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Ladies – forget about getting your husbands to rid your home and the surroundings of rats and mice; instead, call in the experts to assist. 

With climate change resulting in global warming, there has been an upsurge in the number of rodents in our environment. 

Rats and mice are everywhere, and they cause havoc in our lives, carrying diseases such as hepatitis, jaundice, plague and salmonellosis. Additionally, they cause damage to buildings, electric wiring, furniture and other materials. 

Rats nest in places such as trees, shrubs, food stores, ceilings and roofs as well as close to rubbish bins and dumps. 

Rats start breeding as early as six weeks, as often as four times a year and have litters from between eight and ten babies being born every time! It should therefore not come as a surprise that the rat population is exploding causing infestations. 

Rats transmit disease by a person having direct contact with them, their faeces and their urine. People can also become ill by consuming food and water that is contaminated with the faeces and urine of rats and mice, too. 

Rats and mice are carriers of parasites including fleas, ticks and live, causing diseases including leptospirosis, Bartonella, food poisoning and plague which, as we know, can affect an entire population. Who can forget the Black Death, which was one of the biggest pandemics in human history, wiping out 200 million people in Eurasia? 

Leptospirosis is caused by the urine of rats being in contact with any broken skin of a human or the ingestion of contaminated food. 

Bartonella can infect healthy humans when they are bitten by fleas or ticks carried by rats. The disease is particularly harmful to HIV positive individuals who have long-term infections.

Rat bits is a worry in communities – particularly babies and young children when they are sleeping when they bite their noses, fingers or toes or other soft parts on their bodies.

The rat population needs to be discouraged in our communities, though, as getting rid of them is a temporary measure. People preparing food and washing pots in drains and disposing of food in catch pits will encourage the presence of rats and mice. 

Scrap food needs to be separated from water and waste should be disposed of correctly. Rat infestations will only be eliminated if sources of food and water are unavailable to them on all levels. Try and get rid of sources of food and water as rats will never eat poison while there are other food sources readily available to them.

DIY eradication of rats and mice just won’t cut it – that is why it is imperative to call on the experts.