5 Havocs of Rodent Infestation

What are the havocs of rodent infestation?

1. Not being able to completely exterminate an infestation will give the pests a chance to increase their numbers.
2. Rodents can deal a great amount of damage into materials such as wood, bircks, and pipes.
3. Rodent bites can bring about diseases like Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis, the Plague, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever, Weil’s Disease, and Q Fever.
4. Rodent droppings and urine can contaminate food, which can lead to more diseases.
5. Inhaling air contaminated by rat droppings and urine can also cause unwanted respiratory problems to your body.

Rodent infestation, or any kind of infestation in general, is usually farthest from our minds when we have a newly renovated or built house. Our minds are primed to enjoy the new amenities of our home. Later on, when we suddenly hear rats or mice scampering through the ceilings, ants crawling through cracked walls, or see that termites have taken shelter in our wooden floor panels or furniture, we panic.

Panicking will get you nowhere; it will only worsen the dire situation you are in. Infestations are one of the most destructive, costly, and sometimes deadly disasters that might occur in your home. One common infestation that happens to most people is rodent infestations.

It is where rodents (rats or mice) breed to uncountable numbers and make your house their home, and infect, destroy, and ultimately ruin your living quarters. The worst thing about experiencing a rodent infestation is that there are absolutely no signs whatsoever that they are living in your home until it is too late, and they have multiplied to large numbers.

Since panicking won’t help you, the first thing one should do when these problems arise is to call a pest control service so they can give you an analysis and deal with the current infestation/s. But aside from just getting a one-time, big-time transaction, families should be informed of the 5 dangers of leaving rat infestations untreated so they can schedule regular house fogging sessions. They are the following:

If left untreated, they breed.

Failing to eradicate infestations in the home mean these pests have more time to reproduce, increasing their number. An online article in Discover Magazine written by Liza Lentini and David Mouzon recorded that a pair of brown rats can have as many as 2,000 descendants annually if left unchecked. A family of 6 mice, can multiply into as much as 60 in 3 months, according to experts from crittercatchersinc.com. This number can reach over 240 in one year!

Leaving unknown insect infestations such as termites, and ants can be also harmful to your family. Having a large swarm of termites can be detrimental to wooden furniture. Ants, most especially fire ants, can cause very painful bites and various reactions if not dealt with properly. Remember that more pests, more problems.

They can damage furniture and your house.

Termites eat wood, weakening structures such as banisters, floor panels, chairs, and other wooden furniture. This is harmful, as using damaged wooden equipment often may wear it down, even more, break, and cause injury.

In the same article, Lentini and Mouzon wrote that rat’s two front teeth grow from as much as 4 and a half to 5 and a half inches each year. In order to control that, they gnaw on materials such as cement, brick, wood, pipes, and other small animals. So if you find dents or cracks in your walls, ceilings, or problems with your pipe system, it’s a possible sign you have an infestation.

Rodent bites are unpleasant.

Sure, they may look cute in pictures, but be careful not to let rats or mice bite you. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, infected rodent bites can transfer diseases such as Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis which will have long-lasting neurologic and ocular defects; aside from LCM, historically, rodent bites can also infect people with the plague – which does not need any explanation due to the infamy of this disease. Lentin and Mouzon also noted that other diseases transmitted to humans via rats are:

• Viral Hemorrhagic Fever – is an illness that is caused by viruses. It negatively affects many organs of the body, damage blood vessels, and to affect the body’s capability to regulate itself
• Weil’s Disease – A severe type of leptospirosis that has different symptoms, the most common ones are fever, chills, muscle aches, and nausea. On some extreme cases, it leads to organ failure and will eventually lead to death.
• Q Fever- Also known as the query fever, its symptoms are highly similar to that of the flu. However, when not treated immediately, it may lead to the damaging of different vital body organs, which will lower a person’s health quality.

Rodents can poison your food

Much like any living being, rodents also eat to survive. So, when there’s a rodent infestation in your home, you will notice that the food and beverage containers in your cupboards and pantry have holes in them; that is all due to the hunger of the rodents. This only necessitates the need for airtight containers that rodents could not get through because once they get into your food and beverage container, they may leave droppings and urine which will have negative results.

So, it is important for parents, children, adults, or anyone that lives in a household to remember that rat droppings and urine can contaminate food that is not sealed in airtight containers. Ingesting these foods unknowingly spreads diseases such as leptospirosis, rat-bite fever, salmonellosis or tularemia – which could bring disastrous results for everyone that ingests the contaminated food.

Rodents also contaminate the air

After everything that was mentioned in this article, even if you have switched to airtight containers or you have already got rid of the infestation, you are actually still prone to being infected with a disease. Direct contact isn’t necessary for rodents to pose as health risks to humans. Inhaling air tainted with either rat droppings, urine, or even the hair they shed from their bodies daily is enough to negatively affect your health. The unknown inhalation of contaminated air can give your a variety of illnesses such as:

• Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome – A rare but deadly lung infection that affects the totality of a person’s body. Some symptoms might include fever, nausea, vomiting, muscle ache, and the irregular beating of the heart. The primary cause of death for people with HPS is the fluid build-up in their lungs.
• Hemorrhagic Fever – See “Rodent bites are unpleasant” part
• Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis – See “Rodent bites are unpleasant” part

Key Takeaway

Rodent infestations are unsightly, disastrous, and destructive occurrences that no one should ever experience. So, people who are at least concerned with their homes – or even their families – must do regular inspections to know if they have an ongoing infection that needs to be controlled. However, most people do not know the first step in inspecting, avoiding, and controlling an infection, luckily there are pest control services that give out the best possible service for homeowners that need help.

On the other hand, if homeowners do not want to avail of pest control services, then they can use everything that was mentioned in this article; this is to help them avoid, inspect, and control any infestation that might occur. Homeowners must also be wary of everything that they ingest, breathe, or anything that they might have contact with. The most important thing that people forget is that preparation is key for these infestations, never wait for it to happen. You should already install precautions for these kinds of infestation so that you may avoid everything that we have highlighted in this article.