Do rodents eat insects?

The rodent family is large and varied. I takes up 40 percent of the worlds mammals ( that’s over 2000 creatures) including squirrels, guinea pigs, prairie dogs, capybara, rats, and mice, just to name a few. While most members of the rodent family tend to dine on seeds, nuts, fruits and grains, if there is a shortage of food, almost all rodents will become "opportunistic eaters". This means that they will consume anything available to keep from starving. This trait makes them omnivorous meaning both plants and animals are included in their diet. Because rodents tend to have voracious appetites, they can consume a vast array of agricultural crops; they become a serious problem for farmers, silos, and gardeners. In addition to grains, nuts, seeds, and fruits, rodents also eat leaves, stems, roots, bark, and fungi from plants as well as insects, amphibians, eggs, bugs, snakes, worms and a lot of other vertebrates and invertebrates. Rodents to live in groups, so all members of the community usually feed on the same things. The average rodent must eat constantly to support its metabolism rate.

A tiny mouse will eat about 5 grams of food per day, whereas a capybara (the largest rodent) must eat 6 to 8 pounds of food a day. When in your home, they are not fussy about whose food they eat. Rodents that invade your home will invade your cabinets, eat off dirty dishes, plunder the garbage, or eat from your pet’s bowl. In the wild, they raid nests and eat small birds and their eggs, insects, and their larva, amphibians, and grubs. This might be a danger the eco-system. There is also a threat to agriculture, from rodents marked propensity to feed on a wide variety of crops. They will feed on rice, wheat, and other grains as well as soy, and corn. The will strip bark from fruit and nuts trees, and eat fruit.



Most rodents breed prolifically, and tend settle near other animals make sure their group has an ongoing supply of food and water. All Rodents have teeth that grow continuously throughout their lives. Constant Chewing is the only way to keep their teeth worn down. This means that whether they live in your home, a barn, a warehouse, or in the wild, they are constantly gnawing on things. This could be your keepsakes, books, pipes, electrical wires, feed, grain, leather goods and fabrics or logs- it makes no difference to them. Rodents in or around your home can be a serious problem, because while they will eat insects, the amount they eat in no way makes u for the amount of destruction they can cause or diseases they can spread.

Read the Pest Wildlife Home Page page for helpful information and to learn more about Do rodents eat insects?

Do rodents eat insects?

© 2018 PestWildlife.com - Wildlife Control Education