Mice dangers
Mice are a problematic and dangerous infestation to have in your home. They are especially dangerous if you have children. Mice bring in dangerous bacteria and viruses both on their bodies and in their feces. Hantavirus is a serious virus that can cause a respiratory infection that can send you to the hospital by not cleaning mouse feces properly. Mice shed fur like all animals and this danger can contain that same feces as well as other bacteria that can be inhaled. This is a severe danger for anyone who has illnesses like asthma. Mice also carry parasites like fleas and ticks that can be passed on to you and your pets. They can carry lice and other blood-consuming parasites that can pass on blood born diseases to you and your family and pets.
Mice and Humans
Mice have been infesting human homes for tens of thousands of years in Europe. They started noticing us as a food source when we stopped travelling and started staying in one place. This was the time when humans became agrarian. We stopped being hunter-gatherers and began building homes and having more than we could carry on our backs. This led to animals coming to our homes for access to our food and warmth from our fires, this included mice and rats.
Mice reproduction
Once this started the mice began to fixate on us. A particular species of mouse found we were an excellent target as we were so busy farming, raising children and training our new pets that we didn’t have time to pay attention to their activities. They took advantage of that ignorance and moved their lives into our homes. These are the Mus musculus, the House mouse and are not native to North America or anywhere other than the continent of Europe and the British Isles. These mice move in and stay in the house, reproducing, eating our food and defecating everywhere. They would make people sick and they had no idea why because the mice were so good at hiding.
Domestic Treatments for mice
Mice were treated in the old days with an array of methods. It wasn’t until the 1890s that the snap trap was invented and rodenticide was created much later so the ancient humans had to make do with what they had. This meant using oils and tinctures they thought would drive the mice away. Some of it worked and they would try making it more potent. This includes cloves and other spices that would aggravate the delicate sinuses of the mice. The most prominent was black pepper. Mice cannot sneeze so when they inhaled the pepper it would burn and sometimes even kill them. This was effective enough for the time and was used as a deterrent.
Commercial Treatments for mice
In the modern day, we do not need black pepper as we have access to powerful poisons like rodenticide and mechanical traps like snap traps and capture traps as well as glue traps and no end of devices. Getting rid of mice is easy as pie now. All you need to do is call an exterminator.