RODENT CLEANUP
Includes: nesting materials, droppings, biohazards, and decontamination
Explore the reasons why having Mice and Rat droppings and contamination cleaned up is a good idea. Learn why hiring a professional company that specializes in rodent cleanup is best.
What is left behind
First, when droppings, urine and blood staining, hair, oil secretions, nesting materials, seeds and nuts are allowed to remain in a home mice instantly recognize it as familiar. They feel at home when they see this sign and very comfortable. Mice and Rats hoard and store food all over homes in wall voids, drop ceilings, under insulation, in your garage and attic and even under kitchen appliances. This stored food can compete with bait or traps and is a reason why sometimes these control efforts seem to not be working.
Health concerns and personal experience
It is common for droppings to gather on heating system ductwork as the flat, sometimes warm surface is a convenient way for rodents to move about a basement or attic. Ductwork is box shape sheetmetal sections joined together roughly every five or eight feet by strips of sheet metal or round sections of pipe pressed together. Neither of these are completely airtight.
I have seen homes with this ductwork with large amounts of mice droppings on the ducts and the droppings, dust and spores from them find their way into the ductwork which is the air stream going into the home anytime the heat or air conditioning is on and everyone in the home getting sick, being treated with antibiotic's, feeling better only to repeatably fall sick again with the healthcare professionals treating them never realizing the cause of their sickness. Typically, unless you tell your health care provider you were cleaning up mice droppings right before you fell ill, they are not going to test your blood for rodent related disease's.
Besides Allergies, Asthma attacks, Salmonella and other concerns, mice and rats are know to sometimes carry over 35 diseases with a few of the most common listed here.
Hantavirus, is spread by white footed or deer mice, one of the species in CT. Once a western concern made its first known appearance in CT in 2016 and has also been detected in New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Long Island and New Jersey and seems to be gaining a foothold more in the northeast. It is a disease you can get from infected rodents or their droppings.
Hantavirus is more commonly recognized, in part because it can be fatal but there are other serious diseases linked to mice and their droppings.
Lymphocytic Choriomeningtis or (LCM)
Primarily associated with house mice. The other species of mouse here in CT. LCM infections occur after exposure to droppings, urine, secretions, and nesting materials from infected mice. Also a serious disease with a wide range of effects on humans including neurological damage.
Plauge
Plauge is a disease that is transmitted from fleas that are on the rat or mouse that then bite humans. It is known to manifest in different types such as Bubonic plague, Septicemic plague and Pneumonic plague each with its own unique symptoms.
CLEAN UP WITH THE PROPER EQUIPMENT, PROCEDURES AND EXPERIENCE.
When we are talking about large amounts of droppings, often in difficult places to reach, a commercial HEPA vacuum such as the type rated for asbestos is our tool of choice. Not all HEPA vacuums carry the same rating or level of certification and a slip-in HEPA filter for a shop vacuum from a big box store are usually not rated for this level of work. We have hoses that reach over 100 feet and often our vacuum units will not even need to go into the home.
Blood, oil and urine stains are some of the toughest stains remove and require special solutions designed to address them. We can usually remove them from non porous surfaces such as vapor barriers, ductwork, stored items, paneling or tiles surfaces, porcelain, metal and more. Porous surfaces such as concrete can be impossible to remove from however.
We also incorporate fogging machines to spread disinfectants thoroughly in hard to reach areas.
In addition, damaged items and insulation can be removed if needed.
Our technicians not only where the appropriate respirators and suits needed for this type of work but can isolate other parts of the home with plastic sheeting if it is more of an open floot plan.
It is important to consider this type of work only after the current rodents have been removed and the home sealed up so as to prevent future rodent entry. We always start with a baiting program adjusted to your home with our preferred bait being SELONTRA a soft bait that is not an anticoagulant but a stop feed bait that is safe for birds of prey and animals should they consume a rodent who has eaten the bait.
Once the bait has eliminated the rodents we focus on sealing the entry points, also called exclusion work. Only after this is clean up recommended.
We have the knowledge and ability to preform this work safely and properly. For years the pest industry seemed stuck in the "continue to throw bait at rodent problems" with not much thought given to sealing up the home or the clean up afterwards. We changed that years ago when we decided mice were really the same as any other animal like a bat or a squirrel where you naturally want to close openings after the animals have been removed. Why shouldn't the same process apply to mice and rats? That is our focus.