By Bobby Panza
Mouse trouble at home? There’s a scientific study for that. Led by Megan Pfifer-Rixey, Ph.D., an evolutionary biologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, a team is currently collecting mice from New York City to compare their lives to those of mice living in other cities and rural areas around New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Here’s your chance to have your pesky roommates removed from your apartment, house, or business — humanely, free of charge, and in the name of science.
West Side Rag recently spotted a “We want your mice” flyer at the West 79th Street and Broadway subway station and reached out, frankly, to see if it was for real.
“We’re interested in whether mice in urban areas behave differently than mice in rural areas,” said Pfifer-Rixey on a phone interview with West Side Rag. “Over time, those differences can shape how populations evolve and adapt.”
The team is hoping to capture at least 15 mice in New York City for their first collection season. They plan to collect mice again next year to fill in any gaps of information and cover boroughs not reached this time around. This will give them a robust representation for their study, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Here’s how it works: the collection team sets up traps, baited with peanut butter and oats. “Turns out peanut butter is a great bait for a lot of reasons and the oats keep it from getting sticky,” said Pfifer-Rixey, the mouse hunter with a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Click on the link to see the traps they use, designed not to hurt the mice. The next morning, they pick up the traps and take the mice away.
Typically, in apartments, two to five traps are set, depending on the space. What’s the greatest number of mice they’ve ever caught in a single New York City night so far? Pfifer-Rixey said they’ve mostly been trapping singles. When it comes to collecting in rural areas, though, it’s a different ball game. “It doesn’t happen all the time but every so often we’ll get like 10 mice at one farm in one night,” she said.
Let’s face it, New Yorkers, we know from experience that we have a very distinctive bunch of rodents around here. One of Pfifer-Rixey’s teammates, Jason Munshi-South, Ph.D, worked on a study at Fordham University, which found that New York City has genetically distinct uptown and downtown rats. Their work scored them a 2017 article in The Atlantic, which described the effort as “the most comprehensive genetic portrait of the city’s most dominant rodent population.” The study got so granular that Matthew Combs, a Fordham graduate student working on it, said, “If you gave us a rat, we could tell whether it came from the West Village or the East Village.”
One of the variables the Pfifer-Rixey’s team will be examining is the diet of urban versus rural mice and the metabolic effects. “Urban mice will be eating more people food,” she pointed out. Another focus is mouse movement and willingness to explore. “We’re looking to see if they’re willing to cross an open field or whether they prefer to hide out.” They’re also interested in mouse stress levels and the extent to which they can be measured. Pfifer-Rixey thinks there’s a reasonable expectation that mice in urban areas are more comfortable in close contact with humans.
If mice are getting too close for your comfort, email Megan Pfifer-Rixey and her team at WeWantMice@gmail.com to have them gently taken away. This study could still be years away from conclusion, but we’ll be checking in with the team to see if they can share any developments along the way.
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We had mice last year and could not get peanut butter to work as bait. Our exterminator told us that city mice have developed “neophobia” and are extremely suspicious of new foods. No idea if they really are more suspicious of foods like peanut butter than their country cousins but if they have access to lots of food on the street every night it would make sense that they can afford to be picky!
I have not had any experience with mice in my own apartment but a friend who lived in a Very Fancy Fifth Avenue Coop near the Met Museum had an annual infestation starting every November, when the weather turned colder. Apparently the little creatures opted to come inside then to enjoy the warmth (and maybe share Thanksgiving dinner). Perhaps the Drexel biologists should plan their NYC capture for a couple of months from now?
A cat, while not free, provides long-term rodent deterrence.
And they make good lap warmers.
It’s my understanding that rats eat mice, if this is true, having mice may be a good sign that you do not have rats.
So, the traps don’t hurt the mice, but what happens to them during these “experiments”? I’m guessing nothing good 😡
They just move to New Jersey. How bad could it be?
I was thinking the same thing. What is the fate of these mice ?