There are three signs to confirm a rodent has nestled in your workspace. First, feces or in other terms, droppings that usually looked like half an inch brown pellets could be found on the floors or tight spaces in the room such as in the drawers, bins, and cupboards in your office lounge or pantry. The next sign of rodents’ presence is the gnawed or nibbled food packages that are stored on someone’s desk. Lastly, light scratch noise coming from the ceiling or scurrying behind the walls can also be an indication. If all of these signs fit your current situation, then it’s time to take action before things get worse.
HOW TO CONTROL THE SITUATION
Prevention is always better than cure. You wouldn’t want to wait until one of your co-workers is rushed to the emergency room for showing symptoms of leptospirosis, salmonella, or other rodent-borne diseases after ingesting contaminated water or food due to an infected rodent lurking in your office right?
Don’t worry! Here are a few tips on how to get rid of a rodent situation:
- These uninvited pests (rats, mice, squirrels, etc.) are only here for one sole purpose: food. Many rodents nestle in places where they have easy access to food and water. Therefore, do not leave your snacks within their reach. Put them into sealed containers preferably pest-resistant ones that they couldn’t easily gnaw and store them away in the fridge of your office lounge or pantry.
- Rodents love to scavenge. They live off consuming food waste. If you wanna get rid of them, make sure that you properly throw your trash in the bin. Filling or sealing all holes on the bins with steel or metal will also prevent them from coming back. No source of food means they wouldn’t be able to thrive.
- Check all possible areas that have cracks or holes that rodents use as access to your office. By doing so, this will decrease the chance of rodents settling down.
- Traps or baits are one of the best ways to get rid of them. You may utilize cryonite, glue boards, and pheromone traps for effective non-chemical treatment in getting rid of these pests.
OPERATION: OFFICE SANITATION
Leptospirosis is just one of the many life-threatening diseases that an individual may get from rodents and other infected animals. Symptoms of this disease include high fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, red eyes, and abdominal pain. Leptospirosis may be transmitted through contact with water, food, or soil contaminated by urine, blood or tissue of a rodent or infected animal.
After following the outlined steps above on how to get rid of these pests, the next thing an individual should do is to sanitize the area. Good hygiene is required after a recent rodent infestation. Before beginning a clean-up, put on some gloves (latex, rubber or vinyl) and use a paper towel when picking up urine and droppings.
It is best not to use vacuums or brooms because these may stir up the dust from the droppings, urine or nesting materials. After collecting droppings and urine, spray the contaminated area and items with disinfectant or a solution with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water and let it soak for at least 5 minutes.
Wipe desks and pantry countertops with disinfectant, and mop the floors with the same solvent mixture. It is strongly advisable to also wash the kitchen towel used to wipe in the office pantry in case it has been exposed to rodent urine or droppings before using it.
Dispose of the contaminated materials such as documents, boxes, and even food packages that have been gnawed or urinated on.
After cleaning, remove the gloves and decontaminate it with disinfectant alcohol before throwing it in the bin. Then wash your hands with antibacterial soap and water. As long as your hands aren’t visibly soiled after cleaning, you may also use alcohol-based hand rub in case soap isn’t available.
MATHIOU SERVICES
For some businesses, they would most likely prefer to handle a rodent invasion by themselves thinking hiring professional exterminators might cost more than buying pest control chemicals from Bunnings. Yes, that is true however let us just lay out all the obvious reasons why Mathiou Services is worth every penny:
- DIY pest controls found on the internet may not be enough to handle a heavy rodent infestation at your office. Mathiou Services provide highly trained exterminators that specialize in general knowledge when it comes to handling these pests. They will inspect the premises to give you an accurate location of the source of the infestation. Allowing professionals to take care of this situation will also help prevent further damage on your property from future breeding colonies.
- Using chemicals may put everyone’s health at risk. One of the reasons why it is highly advisable to hire professional exterminators is the risk that you might expose yourself to the chemical while trying to follow the instructions at the back of the container you bought at the hardware. With Mathiou Services, all our employees professionally handle these chemicals, which decreases your chance of chemical exposure. By doing so, this will also save you time and effort. Usually, depending on the severity of the infestation, it takes within one to six hours for pest control services to treat the premises.
- There are some cases where rodents have nestled in heating or cooling ventilation systems. Breathing dust in the office contaminated with rodents’ droppings could lead to an infection called hantavirus. Hantavirus is an air-borne disease spread mainly by rodents. This virus, if inhaled, can lead to severe damage to the capillaries in your lungs and could be fatal if not treated immediately. The best way to deal with this is to contact Mathiou Services and allow us not only to get rid of these pests but also to disinfect all the air ducts in your office to keep everyone safe from any other rodent-borne diseases.
- To avoid future costly charges in case the infestation becomes severe, the best decision you can make is to contact Mathiou Services. Our dedicated experts will also give free advice on how to prevent infestation that may occur unexpectedly in the future.
Not only do we take care of rodents, but we also provide professional services to other kinds of pest invasion such as ants, spiders, mites, termites, cockroaches, fleas, silverfish, wasps, possums, and other miscellaneous pests. What are you waiting for? Let our professionals do the hustle for you. Call us today 1300 363 423