Diseases Caused by Rats in Houston

Few things are as unwelcome as the thought that you may have rats. They gnaw wiring and ductwork, shred insulation, foul stored belongings, and they carry disease. The common signs of an infestation are gnaw marks, scratching or squeaking at night, droppings along walls and in cabinets, and nests of shredded paper or insulation in the attic or garage.

The surest way to get rid of rats is a professional service that removes the animals and seals the entry points. Below are the diseases rats in Houston are associated with, and the ways they reach people. If you have rats in your home, handling the problem promptly is how you keep these off the list of things you have to think about.

Houston's geography makes leptospirosis the rat disease most worth understanding here. The city is laced with bayous and drainage channels, the water table is high, and heavy rain puts streets, garages, and ground floors under water every few years. Rats live along those bayous and in the storm drains that feed them, and the bacteria they shed in urine wash into the floodwater.

Most people who get leptospirosis in the United States were in contact with contaminated water or mud through a cut, through the eyes or mouth, or by swallowing it. After a flood that means anyone wading to a car, pulling wet carpet, or shovelling silt out of a garage. Wear waterproof gloves and boots for cleanup, cover cuts, wash up thoroughly afterward, and keep children and pets out of standing water. Dogs can catch it too, which is one reason veterinarians in the area recommend the vaccine.

The flooding also moves rats. A colony flooded out of a drain or a bayou bank looks for higher, drier ground, and the garage or attic of the nearest house qualifies. Rat calls rise in the weeks after a big storm for exactly that reason.

Almost every rat-borne illness reaches people one of three ways: through food or surfaces contaminated with droppings and urine, through a bite or scratch, or through the fleas and mites that leave a rat when it dies or is trapped. Knowing that tells you where the precautions go.

Never dry-sweep or vacuum droppings. Spray them with a disinfectant or a bleach solution, let it sit for several minutes, then wipe them up with gloves on and bag the waste. Throw out any food a rat may have reached, including sealed bags with gnaw marks. Do not reach into a space you cannot see into, and do not try to pick up a live rat, cornered or not. After trapping, treat the area for fleas, since the fleas leave a dead host within hours and go looking for the next warm body in the room. Our guide to what mouse and rat droppings look like will help you tell what you are dealing with and how fresh it is.