By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — In the weeks before Christmas, the mice are anything but quiet.

In fact, the mice have been brazen.

The mice, which have settled comfortably inside the Naples Town Hall, have even made appearances during the day, according to Naples Town Manager John Hawley.

“They don’t wait until night to come out. We see them during the day,” he said. “I have one staff that lets me know when she sees one.”

On Dec. 10, Hawley told the Naples Board of Selectmen about the mice problem and how to resolve it.

“We have always had mice here,” he said. “Like it has been for most [households], the mice have been ridiculous this fall.”

Hawley said that the solution was to turn to a professional pest control company.

The initial cost is $1,500 for trapping the rodents and also for emptying and rebaiting the traps, Hawley said. In the following years, it would be $1,000, he said.

“They come in, get rid of the dead mice in the traps and rebait them. They do the stuff that nobody else wants to do,” he said.

The webpage for one pest management company explains why mice are attracted to homes and public buildings.

“Homeowners throughout Southern Maine can experience rodent infestation all year long. However, it is in the fall when the temperatures begin to fall, that mice, in particular, will become more and more common inside homes,” the webpage said. “They are just looking for a warm place to live, nest, and raise their young, a place that offers them shelter and accessibility to food and water.”

The problem is that these rodents pose health hazards to humans and can cause damage to buildings in the process of building their nests.