the same here as with your mouse dropping discovery. It’s very important to be aware that rats carry many diseases and their droppings are toxic.
If you decide to clean up the mess yourself, it’s very important to follow CDC guidelines to stay safe. NEVER come in direct contact with poop.
Why It Matters
Rats, like mice, carry a number of nasty diseases. Contact with rat scat can also lead to serious health problems for humans! If you’re unlucky enough to meet the little droppings deliverer, you risk contracting rat-bite fever or other illnesses contracted by direct contact.
Squirrel!
Squirrel excrement is more than just a distraction. While squirrels don’t usually infest your property the way rats do, you don’t want them hanging around! So, what does squirrel poop look like?
Size
Squirrels leave behind bigger calling cards than mice and rats. Their droppings are 3/8 to one inch long with 1/8 inch diameter. They are considerably bigger than mouse droppings.
However, squirrel poo can sometimes be easily confused with rat scat. They are most distinguishable from one another by their shape. Now you can answer the common conversational question, “what do squirrel droppings look like?”.
Shape
Squirrel waste is oblong in shape. The biggest difference between squirrel and rat droppings is the appearance of the ends. Squirrel feces are rounded on the end and slightly bulging in the middle.
This is in contrast to rat nuggets which are pointed at the ends.
Color
Color is also a great way to help you identify the furry owner of those fantom feces. Squirrels leave behind a changing specimen. While dark brown when freshly laid, those little pellets become lighter as they age.
This info is especially helpful if you’ve found a pile with differing shades of brown. If all is identical except the color, you can deduce that deuce dropper fairly easily. It’s probably a squirrel!
Location
Squirrels like high up places. Think lofts, attics, crawl spaces, and ceilings. Squirrels tend to leave behind little pieces of themselves upon entering and exiting spaces. They’ll also drop some dung in places they’ve found comfort.
What to Do
If you’re unlucky enough to have a bushy-tailed bomb dropper about, you can call a professional to help you investigate. If you decide to remove the nuggets yourself, you need to wear protective equipment such as gloves and a mask and follow CDC safety guidelines.
Avoid any kind of direct contact with the droppings and dispose of anything that has touched them as well.
Disinfect the area thoroughly. Then, call pest control to get those squirrels out of your home!
Why It Matters
Squirrels can cause damage by chewing on wires and insulation. Squirrels in your garage may choose to nest in your vehicle! You don’t want deuce in that Deuce Coop, do you?
Squirrels can also carry diseases. If you ignore your problem, squirrel dung can end up in your air vents. Breathing disease-infested discharge could have unwanted consequences to your health!
It’s Serious Business
Mice, rats, and squirrels don’t only infest homes. Businesses are just as susceptible to unwanted vermin invasions. If you’ve discovered some suspicious scat about your work area, you need to act fast.
First of all, make sure any area rodents have been treating as their latrine is completely sanitized and CDC safety removal procedures are followed. You should also check out what OSHA has to say about your situation and act accordingly.
Hiring a professional for rodent removal in your place of business is a must. Unchecked rodent infestation can quickly cause property destruction and pose serious health threats. Investing in a professional ensures pests aren’t doing their business in your place of business.
Storage Locker Latrine
Off-site storage units can be a playground for rats, mice, and squirrels. If you’ve discovered poop pellets of any variety, it’s important to act fast!
In addition to health risks, pesky creatures will wreak havoc on your belongings. Chewing wires will render electronics or even vehicles damaged, sometimes beyond repair. Anything made of wood is also highly susceptible to rodent damage.
Any droppings discovery in your storage area should be taken seriously.
Squirrel Poop vs Rat Poop vs Mouse Poop
Now you know they’re not all the same. Not only can you properly identify each little nugget, but you are also able to determine necessary action.
Based on these little defecation details, you can readily determine squirrel poop vs rat poop vs mouse poop. It’s not exactly a party trick, but it’s an important skill to have!
Feel free to read more about us and decide if Synergy² is the right company for you. We have over 350 Five-Star Google reviews for pest control service in the Jackson metro area (Jackson/Madison/Brandon/Ridgeland). Check out our newest location reviews for pest control service in Jackson, MS here at Synergy² Jackson Pest Control!