One or two mice scurrying around the office may not seem like a big deal. They won’t eat much, right? The truth is, those two mice can wreak havoc throughout your sales, school, or medical office in ways you may not realize. Here are several important reasons why you must address and remedy any rodent infestation in your office at the first sign of a problem.
Mice and Rats Spread Sickness
All workplaces should be free from exposure to diseases and unhealthy allergens. When mice, rats, and other rodents are allowed to share indoor work spaces with humans, the pests create increased health risks for the workers.
Rodents can cause allergic reactions in some people. Workers with asthma may have difficulty breathing after exposure to fecal matter and urine from rodents. People with compromised immune systems are at a higher risk of acquiring rodent-borne diseases in places where mice and rats are allowed to live and breed indoors.
Rodents can transmit over 30 diseases to humans. Rodents also transmit diseases via parasites like ticks and fleas. Keep your workforce safe from debilitating infectious diseases by preventing and mitigating rodent entry and infestation of the office. These disease/sickness issues could result in an OSHA investigation at your workplace.
Rodents Scurry Forth and Multiply
Each female house mouse has the potential to rear 80 baby mice per year. Each of her female babies is ready to have her own offspring at two months of age. Do the math, and you can see how short a time it takes for a pair of mice to create a tsunami of mice in your walls, flooring, and furnishings.
Rodents build their nests wherever they can find a warm, sheltered spot and access to amenities, including nesting materials, water, and food. Rodent nests may be buried deep in insulation, nestled at the bottom of file cabinets, or covered by piles of unwanted junk in a storeroom.
Over time, an increasing population of mice can invade flooring, walls, paper files, ceilings, and fabrics. If mice find suitable hiding spots around the office, you may not notice the hordes of mice until they’ve done significant damage.
Mice and Rats Chew Nearly Everything
The teeth of house mice never stop growing. If mice and rats don’t continuously gnaw on materials, their teeth will grow too long for survival. While they can use their own teeth to chisel away the growing enamel, rodents prefer chewing on other items. In nature, the normal choice is sticks. Wires duplicate the physical appearance of sticks (small, cylindrical, elongated) and are often the choice made for rodents to satisfy their chewing needs. The rodents’ perpetual chewing is how many people realize they have a mouse or rat problem in their office. The chewed or bare wires can cause electrical problems and even fires.
Rodents can chew through:
- Rubber
- Plastic
- Vinyl
- Foam
- Wood
- Drywall
- Inferior concrete
In addition, in today’s technology-infused offices, the chewing of wires could bring down your data network or internet access. How well would your business run without the computers we have come to depend on to run our businesses?
Rodents also seek out materials for their nests. Any fabric, cardboard, wood, or paper product can become a shredded mess when mouse mothers come looking for nest-making supplies.
If you allow a rodent infestation to continue unchecked in your office, you can expect to find significant damage to your structure, business records, and other assets. You put your entire facility at risk of HVAC failure or fire.
Rodents Create Entryways for Other Pests
As mice and rats chew through walls and structural components of your office, the rodents create pathways for other pests to enter your space. That hole at the baseboard in the office kitchen is a convenient doorway for the mice living behind the wall. It’s also a great hiding spot for cockroaches.
Rodents often chew through exterior barriers in winter to get inside where it’s warm. When springtime arrives, those rodent openings on the exterior of your office are now great passageways for termites, ants, beetles, and other pests.
As a rodent population increases, more entry points are created both inside and outside of your office. Left untreated, your office soon becomes a haven for insects and rodents.
Rodent Infestations Require Your Assistance
Your pest control company has a variety of strategies to win the battle against rodents in your office. You can help the pest control experts by noting when and where you observe evidence of rodents.
Take pictures of droppings and tag where the photos are snapped. Keep track of where you hear scurrying, scratching, squeaking, and other noises. If you find a mouse nest in a drawer or a dead mouse in a sink, take a picture before discarding the evidence.
Using an integrated pest management (IPM) approach, your pest control company and your workers can solve a rodent problem together. The professional pest control tech will use bait, traps, and other means to catch the rodents. It may take several visits to eradicate all of the rodents, but professionals have the tools and skills to eliminate mice and rats completely.
However, the pest control company’s efforts are in vain if you don’t help solve the rodent issue. It’s up to you to seal up the exterior of your building, keep trash cans empty inside and sealed outside, and remove temptations and clutter from the office. These steps reduce rodent infestation risks.
If your office in the Greater Chicagoland region has a rodent problem, contact A-Alert Exterminating Service, Inc., today. We provide comprehensive pest control services for schools, medical offices, and businesses throughout the Chicago area.