Is It Dangerous To Ignore Mice Control If Mice Live In Your Attic?

Some people actually believe it’s not important to remove mice from a home or attic and that mice control services are not really important. You see it all the time – home owners that let mice and small rodents live in their homes indefinitely without any scruples as to the danger they pose to themselves, visitors and their families.

If you continue reading, you’ll discover what the dangers are to harbouring mice and small rodents, and why you should always be concerned if you suspect that they’re living in your attic. First let me explain to you how easy it is for them to get into your home and what’s likely to happen once they do.

One mouse equals many mice and a hugely potential infestation

Mice can be extremely clever at discovering entrances to a home – a hole or crack as small as a dime may be large enough for a mouse to squeeze through – so if they’re looking for one, they usually find a way in.

If one mouse can get in, more mice, and quite frequently other forms of wildlife are sure to follow. Once mice get in, your home and attic can quickly become infested and a large amount of destruction is bound to occur.

An expeditious removal of the mice is critical to stopping a small situation from getting much worse. Mice reproduce rapidly. On the average, mice breed 5 to 7 times a year, at 5 to 7 babies per litter. This means a family of 5 mice can turn into a family of 50 in just a matter of a few short months.

That’s enough time for them to quietly get in, build a nest, find food sources, and grow in size – and all right under your nose.

What happens after mice settle into your attic

Damage to the home or attic

When left unchecked, an infestation of mice will wreak havoc, simply put. If you’re lucky enough to have discovered the problem within a short window – between when they got in and when you first saw them – you can luckily expect the damage to be minimal. If not, then the problem will most likely be extensive enough, that the costs to deal with the problem will extend into the thousands of dollars.

The following are some of the areas of your attic or home that would be adversely affected by a prolonged infestation:

1. a build up of urine and feces contamination
2. substantially damaged attic insulation
3. structural damage i.e. chewed trusses, ceiling joists, rafters, beams etc.
4. electrical damage
5. water damage through exposure to outside elements
6. fluctuating heating and cooling bills
7. ceiling collapses due to urine and moisture buildup
8. entry by other animals through mice-burrowed holes

Any number of these damage issues can easily be expected only after a few months after mice have entered your home.

By now you can easily see how expensive harbouring mice would and how the services you need would be far beyond simple mice control. You’d also need attic repairs and restoration too!

Health and safety issues

Another area of major concern is the health and safety issues related to harbouring mice. Frankly, it’s not something you should ignore at all. There are quite a few lurking issues that will end up plaguing a home if you’re not careful.

One problem is mice urine and feces which pose serious health risks to humans and pets in the home. Mice urine and feces can carry the Hantavirus and spread Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) which is contracted by breathing the virus in. This risk is increased by either coming into direction contact with mice waste, their nest or the areas they travel in your home. You can contract HPS by getting bit by a mouse or rat, and it can be passed on from animal to human and visa versa. Cleaning up after an infestation is also necessary and a long and arduous job. It has to be done meticulously and with industrial strength cleaning products to ensure disease and virus have no way of spreading in the future.

There’s also a grave concern for home owners harbouring mice when they own a cat. Contrary to popular belief, owning a cat while mice are lurking around actually causes many more problems. You can read our entire write up on using cats for mice control here.

To make a long story short, mice are actually attracted to cat urine and because of that, the presence of a cat can actually increase the number of mice moving into your home and thus an increase in the potential for an infestation.

That and as mentioned earlier, how easy it is for the cats to catch diseases from mice and for cats to pass them onto us humans.

As you can see when it comes to having mice in your home there are a number of potential dangers. Mice droppings and urine should be considered infectious and dangerous, and it’s better to avoid them rather than put yourself at risk. Call the experts.

What are the signs that you have mice or rats in your home?

There are quite a few signs you have a mice problem so we’ve listed the main ones below:

• mice droppings anywhere in your home or attic
• seeing mice anywhere in your home, attic, garage or shed
• mice holes anywhere inside or outside your home
• mice tunnels in your attic insulation
• seeing dead mice anywhere in your home, attic or close to your home outside
• food that’s been tampered with, i.e. holes in bags of cereal or bread
• finding stores of food in your basement, attic, under appliances
• you hear them running around at night
• strong odours in your basement or attic
• scratching in the walls

Some people believe that seeing a mouse in their shed isn’t actually a sign of a problem. It’s understandable to think this way but in light of the information and dangers we’ve conveyed in this article, you can see it’s probably better to play it safe, and have prevention applied because chances are your home will be their next target.

The take home

So is it dangerous to let mice live in your attic? Obviously it is. We understand that for some people, mice are cute little critters and it would be great to be able to let any animal live in your home, but the fact is it’s completely unsafe.

If you think you have a mice living in your home or attic, call the experts to have them removed and prevented from entering again. You can also seek out preemptive mice prevention services which will ensure your home doesn’t become a target in the first place.