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Member
Member Since Jul 2014
Location: Boston
Posts: 450
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#1
I found a very inexpensive room available to rent, but it is very infested with mice and/or rats. I know they might chew up belongings, but I don't care because I will put valuables in storage. I know they might cause a fire, but I don't care because I will get a smoke alarm. They might stink, but I don't care because I will keep my clothes in a suitcase. I could save money and drastically improve my life by renting this awful room. But I wonder, is there anything else I should know about living with lots of rats or mice in my room? Any advice? Any warnings? Will they bite me or cause serious health problems? ...as far as you know.
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mote.of.soul
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Legendary
Member Since Dec 2014
Location: USA
Posts: 10,258
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#2
Yes, they can bite and cause illness and their droppings are toxic. If you can afford to get into a place that is run better your all around safety will benefit. I’m sorry you find yourself in such a bad situation.
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Poohbah
Member Since Sep 2016
Location: USA
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#3
Do not do the mice and rats. They carry disease and other pests! There is also nothing good about hearing them about your room and crawling around in the walls. Bad idea in my book.
__________________ True happiness comes not when we get rid of all our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice patience and learn.~Richard Carlson |
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Member
Member Since May 2017
Location: New York
Posts: 92
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#4
Ugh, living in a rodent-infested apartment, brings back some rather unpleasant memories. You may think that you don't "mind it" while living away from them currently, but there is simply no way to overcome the revulsion of having to eat when there's mice and/or rats doing their business on your plates and on your kitchen counter. Plus, they can be quite noisy with the skittering and even squeaking in the night and all sorts of revolting situations. Also, sometimes, they will end up dying in the walls, which creates a horrible odor that cannot be remediated. They can carry disease.
While you might not necessarily catch one of these diseases, they can be very serious and result in serious or even life-threatening medical problems if you were to be unlucky enough to catch something from the rodents. So, if possible, I would avoid a place that you know is infested with rodents. I never caught anything from them while I was living amongst the rodents, but the instinctual and visceral sense of revulsion of seeing mouse excrement on tables, having to clean it off plates, etc., made it rather unpleasant to eat anything at home. I would eat home sometimes, but I often ate out so I could eat without having to worry about the rodent droppings being around. In fact, just coming across them while eating was rather nauseating and sometimes made me a lot less interested in eating in general while I was home. If possible, avoiding the rodents would be the best as there simply is no way to get used to them being around since they will literally do their business everywhere. I've even found mouse excrement in plates in the sink back when I lived amongst them. Plus, the process of having to deal with dead mice in traps all the time gets old fast. However, if you have no other option and must live among the rodents because you can't find another place that you can afford, I would advise you to try to seal off any entry points. This was what I did in my rodent infested apartment. I used steel wool. They cannot chew through that. If you seal up all the baseboards and any other location where they could be entering your living quarters, they won't be able to get in. However, you have to look very carefully to make sure you find every nook and cranny in the wall, every tiny hole or crack where a pipe comes up. Literally any crevice that something could get in, and rodents can collapse their skeletons. So, you pretty much have to seal up anything with steel wool that you can fit the steel wool in, in any amount. It's quite time consuming to have to do, but in my experience, after weeks and weeks of being overrun by mice, it did keep them out. However, there's no guarantee. Sometimes, there could be crevices that are damn near impossible to find and it could be incredibly time consuming to find the crevices and be able to keep them out of the place. You don't know. Believe me, it's very frustrating when you think you solved the problem, and yet they're back. And even successfully sealing them out with steel wool won't do anything to prevent the insomnia-inducing squeaking or the irritating skittering sounds in the wall. |
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Supreme Artisan
Member Since Nov 2014
Location: Charlotte, NC
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#5
Rodents were responsible for spreading the plague that wiped out 2/3 of Europe's population. They carried the bacteria that caused it.
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Member
Member Since May 2017
Location: New York
Posts: 92
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#6
That's true. While there have been no modern cases of plague in Boston, there are plenty of other very dangerous diseases that you can get from rodents on the east coast. Some of these diseases can kill you, and getting one them is certainly a possibility while living amongst them.
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Supreme Artisan
Member Since Nov 2014
Location: Charlotte, NC
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#7
Rats and mice will inevitably wind up in your food, eating it and incidentally, eliminating in it as well. I don't know about you but I don't want rat/mice poop in my morning Wheaties.
__________________ MY BLOG IS NOW CONVENIENTLY LOCATED HERE!! [UPDATED: 4/30/2017] LIFE IS TOO SHORT, TOO VALUABLE AND TOO PRECIOUS A THING TO WASTE!! |
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Member
Member Since May 2017
Location: New York
Posts: 92
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#8
That's true too. The only way to keep it safe is to keep everything in tupperware. That's what I did, but even when I managed to keep the actual rodents out of the food, the revulsion of hearing them skittering and seeing their droppings around as I was eating made it all but impossible to actually eat and wholly impossible to enjoy eating.
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Legendary
Member Since Jan 2009
Location: Uppa Gumtree West
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#9
Quote:
If you need to save money find another place without critters and share with another person so that the expenses can be shared. |
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