One of our services is rodent control, and that typically starts with an inspection of your home or place of business. This short video shows you just some of the steps we take during a typical rodent inspection in the communities we serve.

We sometimes get asked why rodent inspection is a necessary step and part of a regular home maintenance plan.

We found some helpful resources to answer those questions for you:

This is from the Washington State Department of Health:

Rodents such as mice and rats can carry harmful diseases. Diseases from rodents can spread to people through bite wounds, eating contaminated food or water, or breathing in germs from rodent urine or droppings that are stirred into the air. People can also get diseases from rodent ticks, mites, and fleas.

In Washington, deer mice are the main carriers of a virus that cause hantavirus in people. Hantavirus is a rare, but potentially fatal respiratory disease. Avoid stirring up the dust in rodent-contaminated areas to help prevent exposure to hantavirus.

https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/pests/rodents

This next information comes from the Whatcom County website:

How Rodents Spread Disease

Rodents can carry diseases that may be transmitted through:

  • A bite.
  • Breathing in germs from rodent urine or feces that are stirred up into the air.
  • Eating or drinking food or water contaminated by rodents.

Rodents may also carry ticks or fleas that could transmit disease.

Hantavirus & Other Diseases Spread by Rodents

In Washington State, deer mice may carry a type of virus called hantavirus. Hantavirus causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), a serious condition in which the lungs become filled with fluid so that it becomes hard to breathe. Most people require hospital care, and about 1 in 3 people with HPS have died. You might be at risk of HPS if you are cleaning up areas where rodent urine and droppings get stirred up into the air and inhaled.

Rodents also carry diseases such as leptospirosis, tularemia, and rat-bite fever.

https://www.whatcomcounty.us/3258/Rodents