Our first child is due any day now, and we've got a mouse infestation. We noticed it for the first time at my girlfriend's baby shower (lots of cakes and crumbs out), and since then we've started seeing it more frequently. I say "it", but we suspect more than one of them, based on other people's comments.
Obviously we're trying to de-mouse the house, but how concerned should we be about mice in a house with a child?
Some studies (news article, another article, actual study) have shown that mice fecal matter could contribute to asthma, or otherwise cause allergies in young children.
In a study of eight cities, a team from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, checked the contents of dust samples from the homes of children with asthma.
The team found that 95% of those samples contained mouse allergens, many involving feces or urine.
Other concerns include: mouse droppings can pose to be a choking hazard; mice can eat up your furniture, wiring, and insulation; they may clog plumbing etc. in your house, creating fire hazards; and much more.
Murine Typhus Fever or simply Typhus is spread by the bites of fleas that have fed off of rodents. This infectious disease shows itself with a rash and other symptoms include headache, backache, a high fever that may last up to two weeks, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Treatment for typhus fever includes antibiotics and over 98% of people afflicted will recover. 10% to 60% of people who do not go on antibiotic treatment will not survive
Living with a mice infestation is dangerous for human beings in general; it is only going to be more dangerous for a helpless child to be there.
No more than in a house without a child. Which is to say, the mice have to go. Mice leak urine as they walk -- "like drunken hoboes," as MimiSmartyPants so memorably put it last year. They're nasty little brutes.
First, seal up your foundation. (I did it last year and it took half a bag of cement and four cans of spray foam. Thank you, lazy house-builder!) Then buy some spring traps, smear on peanut butter, and place them near the basement walls. Get ready to collect the little bodies.
