FREE INSPECTIONS AND RODENTICIDES

• Calcasieu Parish residents only

• Residential properties only

• Rats and mice only

  TIPS FOR HOME RODENT CONTROL

The only way to permanently eliminate rodents is by taking away food, water, and shelter.

Sanitation

• Eliminate rubbish piles, lumber piles, boxes, stacked firewood, high vegetation, and abandoned vehicles.
• Properly maintain garbage containers with tight covers. Use metal containers instead of plastic to prevent rodents from entering.

*Remember: rodents like the same food as your pets. Spilled or surplus feed must be eliminated.

Rodent Proofing

• All exterior openings larger than 1/2 inch should be sealed with cement, caulk, steel wool, hardware cloth, or sheet metal.
• Likely entrances are holes around plumbing, unscreened dryer vents, cracked siding, air-conditioning tubing, and damaged attic vent screens.

Reducing Rodent Populations

• Use poison baits, glue boards, and snap traps to reduce rodent populations.

RODENT DISEASES

Hantavirus is transmitted when people breathe air that is contaminated by feces or urine. Care should be taken when cleaning rooms or homes that have been locked up for extended periods of time.
 
Rat-Bite Fever caused by a bacteria Streptobacillus moniliformis found on the teeth and gums of many rats. This disease is transferred from rat to man by the bite of an infected rat.
 
Leptospirosis (Weil’s Disease) causative agent Leptospira icterohemorrhagiae, contracted through contact with water or food contaminated with the urine of rodents.
Typhus is transmitted to humans by infected rat fleas, Rickettsia typhi enter the bloodstream when feces of infected fleas are scratched or rubbed into a flea bite wound.
 
Plague (Black Death) is known to exist in the western United States. The causative agent is bacteria Yersinia pestis, which is transmitted to man by a flea bite.

Salmonellosis is transmitted to human through food contaminated with rat or mouse feces. It is a common bacterial food poisoning.
 
Trichinosis is spread by rats and mice to hogs by contamination of their feed with droppings. Man then gets the disease by eating improperly cooked pork that is infected with Trichinella spiralis.
 
Rickettsialpox is a mild nonfatal disease resembling chickenpox. It is transmitted from the house mouse to man by the bite of the house mouse mite, Liponyssoides sanguineus.