People say that when you see one mouse, there are many more in the shadows. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a mouse infestation. But in my 17 years of being a licensed animal control specialist, I can confirm that this saying is true. Many people don’t understand that mice breed rapidly, The average female can give birth to about 10 litters per year (each litter contains 6-8 babies) and now imagine that inside your home. Hundreds of little mice scampering under your floors, between your bedrooms, darting across your kitchen floor. It’s because of this reason that it is so vital to contact an exterminator or animal control specialist as soon as possible.
Mice can do all sorts of damage to your home, things you wouldn’t typically think of. Because mice live in nests, they will chew and rip up anything that could be used to build their home within your home. Anything from wood, installation, and even electrical wiring. Mice have no respect for your belongings, they will chew through furniture, appliances, walls and anything in between. Structural issues become a very real problem if a mouse infestation gets advanced enough. The material items are the least of your worries.
On top of being incredibly destructive, mice are known for carrying all sorts of diseases and germs. Sure, from a distance mice are super cute and fluffy. With their small plush bodies, and their small eyes and adorable ears. But if you look at them from a biological standpoint, they are the ultimate breeding ground for bacterial and viral infections. From rat-bite fever, to the plague, even Leptospirosis. These dangerous and even deadly diseases transfer even faster if the mice get into your food and you living areas. This is why it’s so important to contact a proper specialist so they can make sure to sanitize and clean properly. So please, keep yourself and your families safe from these hidden figures
Tag Archives: mice removal
Get Rid of Mouse
I thought I knew how to get rid of a mouse. As a high school junior, I have no problems being in charge when both my parents have to go out of town on business trips. I’ve been watching my younger brother and sister for years whenever both Mom and Dad are gone. It’s been great, too. I get paid for doing what I normally do at home, and all I have to do is make sure they both get their homework done, they’re ready for school in the morning, and make dinner at night. The rest of the time, I can have my friends over, watch TV, do my homework, text my friends, and just do what I usually do. Easy, right?
Sure, it’s easy. Until something weird happens. Like the time my little brother had one of his friends over, and his friend got really hurt while they were jumping on our trampoline. But, I’m a great babysitter. I helped calm my brother’s friend down, called his mom to pick him up, and made up new rules about the trampoline. It’s never happened again.
Or, like the time my little sister stuck a bead up her nose while she was playing in the toy room. I have no idea where she got the bead. But, she stuck it up there pretty far. I managed to help her get it out, though. I just plugged up the other nostril and had her blow. After like two tries, that little sucker shot right out of her nose, all gooey and sticky. See? Problem solved.
So, last night I saw a mouse in the house. It ran right across the floor in front of us while we were watching TV before bed, and ran under the couch where I was sitting. My brother screamed, and my little sister tried to chase it. It was so gross, but I’m pretty sure I know how to get rid of a mouse. I got my brother and sister out of the room and ready for bed. After they were in their bedrooms, I marched back down to the living room and looked under the couch. Yep, it was still there. I have no idea what it was doing, or why it was just sitting there, but there it was. I could get rid of a mouse, one stupid little mouse.
I grabbed up our cat, Deacon, tossed him in the room with the TV and the mouse, and closed the door. Done. Deacon would get rid of the mouse by the morning.
This morning, I opened up the door to the TV room right before school. Deacon ran out and headed outside. Then, the mouse came tearing across the room and disappeared under the TV console. Great. Just great. Guess I don’t know how to get rid of a mouse.
So, I texted Mom, and she told me to just call Allstate Animal Control. They’d know how to get rid of a mouse. Guess I don’t know everything, but I’m still a great babysitter.
Pest Removal
As a teenage girl, I loved my job at a cute clothing store in the mall, except for inventory and pest removal day. Sure, most of my paycheck ended up going towards clothes that we sold in the store, but that was completely worth it to me! I got a great employee discount, and my money would have been spent on clothes, anyway.
The very worst part of the job was inventory. Every few months, we had to go in extremely early on a Saturday morning so we could check off every item the store owned, clear out shelves to prepare them for the next line of clothes to arrive, and clean out the storage room. It was a long day, boring, and full of hard work. And the storage room was awful.
The room was windowless, lit with bluish fluorescent lights, and packed with boxes, unused hangers, clothing racks and dusty shelves. We called it the dungeon. Over the previous months, we used it as a dumping ground for whatever we didn’t want to take care of during our normal shifts, and inventory day was payback. We sorted, we cleaned, and we were always on the lookout for spiders, bugs, or worse, mice or rats. Pest Removal just wasn’t included on the job description when we’d applied as sales associates. But, there we were, mouse traps, rat poison, and fly swatters close by as we sorted, folded, and discarded everything that had been tossed into the dungeon. Once the place was cleaned up, we’d set out the rat poison near suspected rat holes and place a couple of mouse traps in the corners of the room, just to be on the safe side.
Of course, we always had to give the new girls a bad time. In the days leading up to inventory, we’d tell them horror stories of a mouse that ran over someone’s foot, or the biggest spider we’d ever seen. Inventory Day, we’d rig it up so plastic rats would be pulled across the floor with a string, or throw a toy spider into someone’s hair. Didn’t I mention that it was a long and boring day? We had to break it up somehow!
One Inventory Day, we all arrived, as usual, in our sweats and hair pulled back into ponytails, ready to get dusty, filthy and be bored to tears counting and sorting. We got our initial assignments from the store manager, and headed off to our respective jobs for the morning. I was unfortunate enough to get stuck in the storage room right away, bypassing the lesser evil of clearing off shelves in the front. I got ready to break down the empty boxes so I could stack them up and take them out to the dumpster, and grabbed a box from off the top of the pile. I pulled it towards me and pulled out the box cutter, just as I became aware of the awful rustling noise coming from inside the box. Startled, I dropped it on the floor, causing a couple of the flaps to fall up and out, giving me a great view of the box’s interior. To my disgust, it was filled with wriggling little pink bodies of mouse babies amongst shredded material and cardboard that served as their nest. My screams brought every girl into the back room, most of whom ran right back out as they realized what they were seeing. To this day, I can’t open an empty box without shuddering. Pest removal is something best left to the professionals, not a teenage girl working at a clothing shop.