The House Mouse (An Luch)--: The house mouse is so called because it is often found in our houses. A house mouse is usually smaller than the field mouse and is usually a much darker brown with no reddish or yellowish colour on the upper parts. The under parts are grey, with a yellowish shine. One thing you will notice about a house mouse is that it has a long grey tail. Although known as the house mouse, it spends much if the year living in such places such as fields, hedgerows, and scrubland and along the edges of forests and on waste ground and in the garden. They will eat anything usually but the normally eat grasses and plants and whatever they can find in peoples houses. When living in the heat of a house, where food is plentiful, up to 10 litters a year are born. The young can look after themselves at 3 weeks and mature at 6 weeks. Although they may live up 2 years, it is believed that few survive. If there is a cat nearby they would not survive very long at all. 

There is often a musky smell in our outhouse from the house mouse, a smell that field mice do not leave. When field mice go to live in a house in winter the house mouse is usually driven out.  Normally, they live close to people and in autumn may depend on people for food and warmth.  This is the time of the year that they sneak into our houses and settle in for the winter. In the house they come out at night looking for food. You can always tell they are about, as they nibble packets and wrappings.  They also leaved droppings after them. 

When we see signs of mice in the house, my father gets out the mousetrap and warns us not to touch it, in case we catch our fingers in it. We sometimes come down in the morning to see a dead mouse in the trap. He puts cooked rashers as bait. My Mother hates to come down in the morning to see a dead mouse in the trap. She calls my father to dump him outside. I once stepped on a mouse, as he was under the carpet. His guts were all over the place. My father then puts them in the bin. My mother hates them. She says they are real dirty, but they are very clean animals. They mainly move about at night. 

We often hear them when we are in bed, as they make scratching noises under the floorboards. When we get mice my Mam jumps up on a chair. In winter the mice come in to our house. My Mam hates them. They root around the kitchen looking for food. A boy in our class has a pet mouse.

Jimmy Coffey

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