Deer Mouse or House Mouse? Telling Them Apart
Albuquerque has both, and they don't call for the same level of caution. The house mouse is the everyday pest. The deer mouse is the one health agencies name as the main carrier of hantavirus here.
Here's how NMSU Extension and the state rodent guide describe them.
Side by side
Look at the color, the belly and the tail. A dead mouse in a trap is the easiest to check. Don't handle it without gloves.
- Deer mouse: tan or brown on top, white belly and throat
- Deer mouse: tail dark on top, light underneath
- House mouse: grayish brown on top, light cream below
- House mouse: tail about 3 to 4 inches, mostly bare
Where you found it
Both get indoors. The state guide says deer mice readily enter homes and outbuildings, and NMSU says they often move indoors in fall and winter. A mouse in a shed, cabin, barn or garage near open land has a good chance of being a deer mouse. A mouse in a kitchen in the middle of town is more likely a house mouse, but don't count on it.
Why it changes what you do
If it might be a deer mouse, skip glue boards and live-catch traps (the state guide advises against them for deer mice), and clean up with the soak-and-wipe method in our hantavirus cleanup guide. Honestly, it's simplest to treat every mouse cleanup that way.
Either way, the long-term fix is the same: trap and seal. See house mouse control and deer mouse control.
Also asked
Can I tell from the droppings?
Not reliably. Mouse droppings look much alike. Handle all of them as if they came from a deer mouse.