February 16, 2022
If you rent in Rochester, we hope that you haven’t had a bad time with mice and other rodents in your building. The bad news is that, somewhere along the way, you probably have. The Rochester area has the perfect mix of environments to create a mouse problem: cropland, suburbs, industrial
areas, and inner city, all close to each other. If landlords don’t have a consistent, comprehensive pest prevention program in place, a mouse infestation can quickly become unmanageable.
According to New York law, owners must provide their tenants with a safe, habitable environment. If the landlord fails to correct the problem after being asked, then it may be legal for the tenant to break the lease without paying rent for the time remaining, depending on the details of the contract.
Apartment buildings that are not protected with integrated pest management (IPM) are luxury hotels with doors wide open to mice and other pests.
Here’s a rundown of what you can expect when you’ve got mice living across the hall—and upstairs, and downstairs, definitely in the basement, and so on.
Mice bring all kinds of filth into our living conditions. They urinate and defecate wherever they please, leave oil stains from their fur along baseboards and other pathways, and leave pathogen-filled footprints all over the place.
Mice come with an entourage. Pests like flies and roaches love to eat the leftovers from a mouse’s dinner, plus their dead bodies. Mice also carry fleas and ticks with them that bite humans and our pets.
Mice spoil food by chewing open boxes, shredding bags, and getting into anything they possibly can. Mice aren’t picky eaters, but their favorite foods include grains, fruits, and seeds. When hungry, they’ll eat anything from cardboard to clothing. Even if they ate only a little bit of your box of oatmeal, the rest is no good— throw it out.
Mice cause property damage that goes far beyond dirt. When mice establish a foothold, they go right to work expanding their home by gnawing on wood, tunneling through drywall, and ripping out insulation. They have been known to cause fires by chewing electrical wiring.
Mice frequently carry diseases like hantavirus, leptospirosis, and a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, also called the bubonic plague. Mice also carry internal parasites like Toxoplasma gondii, the pathogen that causes toxoplasmosis.
Don’t let mice hurt your tenants, their pets, or your business. Professional pest prevention is not just an expense, it’s a necessity. Get in touch with Rochester Pest Pro on our website or call (585) 486- 4815.