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Some mice and rats can carry harmful diseases, such as HPS, Leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, plague, and typhus. The best way to protect you and your family from these diseases is to keep mice and rats out of your home.
Introduced rodents can: Carry diseases such as leptospirosis and typhus fever. Contaminate food with their hair, droppings and urine, resulting in food poisoning and spoilage.
When rats and mice enter your home, they bring a number of pathogens along with them. Worldwide, rodents are known to spread over 35 diseases to humans, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); rats are responsible for many of them.
Rats can also carry a viral disease that is released when dried feces, urine or saliva break up. That virus can be inhaled, causing respiratory illness. That's why it is so important to carefully clean up any evidence of a rat or mouse.
Disease in people can range from no symptoms/mild illness to kidney problems, headaches, upset stomachs, and in severe cases bleeding from internal organs and the skin. While serious disease is rare, some studies suggest that 34% of pet rat owners will test positive for previous hantavirus infection.
Food products are a prime target for rats and mice. Avoid leaving pet food outside; pick up any fallen fruit and nuts (these along with grains are among their favourite things to eat); keep compost covered; and store bulk foods in air-tight sealed containers.
Sugar cane fields in Australia's northern Queensland are overrun with rats, threatening one of the region's most valuable crops. The infestation follows a period of heavy rain which boosted plant growth, creating ideal conditions for the rodents to reproduce exponentially.
One of the main reasons rats are often unwelcome house guests is that they can carry pathogens that may transmit disease to humans, including hantavirus. Some of these pathogens can be transmitted through the rat's urine and droppings, which become airborne as they break down and contaminate other dust particles.
There are two main things that can attract mice and rats to your house – food and shelter. If you don't tidy up properly and there's food waste on the floor or surfaces, rodents are going to love it! Rats and mice also need shelter, particularly during winter to avoid the worst of the cold.
Any remaining rats inside the walls of your home will get hungry and thirsty since we have blocked all entry & exits. Rats can only survive within 5 to 7 days without food or water. Removing the walls is just a matter of a few days.
Rat Poop Carries Hantaviruses
“New World” hantaviruses — those found in the Americas — may cause diseases like hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). HPS is a severe respiratory disease with a mortality rate of 38%. Early symptoms of HPS include fever and muscle aches, especially in the back, hips, shoulders, and thighs.
The smell of a dead rat can be harmful to a person's health due to the toxic gases and microscopic compounds of the dead animal that are constantly being released into the indoor air. Since most homes are not consistently ventilated, the gases permeate into the respiratory tract and can potentially cause illness.
A good way to control pest rodents is to maintain good hygiene and eliminate possible food, water and shelter sources for them. Pest control operators will usually use rodenticides to control pest rodents.
Hantavirus: Once thought to be rare this disease has been identified in rodents across Australia. This serious and potentially fatal disease is spread through inhalation of dust that contains urine, saliva, or droppings.
They will travel an area of about 30-50 metres from their burrows or nests in search of food or water.
Rats cannot tolerate smells such as ammonia, mothballs, peppermint oil, crushed cayenne pepper, and pepper spray due to their intensified sense of smell. Clean and uncluttered homes and yards scare rats due to the lack of food and places to hide, as well.
Keeping your home clean, particularly your kitchen, discourages a rat infestation. Rats and mice will also rummage through trash to find food. You should cover and remove waste from your home to deter rats from exploring your garbage.
One option could be to perfume your home with scents that rats hate, like ammonia or the smell of mothballs (although mothballs can be toxic to humans, too). Other options include peppermint, eucalyptus and citronella, although none of them have been proven to be effective against rats.
Rat bites and scratches can result in disease and rat-bite fever. Rat urine is responsible for the spread of leptospirosis, which can result in liver and kidney damage. It can also be contracted through handling or inhalation of scat. Complications include renal and liver failure, as well as cardiovascular problems.
If you do make contact, wash the affected body part thoroughly with soap and water. To clean areas where rats may have been, use one part household bleach and 10 parts water, which kills the leptospirosis bacteria. Wear gloves and goggles.
Early symptoms include fatigue, fever and muscle aches, especially in the large muscle groups—thighs, hips, back, and sometimes shoulders. These symptoms are universal. There may also be headaches, dizziness, chills, and abdominal problems, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.