- LAST UPDATED: December 11, 2023
If you’ve got mice, be careful that you don’t think they’re just a problem that will go away on its own. Mice reproduce rapidly and can get into spaces you can’t reach them, making the problem go unnoticed until it’s out of control. But how do you know for sure if you’ve got mice in your house. Well, one way you might notice is from hearing them. You might think it’s more common in cartoons, but the sounds that mice make really do sound like squeaks. Tiny little squeaking coming that sounds almost cute to people. But mice aren’t cute, they are a legitimate pest that need to be eradicated from your home.
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What Sound Do Mice Make?
You might hear the sound of a mouse as a high-pitched, short point of noise. It’s because of this that they sound like they’re “squeaking.” In reality, they emit a sound in their throats almost like a pulse, that varies in frequency from high-pitched to very high-pitched.
Mice use squeaking to communicate in different areas:
- Basic communication
- Reproduction
- Safety
- Mother to baby
So you know that mice are small, they squeak, and they’re active at night, but what else is interesting about them? More facts about mice can be found by clicking here.
What about baby mice?
When a mouse has a litter of babies, they must be taken care of for at least a few weeks, and if they’re born inside your house, it will be somewhere in the walls or floors where you can’t see them. How to get rid of mice in walls? Read here. A baby mouse needs its mother’s milk for about 21-28 days before it can be weaned. During this time, the baby will communicate its needs to the mother by squeaking. You might hear tiny squeaks as babies call to their mother to be taken care of. If there’s an entire litter of baby mice, the squeaking will be more pronounced.
Do Mice Make Any Other Sounds?
Since mice communicate at such a high-pitched level of squeaking, we actually don’t hear some of the sounds they make. Ultrasonic frequencies that we as humans can’t hear come out of mice as well, used in communication of different types. A mouse might emit an ultrasonic sound that other mice can hear, but we can’t, telling each other where the best food is or how to get in your house.
So you’ve seen a mouse during the day – does that mean they’re just as active in the day as at night? Are mice nocturnal? Find out here.
The different types of noise you might hear from them
Mice tend to be louder and more vocal during different times. At one point of the day, you might hear a squeak or two, and then an hour later, there may suddenly be much louder squeaking for no reason in particular.
Some squeaks might be sporadic, and some could be constant and loud. One mouse might have squeaks that are incredibly high-pitched, while another has a lower tone. Although all squeaking is high, mice are just like people in that they have different voices and talk to each other more at different times than others.
Times of the day you might hear a mouse
Undoubtedly, the most common time of day you’ll hear mice is at night. Rodents are nocturnal creatures, being most active from dusk through dawn. This means that they’ll also be communicating with each other during those times. Unfortunately for people, this happens to be the time when we’re most likely to be asleep, making it easy to miss the telltale squeaking tipping us off to the fact that we’ve got a mice infestation.
Just because mice are less active during the day doesn’t mean they’ll be less active at different times of the year.
What do mice sound like inside my house?
If you’re worried about mice inside your house, pay attention to key areas where they might be lurking:
- Inside the walls
- Crawl space
- Under floorboards
- Up in your attic
If there’s mice in there, you’ll hear tiny, sporadic little squeaks coming from their hiding place. Sometimes the squeaks last for quite a while as they have a conversation, and sometimes it’s only a squeak or two at a time.
What Does It Mean When Mice Squeak?
One thing is for sure: if you hear mice squeaking, then it doesn’t just mean you’ve got one mouse, it means you’ve got many. Since squeaking is for communication, they’ll only do it to talk to another mouse somewhat nearby.
But what are they even talking about?
There’s a few things that mice communicate when they squeak:
- Reproduction: Mice will speak to each other during reproduction more so than other situations. It may be louder and more frequent during these times.
- Danger: If there’s a threat, mice will frantically communicate that to one another.
- Mother to baby: Babies and mothers communicate to each other in the few weeks after birth. If the mother leaves, the babies might squeak more, calling out for her to come back.
If you hear squeaking in your home, pay attention. Notice where it’s coming from, when it happens, and what it sounds like so that you can know for sure if you’ve got a mice infestation going on. Then you can do something about it – exterminating them – and get back to a pest-free home again.
