Mouse Infestation Puts NJ Families at Serious Risk

Posted on 09.17.11 in New Jersey Pest Control, Rodents

In the last century, more than 10 million people have died from diseases and plagues carried by rats and mice. Most people are aware of the health risks rats pose. Historically, rats have been the vehicle for transmission of some of the Earth’s most fearsome pandemics. Rats carried the fleas that transmitted bubonic plaque, the dreaded Black Death that killed 60% of Europe’s population and exterminated one-quarter of the world’s total population in the mid-14th century. People, rightfully, associate rats with death and disease and are quick to contact licensed NJ pest control companies at the first sign of a rat slinking around their property.

Unfortunately, most people don’t associate the same level of risk with the rat’s smaller and equally dangerous cousin, the mouse. Perhaps because they have been “Disneyfied” and are sold as pets, mice have a cuteness factor that fails to elicit the same kind of fear and loathing people feel for rats. No one likes a mouse in the house, but many NJ home owners are less concerned about a mouse in the garage. New Jersey mouse control experts warn that taking a laissez-faire attitude toward mouse control can place your family at considerable risk.

Mice are a public health menace. Those cute little mice that nibble on the birdseed and pet food bags stored in your garage transmit potentially life-threatening diseases including salmonella, toxoplasmosis, Hantavirus, infectious jaundice, murine typhus and Rickettsial pox. Their presence exposes your family to fleas, mites, tapeworms, Lyme disease-bearing ticks and other disease-carrying parasites.

The problem with a mouse in the garage is their rapid reproduction rate. A single pregnant mouse entering your garage in September can turn into an infestation of 125 to 250 mice by March, forcing mice into your home to forage for food and water. Don’t place your family at risk. At the first sign of mice, call a NJ mouse control expert.