It’s well-known that rats are responsible for spreading lots of diseases, and recently researchers have discovered 18 more unknown viruses carried by New York City’s rats.  As if they weren’t already bad enough!  But, of course, we know that rats are found all over the United States, not just in the big cities, and we should all be aware that they present a very real and serious health risk.

According to the CDC, the diseases we know of that are transmitted from rodents to humans include: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, Lassa Fever, Leptospirosis, Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis (LCM), Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever, Plague, Rat-Bite Fever, Salmonellosis, South American Arenaviruses, and Tularemia.  Awful, right?

Now, let’s add to that the fact that rats have tiny parasites called rat mites that live on rats and inside their nests and feed off rat blood.  But, rat mites are capable of living without a rat host, and are perfectly happy to feed off human blood.  If you have rat mites, you have a rat problem, and it’s time to get rid of those rats.  The advantage to having Allstate Animal Control send someone out to take care of your rat problem is you get experts who are experienced at getting rid of the rats that are breeding in your structure, as well as sanitizing and repairing the area they infested so rat mites don’t seek out new hosts (aka you, your family or your pets).  They can also inspect your home or other building to seek out and seal up all entrance points to prevent the rats from returning and keep other wild animals out.