Babies

Babies are cute.  Almost all of us love to see a baby.  How they go from being completely dependent to rebellious as they hit their two and then to revisit it when they hit their teens.  But these are the fun kind of babies.  If you own your home, live near a field, are a farmer, or out in the woods, you know it’s that time of year again.

What time of year would that be?  Oh yes, the babies are coming, the babies are coming.  The babies I’m talking about are not most peoples first pick for babies or a farmers…I’m talking about rodents.  Rats, mice, groundhogs and the list goes on of pesky rodents that are born at this time around.  And if you didn’t know then you now will know, they carry disease as well as damage and destroy crops and homes.  

OH Rats!

If you think that rats aren’t a big deal, and that they are doing no harm, consider some of the following diseases that can be ‘acquired’ by those cute little rats.  

• The Black Plague
• Rat-Bite Fever
• OMSK Hemorrhagic Fever
• Lymphocytic Chorio-Meningtis (LCM)
• Salmonellosis
• Lassa Fever
• Leptospirosis
• South American Arenaviruses
• Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

What Can You Do?

That’s the natural question to ask:  What can you do?  The answers are varied according to your life style.  Do you have children and pets?  Then you’re going to probably want to stay way from poisons, and traps may be a better option.  But then again, if you’re children like to explore, maybe not.

Then there’s things like shooting them.  It’s time consuming and if you live in the city, it’s also probably not an option.  If you have a farm neither of these options are really practical, and all of them are time consuming.  If that’s you, then PERC may be a good option.  It’s gas and will settle into the burrows that the rodents have made.  They go to sleep and don’t wake up.  This is a good option for most scenarios with the exception of small places and apartment complexes.  The reasons clear, it’s not going to be the cheapest of options unless you have a large piece of land.