One of the most unsettling thoughts about having a mouse in the house is that rodents can carry bacteria that can actually get you and your family memebers sick. By getting into your food, or even your pet’s food, the rats or mice can spread diseases to anyone who eat after them. Rodents can fit into the most narrow of tunnels and flatten themselves to go under the thinnest spaces to get to food, water, and safety. They have to constantly chew on things like wooden furniture or hard plastics into order to keep their ever-growing teeth filed down at a comfortable level. If you have young children, you know that it is difficult to keep them from putting their mouths on everything. If they pick up a toy or something that has been chewed on by a rodent and put it in their mouths, the bacteria left behind by the rat or mouse can be spread to your child.
Rodent risks
Rodents who are exposed to diseases like hantavirus can then become carriers of the disease, potentially spreading it to people. Hantavirus symptoms start off looking similarly to the flu but lead to breathing difficulties, causing a bigger risk to people’s health. According to the CDC, hantavirus can be spread through the droppings, urine, or saliva of rodents. People can be exposed to hantavirus by eating contaminated food and breathing contaminated dust particles from rodent droppings that could be floating in the air.
Prevention is key
Keeping rodents out of your home so they can’t spread diseases to you, your family, or your pets is best. Battling a rodent infestation can be difficult to eradicate. Taking some time to rodent proof your home goes a long way. Prevention tips such as:
- Keeping all garbage in trash cans with a good lid
- Wipe down countertops and sweep after each meal
- Seal up an potential entry points around your home or roof that are larger than ¼ of an inch
- Remove any piles of debris around your home such as leaf piles or wood stacks where rodents may make nests
Call a rodent control pro
If you are worried that you may have a rodent infestation or you want to make sure you never have one, set up a regular pest inspection with a pest control company that you trust. A rodent control pro will check your home routinely for potential entry points and repair any they find, as well as check for evidence of rodents. If any chew marks or dropping are found, a pest pro will set out bait traps around the exterior of your home so as not to attract more rodents while eliminating the problem.
If you live in San Diego County and want the very best rodent control to prevent mice and rats from bringing harmful diseases into your home, give Nixtermite a call today.
