Benefits Of Rodent Control

In our Atlanta service area, we see lots of rodent problems. Some are simple. Some are not so simple. But the worst kind of rodent problem is the kind that goes on for months, or even years, without a home or business owner realizing rodents are the cause. Here are some of the ways mice or rats may be affecting you.

  • If you don’t feel well, it may be rodents and not the flu. Often, rodent-borne illness is misdiagnosed as the flu or the common cold.
  • Mice and rats are good climbers and are able to jump a foot to two feet straight up. When they get into a home, it isn’t hard for them to find their way onto food prep surfaces and, since the mouse climbing on your counters and cutting boards is probably the same mouse that was climbing in your trash, this could lead to sickness.
  • When mice and rats get into a home or business and invade food storage areas they can contaminate food. Usually, this will not go unnoticed. It is hard to miss a package that has been chewed on–but it can happen. When it does, contaminated food can cause stomach illness to occur. If the illness isn’t connected to rodents, it can persist.
  • Rodents chew holes, and these holes give them access to places you wouldn’t expect, like the inside of your silverware drawer. That drawer may look like it is sealed, but there is often open access to drawers from behind. Rodents take full advantage of this.

If you have a tick, lice, flea, or mite infestation, rodents may be to blame.

  • When we get lice, the first thing we think is that our kids picked it up from someone at school. That lice couldn’t have started in “our” home. But, rodents can bring lice into a home on their fur.
  • If you have a flea infestation, but no dog, you’re probably scratching your head, along with those flea bites. But rodents crawl all around your home while you’re sleeping, and this can spread flea eggs everywhere.
  • If you have a house fire that can’t be traced to faulty wiring or a curling iron left plugged in, it might be rodents. When mice and rats crawl around in your walls, they chew. This can cause a wire to be severed and a fire to occur.

There are more examples we could give, but you probably get the point. The benefit of expert rodent control is simple. When you have an experienced and educated pest professional remove and seal out rodents, you don’t have to wonder if rodents are to blame when something goes wrong.

Are Rodents Dangerous?

Have you ever had someone excitedly say to you, “Hey, guess what! A whole bunch of rodents have moved in with us!” No? Why not? Could it be that no one in history has ever enjoyed having rodents invade their space? After all, they are creepy, dirty–and they steal food while you’re sleeping. But rodents, even if they are only outside your house, are not only a nuisance, they can pose some pretty serious dangers.

Rodents bring parasites and disease:

Rodents are foraging animals, and their travels bring them to places such as garbage dumps, trash cans, sewers, dumpsters and the like. This means they pick up all sorts of filth, harmful parasites and bacteria, as well as diseases. Do you really want these nasty creatures hanging out in your yard or inside your home?

Mice and rats can carry a whole host of parasites both on and inside their bodies. Some of these parasites are fleas, fur mites, lice, ticks and worms. The worst of these are fleas because fleas have the capacity to transmit the plague which, although relatively rare today, killed 25 million people in less than 5 years during the middle ages. And, even if it doesn’t kill you in these modern days, it is still no fun to have.

Rodents also carry some pretty scary diseases, some being fatal in extreme cases. A few of the diseases rodents can carry include hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, plague (as mentioned), rat-bite fever, salmonellosis, and tularemia. Some can be contracted simply by breathing in dust that is contaminated by rodent urine or droppings. Others are contracted by eating food that is contaminated. And some require direct contact with a dead, infected, rodent carcass, or an actual bite from the infected animal.

Dangers rodents pose to your home:

When rodents such as mice, rats, or squirrels, make their way into your house, not only do they chew holes in the walls, they can cause all sorts of other problems. They leave their urine and droppings which can build up and cause a terrible odor, and they chew on everything in sight. Since they have teeth that never stop growing, they have to chew. They chew on insulation, walls, treasured keepsakes in your attic and wires. The worst of these is wires because there is a distinct possibility of fire risk if these rodents chew on live wires.

Dangers rodents pose to your car:

Did you know that hundreds of thousands of vehicles are damaged by rodents each and every year? It’s true. Mice will make nests under the hood and happily chew away at wires, creating all sorts of problems. One article in 2011 reported a vehicle that required over $3,000 in repairs because rodents chewed up the body harness. That’s some pretty serious cash to be shelling out!

If you are seeing rodents, or rodent signs, in or around your property, it is time to call in the professionals. It is possible to avoid the costly damages that rodents can cause by getting year-round pest control from Active Pest Control. With this convenient plan, not only will we take care of rodents on your property, but a whole host of other household pests as well.

Rodents Are Bad Business

It is commonly accepted that if you run a business that produces, stores, transports or sells food products, a rodent control plan isn’t just a good idea; it’s essential. But one storage company in Marietta, GA is learning that these pests can affect the reputation of any business.

No business wants to ever have news crews show up at their door and painstakingly film rodent droppings littered everywhere, but that is just what happened to Public Storage on Austell Road in Marietta, when WXIA 11 Alive out of Atlanta reporter Valerie Hoff showed up looking into an issue one customer was having with her storage unit. While the woman was away, rodents got into the unit and left their droppings and urine everywhere. On the floor. On her mattresses. Everywhere. She said all of her stuff was in that unit and that she can’t even imagine sleeping on those mattresses that the rodents had been all over.

A rodent problem can quickly turn into a PR nightmare. The first question a news agency wants to know is, “Who is responsible?” Their job is to probe and uncover things that may be of danger to the community. Here is what viewers now believe about this storage company.

  • The woman had no food in her storage unit that would have lured the pests in. This makes her a victim in the eyes of the viewer.
  • Entry points that a rodent could exploit were found on site, this makes the company appear negligent and in disrepair.
  • The company did not offer to pay the woman for her belongings, but referred her to a 3rd party insurance company, who offered her $150, which is less than one month’s storage fee. This is probably standard practice in the industry, but it still makes this storage company look like it doesn’t protect its customers.
  • Officials for the company were unavailable for comment, implying guilt.
  • The news team took note of a couple of rat traps on the property, which were obviously ineffectual at preventing the problem. This shows viewers that the company was aware of the problem, but its strategy for fixing it was shown to be meager and ineffective.

Don’t let your company get caught up in this kind of PR nightmare. At Active Pest Control, we offer the best rodent protection and Integrated Pest Management in the industry. Our specialists have the knowledge, experience and certifications to fully exclude rodents from your business. No matter what type of business you own, a rodent problem can quickly come back to bite you. Protect your brand with guaranteed and award-winning pest control from Active Pest Control.