The Dangerous Affect Mice Can Have on Your Home
Despite their often cute and seemingly innocuous nature mice can be extremely dangerous once they have made their way into your home. If even a single mouse has infiltrated your home it can cause serious damage to your personal belongings, and ingesting food infected by either feces or urine can cause serious health problems and even death. It is important to read all information concerning rodent identification and control before proceeding in cleaning and exterminating an infected home.
Rodent: Facts about Mice
Due to a rodent’s nocturnal nature it may be hard to identify if you have a mice or a rat problem. Mice are only about 3-4 inches in length from head to tail, contain large ears, furry tails, and can be white brown or grey in color. Mice are often thought of as small rat-like rodents. Mice are small and can fit through even smaller spaces. In opposition, rats are large and can reach up to 2 feet in length, have hairless tails and pointed snouts. Further evidence that you have an intruder will be black feces, the size of a grain of rice, sounds of them running or squeaking and belongings that appear to be chewed on. Types of mice include the house mouse, the deer mouse, and the field mouse.
Mice like to choose a small, dry area such as cabinets or drawers in order to build their nests, and like all mammals produce live offspring. If your home houses a pair of mice or even a pregnant female, then infestation will quickly grow out of hand putting you and your health in serious danger. Just 20 days after mating a female mouse will give birth to a litter, and if gone undetected can produce up to 10 litters a year meaning over 200 potential offspring. After birth it only takes the new mice two months before becoming sexually mature.
Identify If Mice Have Invaded Your Home
Evidence that you may have intruder can often be found in physical belongings. Mice can chew through just about anything such as electrical wiring, which can result in an electrical fire, or if they have chewed through wiring to a freezer or fridge then spoiled food will be the result. Mice often chew through furniture and plastic.
Mice are always on the hunt for food. They look for food high in protein and fat such as nuts, seeds, grain, bacon, butter or sweets. To get to these food sources mice are great climbers and jumpers and can get to any food that has been left out on the counter. Mice will leave trails of urine in order to find their way back into their nests, therefore they may urinate or defecate on your floors, carpets and kitchen counters. If either of these comes into contact with your food or is somehow otherwise ingested then you may contract a disease or virus that can be potentially fatal. You may contract salmonellosis or hantavirus. Salmonellosis is bacterial food poisoning and symptoms include fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea. Hantavirus, which is similar to influenza, symptoms include fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting and shortness of breath. If not caught in its early stages, hantavirus can be fatal within just a few days.
You may contract salmonellosis or Hantavirus. Salmonellosis is bacterial food poisoning and symptoms include fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea. Hantavirus, which is similar to influenza, symptoms include fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting and shortness of breath. If not caught in its early stages Hantavirus can be fatal within just a few days.
Cleaning and Disposal of Mice Droppings
To avoid severe health problems it is important to clean and dispose of mouse droppings properly. If you happen to find droppings in your home clean up only after you have put on thick gloves and a tight face mask as hantavirus can be contracted just by breathing in particles of mouse droppings. Therefore it is important to avoid sweeping or vacuuming these droppings, as it spreads the particles further. Instead, you should pick them up and deposit them in trash bags that are immediately taken out of the house. Remember to wash your hands for several minutes after cleaning.
Call EKA at 09799982286 and schedule an appointment today if you suspect that mice have invaded your home. Do not hesitate to call.
Information on Rats
A rat infestation can be a huge problem to both your home and your health as rats can carry up to 70 different types of diseases some of which may be lethal including the Bubonic or Black Plague. If you believe that you may have a rat problem it is important to educate yourself on how to identify special indicators that may point to a rat infestation, and to learn how to properly treat and dispose of anything that may have been infected by these pests.
Facts about Rats
Due to a rodent’s nocturnal nature it may be hard to identify if you have a mice or a rat problem. Mice are only about 3-4 inches in length from head to tail, contain large ears, furry tails and can be white, brown or grey in color. In opposition, rats are large and can reach up to 2 feet in length, have hairless tails, pointed snouts and large feet. Further evidence that you have an intruder will be black feces, sounds of them running or squeaking, dark grease marks on the carpet or on furniture and belongings that appear to be chewed on. Rodents have soft cartilage and therefore they can fit into tiny spaces, even some spaces the size of a quarter. The main types of rodents that are most likely to inhabit your home are the Norway rat, and the Roof or Black rat.
Rats can enter a home through a number of different ways including climbing nearby trees to get onto the roof of your home and into attics, lofts, wall voids, air vents, and even through sewers and porches. Once inside they will chew on plastic or wood in order to saw down their constantly growing front teeth which can eventually cause structural damage to your home. Unfortunately, chances are that if you have evidence that your home may be a nesting ground for one rat then you may have an infestation of several rats. If this is the case, the number of males inside of a colony affects mating and the rate of growth of the rat infestation. If there is only a single male and several females then that male will mate with all of the females, but if there are several males then they will mate based on their social dominance in a hierarchy. Rats are mammals and female Norway rats can have up to 4 to 7 live litters in a year, through continuous breeding and produce up to 8 to 12 pups per litter resulting up to an average of 50 new rats from a single source. Roof rats produce at much the same rate and can produce up to 40 new pups from one female.
Rodent Diseases and the Severe Health Problems They Cause
The largest problem with a rat infestation is that your ability to contract a serious virus or a disease is extremely high. If you find evidence that you may have a rat through what looks like rat feces or even by finding a rat carcass then it is important to prevent any unsuspecting person or children from coming near before the area is disinfected and cleaned. First, put on old clothes, heavy gloves and a mask. Then open nearby windows to air out any odor and disinfect the feces, or dead body and any surrounding surfaces that the rat may have touched. Afterwards, discard the body, or feces, gloves, mask and old clothes immediately, and wash your hands for several minutes. It is extremely important to follow these exact instructions due to the possibility of contracting the deadly Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome through ingestion of particles that the rat or feces may exude. HPS can cause renal syndrome, tachycardia, andtachypnea, and symptoms include what may feel like the flu that will develop into difficulty to breath. If you feel these symptoms it is important to go to the hospital immediately as HPI can cause death if not caught early and even then it has a low survival rate.
Handling a Rodent Infestation
Evidence of a rat infestation often causes people to try to treat the problem themselves with store bought rat poisons, but even coming into contact with some poisons can be extremely dangerous to humans. Therefore, it is important to let a professional exterminator handle any infestations. This will ensure not only that you and your family stay healthy, but will ensure that the infestation is completely eliminated.
Call EKA Pest Control at 09799982286 and schedule an appointment today if you suspect that rodents have invaded your home.
