As October progresses, temperatures begin to fall, and furry not-so-friends begin to seek warmth and food inside your home.
“Each fall, mice and other rodents invade an estimated 21 million homes in the United States,” stated Orkin, a pest control company, in a statement. “They typically enter homes between October and February looking for food, water and shelter from the cold.”
Orkin crunched the numbers and identified the top 50 most rodent-infested cities. They used the number of new rodent treatments, both commercial and residential, from fall 2022 through summer 2023. They refer to it as their “rattiest cities” list. Chicago has “won” the rat race for the ninth time in a row.
Every winter, the majority of the top 50 cities experience freezing temperatures. Although Los Angeles, San Diego, Tampa and Miami made the list.
Rodents are disease carriers.
Those uninvited visitors carry diseases that can make you and your family sickAccording to the Centers for Disease Control, catching diseases like hantavirus and salmonella infections is as simple as breathing contaminated air, touching contaminated surfaces, then touching eyes, nose, or mouth, and eating food contaminated by a rodent..
Ticks, mites, and fleas that rodents bring in or bring in on your pet, spreading even more diseases. According to the National Pest Management Association, many of us are allergic to rodent proteins, which can cause allergies, respiratory issues, asthma, and asthma-like symptoms.
“Mice in particular are the worst offenders,” said Mike Bentley, Director of Education and Training for the National Pest Management Association. “And house mice shed two different proteins. One is in their urine, and another is in their hair dander. And mice defecate hundreds of times per day.”
Mice and rats communicate through pheromones in urine and droppings.
“As a result, you get hundreds of drops of urine per day.” “Of course, this adds up quickly, and mice reproduce quickly,” Bentley explained. “Within a few months, you could have a major problem with a large number of mice defecating regularly inside your home.” So the quantity of these airborne proteins builds up very quickly and start to have some pretty nasty side effects on your breathing.”
