Why are rats and mice associated with cheese?

I was told by a pest control professional that they do not even like cheese. But they do love peanut butter They also like food with high sugar content.

The cartoons started all that nonsense years ago. Perhaps the cheese companies paid advertising fees for the privilege.

As far as I was aware, cheese can make rats and mice quite sick.

I don’t really see any reason they’d have such an association. It’s probably just from cartoons.

the association is more of advertising rather than fact. rats and mice don’t necessarily fall for cheese although some maybe because they smell delicious. cheese which smell like rat milk, ah, mice do love it.

@Violet You are so right. I had a mouse problem years ago and found that peanutbutter worked well on the trap. Bacon worked even better though. There were a few mornings that I woke up, checked the trap and found that all the peanutbutter had been licked off. Crafty little devils!!!

The same reasons that humans are associated and addicted to pizza. there are two great smells in the world….....doughnuts cooking and pizza baking. these smells drive me crazy. apparently, cheese has the same effect on mice. i wonder if mice prefer cheddar cheese or will any ol’ cheese fill the bill?

@john65pennington don’t forget the smell of baking bread!!! That one gets me every time!!

“humans are associated and addicted to pizza.”

This I do believe is true.

Mice don’t like cheese?! Well, that’s news.

Mice and rats will eat anything that is left out, cheese has a very strong smell so it is easy to find. I don’t know how they used to store cheese before modern refrigeration. It would I think it was left in pantries being and a easy meal for our squeaky friends. I used to have a pet mouse. When they would escape from their cages I would put a slice of cheese in a jar. He would come out of hiding and go in for a bite and I’d scoop him up.