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Examiner

It’s move-in time for mice

For you, fall is sweater season. For rodents, it’s time to head indoors.

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A look at rodents by the numbers.

> October marks the start of the peak sales period for rodent control products at Home Depot.

> Rats can squeeze through openings the size of a quarter.

> Mice can squeeze through openings the size of a dime.

> 42 to 60 — Number of offspring a female house mouse can produce annually

> 2020 — The next Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac

> 40% — Percentage of mammal species that are rodents

> 150 — Most rats ever found by Boston’s Inspectional Services Department in an occupied dwelling, a hoarder’s one-bedroom unit

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> 3 weeks — Time it took to eliminate the colony

> 29% — Percentage of US households that have had a problem with rats or mice at one time or another

> 35 % — Percentage of households in the Northeast that have had rodent troubles

> 21 million — Estimated number of US homes that will have rodents this fall or winter

Mice can squeeze through openings the size of a dime. Shutterstock/Andrey Lobachev

> Most common rodents in the Boston area Norway rats and house mice

> 16 inches — Typical length of a Norway rat, including tail

> 8 inches — Typical length of a house mouse

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” — Unknown (but not  Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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Sources: Orkin; National Wildlife Federation; Boston Inspectional Services Department; PestWorld.org; Home Depot