Keeping Your Families Safe from Pest Borne Disease

Pest control treatments are not just to keep pests at bay because they are ‘creepy’ and  ‘crawley’. Protecting your home from pest-borne diseases is a major component of keeping your family healthy and safe.

It’s more about keeping ourselves and our families healthy. Pests in general live in conditions that we would class unhygienic. They live in drains and sewers and breed in rubbish tips.

So of course we don’t want pests living along side us and spreading anything they may pick up from their environments.

Most of us know this. We’ve heard stories about different pests and the diseases they spread. However, I think sometimes we forget just how unhealthy it is to have these pests sharing our homes. For this reason, we’re just going to mention a few pests in order to renew our sense of a clean, healthy living environment.

MICE

Mice may be one of the less offensive-looking pests however they are by far, one of the worst offenders when it comes to health risks.

They will set up home inside your house and will continuously prowl around your home looking for food. Even if they can’t get to your food they will contaminate your kitchen area.

Mice continuously dribble urine – not a good look for a household companion. This means that any area they come in contact with is contaminated. A steady stream of urine means that diseases they carry such as salmonella or meningitis will find their way into countertops and floors. What makes this even worse is that the urine dries almost immediately and becomes invisible to the naked eye.  We may be chopping vegetables for dinner on a urine-stained chopping board.

COCKROACHES

Cockroaches are in most people’s books the ugliest of pests. Their appearance however is the least of our worries. They are probably the worst offenders when it comes to causing illness and disease. Most cockroaches live in sewers. They come up through drains into our homes in search of food and a more cosy living environment. As they scuttle through our homes they are leaving behind bacteria, parasites and pathogens on your bench tops and in your kitchen cupboards.

Apart from contaminating food and surfaces, cockroaches leave droppings, urine and decaying bodies. All of these break down and become particles of dust that we subsequently breathe. This affects our lungs and causes allergies. It has also been proven that cockroach ‘dust’ is worse for asthma sufferers than cat or dog hair or conventional dust.

RATS

The most well-known disease spread by rats was the bubonic plague which wiped out 50 million people across Europe, Asia and Africa in the 14th century. Today, thank goodness bubonic plague is not something we would expect to experience in Australia. Other diseases spread by rats are way more common.

Rats have very powerful teeth and can gnaw through pretty much anything to gain access to food and water. Their fecal matter and urine spread diseases such as leptospirosis. This is a  very debilitating condition that causes liver, kiney and heart problems. This is spread not just through contamination but also by inhaling decaying and evaporating rat waste.

Rats being a larger pest are also more prone to bite and scratch humans causing infections such as rat-bite fever.

We’re not wanting to scare you by bringing these health problems to your attention but rather prompt you to do everything you can to prevent the spread of these diseases. It’s easy when you have Hitman treating your home on a 12-monthly basis.

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