Do Mice Eat Ants? (+ Other Insects/Bugs)

Wondering, do mice eat ants? Do you have a problem with ants and/or mice in and around your home?

Or, you might have a pet mouse and you’re wondering if you can feed them some ants?

Either way, the answer is yes – mice do eat ants.

They eat most small insects, as well as most fruits, almost any scraps, grains, and some other things as I’ll explain in this article.

What Do Mice Eat?

If you have pet mice, you should feed them a quality mix formulated for mice and small rodents as well as some healthy treats.

Wild mice eat a much wider variety of things as they have to survive by finding and eating whatever they can.

Mice are omnivorous, which means they eat foods of both plant and animal origin.

Outdoors they will typically eat grains, seeds, and small insects for the most part. If they find their way into a home, their noses will make them head to the kitchen where they’ll eat any crumbs they can find.

One of the insects they eat is ants. Ants are a perfect size, and they provide protein, carbs, and some of the other nutrition mice need.

Related – What to feed pet mice.

What Other Insects Do Wild Mice Eat?

WIld mice eat just about any insect they can catch, overpower, and eat without it causing harm to them.

Some of the insects commonly eaten include:

• Caterpillars
• Beetles
• Butterflies
• Flies
• Worms
• Grasshoppers
• Crickets
• Snails
• Spiders

On one hand, you could look at wild mice as helping rid your garden of creepy crawlies and pests. But for most people, they don’t want mice in their yard as it’s one step closer to their homes.

You can’t have it both ways. I say let the wildlife ecosystem in your yard manage itself.

Related – Do mice eat spiders?

Have Ants Been Eating Your Mouse Bait?

A common problem when trying to catch mice with food as bait is that other insects like ants will also eat it.

One of the best foods to catch mice is peanut butter. Despite what you may have seen on TV, cheese is not the one food mice can’t resist.

Some mice will pass on cheese, believe it or not. But I’ve never seen a mouse pass on peanut butter, they simply can’t resist it.

Neither can ants though.

If you’re dealing with an ant and a mouse problem, I suggest using ant traps at strategic points to catch the ants. Then using humane mice traps to catch mice.

Ants are less likely to pass their own trap, while a mouse will simply pass it by. So, by setting them out in this order you have more chance of catching them both.

In Summary

Mice do eat ants, yes. As well as a whole host of other insects they come across.

I wouldn’t say having a few mice in your yard is going to keep the ant population under control or anything like that. But they will gobble them up and reduce their numbers.

If you’re facing an ant or mice problem in your home, you need to tackle both of these pests in a similar way.

Check for entry points around your doors, windows, and the parameter of your home. Seal up any holes, no matter how small they are.

Give your floors a good clean to remove the smell of food and any crumbs, and lock away food that they may be able to get to. If you remove the food source, that’s half the battle.

Then it’s a matter of trapping and reducing the numbers.

Or, you could just call pest control and let them deal with it! 

Resources

Image credits – Header image by Alexas_Fotos, caterpillar image by 12019 from Pixabay