Why Mice are Unhealthy in Your Home

To some people, mice are cute. They are often seen in homes as beloved pets and are romanticized in children’s books, movies, and cartoons as being small and but mighty creatures that we should make friends with, not pests we corner in Catchmaster traps. But despite their tiny, unsuspecting bodies, wild mice can often carry harmful diseases.

Here are some of the illnesses someone with a rodent infestation in their home can contract from mice:

Salmonellosis - bacterial food poisoning, infection with or disease caused by bacteria of the genus Salmonella typically marked by gastroenteritis but often complicated by septicemia, meningitis, endocarditis, and various focal lesions (as in the kidneys) when food is contaminated with infected rodent feces.

Rickettsialpox - a disease characterized by fever, chills, headache, backache, and a spotty rash, caused by a bacterium of the genus Rickettsia transmitted to humans by the bite of a mite of the genus Allodermanyssus living on rodents such as the house mouse.

Leptospirosis - Any of a group of infectious diseases that are caused by spirochetes of the genus Leptospira, are characterized by jaundice and fever, and are transmitted to humans by contact with the urine of infected animals.

If those diseases aren’t enough to make you want to invest in humane mouse traps, then you may want to do some research on European history circa 1349…